LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles judge has ordered a stop to a smartphone application that facilitates the delivery of medical marijuana.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert O’Brien issued the preliminary injunction Tuesday against Nestdrop. The app connects patients with marijuana dispensaries and also facilitates the home delivery of alcohol.

Nick Valente, a senior account executive with Nestdrop, says the company is debating its next move and will continue to connect patients and dispensaries outside Los Angeles city limits.

City Attorney Mike Feuer sought the injunction because he says Nestdrop’s business violates Proposition D. The measure approved by voters last year limits the number of Los Angeles dispensaries and bans marijuana delivery services.

Nestdrop’s creators marketed the application as the nation’s first app-based, on-demand medical marijuana delivery service.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a first-of-a-kind case, the Federal Trade Commission is targeting a data broker for allegedly selling sensitive consumer information — including bank account numbers — to marketers that authorities said the broker knew had no legitimate need for it.

In its lawsuit, the commission charges that Arizona-based LeapLab bought the payday loan applications of people strapped for money, then turned around and sold that data to third-parties who most often weren’t lenders at all. The loan applications contained sensitive information such as a consumer’s Social Security number, bank account number and routing number to the bank.

The FTC says at least one of the marketers buying data from LeapLab used the information to withdraw more than $4 million from consumers’ bank accounts without authorization.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri’s high court has upheld the child abuse convictions of a Springfield man who confined his son to a church bathroom and limited his food.

In a unanimous ruling Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected assertions by Peter Hansen that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that he knowingly inflicted cruel and unusual punishment on his teenage son.

The court had heard arguments in the case on Oct. 1.

Hansen had been living with his wife, son and daughter at a Seventh-day Adventist church after being evicted from their Springfield home in 2009. Child-abuse investigators responding to a hotline call found the boy being kept in a small, cold, dark bathroom as punishment.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Two of the biggest U.S. agribusiness companies say they have agreed to settle their patent-infringement lawsuits against each other that had been pending in a St. Louis federal court.

Terms of the deal announced Tuesday by DuPont Co. and Monsanto Co. were not announced.

St. Louis-based Monsanto had claimed that DuPont had infringed upon certain Monsanto patents for determining a seed’s genetics. Based in Wilmington, Delaware, DuPont had alleged that Monsanto had infringed upon certain DuPont seed-processing patents.

The presidents of both companies say settling the matter enables both companies to focus on their businesses.

By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — State officials say they’re having a hard time contacting people with disabilities who’ve expressed an interest in receiving Medicaid-funded services designed to help them live in community-based settings.

Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services Secretary Kari Bruffett on Friday said that between Jan. 1 and Dec. 15, the agency had reached out to 1,627 people on its waiting list for services for people with physical disabilities.

More than 830 of these individuals are now receiving services.

In November, agency officials renewed their attempt to contact individuals thought to still be on the waiting list. Those efforts, so far, have generated only another 150 responses.

“We’ve had a challenge in getting responses,” Bruffett said, acknowledging that the agency may not yet have valid addresses and telephone numbers for many of the would-be recipients.

In the past 11 months, 667 people have been dropped from the waiting lists because KDADS workers couldn’t find them, or because they have refused services or have been declared ineligible.

KDADS employees, Bruffett said, will continue reaching out to people — or their families — who have expressed an interest in obtaining services.

Eventually, she said, the department should be able to achieve significant reductions in the waiting lists for people with physical and developmental disabilities.

Last week, 2,058 Kansans with physical disabilities were known to be waiting for services as were 3,134 people with developmental disabilities.

Rosie Cooper is executive director of the Kansas Association of Centers for Independent Living, a coalition of regional programs that help people with physical disabilities navigate the state’s service delivery system.

She said problems remain with the KDADS list.

“On Thursday, I let KDADS know about a lady who’d gotten a ‘notice of action’ letter saying that she was being removed from the waiting list,” Cooper said. “She got the letter the day before Thanksgiving even though the date on the letter was Nov. 7. No one had ever contacted her with an offer.”

The woman has been on the waiting list since July 2011, Cooper said, and has made several calls to her local KDADS office since receiving her cut-off letter. As of Monday afternoon, she said, the woman’s calls had not been returned.

“I don’t want to say KDADS numbers are wrong,” she said. “I just don’t know how they came up with them. There seems to be a lot of confusion.”

ruffett spoke Friday during the department’s annual forum on KanCare, which is the state’s privatized Medicaid program that is administered by three for-profit managed care companies.

Approximately 30 people attended the hourlong meeting hosted by KDADS and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. About half of the people in the audience were KDHE or KDADS employees.

During the meeting’s question-and-answer session, most of the questions regarded advocates’ concerns with KDADS-proposed changes in the waivers that define the state’s approach to helping people with disabilities and frail elders who live in community-based settings rather than in nursing homes. KDADS collected public comment on the changes through Dec. 20.

The proposed changes are subject to federal approval. Bruffett said KDADS plans to file its proposed changes with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regional office in Kansas City, Mo., by Jan. 1.

Concerns raised during the public comment session, which began in mid-November, will be addressed in the department’s plan, she said.

Responding the audience’s questions, Bruffett and other KDADS officials said:

• They were aware of that some of the proposed changes could lead to a pay cut for attendant care workers.

• The final version of the waiver affecting services for people with traumatic brain injuries probably would not be open to a second round of public comment before being forwarded to CMS.

• Issues having to do with the state’s response to a federal rule that attendant care workers have to be paid minimum wage and overtime after Jan. 1 remain unresolved.

• The managed care companies appear to be having more success in reducing turnover among their front-line workers in recent months.

 

Dave Ranney is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

MATTHEW PERRONE, AP Health Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials are recommending an end to the nation’s lifetime ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men, a 31-year-old policy that many medical groups and gay activists say is no longer justified.

The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it favors replacing the blanket ban with a new policy barring donations from men who have had gay sex in the previous year. That policy puts the U.S. in-line with other countries including Australia, Japan and the U.K.

The lifetime ban dates from the early years of the AIDS crisis and was intended to protect the blood supply from what was a then little-understood disease. But many medical groups, including the American Medical Association, say the policy is no longer supported by science, given advances in HIV testing.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The holidays are a fun time for animals as well as people, but the Humane Society of Missouri is urging pet owners to keep them safe during the Christmas season.

The Humane Society says pets should not be fed foods they are not used to eating. Chocolate is especially forbidden since it can be fatal for some dogs. Bones from poultry and ham can get lodged in the animal’s throat or damage the stomach or intestine.

It isn’t just foods. Poinsettia, mistletoe and other holiday plants can be toxic for pets and should be kept out of reach. Tinsel, ornaments and lights can also be hazardous for pets.

The commotion of a holiday gathering can also be stressful, so owners may want to keep pets in a quiet area.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Court records say a Lawrence health care attendant who is charged in the killing of man with cerebral palsy told authorities the victim wanted to die.

Forty-eight-year-old Ronald Eugene Heskett, of Eudora, is charged with first-degree murder in the asphyxiation death of Vance Moulton. The 65-year-old had a towel around his head when he was found dead in September.

The newly released affidavit says Heskett told investigators that Moulton repeatedly begged to be killed. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Heskett said he gave in after Moulton said “he just wanted to walk with his mother again.”

Heskett says he twisted a towel around Moulton’s neck and told him to lay on it.

Defense attorney Mike Warner said he didn’t want to comment until he finished reviewing the police investigation.

NEW YORK (AP) — Several movie theaters said they will begin showing “The Interview” Thursday, seemingly putting the comedy back in theaters after Sony Pictures Entertainment canceled its release.

The Alamo Drafthouse in Texas said on Tuesday that Sony has authorized it to screen the film starting Christmas Day. Atlanta’s Plaza Theater also said it will show the film.

Representatives for Sony did not immediately comment.

Such a release would enable “The Interview” to open in select theaters and avoid the national chains that dropped the North Korea satire last week. Sony’s cancellation of the movie following terrorist threats from hackers drew widespread criticism, including from President Barack Obama.

The FBI has said the attacks on Sony came from North Korea.