TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas police officers would be permitted to help officers across state lines during emergency situations under a bill approved by a House committee.

Most law enforcement officers in Kansas now are allowed to only help other departments in the state, though officers in border counties are also able to provide assistance across state lines during drug investigations or terrorist activities.

The bill passed in the House Federal and State Affairs Committee on Tuesday would allow all Kansas law enforcement agencies to request help from police departments outside of the state. Officers working in other areas would receive workers’ compensation and protection from their own departments.

A Kansas City area police association introduced a similar bill in the House committee last year but it was never passed.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Senate committee is considering legislations that would establish an experimental foster care program in Kansas open exclusively to adults in stable marriages of at least seven years and with a minimum of one stay-at-home spouse.

The bill would grant foster parents in the statewide pilot program an exemption from standard licensing applicable to child care facilities.

Republican state Sen. Forrest Knox’s proposal to the Senate Judiciary Committee would require foster parents in the trial program to be high school graduates and pass a background check. Participants would also have to enforce a household ban on drinking alcohol and smoking.

The bill would also give foster parents sole discretion to determine schooling for the children in their care as well as limit the program to those active in their communities.

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — St. Louis County leaders are pushing legislation to monitor distribution of prescription medicines that can serve as a gateway to heroin addiction.

County Executive Steve Stenger said Tuesday that the county legislation is necessary because Missouri is the nation’s only state that has failed to establish a database to track opioids prescribed by doctors.

Stenger, a Democrat, calls heroin abuse “a deadly epidemic” in the St. Louis region, where more than 2,700 residents have died from a heroin or opioid-related overdose in the past seven years.

Meanwhile, Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, was in suburban St. Louis Tuesday to hear concerns about opioid abuse.

Criticism among lawmakers centers on privacy concerns over a government-run database with medical information.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A senator running for attorney general is pushing to change how Missouri tries to prevent and punish terrorism.

Sen. Kurt Schaefer, a Columbia Republican, pitched two measures during a Senate hearing Tuesday.

One bill that deals with those convicted of first-degree murder after committing an act of terrorism would require judges and juries to consider that when weighing whether to execute the killer.

The attorney general’s office handles death-penalty appeals and sometimes prosecutes those cases.

The second bill would create the crime of terrorism for seriously injuring someone while trying to intimidate or coerce residents or government. The penalty would be life in prison without eligibility for parole.

Schaefer also wants the attorney general to oversee screenings of jail and prison volunteers for terrorist tendencies.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri House has given initial approval to a measure directing the Department of Natural Resources to auction off land it purchased with money from a lead mining settlement.

Lawmakers on Tuesday endorsed the proposal to sell the land in Oregon County slated for a state park. The money from the auction would pay for economic development projects in southeast Missouri. The bill needs another vote before going to the Senate.

Bill sponsor Rep. Robert Ross said the settlement money was supposed to restore areas damaged by lead mining. The proposed park is not at a former lead-mining site.

Rep. Kevin Engler said that although he disagreed with how the settlement money was spent, he worried an auction would return a fraction of what the state spent on the land.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A consulting firm being paid $2.6 million by the Kansas Legislature to review the state’s budget says taking money from school districts’ cash reserves could help pay for future education funding.

Alvarez & Marsal released a 292-page final report to lawmakers on Tuesday describing efficiencies the firm says could save the state $2 billion over the next five years.

One of the recommendations is to require school districts to have a minimum cash balance of 10 percent of their operating budget, with a maximum of 15 percent. Any reserves over 15 percent would be deducted from future funding.

Alvarez estimates the policy would save $193 million over five years and suggests lawmakers implement it for the next fiscal year, which begins in July.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — An animal rights group has sued to stop zoos in Kansas, Nebraska and Texas from bringing in new elephants from Africa.

The Wichita Eagle reports that the Friends of Animals filed a lawsuit last week in federal court against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Last month, the agency issued permits allowing the importation of 18 African elephants from Swaziland. The elephants would be divided among the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, the Dallas Zoo in Texas and the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha, Nebraska. The three zoos agreed to spend $450,000 over several years on black rhino conservation.

The environmental lawsuit argues the service did not take into account how the transfer would negatively hurt the social, mental and physical well-being of the 18 elephants.

CLAY CENTER, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas mother has died just more than a week after delivering triplets.

KWCH-TV reports that Casi Rott of Clay Center delivered the babies Jan. 29 at a Wichita hospital. She had spent the preceding three months in Wichita away from her husband and 6- and 2-year-old daughters.

She was treated for a blood clot in her lungs before returning home. Her husband, Joey Rott, says that upon her return, she snuggled with her two older daughters for about five minutes before she began having health issues. She died on Feb. 8.

Joey Rott says that he had never “met a soul as kind as she was.”

Friend Kelsey Wuthrich says she “loved her kids more than anything.”

An online fundraising effort is underway to help the family.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Health officials say about 50 University of Kansas students have been screened for tuberculosis after a case was confirmed.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the student with the confirmed case has started therapy. Watkins Health Services director and chief of staff Douglas Dechairo says the student will remain quarantined until he tests free of the disease.

Dechairo says the student contracted the disease in his home country, outside of the United States. The student lives alone off campus.

Dechairo says none of the students who potentially were exposed have developed symptoms. Those students will be screened again in eight weeks.

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that attacks the lungs and can be fatal if not treated with antibiotics. It is generally spread by coughing and sneezing.