LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s corrections director is facing criticism for spending more than $54,000 on foreign-made lethal injection drugs in May that the state still hasn’t received.

Members of a legislative oversight committee grilled Scott Frakes on Thursday, saying he approved the pre-payment without following typical procedures or taking steps to ensure the state could recover the money.

 

State officials bought the supply from Chris Harris, a distributor in India who sold execution drugs to the state in 2010. The drugs’ manufacturer later accused Harris of misrepresenting how he intended to use them.

Frakes acknowledged under questioning that he allowed Harris to dictate the price of sodium thiopental and pancuronium bromide, both of which are required in Nebraska’s three-drug protocol. He disputed that the state’s efforts to import the drugs violate federal law.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services says it will begin listing the names of both same-sex spouses on their children’s birth certificates.

The change was revealed in court documents filed Tuesday by state attorneys as part of a lawsuit challenging Nebraska’s ban on gay marriage.

That ban was deemed unconstitutional after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively legalized gay marriage across the country in June, and now plaintiffs are seeking a judicial order to strike it down.

HHS spokeswoman Leah Bucco-White says the department has begun the process to make the changes, but that the current birth certificate form will be used until that process is completed. She declined to answer questions about when the change will be made or how the new birth certificate forms will be worded.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new report says Medicaid and other services will cost Kansas about $47 million more than expected during the next two budget years.

The new estimates Thursday complicate the budget picture for Republican Governor Sam Brownback and the GOP-dominated Legislature. The report was issued by legislative researchers and Brownback’s budget staff.

State officials and university economists were expected Friday to issue more pessimistic projections for state tax collections through June 2017 that are likely to leave a projected deficit in the state’s current budget.

The report covers cash assistance, foster care and Medicaid’s health coverage for the poor and disabled, which cost the state $1.1 billion annually.

The new estimates are $16.6 million higher for the current budget and $30.8 million higher for the fiscal year beginning in July 2017.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerry Gorman will not file charges against two deputy U.S. marshals who shot and killed a man in Kansas City, Kansas.

The two deputy marshals shot Patrick Pippin, of Shawnee, July 16th after he led police on a chase along Interstate 35.

Gorman said his investigation indicated the officers were justified in using deadly force.

Deputies went to a home as part of an investigation into several armed robberies. When they attempted to stop a Jeep that that drove away from the home, the driver drove off. It eventually crashed.

The marshals reported that Pippin appeared to have a gun when he started running toward one marshal. The two marshals shot him. Pippin died of four gunshots.

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. (AP) — The city council in the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield has voted unanimously to censure the mayor for what it calls inappropriate and abusive language in conversations with city officials.

Some members of the council praised Mayor Bob Nation Wednesday night for his fiscal leadership, but still voted for the censure, which passed 7-0. Nation was accused of using “hostile and intimidating language” during private discussion with the town’s economic development director and at least one other employee in July.

Nation told the council that the censure was an effort to publicly humiliate him and drive him out of office. He said there was no legal basis for it.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City officials have proposed closing a high school and two elementary schools as part of a plan that will affect most of the district’s schools.

Kansas City Public Schools said at a board meeting Wednesday the proposal calls for closing the Southwest Early College Campus and the Crispus Attucks and Satchel Paige elementary schools.

The Kansas City Star reports the plan, which requires the board’s approval before going into effect in 2016, would also reconfigure school attendance boundaries, reduce the distance students walk to school and phase in year-round school for four of the lowest-performing elementary schools.

The proposed plan aims to raise student achievement by putting schools at the center of neighborhoods.

The Kansas City district has been working toward improving performance to regain full state accreditation.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A judge will determine if cellphone records can be used in the trial of a Lee’s Summit lawyer charged in the deaths of her father and his girlfriend.

The Kansas City Star reports the phone records are evidence in the case against Susan Elizabeth Van Note, who’s charged in the 2010 deaths of 67-year-old William Van Note and 59-year-old Sharon Dickson.

Defense lawyers say the cellphone evidence was obtained through an “unconstitutional search” because investigators didn’t acquire it with a search warrant. Instead they used a subpoena, which doesn’t require probable cause.

At a Laclede County court hearing Tuesday, a Camden County sheriff’s sergeant told Judge Kenneth Hayden the subpoenas are standard, and both were signed by a judge.

Each side has 20 days to file written arguments.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Governor Jay Nixon says he’s backing fellow Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton’s run for president.

Nixon told the Associated Press on Wednesday that he supports the former secretary of state over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and other opponents.

Nixon’s support matters in part because as governor he’s a superdelegate. He’ll vote for his pick for the Democratic presidential nomination during the party’s national convention.

Nixon’s early backing also is significant because he had waited to endorse President Barack Obama until after Obama won the Democratic nomination over Clinton in 2008.

Nixon says Clinton is the best pick for the job because she’s a proven leader. He touted her as talking about “substantive issues,” such as college affordability.