By JIM MCLEAN

Doctors at the University of Kansas Hospital say a change in the distribution of livers across the country could result in Kansans waiting longer for life-saving transplants.

So they’re backing a bill in the Kansas Legislature that would allow residents who donate their organs to specify whether they want them used to benefit Kansas transplant patients.

“The purpose of the Kansas Donor Rights act is to bring the conversation to the forefront,” said Sean Kumer, a liver transplant surgeon at KU.

Changes in the system used to distribute livers for transplant essentially nationalizing the system have yet to be finalized.

For years, organs have been distributed within regions. That worked well for states, like Kansas, where donor rates were high. It worked less well in states, such as New York and California, where the need for donated organs was high but donor rates were relatively low.

“Here in the Midwest we have a very giving population,” Kumer said, noting that Kansas’ donor rate is consistently around 80 percent compared to 55 percent on the East and West coasts.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ordered the scrapping of the geography-based system after six patients awaiting transplants in California, New York and Massachusetts sued the agency.

“The practical effect of the new policy will be to redistribute livers from states and regions with high rates of organ donation to areas that have historically underperformed,” U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Roy Blunt of Missouri said recently in a guest commentary in The Kansas City Star.

The new policy would disproportionately affect patients rural areas, the senators said.

“This shortsighted liver allocation policy … will not only mean fewer life-saving organs in our part of the country, but it will also adversely affect health outcomes throughout the Midwest,” they said.

In an interview with Modern Healthcare, Sander Florman, director of transplantation for New York’s Mount Sinai Health System, defended the new allocation system.

“In a system that is fundamentally handicapped by having too few organs for too many patients that need them, decisions need to be made and should favor saving the most lives and helping the sickest of our patients first,” Florman said.

If that is the criteria, Kumer said, preference should be given to regions where higher percentages of patients are dying while awaiting surgery. In Kansas, he said, approximately 20 percent of liver transplant patients die on the waiting list compared to about 8 percent in New York.

“Our (mortality) numbers are going to increase and theirs are going to decrease and that’s just not the way we should be running our system,” Kumer said.

The legality of the Kansas legislation could hinge on whether the courts buy the argument that an organ donation is a personal gift, Kumer said.

“It’s a gift, not a natural resource,” he said. “Donors and their families … should have the choice of where they want their organs to go.”

The bill was introduced late,  but its chances of passing are improved by the fact that it has the backing of Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican.

“It will get a hearing soon and we will address it this session,” Denning said.

Jim McLean is the senior correspondent for the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks. 

KINGSVILLE, Mo. (AP) — A 54-year-old western Missouri has been charged in the shooting death of his brother.

Victor Sanders, of Kingsville, was charged Monday with voluntary manslaughter, armed criminal action and three other felonies in the death of his 57-year-old brother, Michael Sanders, of Odessa.

Michael Sanders was found dead Sunday at his brother’s home in Kingsville.

A probable cause statement says Victor Sanders admitted to shooting his brother several times during an argument over a sibling who is incarcerated. Victor Sanders said he shot Michael when his brother lunged at him.

Court records show Victor Sanders had several convictions for first-degree assault and possession and distribution of a controlled substance.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for Sanders.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former White House special counsel considers special prosecutor Robert Mueller “an American hero.”

Attorney Ty Cobb says he does not share President Donald Trump’s opinion that Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the election is “a witch hunt” during an ABC News’ podcast “The Investigation” aired Tuesday

Cobb, a Georgetown University law school alumnus and native of Great Bend, Kansas,  says Mueller is a “very justice-oriented person.”

Cobb does not believe Mueller’s report will harm the president politically. Cobb says there’s no link to Trump or the campaign in an indictment against Russian hackers and says there’s “no reference to collusion” in a sentencing memo for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Cobb joined the Trump’s White House legal team in July 2017 and left after ten months.

He says Trump should brace himself for upcoming congressional investigations.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is investigating the Kansas City, Kansas, police chief’s use of a county-owned lake house.

The investigation centers on whether Chief Terry Ziegler “double dipped” when he took paid time off work while also charging the county government for work he did on the lake house.

The Unified Government allowed Ziegler to pay little rent on the house on Wyandotte Lake Park if he made repairs on the property. Officials put the lease in writing after a citizen inquired about it.

pic.twitter.com/LQrM93CUYo

— Terry Zeigler (@KCKPDChief) March 4, 2019

Ziegler sent an email to police department employees on Monday confirming the investigation. He will continue working during the investigation.

In December, Mayor David Alvey said he thought the arrangement with Zeigler was in the county’s best interests.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A member of the Missouri Senate’s Conservative Caucus is breaking from Republican Gov. Mike Parson and pitching a new plan to pay for road and bridge repairs.

At issue is Parson’s proposal to borrow $350 million to pay to fix 250 bridges across the state , which received a mixed response from fellow Republicans and some Democrats.

Opponents have criticized the estimated $100-million in interest the state would have to pay over 15 years and complained that not enough bridges in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas are on the project list.

So Sen. Bill Eigel, a St. Louis-area Republican and member of the newly founded Conservative Caucus, is instead proposing legislation that would ask Missouri voters to amend the state Constitution to block dedicated road funds from being spent on the Highway Patrol and administrative costs.

He also filed a similar bill that wouldn’t require voter approval.

Eigel said shifting Highway Patrol and administrative costs would free up as much as $300 million each year to put toward infrastructure, but it would also mean the state would instead have to shoulder those expenses with undesignated general revenue.

That pot of money also funds K-12 public education, health care and other state services.

Eigel said the shift in funding sources would “require the Legislature to take an even harder look at where our other general revenue priorities are.”

“I’ve always said the problem with transportation is not a problem with revenue; it’s a problem with prioritization,” Eigel said. “We’re not willing to make the sacrifices in a record-setting, $30-billion budget so that we can address something that all our constituents say is important, which is our roads and bridges.”

A spokesman for the governor’s office said Parson is still focused on his funding plan, and Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz, who is sponsoring legislation to enact Parson’s plan, said Eigel’s legislation is “dead on arrival.”

Schatz said while dedicated road funding includes gas-tax revenue from out-of-state drivers, using general revenue would put the financial burden only on Missouri taxpayers.

“I don’t think you can get a consensus majority to accept this proposal,” Schatz said.

Eigel’s proposal would also earmark half of leftover funds at the end of the year for road and bridge projects.

What’s left on the state’s bottom line varies from year to year, but the state had about $166 million leftover at the end of last fiscal year. Under Eigel’s legislation, that would have meant close to $83 million budgeted for infrastructure.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell was found not guilty Monday on nearly all charges of taking campaign funds for his personal use.

A federal jury acquitted O’Donnell on 21 counts of wire fraud, but deadlocked on two counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering related to his state and county campaigns. Prosecutors alleged he took $10,500 of campaign funds to put into his personal checking account or give to friends.

U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said in a news release that his office will evaluate the results of the trial to determine whether to take the case to trial again on the counts in which the jury did not reach a verdict.

“As always, our office takes very seriously the determinations made by a jury of our citizens, and we will consider the jury’s decision here carefully in deciding next steps for our office,” McAllister said.

O’Donnell and his family cried as the verdicts were read in the courtroom.

“I’m obviously very relieved. It feels good to be vindicated,” O’Donnell told reporters as he walked away from the courthouse.

One of his defense attorneys, Mark Schoenhofer, called the acquittals a win even though the jurors got stuck on a few counts.

“But overall, we consider this a victory,” Schoenhofer said. “We’re very happy with the jury and how hard they worked on this case.”

O’Donnell took the stand in his own defense to argue the payments were legitimate campaign expenses . In at times combative testimony, he criticized U.S. Justice Department and federal agents for not reaching out to him before the indictment so he could explain the payments.

He contended the many of those checks were retainers or bonuses given to staffers who worked on his campaign and helped him with his official government duties.

Prosecutors highlighted the testimony of people he had paid who said they either did no work for the campaign or were not actually working at events such as ball games as O’Donnell had claimed.

Several people, including then-Gov. Sam Brownback and other state officials, received notification letters in 2017 from the Justice Department telling them that the federal government intercepted phone calls between them and O’Donnell’s phone number. O’Donnell, a conservative known in part for championing tougher rules for welfare recipients, was a political ally of Brownback who won his legislative seat in a 2012 purge of Senate moderates.

“The Democrats were foaming at the mouth to get me,” O’Donnell told jurors. “I was very stressed knowing I was the most targeted senator in the state.”

The Wichita Republican was elected to the Kansas State Senate in 2012 for a term that ended in January 2017. He did not run for re-election and instead ran for and won a term on the Sedgwick County Commission that began in 2017 and is set to expire in 2020.

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell was found not guilty Monday on nearly all charges of taking campaign funds for his personal use.

A federal jury acquitted O’Donnell on 21 counts of wire fraud, but deadlocked on two counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering related to his state and county campaigns. Prosecutors alleged he took $10,500 of campaign funds to put into his personal checking account or give to friends.

O’Donnell took the stand in his own defense to argue the payments were legitimate campaign expenses . In at times combative testimony, he criticized U.S. Justice Department and federal agents for not reaching out to him before the indictment so he could explain the payments.

He contended the many of those checks were retainers or bonuses given to staffers who worked on his campaign and helped him with his official government duties.

Prosecutors highlighted the testimony of people he had paid who said they either did no work for the campaign or were not actually working at events such as ball games as O’Donnell had claimed.

Several people, including then-Gov. Sam Brownback and other state officials, received notification letters in 2017 from the Justice Department telling them that the federal government intercepted phone calls between them and O’Donnell’s phone number. O’Donnell, a conservative known in part for championing tougher rules for welfare recipients, was a political ally of Brownback who won his legislative seat in a 2012 purge of Senate moderates.

“The Democrats were foaming at the mouth to get me,” O’Donnell told jurors. “I was very stressed knowing I was the most targeted senator in the state.”

The Wichita Republican was elected to the Kansas State Senate in 2012 for a term that ended in January 2017. He did not run for re-election and instead ran for and won a term on the Sedgwick County Commission that began in 2017 and is set to expire in 2020.

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Sedgwick County jury will be back in court to continue deliberations in the fraud case of County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell.

O’Donnell faces 23 counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering related to his state and county campaigns.

The case went to the jury late Friday.

Prosecutors allege O’Donnell used $10,500 in campaign funds for personal expenses and gave some money to friends.

O’Donnell testified last week that the payments were legitimate campaign expenses.

The Wichita Republican served in the Kansas Senate from 2012 to January 2017. He term on the Sedgwick County Commission began in 2017.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former central Missouri tax collector has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for embezzling about $300,000 in taxpayer funds.

Former Callaway County Collector Pamela Oestreich was sentenced Monday in federal court in Jefferson City. She pleaded guilty in September to one count of stealing. She must pay back the money.

U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison says Oestreich, of Fulton, took taxpayer money for her personal use on more than 100 occasions starting in 2015.