ST. LOUIS (AP) – The Latest on allegations involving Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (all times local):

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A lawyer for Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is arguing that Attorney General Josh Hawley should be barred from investigating the governor because of critical comments potentially motivated by Hawley’s candidacy for the U.S. Senate.

During a court hearing Thursday, Greitens’ attorney Jim Bennett said Hawley displayed a “personal interest” when he called upon Greitens to resign. Hawley’s comment came after a House investigatory panel released a report earlier this month detailing allegations of sexual misconduct by Greitens.

An attorney for Hawley argued Thursday that the resignation call showed leadership and was unrelated to Hawley’s separate investigation of Greitens’ alleged political use of a charity donor list. Both Hawley and Greitens are Republicans.

Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem issued no immediate ruling.

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ST. LOUIS (AP) – A St. Louis judge has turned down a request from attorneys for Missouri Republican Gov. Eric Greitens to require deposition testimony from the state’s former Democratic Party chairman in one of the governor’s two felony cases.

Circuit Judge Rex Burlison on Thursday turned down a request to depose Roy Temple over whether he made payments to the ex-husband of a St. Louis woman who had an affair with Greitens in 2015, before he was elected.

Attorney Joseph Bednar told the judge that Temple has repeatedly denied any payments to the man.

Greitens faces trial in May on an invasion of privacy charge for allegedly taking a compromising and unauthorized photo of the woman. He’s also charged with computer data tampering over use of a charity donor list in his political campaign.

By STEPHEN KORANDA

Changes in federal tax law could actually cost some Kansans more in state taxes.

Kansas lawmakers might turn down that revenue windfall and add an election year tax cut instead. A bill they’re backing would cost roughly the same amount as a court-triggered boost to school spending.

The cut to federal taxes has become a signature achievement of the Trump administration and a talking point for national Republicans.

But because of the way federal income tax returns translate to state filings, it means some people in Kansas can’t itemize — and save on their taxes — as they might have before last year’s federal overhaul.

The Kansas Senate has already passed a bill aimed at returning that money to taxpayers — just a year after lawmakers raised taxes to salvage a cratering state budget.

Some of the proposals in the bill are directly related to the federal law. For example, one portion would let Kansans itemize tax deductions whether or not they itemize on their federal taxes.

Another provision would amend Kansas law relating to the repatriation of foreign earnings, another issue addressed in the federal tax bill.

Republican Sen. Caryn Tyson, chair of the Senate tax committee, said lawmakers should not view this as a chance to capture more state tax revenue.

“We’ve got to quit growing government,” Tyson said during a floor debate earlier this month. “This is not our money. This is Kansas taxpayer money. Let’s get it back to them.”

The legislation passed the Senate before lawmakers left for their spring break. It’s now in the hands of House members.

The chairman of the House’s tax committee, Republican Steven Johnson, said House leaders agree with the goal of returning the windfall to Kansas taxpayers. But he said the bill goes beyond that.

“Both chambers want to make sure that windfall stays in the pockets of those taxpayers,” Johnson said. “The challenge is there are so many things in play that, as a package, I don’t believe it is affordable.”

Other portions of the Senate bill delve into additional parts of state tax policy. The standard deduction would rise from $3,000 to $3,750 for individuals. Married taxpayers filing jointly would see their standard deduction go from $7,500 to $9,375.

The proposals would also accelerate the restoration of some tax deductions, including the mortgage interest and property tax deduction. Several deductions eliminated or cut back in the past are phasing back in over several years. The bill would end the phase-in and fully restore those deductions.

Johnson said he expects House lawmakers will consider the bill, but the portions of the legislation outside the scope of the windfall are less likely to advance.

So far, the Legislature has no official estimate on how much the Senate bill would dent state revenue. Heidi Holliday, with the Kansas Center for Economic Growth, said it would mean at least $494 million less for the state over five years. That’s close to the funding increase approved for local school districts.

She calls it premature to make state tax changes, because estimates of the impact of the federal tax cut are not written in stone.

“We don’t even know how much Kansas is going to get as a result of any federal tax law changes,” Holliday said.

The new discussion on tax policy comes less than a year after lawmakers rolled back many of the state’s 2012 tax cuts by overriding a veto from then-Gov. Sam Brownback.

Holliday said the state should be investing in areas of government that faced lean budget years because of the tax cuts. Instead of going down that road again, Holliday said Kansas should invest in services such as infrastructure, higher education and the state’s pension plan.

“It’s really risky for lawmakers to be trying to pass a bill like this right now,” Holliday said.

The most immediate cost is the state’s public school funding boost, which comes in response to a court ruling that said school funding isn’t living up to a requirement in the Kansas Constitution.

Democratic Rep. Jarrod Ousley said pursuing the tax cut plan will make it harder to fund services like schools.

“We need to meet our constitutional obligations first,” Ousley said. “We’ve got a generation of kids depending upon it.”

State budget officials raised the fiscal outlook last week. That prompted Republican Senate President Susan Wagle to renew her push for the bill.

However, Wagle didn’t argue for advancing all parts of the bill. She said in a statement that lawmakers should approve the changes to tax itemizing.

“I will urge my colleagues to pass legislation to allow Kansans who currently itemize under state tax law to continue to do so in the future,” Wagle said.

She said after doing that, lawmakers should look at paying back money borrowed from sources such as the state’s pension system, KPERS.

“We owe it to future generations to pay back our current debts and obligations,” Wagle said.

Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare will require hospitals to post their standard prices online and make electronic medical records more readily available to patients, officials said Tuesday.

The program is also starting a comprehensive review of how it will pay for costly new forms of immunotherapy to battle cancer.

Seema Verma, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the new requirement for online prices reflects the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to encourage patients to become better-educated decision makers in their own care.

“We are just beginning on price transparency,” said Verma. “We know that hospitals have this information and we’re asking them to post what they have online.”

Hospitals are required to disclose prices publicly, but the latest change would put that information online in machine-readable format that can be easily processed by computers. It may still prove to be confusing to consumers, since standard rates are like list prices and don’t reflect what insurers and government programs pay.

Patients concerned about their potential out-of-pocket costs from a hospitalization would still be advised to consult with their insurer. Most insurance plans nowadays have an annual limit on how much patients must pay in copays and deductibles — although traditional Medicare does not.

Likewise, many health care providers already make computerized records available to patients, but starting in 2021 Medicare would base part of a hospital’s payments on how good a job they do.

Using electronic medical records remains a cumbersome task, and the Trump administration has invited technology companies to design secure apps that would let patients access their records from all their providers instead of having to go to different portals.

Verma also announced Medicare is starting a comprehensive review of how it will pay for a costly new form of immunotherapy called CAR-T. It’s gene therapy that turbocharges a patient’s own immune system cells to attack cancer.

Immune system T cells are filtered from the patient’s own blood and reprogrammed to target and kill cancer cells that had managed to evade them. Hundreds of millions of copies of the revved-up cells are then returned to the patient’s blood to take on the cancer.

Though only a couple of such treatments have been approved for blood cancers, the cost can exceed $370,000 per patient.

“It’s a new area for the agency,” said Verma. “We haven’t seen drugs priced at this level and we’re having to think about our strategy.”

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) – A second man has been charged with firing shots into an Independence home and killing a woman amid a feud that may have stemmed from a stolen vehicle.

Prosecutors announced Wednesday that 20-year-old William York, of Independence, is charged with unlawful use of a weapon. An identical charge was filed Monday against another man, 21-year-old Tristen Bishop. The felony is punishable by up to life in prison.

No attorneys are listed for York or Bishop in online court records. Bond is set at $500,000 for both men.

Twenty-year-old Abigail Edwards was killed on April 19. Court records say her boyfriend told police that he had a feud with York about York stealing a vehicle. Prosecutors say the shooting remains under investigation to consider whether other charges may be filed.

STRAFFORD, Mo. (AP) – Authorities say a homeless hitchhiker has died from a stab wound that he suffered while scuffling with a friend outside a southwest Missouri McDonald’s.

Twenty-three-year-old Jordan Smith has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree assault and armed criminal action in the weekend stabbing of 32-year-old Shane Young. The Springfield News-Leader reports that an assistant prosecuting attorney says Young died Tuesday.

Court records say the friends had been drinking before they scuffled in the town of Strafford. Smith told police he warned Young he would use “extended force” if Young didn’t stop coming at him. Court records say Smith then stabbed Young with a pocketknife that he’d just purchased at a nearby truck stop.

Prosecutors wrote in charging documents they plan to elevate the charges facing Smith if Young died.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators reconvene Thursday and could lower the age for carrying concealed guns and grant legal protections to faith-based adoption agencies that refuse on religious grounds to place children in LGBT homes.

Fiscal issues also are on lawmakers’ agenda when their annual spring break ends Thursday. They expect to fix a flaw in a new education funding law that would otherwise cost public schools $80 million, and they could debate income tax cuts.

Lawmakers could meet for up to 10 days. Here are key issues they face.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A former corrections officer at the Jackson County Detention Center pleaded guilty in federal court today to smuggling contraband cell phones and other items to inmates at the Jackson County Detention Center.

According to a media release from the U.S> Attorney’s office, Andre Lamonte Dickerson, 26, of Kansas City, Mo., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to two counts of using a telephone in furtherance of the unlawful activity of acceding to corruption, related to a public servant taking a bribe in return for violating his legal duty.

By pleading guilty today, Dickerson admitted that he told a confidential informant that he would smuggle two packs of cigarettes, a cell phone and a cell phone charger to an inmate in the detention center for $500. Dickerson met the informant at a Church’s Fried Chicken restaurant on June 2, 2017, where he received the payment and the contraband items.

The next day, June 3, 2017, Dickerson entered the inmate’s cell and put the contraband on the bed. They engaged in a conversation regarding potential future contraband transactions. Dickerson asked if the inmate would be interested in paying him a monthly fee of $2,500. In exchange, Dickerson would ensure he would be the only inmate on the fifth floor to receive contraband cigarettes, narcotics and telephones. Other inmates would then shop through him for their contraband.

The inmate smoked one of the packs of cigarettes and exchanged the second pack of cigarettes with other inmates for food from the commissary. On the same day, detention center personnel searched his cell and found the phone and phone charger.

On June 18, 2017, a corrections officer found Dickerson’s cell phone in the fifth floor control station. Text messages contained information recording drug deals between Dickerson and inmates within the Jackson County Detention Center.

Dickerson was arrested on June 27, 2017. At the time of his arrest, Dickerson had two cell phones in his possession while he was on duty in the inmate area of the detention center. Corrections officers are not allowed to have cell phones in their possession while on duty and in the areas of the detention center where inmates are housed.

In a separate but related case, another former corrections officer at the Jackson County Detention Center, Jalee Caprice Fuller, 30, of Independence, Mo., has also pleaded guilty. Fuller admitted that she conspired with others – including co-defendant Carlos Laron Hughley, 32, of Kansas City, an inmate at the Jackson County Detention Center – to smuggle contraband to inmates between May 2 and June 26, 2017. Fuller also admitted that she actually smuggled contraband into the Jackson County Detention Center and delivered the contraband to an inmate.

Hughley, as well as co-defendants Marion Lorenzo Byers, also known as “Cuddy,” 36, and Janikkia Lashay Carter, 36, both of Kansas City, have pleaded guilty.

Under the terms of today’s plea agreement, Dickerson will be sentenced to one year and four months in federal prison without parole. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Latest on lawmakers’ work on Missouri’s budget (all times local):

Missouri senators have adopted a budget proposal that includes stable funding for public colleges and universities next year.

Senators voted 31-1 to pass the measure Wednesday. That locked in enough money to maintain the same funding for schools next year. The fiscal year ends in June.

Republican Gov. Eric Greitens originally recommended that the Republican-led Legislature cut $68 million from colleges and universities compared to what they’re expected to receive this year.

But legislative leaders quickly panned the plan.

The budget passed by senators also includes an additional $2 million for Harris-Stowe State University and $2.5 million to Missouri Southern State University.