WASHINGTON (AP) — With Alabama’s restrictive new abortion law stirring divisions on the right, President Donald Trump implored pro-life activists to stay united heading into the 2020 election even as he laid out where his personal views differ from the legislation.

In a series of tweets posted just before midnight Saturday, Trump said gains by anti-abortion activists will “rapidly disappear” if, as he put it, “we are foolish and do not stay UNITED as one.”

Trump did not state whether he is for or against Alabama’s law, underscoring the fine line a president seeking reelection is trying to walk between a conservative base that favors criminalizing access to abortion and potentially angering women who already are skeptical of him. The Alabama law forbids the procedure in almost all circumstances, including cases of rape and incest.

Trump laid out personal views that differ, saying he supports the right to an abortion when rape or incest is involved, or when the pregnant woman’s life is at risk.

White House officials did not respond Sunday to emailed requests seeking additional comment on the president’s position.

Disagreement among Republicans is becoming apparent over Alabama’s law, and Trump sees Democrats taking advantage of that.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, the top Republican in the Democratic-controlled chamber, opposed the law, saying he supports exceptions for rape and incest and serious risk to the woman’s life. Evangelist Pat Robertson, meanwhile, said the law is too “extreme” and not the best vehicle to attempt to force the Supreme Court to revisit — and possibly overturn — Roe v. Wade, the high court’s 1973 ruling that established a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.

Several of the Democrats who are competing for the right to challenge Trump in 2020 have come out against Alabama’s law and other state moves to impose new abortion restrictions, vowing to protect abortion rights through national legislation or, if elected, their Supreme Court nominees.

Other state laws ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which experts say typically happens around the sixth week of pregnancy, but is often before most women realize or confirm they are expecting a baby.

As most people know, and for those who would like to know, I am strongly Pro-Life, with the three exceptions – Rape, Incest and protecting the Life of the mother – the same position taken by Ronald Reagan. We have come very far in the last two years with 105 wonderful new…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 19, 2019

Trump tweeted that “We have come very far” on the anti-abortion front in the two-plus years since he took office, noting the addition of more than 100 conservative federal judges and two Supreme Court justices “and a whole new & positive attitude about the Right to Life.”

His selections of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court tilted the political makeup of the nation’s high court to the right, and emboldened conservatives who believe the time is ripe for a court case to challenge Roe v. Wade.

Trump also claimed that “The Radical Left” is “imploding on this issue” and urged Republican unity on abortion to keep Democrats from winning. Trump claims Democrats support abortion on demand, including ending pregnancies late in the term.

“We must stick together and Win for Life in 2020,” he tweeted.

Trump noted in the tweets that he holds the same anti-abortion position as Republican President Ronald Reagan, but that stance was not a lifelong one for the current Oval Office occupant. Hailing from liberal New York City and decades before aligning with the GOP as he neared a serious run for president, Trump favored abortion rights. He also supported Planned Parenthood, a provider of women’s health care services, including abortion.

Trump includes regular references in his speeches to what he says are the Democrats’ extreme positions on abortion, including in formal settings like the State of the Union address and in the more free-wheeling atmosphere of his campaign rallies.

Republicans believe the politics of abortion have shifted somewhat in their favor in recent years. But the near-absolutist nature of the most recent state-level bills has sparked concerns inside Trump’s team that the issue could energize his critics and female voters, with whom the president has long struggled.

Polling suggests the abortion issue has the potential to stoke political engagement among both parties. The General Social Survey released last year found 64% of Democrats, but just 35% of Republicans, saying a woman should be able to have an abortion for any reason.

Vice President Mike Pence, a conservative Christian and abortion opponent, avoided taking sides when he was asked about the Alabama law during an appearance in Wisconsin last week.

Pence replied that he is proud to be part of a “pro-life administration,” adding that he and Trump “have worked to stand for the sanctity of life since the outset of this administration. And I know many states around the country are embracing life.”

Pence’s spokeswoman, Alyssa Farah, on Sunday declined further comment.

TOPEKA — After three weeks, law enforcement authorities have not announced an arrest in the April 28 shooting death of 23-year-old Dwane Simmons and wounding of 23-year-old Corey Ballentine, both members of the Washburn University football team.

On Friday, police reported are looking into all leads that have been brought forward to this point and are asking for additional assistance from anyone in the 1400 Block of SW 13^th or surrounding area just before 1a.m. on April 28.

According to Lt. Andrew Beightel, detectives are still trying to identify people and search for evidence that may have been recorded during the incident. Detectives are asking that anyone who was attending the party that night to come speak with police.

Detectives are looking for photographs and or video that was taken throughout the night leading up to, during and after the fatal shooting.

The day before the crime, the New York Giants selected Ballentine in the NFL draft. He signed a contract with the team Thursday.

Signed✅ pic.twitter.com/eevRcb4DCt

— Corey Ballentine🇯🇲 (@cbxiii__) May 16, 2019

Anyone with information regarding this crime is encouraged to contact the Topeka Police Criminal Investigation Bureau at (785) 368-9400 or Shawnee County Crime Stoppers at (785) 234-0007. You can also make anonymous tips online here.

By JIM MCLEAN

A deal to clear the way for Medicaid expansion next year that some Kansas lawmakers thought they had brokered in the waning hours of their just-finished legislative session appears to be unraveling.

Instead, the conservative leaders and moderate rank-and-file Republicans find themselves splitting in an intra-party fight.

Then, on the session’s final night, Hineman told reporters that his forces had reached an agreement with Senate leaders.

“We have achieved some assurances that have moved the ball in the right direction,” Hineman said.

The handshake deal, he said, committed the Senate to voting on a compromise expansion bill at the outset of the 2020 session. Importantly, he said, Senate leaders also agreed to leave the writing of the bill to a bipartisan committee of House and Senate members rather than a “handful” of conservative senators.

A week later, differing accounts of that agreement now undermine trust and the chances that lawmakers will start the 2020 session with anything approaching consensus on how to expand Medicaid coverage to tens of thousands more low-income Kansans.

Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican, said Hineman’s account is “fairly accurate” with one big exception: Senate leaders didn’t agree to let a joint study committee — with legislators from both the House and Senate, Republican and Democrat — write the compromise bill.

Instead, he said, a Senate committee headed by Sen. Gene Sullentrop, a Wichita Republican and expansion opponent, will take the lead.

Notably, the House had passed an expansion bill. In the Senate, Denning and Senate President Susan Wagle refused to bring that bill to the floor for a vote.

“The House doesn’t set the Senate agenda,” Denning said in a recent interview with the Kansas News Service.

Denning said he was “very clear with Representative” Hineman about how he planned to proceed.

“No,” Hineman said when reached for a response, he wasn’t.

“That is certainly not my interpretation of the discussion we had,” Hineman said. “That’s very discouraging.”

Rep. John Eplee, an Atchison Republican who also participated in the negotiations, confirmed Hineman’s account that Senate leaders, including Denning, agreed to allow a joint committee to write the bill.

“That’s what he promised us in the meeting,” Eplee said, adding that Denning also pledged to use the governor’s bill as a starting point.

Believing they had won all the concessions they were going to get, Eplee said moderate Republicans dropped their demand for an immediate Senate vote.

“That helped turn the fire down,” he said.

But it ignited House Democrats’ frustration. Rep. Tim Hodge, a Democrat from Newton, said the coalition would have prevailed if moderate Republicans had continued to block passage of the budget.

“We all stayed and a bunch of you strayed,” Hodge said on the session’s final night. “We could have done this.”

The governor was also frustrated. Kelly anchored her campaign on expansion and thought she could get it done in her first session.

But, she said, moderate Republicans should have known better than to trust Denning, who for years had been one of the Legislature’s most outspoken opponents of expansion.

“The fact that he’s now reneging now on what some thought was a promise is not shocking at all,” Kelly said.

Kelly’s expansion bill passed the House 69-54 in March. A majority of senators also supported the bill, but Wagle and Denning wouldn’t allow it to come to a vote despite intense pressure from advocates who accused Republican leaders of denying life-saving care to thousands of vulnerable Kansans.

“I don’t run on emotion,” Denning said. “I understand the need to look at Medicaid expansion. I plan on doing it.”

Denning said he makes no apologies for tackling other priorities first, such as paying off state pension fund obligations and resuming construction on suspended highway projects before committing to expanding an already “very big entitlement program.”

“Once you turn that program on, there’s no turning it off,” he said. “That’s why I think it needs to have a lot of good due diligence.”

Hineman and other legislative supporters of expansion are concerned that the Senate bill will include a work requirement and host of other provisions favored by conservatives but opposed by Democrats and the interest groups pushing the issue, including the Kansas Hospital Association.

“That means we’re back in the middle of a probably very contentious wrangle over what the final product should be,” he said.

Wagle seemed to confirm those concerns at a late session news conference when she said any expansion plan that clears the Senate “will be very different” than the one that passed the House this year.

Medicaid Expansion in Brief:

•  Kelly’s expansion plan would extend coverage under KanCare — the state’s privatized Medicaid program — to an estimated 130,000 more low-income Kansans.

• A Medicaid expansion bill similar to the one introduced by Kelly and passed by the House was approved by the 2017 Legislature. It was vetoed by then Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and the Legislature narrowly failed to override his veto.

• Expansion would cover Kansans making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. That’s $17,236 for an individual or $35,535 for a family of four.

• Currently, the Kansas Medicaid program provides health coverage for children, pregnant women, individuals with physical and cognitive disabilities and elderly Kansans who have exhausted their resources. Adults with children are eligible, but only if they make less than 38 percent of the federal poverty level —- $9,538 for a family of four. Adults without children aren’t eligible for coverage no matter their income.

• States and the federal government jointly fund Medicaid. Kansas’ share of those costs is approximately $1.3 billion annually. If Kansas expands its program, the federal government would cover 90 percent of the additional costs. The state’s share would be between $34 million and $42 million per year.

• Expansion would generate an additional $913 billion in federal Medicaid funding for Kansas, according to the Kansas Hospital Association.  Supporters claim an associated boost in state tax receipts would help cover the cost of expansion.

• Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia have adopted Medicaid expansion. Kansas and Missouri are among 14 that haven’t.

• The federal government has approved waivers for Medicaid work requirementsin nine states, though federal court decisions have blocked implementation in some of them.

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

TOPEKA— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas man sought by the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force on a felony Shawnee County warrant for charges of Aggravated Battery and Criminal possession of a firearm.

Those charges stem from a shooting incident that occurred on April 30, in the 2200 block of SE Turnpike Avenue in Topeka, according the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force.  On Thursday, member of the task force apprehended 35-year-old Mario O’Neal Sr.

He is accused of shooting the victim multiple times over a dispute about mechanical repairs on his vehicle.

The Fugitive Task Force had been searching for O’Neal for several days when their investigation led them to an apartment complex in the 3700 block of SW Park South Court in Topeka.

A search warrant for O’Neal was served by the task force at one of the apartments in the complex and O’Neal was located and arrested on the warrants. He was subsequently booked into the Shawnee County jail on the charges and is awaiting further court proceedings

The Fugitive Task Force is comprised of various law enforcement agencies to include the United States Marshals Service, ICE, the Kansas Department of Corrections, and the Topeka Police Department.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Documents show the city of Columbia settled a claim with the family of a 4-year-old girl who was struck and killed by a police vehicle for just under $3.4 million.

Documents released Friday show the parents of Gabriella Curry will each receive about $1.1 million and funeral expenses, with the remainder going to attorneys.

Gabriella Curry died Jan. 4 when a police vehicle driven by officer Andrea Heese struck her outside of Battle High School in Columbia.

Heese was driving in the school bus loading area at Battle and drove onto the sidewalk, striking Curry, according to initial reports from the Missouri Highway Patrol.

The patrol is investigating the incident. Heese, a five-year veteran of the department, is on administrative leave pending the investigation.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is reporting that its unemployment rate remained at 3.5% in April and that the number of private sector jobs grew slightly over the previous year.

The state Department of Labor is reporting that the seasonally adjusted April unemployment rate was slightly higher than the 3.4% rate in April 2018. The state’s unemployment rate has remained below 4% for more than two years.

The department also says that the number of private-sector, nonfarm jobs was 10,500 higher than it was in April 2018, exceeding 1.16 million. The growth was 0.9%.

Construction experienced the biggest gain, 3.6%.

The state also added 5,600 private-sector nonfarm jobs from March to April, for growth of 0.5%.

Only 10 of the state’s 105 counties had unemployment rates above 4 percent in April.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri lawmakers are renewing a truce offer with Kansas in a long-running battle over businesses in the Kansas City area.

Legislation given final approval Friday would prohibit Missouri tax incentives from being used to lure businesses from the Kansas side of Kansas City to move across the state line. But it would take effect only if Kansas adopts a similar policy within the next two years.

Missouri passed a similar measure in 2014, but Kansas never agreed, and the offer expired in 2016.

Since then, both states have continued to battle for businesses in the Kansas City area.

The Missouri bill now goes to Gov. Mike Parson. It would apply to businesses in Cass, Clay, Jackson and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson, Miami and Wyandotte counties in Kansas.