TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A women’s prison warden says she doesn’t know why the Kansas Department of Corrections retained until December a dental lab instructor who was accused of sexually harassing an inmate two years ago.

Warden Shannon Meyer recommended firing Tomas Co after an internal investigation in early 2017.

Co supervised a program teaching inmates to make dentures. He was charged last month with seven counts of unlawful sexual relations involving female inmates.

State and federal auditors recommended Co’s firing after the 2017 incident but he continued to work until he was placed on administrative leave in November 2018.

Interim corrections department Secretary Roger Werholtz, appointed by Gov. Laura Kelly in January, says current leadership would have dismissed Co based on the 2017 investigation.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Lawmakers dropped a plan to increase oversight of Kansas’ troubled child welfare system in the final hours of their annual session, angering advocates.

The provision that was eliminated would have created a committee that could have summoned officials to explain problems, drafted legislation and provided frustrated parents with a place to vent.

Some advocates saw the panel as a way to address a system beset with problems that include child deaths and problems recruiting and retaining staff.

“I don’t think our legislators understand how hard it is to apologize to a child for ‘good intentions’ gone bad,” said Tara Wallace, president of the African American Foster Care/Adoption Coalition’s Topeka chapter. “It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but I have to for the sake of helping them get through their traumatic experiences.”

The committee would have been required to review data on child maltreatment, child welfare programs and concerns about the Department for Children and Families, which oversees foster care. Lawmakers focused on health and child-related issues would have been assigned to serve on it.

Issues arose when a coalition of Republicans and Democrats blocked the legislation to try to pressure Republican leaders in the Senate to hold a vote on Medicaid expansion. Lawmakers sent the budget back for more negotiations between the House and the Senate. Negotiators produced a new version that didn’t include the committee.

The Legislature then passed the budget Saturday night after pro-expansion Republicans stopped voting to block it.

“I think it’s clear for the legislative leadership that foster care is not a priority,” said Benet Magnuson, executive director of Kansas Appleseed, a nonprofit justice center serving vulnerable and excluded Kansans.

Rep. Susan Concannon, a Beloit Republican who chairs the House Children and Seniors Committee, noted that lawmakers can still act next year on her bill to create a child welfare oversight committee.

“It needs oversight. We need to get this bill passed,” Concannon said.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The company that originally owned a duck boat that sank on a Missouri lake last summer killing 17 people has sold the remainder of its fleet to an Arkansas-based investment company.

Stacy Roberts, who owns DUKW Arkansas, LLC, said that his Hot Springs, Arkansas company purchased 18 duck boats on April 23 from Ride the Ducks International.

Ride the Ducks International sold 22 boats to Ripley Entertainment for its Branson tours in late 2017. One of those boats sank last July after getting caught in a storm on a lake near Branson, Missouri. Seventeen people on board died, including nine members of one family. The U.S. Coast Guard’s investigation into the accident is ongoing.

Roberts said he’s not sure what his company will do with their newly acquired boats.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The head of a suburban St. Louis child welfare agency and alternative school for children with severe behavioral problems has been charged with child endangerment and assault.

Vincent Damian Hillyer, of Eureka, was arrested Tuesday after police executed a search warrant at Great Circle Academy, an alternative school that offers boarding in Webster Groves, Missouri.

Hillyer was charged with six felony counts of first-degree child endangerment and misdemeanor counts of attempted child endangerment and fourth-degree assault. His bail is set at $205,000. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

The Webster Groves school has about 250 students in kindergarten through high school. It was visited in September by U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams and other federal health officials who were traveling the country learning about efforts to battle opioid addiction.

Specific details about the allegations were not immediately available. The office of St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell was closed Wednesday for a state holiday honoring the birth of President Harry Truman, a native Missourian.

“Working with young clients who have acute behavioral health needs can often be difficult,” Great Circle spokeswoman Bev Pfeifer-Harms said in a statement, noting that the investigation by Webster Groves police centered on “care provided in a small number of circumstances.”

“While we remain confident in the therapeutic approach used in our facilities, as an organization, we will fully cooperate with all of those who are investigating this matter,” Pfeifer-Harms said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Drugmakers will be required to reveal the prices of their prescription medicines in those ever present TV ads, the Trump administration is set to announce on Wednesday, even as some insured patients can pay thousands of dollars for critical medications.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told The Associated Press the administration is finalizing regulations that will require drug companies to disclose list prices of medications costing more than $35 for a month’s supply.

“What I say to the companies is if you think the cost of your drug will scare people from buying your drugs, then lower your prices,” Azar said. “Transparency for American patients is here.”

The pricing details are expected to appear in text toward the end of commercials, when potential side effects are being disclosed. TV viewers should notice the change later this year, perhaps as early as the summer.

The government’s move is part of a multilevel blueprint President Donald Trump announced last year to try to lower prescription drug costs .

Other elements include regulations affecting Medicare and legislative proposals pending in Congress. With the cost of medicines a top concern for voters, Trump and lawmakers of both major political parties want accomplishments they can point to before the 2020 elections. Democrats say measures like price disclosure won’t force drugmakers to lower what they charge, and they want to authorize Medicare to negotiate.

The drug industry opposes the price reveal, saying companies would rather provide the information on their websites. But Johnson & Johnson, based in New Brunswick, New Jersey, announced this year that it would start disclosing the cost of its blood thinner Xarelto in TV advertising. That drug is used to treat and prevent blood clots that can cause strokes.

Among drug industry complaints is that the government would be infringing on First Amendment free speech rights by forcing companies to disclose prices. Azar points out that the government has for decades required carmakers to post their sticker prices on vehicles.

“Prices of automobiles are vastly less important to your health and affordability than drugs,” he said.

According to the government, the 10 most commonly advertised drugs have prices ranging from $535 to $11,000 per month or for a usual course of therapy.

The disclosure requirement will not apply to print or radio ads for the foreseeable future.

“Over $4 billion of pharma spend is in TV ads … that is their most impactful form of advertising,” Azar said. “That is where the patient has the most need of being informed.”

The disclosure requirement applies to all brand name drugs covered by Medicare and Medicaid, which is nearly all medications.

The government is hoping that patients armed with price information will start discussing affordability with their doctors, and gradually that will put pressure on drugmakers to keep costs in check.

Most people rely on lower cost generic drugs to manage their health problems, but the advent of revolutionary medications for once-fatal or intractable diseases has put consumers on edge. Genetic and cellular-based treatments can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, which has put a strain on the budgets of insurers and government programs.

A recent poll from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation found that 1 in 3 Americans said they haven’t taken medications as prescribed because of costs. People who take four or more medications, those who spend $100 a month or more on meds, patients in fair to poor health and middle-aged adults are more likely to report affordability problems.

Although most patients do not pay the full list prices that will be included in ads, experts say those prices are still important. They’re the starting point for negotiations between drugmakers and insurers. Also, copays that patients face are often based on list prices. And many people who have high-deductible insurance plans pay list prices for medications because their insurance doesn’t start covering until patients have spent several thousand dollars of their own money.

In other economically advanced countries, governments negotiate drug prices to keep medications more affordable for patients. But except for some government programs like the Veterans Affairs health system, the U.S. has held back from government-set prices.

Democrats argue it’s time to abandon that practice and let Medicare take a direct role in negotiating prices. There’s no support for that route among congressional Republicans, and the Trump administration’s more activist role for government stops short.

Azar, who is leading the effort for Trump, is a former drug company executive. He held senior posts with Indianapolis-based insulin maker Eli Lilly and Co. after an earlier stint in government service during the George W. Bush administration.

The regulations will take effect 60 days after they’re published in the Federal Register.

MILLER, Mo. (AP) — An audit has found that a former southwest Missouri police chief and his brother stole thousands of dollars from taxpayers.

Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway said in a statement Tuesday that Miller’s former police chief, Joshua Bruce, and Randall Bruce, whom was hired as a lieutenant at his brother’s request, deliberately took advantage of the town of about 700 people.

Joshua Bruce faces multiple counts of receiving stolen property while Randall Bruce faces one charge. The brothers were fired from the police department in 2017 for submitting false timesheets.

The brothers’ attorney didn’t immediately return a phone message.