WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the GOP tax bill (all times local):

1:51 a.m.

The Senate has passed a nearly $1.5 trillion Republican tax bill that’s historic in scope and an urgent political priority for President Donald Trump and the GOP.

The vote was 51-49, largely along party lines. Not a single Democrat voted in favor of the legislation, which was crafted behind closed doors by Senate Republican leaders. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who calls the growing debt a national security threat, joined Democrats in opposing the bill.

The bill lays the bulk of its tax cuts on businesses and higher-earning individuals and gives more modest breaks to others.

It would bring the first major overhaul of the U.S. tax system in three decades. The measure must be reconciled with a version the House passed last month.

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1:35 a.m.

The Senate has voted to eliminate a tax break for a politically-connected conservative college in Michigan.

Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon proposed the amendment to eliminate the tax break for Hillsdale College in southern Michigan. He noted that Hillsdale has connections to powerful Republicans, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Merkley says, “Isn’t that just the type of insider deal for the wealthy and well-connected that we should oppose?”

The Senate Republicans’ sweeping tax package would impose a new tax on investment income earned by some private universities and colleges.

Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania added a provision exempting certain colleges that don’t receive federal funds. Democrats say Hillsdale was the only college that would benefit.

Merkley’s amendment was adopted by a 52-48 vote.

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1:20 a.m.

The Senate has given a green light to opening Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

In a vote early Saturday morning, Republicans rejected an effort led by Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state to block drilling.

The vote was 52-48. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has pushed for oil and gas drilling in the refuge.

Opening the remote refuge to oil and gas drilling is a longtime Republican priority that most Democrats fiercely oppose.

The 19.6-million acre refuge in northeastern Alaska is one of the most pristine areas in the United States and is home to polar bears, caribou, migratory birds and other wildlife.

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12:20 a.m.

The Senate has adopted an amendment that would allow parents to use 529 college funds to pay private school tuition for students in kindergarten through high school.

Parents could also use the tax-exempt funds on home-schooling expenses.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas offered the amendment to Senate Republicans’ sweeping tax package. The vote was a 50-50 tie with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaker.

All Senate Democrats opposed the measure. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the only Republicans who voted against it.

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8:20 p.m.

Democrats have taken to the Senate floor to attack a planned amendment to the tax bill that would give a break to a conservative college in Michigan.

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Patrick Toomey acknowledged he’d sponsored the language and said Hillsdale College would benefit from it.

Toomey defended Hillsdale as “a wonderful institution” and said other schools might qualify for the tax break, too. His provision would shield schools that receive no federal aid from language in the bill that taxes the investment income of some colleges and universities.

Democrats say Toomey’s provision was written in a way that only Hillsdale would qualify for the reduction. They complain that some well-known conservatives have connections to the school, including Trump administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The highest court in Kansas has overturned a man’s 2013 kidnapping conviction in Shawnee County District Court after finding the prosecutor improperly commented about the alleged victim’s credibility to jurors.

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that the prosecutor in the case of Osi Bisa McBride improperly urged the jury to presume the alleged victim was telling the truth, comparing it to the constitutional presumption of innocence given a criminal defendant.

McBride was originally charged with rape, aggravated kidnapping and two counts of criminal sodomy stemming from a 2011 encounter with a woman with whom he had an intermittent romantic relationship.

A jury deadlocked in his first trial. He was convicted on a lesser kidnapping charge in a second trial that also acquitted him of the remaining charges.

OZARK, Mo. (AP) – A circuit clerk’s office in southern Missouri has found that dogs don’t only eat homework, they eat jury questionnaires too.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that the Christian County Circuit Court received a chewed-up jury questionnaire several weeks ago, with a note that read: “Sorry for the damage, the dog thought it was his.”

Deputy Court Clerk Michele Walker decided to send the misbehaved puppy a letter in return. In her letter addressed “Dear Dog,” Walker asked the dog to thank his owners for taping the questionnaire back together. She wrote that the clerk’s office hopes that he didn’t get in trouble and wishes him happy holidays.

Walker says the circuit clerk’s office mails 1,500 to 2,500 jury questionnaires every four months, many of which return defaced. She says she has never come across a dog excuse before, but that it made her day.

JEFFERSON COUNTY — Two people died in an accident just after 7a.m. Friday in Jefferson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2015 Nissan Altima driven by Hannah Rose Stark, 31, Grantville, was northbound on Barton Road.

The driver failed to yield and U.S. 24 and struck an eastbound 1999 Ford Club Wagon that was driven by Gerald A. Baxter, 66, Clay Center on the right side.

The collision caused the driver to lose control and the vehicle rolled several times.

Baxter and a passengers Carla Rene Polson, 65, Blue Rapids, were transported to a  hospital in Topeka where they died.

Three others in the Ford including Ruth M. Baxter, 64; Robert Stewart, 61; Barbara Jean Stewart, 61, all of Clay Center were also transported to the hospital in Topeka.

Stark and two children in the Nissan were not injured.

Polson and Ruth Baxter were not wearing seat belts, according the KHP.

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GRANTVILLE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say two people have been killed after a car clipped a van on a highway northeast of Topeka.

The crash happened Friday morning at an intersection along U.S. 24 near Grantville in southwest Jefferson County.

Lt. Adam Winter, of the Kansas Highway Patrol, says the van overturned, killing the driver and a passenger. Their names, ages and genders weren’t immediately released. Four others in the van were taken to a Topeka hospital, including one person flown there with critical injuries.

Winters says none of the three occupants in the car were seriously injured.

 

WASHINGTON – A former Kansas bank executive was charged in an indictment filed today for his participation in a bank fraud scheme to obtain a $15 million construction loan from 26 Kansas banks based on allegedly false information contained in the loan documents.

Troy A. Gregory, 50, of Lawrence, Kansas, was charged in an indictment filed in the District of Kansas with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, four counts of bank fraud, and two counts of false statements.

According to the indictment, Gregory was a bank executive and loan officer who had made millions of dollars in loans to a group of borrowers who were struggling to make payments on the loans.

The indictment alleges that beginning in approximately late 2007, Gregory began the process of making a $15.2 million construction loan to build an apartment complex to that same group of borrowers.  The indictment further alleges that Gregory’s bank shared this loan with 25 other Kansas banks.

Gregory allegedly made or caused others to make false statements to the banks about the strength of the borrowers, the debt status of the apartment property and the existence of approximately $1.7 million in certificates of deposit for collateral on the loan, all to get the loan approved.

Instead of using the loan funds promised for building the apartments, Gregory allegedly immediately diverted over $1 million of the loan to pay for part of the certificates of deposit pledged as collateral, pay off debt on the apartment property and make payments on unrelated loans.  Other Kansas banks that shared in this loan allegedly would not have participated in the loan without the false representations and promises.

The indictment alleges that the banks ultimately wrote off millions of dollars on the $15.2 million construction loan.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. –  A Missouri man was sentenced in federal court Thursday for producing child pornography, according to Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

James Lyndon McFadin, Jr., 34, of Neosho, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips to 40 years in federal prison without parole. McFadin has been incarcerated in federal custody since his arrest on Dec. 21, 2015.

On July 7, 2017, McFadin pleaded guilty to six counts of enticing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography and one count of receiving and distributing child pornography.

McFadin used six children – four females and two males, who ranged in age from approximately 5 to 16 years old – to produce child pornography between Jan. 1 and Dec. 19, 2015. McFadin video-recorded illicit sexual activity between himself and one of the child victims, identified as “Jane Doe 1” in court documents.  McFadin also had Jane Doe 1 to send him sexually explicit images of herself and the other child victims.

Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at McFadin’s residence and seized a laptop computer, a computer hard drive and a computer tower. Investigators discovered multiple videos and photos of child pornography, including the child victims, on McFadin’s devices and cell phone.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigate

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is reporting that it collected $8.5 million more in taxes than anticipated in November.

It was the sixth consecutive month with higher-than-expected revenues.

The Department of Revenue reported Friday that the state collected $463.5 million in taxes last month. The official projection was $455 million, and the surplus is 1.9 percent.

It was the first monthly report on tax collections since state officials revised revenue projections Nov. 2. The state’s new fiscal forecast is more optimistic than the previous one issued in April.

Since the budget year began in July, the state has collected nearly $2.5 billion in revenues, also $8.5 million more than expected.

Tax collections this year are 11.7 percent ahead of last year’s collections. Lawmakers increased income taxes earlier this year to help balance the budget.