JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas collected $22 million more in taxes than expected this month.

The Department of Revenue reported Friday that the state collected almost $310 million in taxes in February, when it anticipated taking in $287 million. The surplus is 7.7 percent.

The numbers are good news for Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and legislators, but they don’t solve the state’s budget problems.

Officials must close a budget shortfall that had been projected at nearly $600 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Tax collections for the current fiscal year, starting in July 2014, still remain behind expectations, after falling short in December and January.

During those eight months, the state collected $3.55 billion in taxes, when it expected $3.6 billion. The difference is $37 million, about 1 percent.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Leonard Nimoy, world famous to “Star Trek” fans through a beloved cult TV series and a half-dozen films as the pointy-eared, purely logical science officer Mr. Spock, has died.

Nimoy’s son, Adam, says the actor died Friday morning in Los Angeles of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 83.

Although Nimoy followed his 1966-69 “Star Trek” run with a notable career as both an actor and director, in the public’s mind he would always be Spock.

His half-human, half-Vulcan character was the calm counterpoint to William Shatner’s often-emotional Captain Kirk on one of television and film’s most revered cult series.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has ordered a 90-day, unpaid suspension for Sedgwick County District Judge Timothy H. Henderson for violating the code of judicial conduct.

The ruling handed down Friday comes after a finding by the Judicial Qualifications Commission that Henderson had sexually harassed female attorneys and staff. The panel had also found that he tried to prejudice an attorney because of the judge’s personal views and had tried to use his office to get his wife a job.

The court also ordered Henderson to complete within a year a course in sexual harassment, and file a report with the court detailing his training.

It further prohibited him from supervising any judicial branch employee other than his chambers staff for two years after that training.

By Austin Fisher
KU Statehouse Wire Service

TOPEKA — House lawmakers agreed unanimously Thursday on a bill to crack down on newly emerging strains of synthetic marijuana and other psychedelic drugs.

House Bill 2275 adds three recently-created classes of “designer drugs” to the list of Schedule I controlled substances. Designer drugs are synthetic drugs that are chemically modified to achieve the same psychoactive or stimulant effects of controlled substances but avoid the attention of drug law enforcement.

Drugs listed as Schedule I are considered to have a high potential for abuse, no medical use, and no safe use even under medical supervision. Some designer drugs already on the Schedule I list include variants of peyote, ecstasy, and bath salts.

The bill targets certain hallucinogenic methanones that mimic tetrahydrocannabinol, a cannabinoid commonly known as THC, the psychoactive substance found in marijuana.

It also expands an already-controlled class of other synthetic cannabinoids called tetramethylcyclopropanoylindoles to include a version called “FUB-144.”

It also clamps down on a new variant of the 2C class of psychedelic phenethylamines that can be consumed in the form of a pill.

Rep. Ramon Gonzalez (R-Perry) said there is an ongoing battle between drug law enforcement and chemists who are constantly creating new substances that end up on the streets.

“We’ll pass a law every year outlawing these drugs, and the chemists will say, ‘What can we do to change this?’” Gonzalez said. “They figure out what the current illegal drug is, and they’ll move one of the molecules over. Sometimes the new drug is better, sometimes it’s worse. We usually don’t know about the new drugs out there that are causing injuries or deaths until people start showing up at hospitals.”

The Kansas Sentencing Commission said the bill could affect prison admissions but couldn’t provide precise numbers.

Should the bill become law, it will take effect when it appears in the Kansas Register before going into the statute book.

Austin Fisher is a University of Kansas senior from Lawrence majoring in journalism.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A 22-year-old man is charged in a shooting near the University of Kansas campus that injured three people.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports court records show Caleb Chrisman of Grain Valley, Missouri was charged Wednesday with aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and three counts of aggravated kidnapping.

The three men injured in the Feb. 8 shooting have all been released from the hospital.

Investigators have said at least two people fled from the scene after the shooting. Lawrence police spokesman Sgt. Trent McKinley says the investigation into other possible suspects is continuing.

Chrisman is being held in the Douglas County Jail on a $500,000 bond. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney to discuss the charges.

By JIM MCLEAN
The odds that the Kansas Legislature will pass a Medicaid expansion bill this session remain long.

But they improved Thursday, however slightly, when conservative Republican leaders agreed to allow a hearing on expansion to avoid an immediate vote on the House floor.

Rep. Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat, was attempting to amend his Medicaid expansion proposal into an unrelated bill. Uncertain how a vote might turn out, House leaders dropped their opposition to a hearing in exchange for Ward withdrawing his amendment.

Rep. John Wilson, a Lawrence Democrat, said the tactical maneuver “disrupted the plan” that GOP leaders had to block any consideration of Medicaid expansion.

“We now have a new opportunity in front of us to talk about expansion and to talk about the Kansas Hospital Association’s plan,” Wilson said.

The hospital association has been working behind the scenes with Gov. Sam Brownback and legislators to craft an expansion plan similar to those being proposed by other Republican governors. These so-called red state expansion plans use federal Medicaid funds to help low-income adults purchase private coverage. They also require recipients to share in their health care costs in ways that traditional Medicaid doesn’t.

A bill drafted by the House Vision 2020 Committee contains elements of a possible Kansas plan. It includes a mechanism for covering the state’s share of expansion costs, something that may prove essential given the state’s budget problems.

Just last week, Rep. Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican and chairman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, said he had no plans to schedule hearings on expansion.

Ward’s agreement with GOP leaders changes that. At some point during the second half of the session the House will have a hearing on the expansion bill introduced at the request of the hospital association, which seeks to repeal a 2013 proviso that prohibits Gov. Sam Brownback from crafting an expansion plan and negotiating its approval with federal officials.

Kansas’ privatized Medicaid program, KanCare, covers about 425,000 children and low-income, disabled and elderly adults. But that number includes relatively few non-disabled adults.

Adults with dependent children can participate in KanCare, but only if they have incomes below 33 percent of the federal poverty level, $7,770 annually for a family of four. Adults without children aren’t eligible for coverage no matter how poor they are.

Expansion would make all Kansans with incomes up to 138 percent of poverty eligible for KanCare. The eligibility cap would be set at an annual income of $16,105 for an individual and $32,913 for a family of four.

Rep. Don Hill, an Emporia Republican who has been working with the hospital association, said if a Medicaid expansion bill reaches the House floor, it might pass.

“It very well might be a close vote,” Hill said. “But I think there is a lot of bipartisan support for Medicaid expansion in the Legislature and in the House in particular.”

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators hope the state is collecting as much in taxes this month as expected or even a little more. But they acknowledge a month of stable revenues won’t make closing a projected budget shortfall much easier.

The state Department of Revenue planned to release its monthly report on tax collections Friday.

From the start of the current fiscal year in July 2014 through January, the $3.3 billion in tax collections were $66 million short of expectations, or about 1.5 percent.

Department spokeswoman Jeannine Koranda said Thursday it was still too early to tell whether revenues would meet expectations.

The lower-than-anticipated revenues are a factor in the projected deficit of nearly $600 million in the state budget for the next fiscal year beginning July 1.