By KHI NEWS SERVICE

TOPEKA — Kansas health officials on Tuesday urged flu vaccinations for all residents over 6 months of age, as surveillance programs showed influenza spreading throughout the state.

Kansas clinics in the surveillance program reported that more than 10 percent of their patients last week were being seen for flu-like symptoms. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said there is “widespread” influenza activity throughout the state and reported that 333 Kansans died of flu or pneumonia between Sept. 1 and Dec. 20.

People at high risk of dying from the flu include those over 65, those who are immune-compromised and those who have underlying health conditions.

Most cases of this year’s flu have been caused by a strain that the vaccine does not protect against as well as others. But vaccination still can prevent flu or lessen its severity, so state and federal officials have continued promoting the flu shot and nasal mist, while also urging health care providers to dole out flu treatment drugs like Tamiflu and Relenza to high-risk patients as soon as they display symptoms rather than waiting for laboratory confirmation.

“Even though some circulating viruses may differ from the vaccine strain during the current season, influenza vaccination is still an important way to reduce the risk of serious complications and death,” said Charlie Hunt, the state epidemiologist. “If you have not had your flu vaccination for this season, I encourage you to get one now.”

According to KDHE, the influenza vaccination coverage rate was approximately 47 percent in Kansas last flu season, leaving more than half the population unprotected.

In addition to getting vaccinated, KDHE said Kansans can help prevent spread of the flu by covering coughs and sneezes, washing hands and staying home when sick.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has released $4.6 million to give state employees a 1 percent raise.

Nixon on Wednesday announced the raises will kick in Jan. 1, and that he’s also freeing $2 million to boost the state’s tourism efforts.

The governor is using some of the money set aside for Capitol repairs to pay for the moves. He’s restricting $1.8 million of the $4.2 million set aside to spruce up the building and $4 million from a facilities maintenance fund.

Nixon cited concerns about declining revenues when he first froze the money for tourism and pay increases.

He and lawmakers recently scaled back predictions of how much money the state will make by the end of the fiscal year.

The governor hasn’t released about $700 million in restricted funds.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill and Bill Nelson have sent letters to the CEOs of ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft, raising concerns about the companies’ privacy policies and demanding answers on current privacy and data security practices.

“Some media reports have suggested that Uber lacks responsible data-security practices and potentially disregards the protections articulated in its privacy policy,” the Senators, both senior members of the Commerce Committee, wrote in their letter to Uber. “For example, the press has reported that the general manager of Uber’s New York operations tracked and accessed a reporter’s travel logs on multiple occasions, though the reporter never consented to being tracked or having her data accessed. According to another press report, an individual interviewing for a job at Uber reportedly had access to the company’s database of customer records, including actual travel records of Uber riders. Such allegations, if true, appear contrary to Uber’s claim that it has a ‘strict policy prohibiting all employees at every level from accessing a rider of driver’s data’ with exceptions for a ‘limited set of legitimate business purposes,’ and the allegations raise questions about Uber’s enforcement of its own policies.”

The Senators also expressed concern with media reports that Uber’s “God View” of customer’s geolocation and other data is easily accessible to staff across the company, as well as media reports that a Lyft spokeswoman had access to customers’ travel logs.

McCaskill, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, and Nelson, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Science and Space, requested Uber and Lyft provide companies of all public and internal polices pertaining to their practices on privacy policies, third party data sharing, consumer data retention and notification, data breach protections, and other policies.

The Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over the Federal Trade Commission, which since 2002 has brought more than 50 enforcement actions against companies that have put consumers’ data at risk or failed to honor the terms of their privacy policies.

The Senators’ letters to Uber and Lyft can be found HERE and HERE.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The cost of security for protests in Ferguson and the St. Louis area following the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old by a white police officer is estimated to be more than $12.5 million.

State budget director Linda Luebbering on Wednesday released updated cost estimates for the Missouri National Guard and State Highway Patrol’s work.

Nixon activated the guard and increased the highway patrol’s presence in the St. Louis area ahead of a grand jury’s Nov. 24 decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson for the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.

State figures show the guard had $7.1 million in costs, including for salaries, meals, fuel and supplies as of Wednesday.

The patrol had more than $5.3 million in expenses.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators in Kansas are tossing around plenty of proposals for raising new revenues to help close the state’s budget shortfalls.

They’re not confining themselves to rethinking personal income tax cuts that represent GOP Gov. Sam Brownback’s legacy.

But many lawmakers floating the ideas also aren’t expressing much enthusiasm for them.

Several Republican leaders said the GOP-dominated Legislature also must make significant spending cuts in addressing shortfalls totaling more than $710 million in the current and next budgets.

The tax proposals from senators include delaying future promised cuts in personal income tax rates and accelerating the elimination of income tax deductions already being phased out as rates drop.

Legislators also have mentioned eliminating exemptions to the state sales tax and increasing gasoline, liquor and tobacco taxes.

BERKELEY, Mo. (AP) — The mayor of Berkeley, Missouri, says the city will thoroughly investigate the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old by a white police officer. But Mayor Theodore Hoskins says comparisons to the Michael Brown case in Ferguson are unfair.

Hoskins spoke at a news conference Wednesday, hours after the shooting Tuesday night at a convenience store in Berkeley.

Berkeley, which is 82 percent black, is in north St. Louis County, next to Ferguson, where a white police officer killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, in August.

Hoskins says the situations are different. He noted that surveillance footage shows the Berkeley 18-year-old pointed a gun at the officer who shot him. Also, Ferguson has a largely white police force, but the majority of police officers in Berkeley are black.

BERKELEY (AP) – Several police cars and a business are damaged after another fatal police shooting spurred new protests in suburban St. Louis.

Police killed a man late Tuesday at a Mobil station in Berkeley, Missouri, and almost immediately a large crowd gathered to protest. Some of the demonstrators became violent. Squad cars were damaged and a man set fire inside a nearby QuikTrip store. The front windows of the QuikTrip were shattered.

Some protesters shouted expletives at police. Others took police tape and wore it over their shoulders or as headbands.

As many as 100 protesters were there at the peak, but before dawn the number dwindled to less than a dozen.

Berkeley is near Ferguson, where a white police officer fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was black, in August.

JOPLIN (AP) – A southwest Missouri woman has pleaded guilty to abandoning a corpse after she and a man posed for photos with the body and posted them on Facebook.

The Joplin Globe reports 24-year-old Chelsie Berry of Carl Junction entered her plea Monday in Newton County Circuit Court.

She and 28-year-old Jared Prier were charged in August with disposing of the body of 30-year-old Dennis Meyer in the driveway of a rural Newton County home after Meyer died of a drug overdose.

Berry told investigators she and Prier were reluctant to call for an ambulance or take Meyer to a hospital because they were high on methamphetamine and Xanax and were afraid of getting into trouble.

Prosecutors later dropped the charge of abandonment of a corpse against Prier.

BERKELEY (AP) – St. Louis County police say a man who pulled a gun and pointed it at an officer has been killed in Berkeley, Missouri.

County police spokesman Sgt. Brian Schellman says a Berkeley police officer was conducting a routine business check at a gas station around 11:15 p.m. Tuesday when he saw two men and approached them.

Schellman says one of the men pulled a handgun and pointed it at the officer. The officer fired several shots, striking and fatally wounding the man. Schellman says that the second person fled and that the deceased man’s handgun has been recovered.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch reports a group of about 60 people have gathered at the scene.

Berkeley is about two miles from Ferguson, where a police officer fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown in August.