JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Assistance for Missouri’s dairy farmers appears to be one of the first bills the Legislature will send to Gov. Jay Nixon.

The House gave initial approval to the dairy farm bill Wednesday and the Senate is expected to pass its version Thursday.

Supporters say the bill is needed to keep Missouri’s milk providers in business.

The measure provides a subsidy to help dairy farmers pay for insurance, a scholarship for students studying dairy farming and funds for research on the industry.

Opponents say the state government should not interfere with the free market or try to fix an industry regulated at the federal level.

Funds for the program would have to be approved separately and would come from existing sales tax on dairy products.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislative committees are considering measures for eliminating a projected $279 million shortfall in the current state budget.

The House Appropriations and Senate Ways and Means committees planned Thursday to discuss budget-balancing proposals from Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

The governor’s proposals include selective spending cuts and a diversion of funds from highway projects to general government programs.

The state also faces a projected $436 million shortfall for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The shortfalls arose after lawmakers aggressively cut personal income taxes at Brownback’s urging in 2012 and 2013 to stimulate the economy.

A key issue for both committees is whether the state should cover nearly $64 million in unanticipated costs associated with aid to public schools. The governor is proposing the additional money.

SPRINGFIELD – The Springfield police chief says an officer who was shot while on the job earlier this week has “career-ending injuries.”

Chief Paul Williams said in a statement Wednesday that Officer Aaron Pearson’s injuries included ones to his brain that will require long-term rehabilitation and care.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that 32-year-old Joshua Lee Hagood was charged Wednesday with first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer, armed criminal action and unlawful possession of a firearm in connection with the shooting.

He is being held in the Greene County Jail without bond. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had an attorney.

Authorities have said Pearson was shot during an investigation early Monday into suspicious activity behind a closed business.

The newspaper reports Pearson joined the force three years ago and is married with two children.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Penalties for marijuana possession may be softened in Kansas as legislators seek to lower prison populations and reduce costs.

The House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee heard testimony from supporters of a bill on Wednesday that would drop first- and second-time marijuana possession offenses below the felony level. That would make offenders less likely to see prison time, and the Kansas Sentencing Commission’s director said the move would save the state about $800,000 a year.

Republican Rep. Tom Moxley of Council Grove said he supported the move because growing evidence suggests longer prison terms do not rehabilitate nonviolent offenders and only strain state resources.

Kansas’ prison population is growing and is expected to exceed capacity by the end of 2015.

No one spoke against the bill in the hearing.

by ANDY MARSO

Legislators expressed skepticism Tuesday about a bill that would require hospitals to provide discharge instructions to patients’ designated caregivers. Kansas AARP has made House Bill 2058 one of its priorities for the session, running ads for it on public television.

But the group has not come to an agreement with the state hospital association on the bill, and members of the House Children and Seniors Committee questioned whether it’s necessary. Rep. Melissa Rooker, a Republican from Fairway, said hospitals provided sufficient discharge instructions on complicated medical issues when she served as a caregiver for her mother and father. “I’m sympathetic to the need for this, but everything we got was both demonstrated, provided verbally and provided in writing to take home,” Rooker said.

Maren Turner, director of AARP Kansas, said some hospitals already provide the caregiver instructions that the bill requires, so for them it would be no change. But she said some hospitals do not, and her group does not believe it would be overly onerous to require them to do so. “With a law, we can guarantee that there will be more consistency,” Turner said. The bill would help the state’s 600,000 caregivers and possibly save the state money by keeping frail Kansans at home and preventing hospital readmissions, she said.

Rooker said there are other, non-legislative methods for improving discharge procedures. Rep. Erin Davis, a Republican from Olathe, said she was reluctant to put another mandate on Kansas hospitals given all that the federal Affordable Care Act requires them to do. She and Rooker both said current Medicare regulations already require the caregiver instruction AARP hopes to put into state law .

“While there might not be a Kansas statute that necessitates such, all these hospitals that are participating in Medicare are required (to do it),” Davis said. Legislators had other questions about what would be done for patients who had multiple caregivers or no caregivers and how the provisions of the bill would be enforced. Turner said there were no specific penalties for noncompliance in the bill.

Those penalties, and how to enforce them, would have to be decided by state agencies through the rules and regulations process. She said AARP Kansas did not intend to increase liabilities on hospitals and was willing to change the text of the bill to make that more clear.

Tuesday’s hearing was an informational briefing, not a hearing on the bill itself. But AARP brought several retired health care workers who also were caregivers to testify for the measure.

Steve Miller, a doctor who took care of his wife when she had multiple sclerosis, said patients are now sent home “quicker and sicker” than when he started practice. That means their at-home caregivers need to be more involved in the discharge, especially when the patient is going home on narcotic painkillers. “They may be goofy, under the influence, not able to drive a car, not able to understand their discharge instructions,” Miller said.

Judy Davis-Cole, a retired home care nurse who also served as a family caregiver, said that based on the results of an AARP survey of caregivers, well-intentioned hospital workers are failing to give many caregivers the instruction they need to care for their loved ones at home. “

There’s a disconnect between what the hospital officials believe — they honestly believe they are doing this — versus what the caregivers and patients honestly believe,” Davis-Cole said.

Chad Austin, the Kansas Hospital Association’s senior vice president for government relations, said after the hearing that his organization is open to finding common ground on the issue, but it would prefer to do so outside the legislative process. “We’re happy to continue our conversation with representatives from AARP to see how we can better educate our hospitals on the importance of discharge procedures and including individuals providing care,” Austin said.

Andy Marso is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

ST. LOUIS – Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich announced his candidacy for governor in St. Louis on Wednesday.

Schweich says his three primary goals would be: uprooting corruption in state government, promoting economic prosperity, and improving schools.

“As a state, we are facing some very serious challenges. We need stronger leadership and more honest government. We need fairer economic policies, and we need to improve our struggling schools. Twice now you have put your trust in me to lead the state as Missouri’s official taxpayer watchdog. Now I am asking that you stand beside me as we fight to make Missouri government more accountable and transparent by putting a true anti-corruption expert in the governor’s mansion,” Schweich said in his annoucnement speech.

St. Louis was the first stop on Schweich’s multi-stop announcement tour.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers want to bar local governments from regulating the sale of firearms with new fees or taxes.

The Kansas House Federal and State Affairs Committee held a hearing on a bill Wednesday that would ban counties and municipalities from regulating gun sales through zoning or any new fees or taxes. The provision would still allow local governments to levy general sales taxes from gun sales.

State law already bans local governments from regulating firearms in most other ways. Gun lobbyist Patricia Stoneking testified that the bill would protect licensed firearm dealers from excessive regulation.

A second firearm bill heard by the committee Wednesday would prevent criminal penalties for licensed gun owners who accidentally bring guns into buildings where they are forbidden.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Two groups are sponsoring workshops in Lawrence designed to teach rural landowners how to restore native prairie habitats.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the workshops are Feb. 26, March 12 and April 9 at the Lawrence Public Library.

They’re sponsored by the Douglas County Conservation District and the Grassland Heritage Foundation.

The workshops are designed to help landowners identify what plants already are growing on their property, show them how to do a restoration and teach them to manage their newly restored prairie.

The series also will feature information about restoration resources and tools available from area agencies.

Speakers include private consultants and representatives from the Kansas Biological Survey, the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.