JULIE CARR SMYTH, Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The three main credit reporting agencies in the U.S. have struck a multistate settlement agreement that requires them to move more quickly to fix disputed information on credit reports, wait longer before adding items and more carefully scrutinize certain data they’re furnished by collection agencies and others.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced the pact among Equifax, Experian, TransUnion and attorneys general in 31 states Wednesday. It requires the agencies to pay $6 million and change certain business practices over the next three years.

DeWine says he initiated an investigation after a 2012 investigation by The (Columbus) Dispatch uncovered that consumers had been denied car loans, house loans and even jobs because of mistakes on their credit reports.

He called the reporting system fundamentally flawed.

Besides Ohio, states in the settlement were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Wisconsin.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas prison officials have not said how a 28-year-old woman died at a Topeka prison two months ago.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Michele Lee Suppes died March 22 when she was an inmate at Topeka Correctional Facility.

She had been at the prison since October 2014 after she was convicted of involuntary reckless manslaughter in the death of her 18-month-old daughter in Ellsworth in 2010. Suppes was sentenced to 32 months in prison after the child ingested morphine.

Officials at the Topeka facility directed questions about Suppes to the state. But officials from the Kansas Department of Corrections won’t comment on Suppes’ death or say how she died. Viola Riggin, corrections department director of health care services, said she couldn’t comment on Suppes’ case because of privacy laws.

TED BRIDIS, Associated Press
JACK GILLUM, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — An analysis by The Associated Press of surveillance video just before the deadly crash of an Amtrak train indicates it was traveling about 107 miles per hour as it approached a curve where the speed limit was only 50 miles per hour.

The video shows the train — which was roughly 662 feet long — passes the camera in just over five seconds.

But AP found that the surveillance video inexplicably plays back slightly slower than in real time.

So, adjusting for the slower playback puts the train’s estimated speed at 107 miles per hour. The surveillance camera was located at a site just before the bend in the tracks.

Light from an apparent explosion is visible in the video just over three seconds after the train passes.

Another body was pulled from the wreckage of the train derailment in Philadelphia, increasing the death toll to seven. A Philadelphia fire official says the body was found as crews combed through the mangled train. Authorities previously confirmed the deaths of six people. They include an Associated Press employee and a U.S. Naval Academy midshipman.

TOPEKA – The U.S. Supreme Court today sided with Kansas and decided states may continue to enforce antitrust laws to protect consumers from retail price fixing in the natural gas market according to Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

In doing so, the court, in a 7-2 decision, rejected the federal government’s assertion that federal law preempts state enforcement.

“This is a major victory for Kansas consumers and all purchasers of natural gas,” Schmidt said. “The Supreme Court has sided with our view that those who illegally fix the price of natural gas cannot hide behind federal law to avoid state liability.”

The underlying lawsuit involved accusations by the plaintiffs, which included both Kansas-based Learjet, Inc., and Topeka Unified School District No. 501, that the defendants illegally drove up the retail price of natural gas, costing gas purchasers millions of dollars. Similar cases from around the country were consolidated into multi-district litigation in Nevada, and the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals eventually allowed the plaintiffs to proceed with their state-law claims. The defendants, backed by the federal government, asked the Supreme Court to reject the lawsuit by concluding that federal law preempts state laws that combat price-fixing in the natural gas retail market when the challenged industry practices also affect the wholesale gas market.

In November 2014, Schmidt led a bipartisan group of 21 state attorneys general in filing an amicus curiae brief asking the Supreme Court to allow continued enforcement of state anti-price fixing laws against retail sellers of natural gas who illegally rig prices. The federal government, which was opposite Kansas in this lawsuit, argued that state antitrust laws are preempted by the federal Natural Gas Act. The defendants and the Obama Administration argued the preemption extends to the retail market when the challenged practice is engaged in by a federally regulated seller and affects a federally regulated wholesale rate.

Oral arguments in the case, ONEOK, Inc. v. Learjet, Inc., were heard in January. Kansas Solicitor General Stephen McAllister argued on behalf of Kansas and the amici states when the case was heard in January at the Court.

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, today held a hearing on opportunities and challenges for agriculture trade with Cuba.

The hearing, titled “Opportunities and Challenges for Agriculture Trade with Cuba,” had two panels.

“At the beginning of this Congress, I was hopeful that trade would be one area where we could work across the aisle to find agreement. I am still hopeful that is the case,” Chairman Roberts said.

“The United States and Cuba have a long history full of contention and instability. There is no shortage of opinion from members of Congress about the relationship between our two countries, both present and future.

“This is not an issue that we are going to be able to fix overnight. It will take efforts in addition to bills in Congress, to truly normalize trade with Cuba… Foreign policy does not happen in a vacuum. We have to take a realistic approach and work out a step by step plan towards lifting the embargo. This is a goal that should include Congress.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have linked a swarm of small earthquakes west of Fort Worth to nearby natural gas wells and wastewater injection.

A study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications says researchers from Southern Methodist University and the U.S. Geological Survey monitored the shaking from nearly 30 small quakes around Azle from November 2013 to January 2014. The area hadn’t had any recorded quakes in 150 years.

The scientists say the shaking decreased when the volume of injections did. They have concluded that removing saltwater from the wells and injecting that wastewater back underground is “the most likely cause” for the swarm of quakes.

Other studies have made a connection between wastewater injections and a spike in earthquakes in Oklahoma and southern Kansas.

WASHINGTON – Congressman Tim Huelskamp (KS-01) spoke out on the House floor to draw attention to political targeting by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), an agency that is supposed to be non-political. During the 2010 campaign season, IRS agents gave extra scrutiny to 298 conservative groups based on their political persuasions, subverting these Americans’ First Amendment rights.

Congressman Huelskamp’s speech can be viewed here.

Huelskamp has taken legislative action fight the kind of political targeting Lois Lerner and her assistants conducted, cosponsoring H.R. 709, the Prevent Targeting at the IRS Act, which would rein in Internal Revenue Service abuses.

Huelskamp: “[…] A government of the people cannot always be trusted to do right by the people, and thus must hold itself in check for the sake of the people. The targeted discrimination and unfair treatment of conservative organizations with the words “Tea Party” in their names that took place at the Internal Revenue Service under the direction of Lois Learner shows what happens when government no longer feels accountable to the people and when the Constitution becomes a list of suggestions. Agencies can then become a political weapon for one party to use against the other. This bill will add targeting taxpayers for political purposes to the list of ten things that can get you fired as an employee of the IRS.”

WAMEGO, Kan. (AP) — After attracting a record crowd last year, the Kansas Sampler Festival will return to Wamego this year.

The festival, which highlights products, traditions and the history of Kansas, will be May 2-3 in the Pottawatomie County town. About 12,000 people attended the festival last year, compared with 3,500 in 2013 and 5,500 in 2012 in Liberal. Festival attendance varied from 6,000 to 8,000 in previous years.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports 153 Kansas communities and 60 Kansas products will be represented at the Wamego festival. Some new exhibits this year include blacksmiths, spinning and pottery throwing demonstrations and performances by American Indian musician Dennis Rogers.

The Kansas Sampler Festival is a project of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, an Inman nonprofit organization that works to preserve and sustain rural culture.

SOLOMON- An employee of Solomon Corp. suffered a hand injury after an industrial accident just after 12-noon on Friday.

Mike Dahl, corporate environmental and safety manager for the oilfield services business, said the employee was working on a transformer at the time of the accident.

“The lid came off the transformer and caused a minor injury to the employee’s hand,” said Dahl. The employee was transported to Salina Regional Medical Center and had the hand stitched up.

“We were lucky,” said Dahl.

The hospital released the injured employee on Friday afternoon.