News Minute: Here is the latest Kansas news from The Associated Press - KHGI-TV/KWNB-TV/KHGI-CD-Grand Island, Kearney, Hastings

News Minute: Here is the latest Kansas news from The Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Negotiators from the House and Senate are moving closer to a deal on canceling all or part of a scheduled drop in the state sales tax. Three negotiators resumed talks yesterday and will continue today. The sales tax is the key issue. It's scheduled by law to decline in July from the current 6.3% to 5.7%.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) - A deputy at a central Kansas jail is accused of having illegal sexual relations with a female inmate and bribing or intimidating two others. Thirty-year-old Jonathan Diaz is charged in Reno County.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A Tennessee pharmacist has admitted distributing a misbranded Chinese-made drug that was given to kidney dialysis patients in Kansas. Fifty-3-year-old Robert Harshbarger Jr., of Kingsport, Tenn., pleaded guilty yesterday in Topeka to one count each of distributing a misbranded drug and health care fraud. Harshbarger admitted that from 2004 to 2009, he substituted a cheaper Chinese import for an iron sucrose drug approved by the FDA.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) - Wireless company Sprint Nextel Corp. says it can now let Dish Network Corp. see its books and talk with Dish to see whether its competing offer to buy Sprint is better than its current deal with Japan's SoftBank. Sprint says SoftBank had waived provisions of its deal with Sprint that will allow Sprint to talk with Dish. SoftBank currently has a $20.1 billion deal with Sprint to buy 70% of the company. Dish last month offered $25.5 billion for the whole company.

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