Wire
Justice sends message to legislators
TOPEKA (AP) — The chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court is asking legislators to spend more money to improve the operations of the court system and allow more flexibility in assigning district judges. Chief Justice Lawton Nuss submitted his annual State of the Judiciary message Thursday in writing. The chief justice has traditionally delivered the address in a speech to the Legislature. But House Speaker Ray Merrick blocked the speech this...
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KU study shows yoga may help heart
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The same kind of exercise that can bring peace to your mind may bring peace to your heart as well. Research at the University of Kansas Hospital is finding that regular time spent doing yoga breathing and stretching exercises may help keep potentially dangerous heart rhythm disorders in check. A KU Hospital study published this week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology finds that as little as two one-ho...
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Report shows tax cut plan would cause 2018 shortfall
TOPEKA (AP) — Kansas would face a $782 million budget shortfall in 2018 under Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax plan, according to a government report released Thursday that was immediately questioned by conservative Republicans who support the governor’s push for additional income tax cuts. The report from the nonpartisan Legislative Research Department undercuts Brownback’s argument that his proposals would stabilize the budget and build healthy cash...
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Union fundraising bill wins approval
TOPEKA (AP) — A plan to restrict political fundraising by public unions advanced Wednesday in the Kansas Legislature after a contentious debate between supporters who say it would protect a “silent majority” of workers and opponents who call it a veiled effort to further erode labor’s clout in the deeply conservative state. The measure, which won first-round approval in the House by a 66-54 unrecorded vote, would prohibit groups that represent...
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Court hears case over gun liability
TOPEKA (AP) — The state Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on the fate of a lawsuit seeking to hold a southeast Kansas gun shop liable for selling a firearm later used by a convicted felon to kill his son. The question before the justices was whether to reinstate a negligence case filed against Baxter Springs Gun and Pawn Shop. The case involves the 2003 murder-suicide of Russell Graham of Baxter Springs, who used a shotgun bought by his ...
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Kansas strip club bill resurfaces
TOPEKA (AP) — Kansas lawmakers are again being asked to consider legislation that would restrict where strip clubs can operate and what goes on inside, two years after the most recent bid to further regulate the clubs died in the state Senate. The revived measure would regulate where adult businesses can be located and ban lap dances and dancing onstage in various levels of undress, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported Tuesday. Rep. Arlen Siegf...
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Panel reviews Brownback’s tax plan
TOPEKA (AP) — Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan told legislators Tuesday that Kansas must further reduce individual income tax rates to remain economically competitive, but he faced questions about whether it’s fair to the poor to offset those cuts by scrapping deductions for homeowners and raising additional sales tax revenues. The Republican-dominated Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee opened hearings on tax proposals from conservative GOP...
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Kansas officials struggle with corporate income tax
TOPEKA (AP) — Republican officials in Kansas are interested in lowering corporate income taxes but acknowledged Friday that they’re struggling to figure out how they’d mesh such reductions with GOP Gov. Sam Brownback’s plans for more cuts in individual income tax rates. Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan told reporters during a briefing on tax issues that reducing corporate income tax rates would boost the state’s economy, but he described the issu...
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Missouri tax cut debate focuses on Kansas
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Envious of big tax cuts in neighboring Kansas, Missouri Republicans outlined ambitious plans Thursday to cut state income taxes in hopes of deterring businesses and residents in western Missouri from moving across the state line. While business lobbyists praised the proposals, Democrats, budget analysts and a teachers’ union representative all warned that Missouri may not want to be too much like Kansas, which now is...
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Concealed-carry applications hit 3,000 for January
TOPEKA (AP) — The Kansas Attorney General’s office has seen an unusual number of applications for licenses to carry concealed handguns during the first three weeks of the year, an assistant attorney general told lawmakers. Assistant attorney general C.W. Klebe told House and Senate committees on Wednesday that the office expects to process 3,000 concealed-carry permits by the end of January and is bringing in extra help to meet a 90-day deadli...
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Can smart machines do your job?
By BERNARD CONDON,
JONATHAN FAHEY,
PAUL WISEMAN AP Business Writers EDITOR'S NOTE: Second in a three-part series on the loss of middle-class jobs in the wake of the Great Recession, and the role of technology. WASHINGTON — Art Liscano knows he's an endangered species in the job market: He's a meter reader in Fresno, Calif. For 26 years, he's driven from house to house, checking how much electricity Pacific Gas & Electric customers have used....
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Nebraska governor OKs pipeline route
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman approved a new route for the Keystone XL oil pipeline on Tuesday that avoids the state’s environmentally sensitive Sandhills region. The Republican governor sent a letter to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying he would allow the pipeline to proceed through his state. His announcement came one day after Obama promised in his inauguration speech to tackle climate c...
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Abortion foes mark anniversary
TOPEKA (AP) — Abortion opponents marked the 40th anniversary of the Roe  v. Wade decision Tuesday with workshops, prayers and calls for more limits on the rights established by the Supreme Court in the landmark ruling that still defines one of the nation’s most intractable debates. Many in the anti-abortion movement looked to Kansas, where Republican Gov. Sam Brownback signed a series of tough anti-abortion measures during his first two years ...
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Officials seek change in sex trafficking laws
TOPEKA (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and Attorney General Derek Schmidt said Friday that they want to crack down on sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation in the state with increased fines and penalties for those crimes. The proposal would increase the fines for those who purchase sexual services in Kansas, raising the penalties to felonies, Schmidt said. The changes are designed to put a spotlight on the issue and curb demand for i...
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Company presses Hendrix vinyl
SALINA (AP) — A Salina company is busy pressing 30,000 vinyl records for a new double album of unreleased performances by famed guitarist Jimi Hendrix. The new album of 12 previously unreleased studio performances is scheduled for release March 5 as a CD and two-record set, called “People, Hell and Angels.” Hendrix died of an overdose in 1970 at age 27. Plating technicians at Quality Record Pressings in Salina are pressing the albums, with eac...
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Legislators hear more about judicial selection
TOPEKA (AP) — Supporters of Kansas’ judicial selection method for its highest courts told legislators Thursday that there is no need to change the process and put politics back into the way the state picks the judges. Lawyers, businessmen, the Kansas Bar Association and the chief judge of the Kansas Court of Appeals testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, completing the second of two days of hearings. They argued against changing the ...
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Legislators open hearing on judicial changes
TOPEKA (AP) — Several law professors said Wednesday they would favor a different system for appointing judges to the Kansas Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court. The Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony on a proposed change in the Kansas Constitution that would allow the governor to appoint appellate judges, with confirmation by the Senate. Voters would have to approve the constitutional change. Under the current system, the gove...
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State budget plans include surprise
TOPEKA (AP) — Republican Gov. Sam Brownback surprised some fellow conservatives Wednesday by reviving a failed proposal to eliminate Kansas’ popular deduction for interest paid on home mortgages to help close a budget shortfall while further reducing state income tax rates. The governor had promised legislators that the state could keep moving toward eliminating income taxes while preserving aid to public schools and spending on core governmen...
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Brownback’s plans defy court’s ruling on schools
TOPEKA (AP) — Republican Gov. Sam Brownback on Tuesday called for a fresh round of aggressive cuts in Kansas’ income taxes and changes in the state constitution to rein in the judiciary, outlining proposals for a GOP-dominated Legislature in defiance of both a budget shortfall and a court order on education funding. Brownback also used his State of the State address to defend massive income tax reductions enacted last year and reaffirm that hi...
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County reaches casino settlement
COLUMBUS (AP) — Cherokee County officials are considering a $7.25 million tentative settlement offer to end a dispute over a planned state-owned casino that was never built in the county. Penn National Gaming made the offer to settle a $53 million breach-of-contract lawsuit filed by Cherokee County in 2008 after the company pulled out of plans to build a casino in Southeast Kansas. The settlement, which must still be formally approved by the c...
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