By John Hanna/AP TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge in Kansas has refused to block the nationwide enforcement of a Biden administration rule requiring firearms dealers to do background checks of buyers at gun shows, leaving Texas as the only state so far where a legal challenge has succeeded. U.S. District Judge Toby Crouse’s ruling this week came in a lawsuit brought by Kansas and 19 other states, three individual gun collectors and a Wichita, Kansas-based association for collectors. They sought an order preventing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from enforcing the rule that took effect in…
Author: AP News
Story by John Hanna/AP TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A former reporter for a weekly Kansas newspaper has agreed to accept $235,000 to settle part of her federal lawsuit over a police raid on the paper that made a small community the focus of a national debate over press freedoms. The settlement removed the former police chief in Marion from the lawsuit filed by former Marion County Record reporter Deb Gruver, but it doesn’t apply to two other officials she sued over the raid: the Marion County sheriff and the county’s prosecutor. Gruver’s lawsuit is among five federal lawsuits filed over the raid against the city, the county and…
Story by John Hanna/AP TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ highest court strongly reaffirmed Friday that the state constitution protects abortion access, striking down a ban on a common second-trimester procedure and laws regulating abortion providers more strictly than other health care providers. The pair of 5-1 decisions suggests that other restrictions — even ones decades on the books — might not withstand legal challenges. The court’s dissenting justice, widely seen as its most conservative, warned that Kansas is headed toward “a legal regime of unrestricted access to abortion.” “This is an immense victory for the health, safety, and dignity of…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Enforcement of a federal rule expanding anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students has been blocked in four states and a patchwork of places elsewhere by a federal judge in Kansas. U.S. District Judge John Broomes suggested in his ruling Tuesday that the Biden administration must now consider whether forcing compliance remains “worth the effort.” Broomes’ decision was the third against the rule from a federal judge in less than three weeks but more sweeping than the others. It applies in Alaska, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming, which sued over the new rule. It also applies to a Stillwater, Oklahoma, middle school…
By Annie Ma/Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has allowed the U.S. Education Department to move ahead with a plan to lower monthly payments for millions of student loan borrowers, putting on hold a ruling last week by a lower court. The ruling from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals puts back on track a central part of President Joe Biden’s efforts to address student debt — a rule that lowers from 10% of discretionary income to 5% the amount that some borrowers qualifying for a repayment plan need to pay. The reduced payment threshold was…
HOXIE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the crash of a vintage biplane in northwest Kansas that killed two Colorado residents. The 1934 WACO YKC single-engine biplane crashed into a field around 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Hoxie in Sheridan County around 6:10 p.m. Sunday, the Kansas Highway Patrol said. The Patrol identified the pilot as David Allen, 78, of Elbert, Colorado, and the passenger as Jeanne Allen, 79. They died at the scene. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are in charge of the investigation.
By John Hanna/AP TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Federal judges in Kansas and Missouri on Monday together blocked much of a Biden administration student loan repayment plan that provides a faster path to cancellation and lower monthly payments for millions of borrowers. The judges’ rulings prevent the U.S. Department of Education from helping many of the intended borrowers ease their loan repayment burdens going forward under a rule set to go into effect July 1. The decisions do not cancel assistance already provided to borrowers. In Kansas, U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree ruled in a lawsuit filed by the state’s attorney general, Kris Kobach, on…
By John Hanna/AP TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators have approved major tax cuts and ended a political stalemate with Gov. Laura Kelly. Yet some of them sounded frustrated as they were doing it. The Republican-controlled Legislature approved a bill Tuesday to cut income and property taxes by a total of $1.23 billion over the next three years. The measure contains the exact terms of a compromise reached by the Democratic governor and the GOP leaders of the House and Senate, and Kelly promised to sign it. But many lawmakers, particularly Republicans, said they’d wanted more for taxpayers, and legislators…
By John Hanna/AP TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 170-year-old rivalry is flaring up as Kansas lawmakers try to snatch the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs away from Missouri even though economists long ago concluded subsidizing pro sports isn’t worth the cost. The Kansas Legislature’s top leaders endorsed helping the Chiefs and professional baseball’s Kansas City Royals finance new stadiums in Kansas ahead of a special session set to convene Tuesday. The plan would authorize state bonds for stadium construction and pay them off with revenues from sports betting, the Kansas Lottery and additional tax dollars generated in and around the new venues. The states’…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Republican Kansas lawmaker who already dropped his re-election campaign last month after he was arrested in a traffic stop has now been barred from practicing law for at least a year for mishandling conflicts of interest in a murder case. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that state Rep. Carl Maughan of Colwich violated professional standards while representing 57-year-old Bret Blevins in a 2016 crash that killed two men, according to the Kansas City Star. Maughan did not respond immediately to an email from The Associated Press on Sunday nor did he answer a phone call from…