TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) House members have approved a bill that aims to put certain guarantees of religious freedoms in Kansas law, codifying current legal precedents. The 91-33 vote Thursday sends the bill to the Senate. Conservative Republicans drafted the bill to protect Kansas residents from laws that they say infringe upon their rights to religious freedom. The bill declares that state and local government policies shall not “substantially burden” people’s right to exercise their religious beliefs without showing a compelling interest and imposing the burden in the least restrictive way possible. It also declares that people have the right to…
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Gov. Sam Brownback has signed his first batch of bills that repeals a number of Kansas laws identified by his administration as outdated. The four bills signed Thursday were the first group to make it to the Republican governor’s desk out of 51 individual statutes recommended for removal. He was joined by Secretary of Administration Dennis Taylor, who has been assigned to identify specific items for repeal. Brownback created the repeal office within Taylor’s agency in 2011, saying there was a need for the state to identify and remove statutes and regulation that were unnecessary and viewed…
HOLCOMB, Kan. (AP) About 220 western Kansas students have parents who work at a closed processing plant that produces a beef product known by its critics as “pink slime.” The Garden City Telegram reported that the number of affected students comes from administrators in the Garden City and Holcomb districts. Officials at Beef Products Inc. announced Monday that production had stopped at its Holcomb; Amarillo, Texas; and Waterloo, Iowa, plants. The plants produce what’s known in the industry as “lean, finely textured beef,” but is referred to as “pink slime” by those seeking to have it banned. The suspension of…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback says the controversy over what the beef industry calls finely textured lean beef “is unmerited and unwarranted.” Speaking to reporters Thursday in Topeka, the Republican governor and former Kansas agriculture secretary said the “pink slime” used in beef products is safe and has been used by the meat industry for decades. Beef Products is the main producer of the cheap lean beef made from fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts. It has drawn extra scrutiny because of concerns about the ammonium hydroxide it treats meat with to slightly change the…
GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) A jury has been seated in the trial of a Kansas man accused of killing a 14-year-old cheerleader and burning her body at an asphalt plant following. Opening statements are planned for Thursday afternoon in the trial of Adam Longoria, 38. The Great Bend man faces life in prison without parole if convicted of capital murder in the August 2010 death of Alicia DeBolt. He also is charged with vehicle burglary and theft. To convict him of capital murder, prosecutors must also prove aggravating circumstances such as sodomy or attempted rape when Alicia was killed. The…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) The lack of rainfall in Kansas in 2011 led to intense declines in groundwater levels around the state. The Hutchinson News reports that the Ogallala Aquifer in southwest Kansas usually sees annual declines, but its decline in 2011 was one of the worst in decades. Officials with the Kansas Geological Survey said the aquifer there dropped an average 3.78 feet in 2011. That’s compared to a drop of about 3 feet in 2010 and 1.39 feet in 2009. Much of Kansas received 25 to 50 percent of normal precipitation last year. In central and south-central Kansas where…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A Wichita man has been sentenced to more than six years in federal prison for possessing child pornography. U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said Wednesday that Kenneth Cheatum was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison after pleading guilty earlier to one count of possession of child pornography. The Wichita Eagle reports that Cheatum admitted accessing a website to download child pornography, most recently in March 2010.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas House has given first-round approval to a bill creating a prayer room at the Statehouse. The House planned to take final action on it Thursday. Approval would send it to the Senate. During a debate Wednesday, supporters said other states, including Florida and Arizona, and Congress have set aside capitol space for prayer. The bill does not list a location within the Statehouse for the prayer room. House Majority Leader Rep. Arlen Siegfreid, an Olathe Republican, originally sought to create an all-faiths Chapel. But he and other supporters said the Prayer and Meditation Room would…
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) Ten Kansas communities have been selected to be champions for workplace wellness. The Lawrence Journal-World reports the participating communities are Lawrence, Beloit, Clifton, Coffeyville, Great Bend, Independence, McPherson, Clearwater, Newton and Wellington. They are benefiting from a new three-year state initiative called WorkWell KS. The effort is funded with a $700,000 grant from the Kansas Health Foundation and administered by the Wichita Business Coalition on Health Care. In each community, at least seven businesses will complete an in-depth assessment of their wellness efforts. Then, leaders will be sent to training sessions on how to develop or strengthen…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas House has passed a redistricting bill splitting Topeka between two congressional districts. But key senators said even before Thursday’s vote 81-43 vote in the House that they oppose the measure. The Senate approved its own plan last month, and negotiators for the two chambers must compromise. Topeka currently is in the 2nd District of eastern Kansas, and the House’s plan would move part of it into the 1st District of western and central Kansas. House Speaker Mike O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, noted that his chamber rejected other plans that kept Topeka in a single district.…