Kan. House speaker's move on pay questioned

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Top Democrats criticized an unsuccessful push by Kansas' Republican House speaker to delay pay cuts for legislative leaders' staff -- including the speaker's wife -- because the state law imposing them took effect Thursday.

The law imposes a 5 percent cut in pay through June 30 for legislators, other elected state officials, judges and about 100 top administrators in the executive branch. It also applies to all staff in legislative leaders' offices, including their secretaries.

Speaker Mike O'Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, sent a letter Wednesday to Jeff Russell, the Legislature's administrative services, asking him not to reduce the pay for legislative leaders' staff.

Russell replied in writing Thursday that he didn't see any flexibility in the law. "Therefore, I do not believe I can comply with your request," he wrote.

The legislative staffers facing cuts include O'Neal's wife, Cindy, who has been a liaison for the House GOP caucus since January 2009.

"Don't let it be lost on you that we're talking about his own wife's pay," said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat. "It applies to his wife."

------ KDOT outlines study on expanding rail service

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas is a step closer to expanding passenger rail service in the state, but trains won't start rolling for several years.

The state Department of Transportation released a study Thursday outlining four possible routes from Kansas City to Fort Worth, Texas, that also included cost and riderships estimates. State officials ordered the study to evaluate how to best expand service in Kansas and what options were available.

The study found the startup costs ranged from $156 million to $479 million, including new trains and upgrading tracks and stations. Also, the study estimated that the expansion would have 65,900 to 174,000 passengers.

Transportation Secretary Deb Miller said the next step would be to further study each route and pick the best one.

"We can begin to have the kind of meaningful dialogue that is necessary for Kansans to make a decision about how to proceed with passenger rail in our state," Miller said in releasing the study.

Two of the routes would be day and two would be night travel, linking the corridor with the line between Texas and Oklahoma and the line between Chicago and Los Angeles. The new routes would return rail service to Wichita, which lost its passenger trains when Amtrak cut routes in 1979.

------ Kan. SRS asks judge to deny grandparents' lawsuit

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- The Kansas child welfare agency has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by grandparents accusing a social worker of failing to protect a toddler who was beaten to death by her father's drug-addled girlfriend.

Court papers filed Wednesday by an attorney for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services argue that social worker Linda Gillen had "no duty to intervene" after she investigated a report claiming abuse and neglect of a 23-month-old Coffeyville girl who was never in state custody.

"We think they are wrong, obviously," Randall Rathbun, the grandparents' attorney, said Thursday.

Agency attorney Danny Baumgartner also contended in his filing that Gillen is entitled to qualified immunity from legal action because she is a government worker, and said she did not violate the grandparents' constitutional rights while investigating the allegation of abuse.

Maternal grandparents Larry and Mary Crosetto sued Gillen in January, accusing her of gross negligence for not protecting their granddaughter, Brooklyn. The lawsuit said Gillen did not remove the girl and her older brother from the home despite repeated complaints alleging abuse. The suit does not name the agency as a defendant.

The Crosettos accuse Gillen of acting with "malice and animus" because of a grudge against them connected to their adoption of Brooklyn's mother, Angela Crosetto Coons, years earlier. The lawsuit does not explain the alleged rift from that time and their attorney said he could not talk about the facts of the case. Brooklyn's 24-year-old mother died in August 2007.

------ Kan. Senate approves special ed change

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas senators have approved a change in the way the state distributes money for special education to school districts.

The 33-7 vote Thursday sends the bill to the House.

The issue affects funding for the so-called catastrophic costs of providing services to special education students.

The bill was inspired by claims filed by three Johnson County districts that increased the amount of catastrophic aid they received, at the expense of other districts across the state.

The only senators voting against the measure were from Johnson County.

The bill raises the trigger for qualifying for catastrophic aid from the current $25,000 to $46,000 in extra costs.

------ School bus driver faces trial on fondling charges

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- A former Wichita school bus driver will stand trial on charges of fondling a 6-year-old girl, after a judge rejected his guilty plea.

Billy J. Reynolds, who is in his 70s, is accused of fondling the girl on four occasions from last October through the day of his arrest in January.

Reynolds pleaded guilty Thursday to four counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. But the judge rejected the plea after Reynolds refused to admit to the crimes.

Reynolds is now set for trial March 25 in Sedgwick County District Court.

He drove a bus for Durham School Services for 16 years until being fired over the criminal allegations.

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------ Kan. educators ask Senate panel to raise taxes

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Two Kansas education groups and a school superintendent have urged a legislative committee to raise taxes.

The Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee heard testimony Thursday on a bill raising the state sales and tobacco taxes.

Superintendent Mike Mathes (MA'-thuhs) said the Seaman district north of Topeka may lay off teachers and increase class sizes if state aid is cut further.

Lobbyists for the Kansas Association of School Boards and the Kansas-National Education Association said new revenues would prevent damaging cuts.

The bill would raise the 5.3 percent sales tax to 6.3 percent for three years. It would also raise the cigarette tax by 55 cents a pack, to $1.34.

The committee expects to vote on the bill next week.