Kan. House to debate school consolidation

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas House members are scheduled to debate a bill that would reduce the state aid for some small school districts.

The bill on Tuesday's calendar is viewed as a means to force districts with enrollments of fewer than 200 students and fewer than 200 square miles to consolidate. They are the same provisions that were used in the 1960s when Kansas last forced school districts to consolidate.

Those smaller districts would see the state aid given to low-enrollment districts reduced to the same level as those with 200 students. The change would take effect on July 1, 2012.

As originally proposed, the bill would have included districts with fewer than 400 students, but was amended by the House Education Committee to the lower limit.

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School consolidation is HB 2704.

------ Kan. Senate panel considering tax increases

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Proposals to increase Kansas' sales and tobacco taxes are being considered by a state Senate committee.

Wichita Republican and Chairman Les Donovan says the Assessment and Taxation Committee will have three days of hearings on a tax bill, starting Tuesday.

The bill contains proposals from Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson.

It would increase the state's sales tax from 5.3 percent to 6.3 percent.

The measure also would raise the cigarette tax by 55 cents a pack, from 79 cents to $1.34. The tax on other tobacco products would rise from 10 percent to 40 percent.

Parkinson proposed those increases as a way to help the state close a projected $467 million budget shortfall for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

------ Subpoenaed Kan. reporter fired, claims retaliation

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- A subpoenaed Dodge City reporter who testified about a jailhouse interview with a murder suspect has been fired, the latest turn in a bitter dispute between the journalist and her newspaper since the Kansas Supreme Court refused to toss out the subpoena.

Reporter Claire O'Brien said her firing on Friday from the Dodge City Daily Globe stems from comments she made to media outlets after she was found in contempt for failing to appear at an inquisition, the Kansas equivalent of a grand jury.

O'Brien told reporters at the time that the newspaper's corporate owners had refused to pay for her legal representation and scuttled her efforts to find independent legal help unless she testified -- claims that GateHouse Media Kansas Holdings, which owns the newspaper, has denied.

On Sunday, O'Brien said she was fired in "retaliation" for making those public comments.

Stephen Wade, group publisher for GateHouse Media Kansas, said the company couldn't comment on the matter because it is a personnel issue.

"Out of respect to the employee and the law, we really can't comment," Wade said Monday.

------ Outbreak of tornadoes in 1990 taught lessons

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- Twenty years after a storm cell produced tornadoes across much of the Midwest on the same day, meteorologists say those tornadoes are still teaching lessons about severe storms.

It was March 13, 1990, when a massive storm system produced at least 60 tornadoes from Texas to Illinois, including five in Kansas, with the worst hitting Hesston and Goessel.

The Wichita branch of the National Weather Service is highlighting the Hesston tornado as part of Severe Weather Awareness Week.

The twister was up to a mile wide in spots and traveled on the ground for 48 miles before it lifted.

It left one child dead south of Burrton and destroyed more than 225 homes and 21 businesses in Hesston. Damage estimates in Harvey County alone reached $25 million.

Mike Smith, president of WeatherData Inc., a Wichita-based private forecasting service and subsidiary of AccuWeather, said it was the first major tornado recorded by several members of the public with video cameras.

------ Statewide tornado drill postponed until Thursday

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- The National Weather Service in Kansas has postponed the statewide tornado drill from Tuesday through Thursday.

The weather service says severe weather is possible on Tuesday. The drill will be held Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

The statewide tornado drill is usually held during Severe Weather Awareness Week, which is this week in Kansas.

------ Fort Riley officer says Iraq elections successful

FORT RILEY, Kan. (AP) -- A Fort Riley infantry commander said Monday the parliamentary elections in Iraq were a success based on the high voter turnout in the Iraqi province where Saddam Hussein was born.

Col. Henry Arnold, commander of the 4th Brigade of 1st Infantry Division, said that Iraqis, including the Sunni minority, are focused on solving their differences through the political process, regardless of the outcome in Sunday's elections.

"That is a huge message. That is a decisive point in Iraqi history," Arnold said during a live video link from Iraq back to Fort Riley. "The atmosphere was very exciting, electric. Some of the feedback I got it was a carnival-like atmosphere."

Arnold's brigade saw voter turnout hit 73 percent among the 2 million residents north of Baghdad near Tikrit, Balad and Samara, areas dominated by Sunnis. Tikrit, which is the capital of Salahuddin province, was the birthplace of Saddam. Nationally, 62 percent of Iraqis went to the poll, lower than the previous parliamentary elections in December 2005.

The commander said Sunnis were committed to the political process and had decided to take out their frustration on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is a Shiite, at the ballot box rather than resorting to violence.

"This is a big event. The election was the decisive," Arnold said. "This defines the beginning of the end or our tour and, quite frankly, the end of the U.S. in Iraq."

------ Court to rule in military funeral protest case

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court is entering an emotionally charged dispute between the grieving father of a Marine who died in Iraq and the anti-gay protesters who picket military funerals with inflammatory messages like "Thank God for dead soldiers."

The court agreed Monday to consider whether the protesters' message, no matter how provocative or upsetting, is protected by the First Amendment or limited by the competing privacy and religious rights of the mourners.

The justices will hear an appeal from a Marine's father to reinstate a $5 million verdict against the protesters after they picketed outside his son's funeral in Maryland four years ago. Members of a Kansas-based church have picketed military funerals to spread their belief that U.S. deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

The funeral protest dispute was one of three cases the court said it would hear in the fall. The others involve whether parents can sue drug makers when their children suffer serious side effects from vaccine and NASA's background checks on contract employees. The government says the decision in the NASA case could throw into question the background checks routinely done on all federal government workers.

The protest lawsuit stemmed from picketing by members of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., outside the funeral for Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder in Westminster, Md. Snyder died in March 2006 when his Humvee overturned.

The funeral was one of many that have been picketed by Westboro pastor Fred Phelps and other members of his church. One of the signs at Snyder's funeral combined the U.S. Marine Corps motto, Semper Fi, with a slur against gay men.

------ Kan. proposal allows suits by child porn victims

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- A Kansas Senate committee is considering a bill allowing victims to sue producers, promoters and users of child pornography.

The Judiciary Committee had a hearing on the measure Monday but took no action.

The bill allows victims to sue for at least $150,000 in damages until they turn 21 or up to three years after a criminal case ends.

Spokesmen for the Wyandotte County District Attorney's office and the Kansas Peace Officers' Association said such a law would discourage people from producing, promoting or obtaining pornography.

The Kansas attorney general's office supports the concept. But an assistant attorney general said the bill should be revised to make sure law enforcement officials don't face lawsuits for gathering evidence.

------ Kansas congressional candidate ends campaign

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Republican Dick Kelsey has ended his campaign in Kansas' 4th Congressional District.

Kelsey, a state senator from Goddard, sent a letter to supporters Monday saying that he is leaving the race because his wife has been diagnosed with a heart condition.

He said he does not believe he can run a vigorous campaign and deal with his wife's health issue.

Four other Republicans and two Democrats are seeking their parties' nominations for the U.S. House seat now held by Rep. Todd Tiahrt (TEE'-hart).

Tiahrt has represented the south-central Kansas district since 1995 but is running this year for U.S. Senate.