TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 36-year-old Topeka woman has pleaded no contest to reduced charges in a shooting death.

Jamie Engstrom is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 15 for conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and other charges in the Feb. 13, 2013, shooting death of 34-year-old Ricky Mitchell of Topeka and the wounding of 28-year-old Bridget Gakle of Topeka.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Engstrom made the pleas Wednesday in Shawnee County court.

Prosecutors are expected to ask the judge to impose prison terms totaling about 14 years. Her sentences are expected to run concurrently with sentences in in Nebraska, where she and her husband, Michael Dean Engstrom, were captured.

Michael Dean Engstrom pleaded guilty earlier to felony first-degree murder and other charges and was sentenced to life in prison.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate passed the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act (H.R. 1528) – originally introduced by U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Angus King (I-Maine) – which would allow veterinarians to carry and dispense controlled substances to protect the health and welfare of the nation’s animals, ensure public safety, and safeguard the nation’s food supply. The legislation – introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Reps. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) and Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) – passed the House last week.

The bipartisan legislation is also cosponsored by U.S. Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.), Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.).

“The passage of this legislation is important for the veterinarians who help ensure public safety and care for animals in Kansas and across the country,” Sen. Moran said. “By legalizing the transportation and dispensation of controlled substances, licensed practitioners will be equipped with the tools they need. It is particularly important for practitioners who work in rural areas, conduct research or respond to emergency situations.”

“The passage of this bill is a victory for rural farmers and veterinarians across the country – from the small dairy farms of central Maine, to the expansive ranches of California, and everywhere in between,” Sen. King said. “This bill’s success is also a powerful reminder that when we work across the aisle to find common ground, we can actually accomplish common goals in Washington.”

“The Veterinary Mobility Act is a big win for animal health, public health, and rural communities across the country. By ensuring that veterinarians can travel to their patients to administer safe, humane care, we can better serve animals and protect our nation’s food supply,” saidSen. Debbie Stabenow, Chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

“I am pleased that the full House and Senate could agree to help our veterinarians,” Sen. Roberts said. “This commonsense legislation allows registered veterinarians to better practice veterinary medicine, which often requires traveling to farms and fields away from their office location.”

“This legislation eliminates an unnecessary bureaucratic rule that clearly didn’t recognize that veterinary care, by its very nature, is not limited to clinics,” Sen. Thad Cochran said.  “Removing this requirement for licensed, registered veterinarians will give them the freedom to do the work we count on to ensure public safety, our food supply and animal welfare.”

“A ‘house call’ is likely just what the doctor ordered.  Forcing a farmer to load a sick animal into a trailer for a possibly long trip to the vet’s office is simply not a practical solution,” Sen. Grassley said.  “The burden of this particular interpretation of the Controlled Substances Act is nonsensical and may put the animal and the farmer at risk by having to transport the animal.”

“Wyoming veterinarians will be soon be able to provide better care to livestock thanks to legislation the Senate passed overwhelmingly today. Allowing vets to carry and dispense the medicine their patients need into the field will have an immediate impact in rural and remote areas where transporting livestock to the nearest town just isn’t practical or possible,” Sen. Enzi said.

“It simply makes sense to clarify federal law to ensure that licensed veterinarians have the ability to travel with the medicines that they need to treat their animal patients,” said Sen. Collins.

The 1970 Controlled Substances Act (CSA) stipulates that controlled substances must be stored and dispensed at the specific address veterinarians have on file with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The DEA enforces the CSA and has informed organized veterinary medicine that without a statutory change, veterinarians are in violation and cannot legally provide complete veterinary care.

The practice of veterinary medicine requires veterinarians to treat patients in a variety of settings; farm calls, mobile clinics, shelters, research and disease control activities, emergency response situations, and removal or transfer of dangerous wildlife.

The legislation is endorsed by the American Veterinary Medical Association and now awaits President Obama’s signature before becoming law.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has named a legislator and two district court judges to the commission that reviews complaints against judges.

The Supreme Court announced the appointments Wednesday for the Commission on Judicial Qualifications. Members serve four-year terms.

The new appointees include state Rep. Valdenia Winn, a Kansas City Democrat who has served in the Legislature since 2001. She’s a history professor at Kansas City, Kansas Community College and will fill one of four spots on the 14-member commission for non-lawyers.

The district judge-appointees were Brenda Cameron of Johnson County and Larry Hendricks of Shawnee County.

The Supreme Court also announced that it had reappointed Jeffrey Mason, of Goodland, as one of the commission’s four lawyer-members. Mason has served on the commission since 2008.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — New figures from the Kansas secretary of state’s office show that Republicans have maintained their significant voter-registration advantage since March.

But the preliminary numbers released Wednesday also show a small increase in the number of unaffiliated voters since March 1. The registration deadline was Tuesday for the Aug. 5 primary.

The number of registered voters grew by about 6,600 since March 1, to more than 1.73 million.

The number of registered Republicans grew slightly, to nearly 765,000. They represent 44.1 percent of registered voters.

There are about 422,000 Democrats, slightly less than on March 1 and about 24.3 percent of the total.

The number of unaffiliated voters grew by nearly 7,200, to about 535,000, up 1.4 percent. They’re now nearly 31 percent of registered voters.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Four suspects in the deaths of one defendant’s adoptive parents in suburban Wichita return to court to hear the evidence against them.

A preliminary hearing Thursday will lay out the state’s case so Sedgwick County District Judge Jeffrey Goering can decide whether the evidence is sufficient to proceed to trial on capital murder charges.

Forty-eight-year-old Roger Bluml and 53-year-old Melissa Bluml were both shot in the head Nov. 15 at their home near Valley Center. Melissa Bluml died the next day, and her husband died Dec. 21.

Charged in the case are the couple’s adopted teenage son, Anthony Bluml and his biological mother, Kisha Schaberg, of San Diego. Also charged are two of Anthony’s former classmates, Branden Michael Smith and Andrew Wallace Ellington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — General Motors has become the first big automaker to support legislation barring rental-car companies from renting or selling vehicles subject to a recall.

GM’s support was announced Wednesday by bill author Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. GM endorsed the bill after language was inserted clarifying that automakers wouldn’t face liability when they repaired rental cars, Schumer said in a news release.

GM sent Schumer a letter June 26 expressing its support. Schumer’s announcement came a day before GM CEO Mary Barra and the company’s general counsel appear before a Senate subcommittee investigating GM’s decade-delayed recall of millions of small cars for flawed ignition switches. The problem has been blamed for at least 13 deaths.

Under the legislation, defects in cars under recall would have to be repaired before being rented.

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) today introduced a bill to enhance customer protections for farmers and ranchers by preventing regulations from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from being overly laborious and making it significantly more difficult for farmers and ranchers to make economical trades on commodities.

Following the collapses of MF Global and Peregrine Financial Group, the CFTC proposed and finalized customer protection rules to help regulators better recognize trouble in firms before they occur. While some changes to the regulations are beneficial, the rules enacted by the CFTC could overly burden those who rely on futures markets to hedge risks, such as local farmers and ranchers, grain merchants, and futures brokers.

The residual interest rule from the CFTC will eventually require futures customers to fully cover the margin of their futures contracts by the morning of the day following a trade. In order to comply with the new rule, brokers would be more likely to demand drastically increased initial payments from farmers, hurting the availability of funds that support the agriculture industry. The end result may drive some farmers out of futures markets due to increased costs or restrict capital that could otherwise be used to hire, make capital improvements, and make other critical investments.

The Senators’ bill, S. 2601, the Risk Hedging Protection Act simply provides futures customers with an additional day to get their needed payments to brokers to meet the margin call, while still protecting customers and the financial markets.

“As the Senate Agriculture committee works to reauthorize the Commodity Exchange Act, one of my biggest priorities is protecting end users like farmers, ranchers and grain elevators from over-burdensome or unrealistic regulations,” Roberts said. “This legislation ensures that the CFTC rules work in the countryside as well as on paper.”

“The reckless behavior by firms like MF Global put the livelihoods of hardworking North Dakotans at risk, and the CFTC is right to make changes that help identify bad practices. However, the rules need to be workable, so farmers can continue to make investments in grain, corn, wheat, and other products in the futures markets, and get their high-quality products to customers. This bipartisan bill is a commonsense fix to strike that right balance,” said Heitkamp.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Congressman Mike Pompeo’s campaign is accusing his primary challenger of “cronyism” for taking a job after leaving Congress with a Colorado company to which he had funneled federal money.

But his opponent notes the federal funds were used to develop an airborne laser defense system that would have been built at the now shuttered Boeing’s defense plant in Wichita.

Former Congressman Todd Tiahrt on Wednesday defended the funding he got for the project while in Congress. He says Pompeo has no accomplishments of his own.

The dustup comes in a fight for the congressional seat in south-central Kansas. A key difference between the conservative Republican candidates is their philosophies about the appropriateness of bringing federal money to their home districts — even to create local jobs.