TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The state’s prisoner review board has denied parole for a man convicted of beating to death a Kansas elementary school teacher in 1990.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the Kansas Prisoner Review Board on Wednesday decided to deny parole until September 2017 for 42-year-old Peter Spencer.

Spencer pleaded no-contest to first-degree murder when he was 18 years old. He was convicted of killing 36-year-old Sherryl Crowder, who lived in Manhattan and taught in Wamego. An autopsy showed she was sexually assaulted and died of internal bleeding from a blow to the head.

A Kansas Department of Corrections spokesman says the board denied parole in part because of the serious nature of the crime.

Spencer is serving a life sentence at the Lansing Correctional Facility.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Sen. Pat Roberts is trying to bolster his support among GOP and unaffiliated voters in Kansas with a recorded telephone message from former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Roberts’ campaign said the call with Romney’s endorsement was going to 400,000 voters across the state Wednesday.

Roberts is in a tougher-than-expected race for re-election against independent candidate Greg Orman.

Orman is running as a centrist, and his campaign says voters are tired of gridlock in Washington.

Romney was the 2012 Republican nominee against Democratic President Barack Obama.

In the message, Romney calls Roberts a trusted conservative. Romney says Roberts is needed in Washington to block the agenda of Obama and Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Orman has said voters are interested in solving the nation’s problems, not partisanship.

By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service

HUTCHINSON — The latest in a series of grassroots conversations on mental health issues will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25, at the Hutchinson Public Library.

“Mental health is an issue that we tend not to talk about very much publicly because there’s such a strong stigma,” said Thea Nietfeld, a facilitator with the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy at Kansas State University.

“So what we’ll be doing is taking a look at it in a very structured way so that people concerned about privacy can have their say, people who think there should be more in the way of community services can have their say, and those who are concerned with the interface between law enforcement and mental health can have their say,” said Nietfeld, who also is a Unitarian Universalist minister.

The conversation, she said, will be structured in a way that ensures that “everyone at the table has an equal voice.”

Earlier conversations have been held in Manhattan, Wamego and Abilene. Another is scheduled Oct. 15 in Salina.

The sessions are part of a national initiative first proposed by President Barack Obama during the National Conference on Mental Health meeting in 2013.

In Kansas, the conversations are being coordinated by the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy, the Kansas chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and local civic and church groups.

Anyone interested in joining the conversation at the Hutchinson library, 901 N. Main, is encouraged – but not required – to review “Addressing Mental Health Care: A Handbook for Discussion and Deliberation.”

“This is a deliberative discourse,” said Myles Alexander, project coordinator at the institute.

Attendees, he said, will be put into discussion groups that will be led by trained facilitators. Toward the end of the two-hour session, all groups will share their conclusions and discuss “action steps.”

“We do not advocate,” Alexander said, referring to the institute. “We are nonpartisan. Our mission is to help strengthen democracy through deliberative discourse.”

The institute, he said, will host a similar discussion on issues having to do with managing the state’s water supply – the Ogallala Aquifer, especially – at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in the Cottonwood Court building at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson.

MAIZE, Kan. (AP) — Reports of a suspicious man seen trying to get into a southern Kansas school turned out to be a new employee who forgot the correct way to enter the building.

The Wichita Eagle reports Wichita police and officers from the Maize School District began searching for the man based on a description from a witness who saw someone rattling outside door handles at the school Monday afternoon.

As a result of the witness report, staff members at other Maize schools also were placed in a state of heightened awareness.

The school district posted a statement on its website Wednesday saying the man had legitimate reasons to be in the building but was not following the district’s safety protocol.

The statement says the employee was being dealt with administratively.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is sending 475 more U.S. troops into Iraq to supplement an existing American military presence that is helping Iraqi security forces battle Islamic State militants and secure diplomatic facilities.

Obama was announcing the additional forces Wednesday as part of an expanded offensive against the Islamic State group in Iraq and in Syria.

The new troops would join more than 1,000 U.S. military personnel in Iraq and would be embedded with Iraqi security forces and help identify targets for U.S. military airstrikes against the extremist group.

The U.S. already has more than 750 U.S. military personnel supporting diplomatic security at facilities in Baghdad and nearly 300 at joint operating centers in Baghdad and Irbil.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has formally added gay marriage cases to the justices’ agenda for their closed-door conference on Sept. 29.

The action Wednesday does not mean that the court will decide that day to hear state appeals of lower court rulings that struck down bans on same-sex marriage. But the late September conference will be the first time the justices have the issue before them. The meeting will be the justices’ first since late June.

Appeals have been filed from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. The gay couples who won in each case in the lower courts also favor Supreme Court review.

The justices could put off deciding whether to take up gay marriage until January and still be able to issue a decision by late June.

HOMAS BEAUMONT, Associated Press

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Independent candidate Greg Orman is walking a tightrope in Kansas as he campaigns against veteran Republican Sen. Pat Roberts.

Orman is projecting himself as fresh and authentic while acknowledging that he’s been both a Republican and a Democrat.

Roberts’ new campaign spokesman, Corry Bliss, says the senator is painting the wealthy 45-year-old businessman as a dishonest, flip-flopping liberal Democrat masquerading as an independent.

With less than two months before the election, Orman’s campaign manager, Jim Jonas, says the narrative for the campaign is simple: Washington is broken and Orman can go there and solve big problems without a lot of finger-pointing.

The race shifted dramatically last week when Democratic candidate Chad Taylor — with a nudge from Democrats in Washington — abruptly quit.

By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — State officials this week announced that teens and young adults who are about to age out of the state’s foster care system are now being provided with photo IDs at no cost.

Currently, social workers make sure the teens have copies of their birth certificates and Social Security cards before they exit the system. But the teens are expected to pay for their driver’s licenses, which typically serve as their photo IDs when applying for jobs, enrolling in college or enlisting in the military.

“Children in foster care deserve every opportunity to succeed in life,” Gov. Sam Brownback said in a prepared statement. “This is one small way we can help ensure they are able to build the future they deserve. Having something as simple as a photo ID will be one less hurdle they will have to overcome.”

The initiative, which began earlier this month, is expected to cost about $10,000.

In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 331 teens and young adults aged out of state’s foster care system.

Theresa Freed, a spokesperson for the Kansas Department for Children and Families, said the agency expects 424 teens and young adults – ages 16 to 23 – to exit the system in the current fiscal year.

The department’s Independent Living program also offers grants for securing an apartment, financial aid for costs associated with going to school, help finding a job and health insurance until age 26.

In Kansas, teens who age out of foster care but have not yet turned 23 are eligible for free tuition at any state university, community college or Board of Regents-certified technical school.

Historically, DCF has not – and still does not – keep track of how children and young adults fare after exiting the system because they are no longer considered wards of the state.

In recent months, the numbers of foster children in what are called out-of-home placements, according to DCF reports, have reached record highs: 6,156 in April, 6,168 in May, 6,167 in June and 6,157 in July. The August number is not yet available.

Previously, the all-time high was 5,902 children in October 2007.

The system now has about 850 more children in out-of-home placements than it did two years ago, and 360 more than it did last year.