TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A proposal has been introduced in the Kansas Senate to spell out grounds for impeaching state Supreme Court justices, and the list includes attempting to usurp the Legislature’s authority.

The bill was introduced Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republican Sen. Mitch Holmes of St. John said he sought the measure.

The state constitution says justices can be impeached by the House, tried by the Senate and removed if convicted of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

Holmes said the constitutional language offers no guidelines to lawmakers, and without guidelines, they’re not ever likely to exercise their power to impeach and try justices.

Other impeachment grounds listed in the bill include attempting to usurp the executive branch’s power, judicial ethics breaches and failing to adequately supervise subordinates.

LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO (AP) — A new study says that the gender pay gap exists even in nursing, an occupation dominated by women.

The researchers found that among registered nurses, women’s salaries average about $5,000 less than men’s. That gap isn’t as big as in other occupations, but it hasn’t budged in more than 20 years.

They say the findings are surprising, since about 90 percent of the nation’s more than 2 million registered nurses are women.

The reasons are unclear but one factor may be that when women nurses leave to have children, they re-enter the workforce at a lower pay scale than their male peers who never took time off.

The study appears in Tuesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City man has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for participating in a conspiracy to sell thousands of fake identification documents to immigrants who are in the country illegally.

The U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release that 30-year-old Luis Daniel Cabrera-Guzman also was ordered Tuesday to forfeit about $400,000 to the government. The amount represents the proceeds from the sale of at least 7,100 counterfeit identification documents. Cabrera-Guzman also must also forfeit about $9,400 that was seized when he was arrested.

Court documents say Cabrera-Guzman is a Mexican citizen and had been living illegally in the United State off and on since 2001. He is accused of participating in the conspiracy with three other Missouri co-defendants and a Merriam, Kansas, man.

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is recalling nearly 92,000 Chevrolet Malibu midsize sedans to fix a problem with the power sunroof controls.

The recall covers cars from the 2013 through 2015 model years. The automaker says the sunroofs can close inadvertently even if the roof-mounted switches are barely touched. The switches can be activated with less force than allowed under federal safety standards.

GM says it doesn’t know of any injuries caused by the problem, and it hasn’t received any customer complaints.

It’s the same problem that caused the recall of about 67,000 Cadillac ATS small sports sedans last month.

Dealers will recalibrate the sunroof to remove the one-touch open-and-close feature in certain switch positions, and will reprogram the control module.

Most of the recalled cars are in the U.S. and Canada.

In addition, Mercedes-Benz is recalling just over 30,000 CLS-Class cars in the U.S. because the LED tail lamps may not light properly on the sides.

The recall covers certain 2015 CLS 400s, 2012 through 2015 CLS 550s, 2012 and 2013 CLS 63s and the 2014 and 2015 CLS 63P.

Mercedes says in documents filed with U.S. safety regulators that the malfunctioning lights could prevent other drivers from seeing the cars, increasing the risk of a crash.

The problem was discovered in December during a quality check at the factory. Dealers will update the lighting control software at no cost to the owners. Mercedes doesn’t have a schedule yet for when the repairs will take place.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Airbus Americas plans to relocate its engineering center now in downtown Wichita to Wichita State University’s Innovation Campus.

The move announced Tuesday comes as the university augments its basic research role with one geared to applied research and development that has a more immediate impact.

Airbus will bring its 400 Wichita employees to a new building on campus that is slated for completion in January 2017.

Airbus Americas President Barry Eccleston says relocating to the Wichita State University campus gives the company access to the next generation of engineers. He says innovation is the culture and mantra of his company.

Wichita State University President John Bardo says the partnership with Airbus increases the quality of education for students and increases the impact of the university.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas House has advanced a bill to set up a greenhouse gas reduction plan.
The chamber advanced the measure on a voice vote Thursday and will make a final vote on it Friday.

The bill would direct the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to develop an emissions plan, and the Legislature’s energy committees would be required to approve it.

The Environmental Protection Agency has directed states to develop stricter emissions standards by June 2016. States without a suitable plan will have federal regulations imposed upon them.
The EPA estimates Kansas would have to cut emissions 23 percent from 2012 levels by 2030.
An earlier version of the bill would have given the state’s utilities regulator final say on the plan, but it met resistance in committee.

SEYNE-LES-ALPES, France (AP) — Authorities so far have few clues as to what brought down a German jetliner carrying 150 people in a remote section of the French Alps today. All of those aboard are assumed to have been killed in the crash — which took place after the plane descended for eight minutes.

French aviation officials say the pilots sent out no distress call and had lost radio contact with their control center.

The crash left pulverized debris scattered across a rocky mountain and down the steep ravines.

As helicopters were deployed to the crash site, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged reporters not to speculate on the cause of the crash. An official with Lufthansa — which owns the airline Germanwings — says for now, it’s being treated as “an accident.” And the White House says there’s no indication of terrorism.

France’s Interior Ministry says a black box has been found at the crash site. There’s no word on whether it’s a data or cockpit voice recorder.

The airline says the plane left Barcelona at 10 a.m., and after reaching its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet it began descending again. It crashed at an altitude of about 6,500 feet near a popular ski resort.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas Senate committee is considering a new education funding plan that would tie some state aid to public schools to how well students do after high school.

The Senate Education Committee had a hearing Tuesday on a plan drafted by Chairman and Arkansas City Republican Steve Abrams.

He said his goal is to focus public schools on educating students so they can at least be part of the middle class.
The Legislature passed a bill this month to replace the state’s current per-student funding formula with “block grants” for school districts, but that system would be in place for only two years.
The Abrams plan would be tested on six school districts during the 2015-16 school year before being expanded to all 286 school districts over two years.