JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republican legislators in Kansas are hearing plenty of criticism of their proposal to overhaul how the state distributes aid to public schools, and they’re likely to keep hearing it this week.

But committee hearings also will give lawmakers a chance to take testimony from supporters of the GOP plan.

The House Appropriations Committee was beginning its review of the measure Monday, and the Senate Ways and Means Committee starts Tuesday.

Each committee has an identical bill containing the GOP plan, which scraps the formula and gives school districts “block grants” based on their current aid instead. The new system would remain in place only while lawmakers develop a new formula.

School districts would lose $51 million of the aid they had expected to receive before the end of June.

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — The president of the University of Oklahoma says fraternity members who participated in a racist chant caught on video are “disgraceful.”

The video is available HERE (caution very offensive)

University President David Boren joined students at a rally Monday morning on the Norman campus. The Oklahoman newspaper reports that Boren said, “real Sooners are not bigots, real Sooners are not racist.”

Sigma Alpha Epsilon said Sunday night that an investigation confirmed the contents of an online video showing multiple people chanting a racial slur and indicating blacks would never be admitted to the fraternity. The chant also references lynching.

The national fraternity says it’s “embarrassed” by the “unacceptable and racist” behavior, and was closing the local chapter.

The video was first posted online by a black student group. It wasn’t clear how the video was obtained.

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NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — A University of Oklahoma fraternity will close and its members will be suspended after the group’s national headquarters says a video of members participating in a racist chant was posted online.

The video is available HERE (caution very offensive)

Sigma Alpha Epsilon said Sunday night that an investigation had confirmed the contents of a video showing multiple people chanting a racial slur against blacks and indicating that blacks would never be admitted to the fraternity. The chant also references lynching.

The national fraternity said in a statement that it was “embarrassed” by the “unacceptable and racist” behavior.

The video was first posted online by a black student group at OU. It wasn’t immediately clear how it was obtained.

The university said earlier Sunday that it was investigating and didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the chapter’s closure.

MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press

Federal investigators say a law allowing rural hospitals to bill rehabilitation services for seniors at higher rates than nursing homes and other facilities has led to billions of dollars in extra Medicare spending.

The report out Monday from the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services focused on the remote hospitals’ care for so-called “swing-bed” patients. These patients remain hospitalized after they normally would be released to a skilled-nursing facility. Such care cost the government an additional $4.1 billion over six years.

National Rural Health Association CEO Alan Morgan doesn’t dispute Medicare could save money by modifying the system. But Morgan says dozens of rural hospitals have closed in the past five years and nearly 300 others are on the brink. The policies in place, he says, are keeping those closures from accelerating further.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — One man has been killed and another critically wounded in a Kansas City, Kansas, shooting.

The Kansas City Star reports that police said they arrived shortly after 3 p.m. Saturday and found both victims in the street. The dead man was in his early 20s, but his name was not released pending notification of relatives. A man in his mid-40s was taken to a hospital suffering from several bullet wounds.

Police say the shooting is under investigation. Authorities are urging anyone with information to come forward.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A newspaper analysis has found that a proposal for changing how Kansas public schools are funded appears to cut money from most of the state’s poorest school districts while protecting the wealthiest.

The Topeka Capital-Journal examined the effect of a proposal to use block grants to distribute money instead of the state’s existing per-student formula. The review found that many of the reductions in the plan are achieved by shrinking a type of state aid meant to help less wealthy school districts that aren’t able to raise as much money with property taxes.

The newspaper says it appears 90 percent of the state’s richest districts would gain state aid for operational expenses under the plan. But 80 percent of the poorest districts would lose money, about $170,000 on average.

ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A suburban Kansas City hotel owner who illegally hired immigrants to cut labor costs soon will learn his punishment in a case that highlights a shift by the government in its handling of immigration-related cases.

The government is seeking a 27-month sentence for Munir Ahmad Chaudary (Mu-neer Ahmad Shod-ree) at a hearing Monday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kansas. He and his wife pleaded guilty to conspiracy to encourage immigrants to reside unlawfully in the United States.

U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom says the case should “serve as an alarm” to anybody doing it that there are consequences.

Chaudary’s wife, Rhonda R. Bridge, was sentenced last month to 21 months in prison. The government seized their hotels and their bank accounts.

OLATHE- A Kansas teenager was injured in an accident just before 7 a.m. on Sunday in Johnson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1994 Chevy pickup driven by Clayton J. Akey, 19, Olathe, was northbound Interstate 35 just south of 151st in Olathe.

The truck left the roadway for unknown reason and rolled multiple times.

Akey was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center.

The KHP reported he was properly restrained at the time of the accident.

SALINA, Kan. (AP) — A Salina company that already presses about a million vinyl records a year has acquired 13 vintage presses that the owner says will double production.

Chad Kassem, owner of Quality Record Pressings, says he found the presses in Chicago and persuaded the long-time owner to sell them. They arrived in Salina in late February.

Kassem says the presses are in bad shape and will need a lot of repair. But once they are restored, they will double the company’s capacity, making it one of the largest vinyl-pressing companies in the country.

The Salina Journal reports Kassem recently expanded his plant to three shifts and he still can’t keep up with the increasing demand for vinyl records. He estimates he has an order backlog of three to four months.