TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka man who surprised many observers by pleading no contest in a capital murder case plans to withdraw the plea.

King Phillip Amman Reu-El, formerly known as Phillip Cheatham Jr., told The Topeka Capital-Journal Wednesday that he will withdraw the plea he made last Friday and seek to have his case dismissed.

Amman Reu-El avoided the death penalty by pleading no contest as jury selection was beginning for a trial in the 2003 deaths of killing two women and the wounding of a third. He said it was obvious the potential jurors had already decided to convict him and sentence him to death.

His original conviction was overturned by the Kansas Supreme Court because of ineffective counsel in first trial.

Sentencing is set for March 20.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Johnson County and Kansas health officials say a student at an eastern Kansas high school has been diagnosed with tuberculosis.

The Olathe Northwest High School student was diagnosed Tuesday and is being treated. The student, whose age and gender weren’t released, will not attend school for at least two weeks.

Health officials say they’re working to identify students and employees who should be screened for the disease. The deputy director of the Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention predicts there probably will be around 300 screenings.

Tuberculosis can be spread by coughing and sneezing. Symptoms include a bad cough for three weeks or longer, chest pain, weakness or fatigue, and coughing up blood.

People with the disease are most likely to spread it to others they have prolonged contact with.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — University of Missouri-Kansas City students say they’re ultimately satisfied with answers over questions regarding the college’s business school, which an audit found it knowingly submitted false data in applying for rankings and awards.

The Kansas City Star reports the university’s chancellor met with about 40 students Wednesday in the Student Government Association meeting chambers.

Students questioned whether a lack of transparency and communication among school officials and students were partly to blame for the problems at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management. Chancellor Leo Morton assured students the issues at the business school weren’t representative of a bigger problem on campus.

Following the audit, the Princeton Review announced in February that it was pulling the school’s 2011 through 2014 top 25 rankings for graduate and undergraduate entrepreneurship programs.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas would prohibit adults who receive cash assistance from the state from using it to patronize strip clubs or buy sexually oriented materials under a bill before a legislative committee.

The state Department for Children and Families promoted the measure during a House Commerce, Labor and Economic Development Committee hearing.

The bill puts into state law policies enacted under Republican Gov. Sam Brownback for cash assistance and food stamps. The policies require able-bodied adult recipients to be employed or looking for work.

But the bill contains new restrictions, such as the one involving sexually oriented materials. Another new policy would impose a lifetime ban on receiving food stamps after a felony drug conviction.

Critics said the state would be tightening its rules when child poverty is rising.

By Jim McLean
Bills that would further tighten eligibility for public assistance programs will be among the first that lawmakers consider this week when they return to the Capitol from a short mid-session break. The bills — House Bill 2381 and Senate Bill 256 ­— would write into state law several controversial administrative changes made in recent years as part of Gov. Sam Brownback’s efforts to move people from welfare to work.

The bills would codify and in some cases expand limits on eligibility for programs that provide cash assistance and child-care subsidies.

They also would prohibit spending public money to increase participation in the food stamp program. The House Committee on Commerce, Labor and Economic Development has scheduled a hearing on the House bill at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

A hearing on the Senate bill has been scheduled at 1:30 p.m. Thursday in the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. Officials at the Kansas Department for Children and Families didn’t immediately respond to requests for information about the measures, which face opposition from several social service organizations.

Christie Appelhanz, vice president of public affairs for Kansas Action for Children, said the bills expand policies that already have reduced the number of children eligible for assistance. “Poor Kansas children cannot afford to wait for basic necessities,” Appelhanz said in testimony pre-filed with the committee.

Brownback has defended the changes in welfare policy, saying they’re aimed at pushing non-disabled Kansans off the welfare rolls into jobs. He touted the strategy in a commercial during his re-election campaign. The claim in the commercial referred to a reduction in the number of Kansans enrolled in the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

At the time, DCF officials said that TANF enrollment had fallen by 54 percent, dropping from 38,963 in the 2011 budget year to 17,681 in the 2014 budget year. The number of low-income parents — single mothers, mostly — receiving monthly child care subsidy payments dropped by 27 percent during the same four-year period, according to the agency.

“We’re seeing individuals moving out of poverty through employment,” Theresa Freed, a DCF spokesperson, said at the time. Shannon Cotsoradis, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children, took issue with the commercial, saying that cutting the number of Kansans on public assistance wasn’t the same as reducing poverty.

Cotsoradis cited the increasing percentage of Kansas children receiving free or reduced-price lunches at school as evidence that Brownback’s policies were taking a toll on poor families. “So here we have more kids relying on free and reduced school meals, and at the same time we’re seeing significant declines in the numbers of families that are accessing TANF and child care subsidies,” Cotsoradis said.

“I don’t see how that’s good news. It means fewer poor people are receiving services that are meant to lift them out of poverty.” Brownback administration policies also have raised the eligibility bar for participation in the food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

One of those changes took place in 2013, when DCF dropped its participation in a federal grant program designed to help poor families apply for food stamps.

“We simply do not believe taxpayer dollars should be used to recruit people to be on welfare,” Freed said at the time. The bills under consideration this week would expand that policy by prohibiting the spending of any state or federal money on SNAP outreach.

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is touting to Missouri lawmakers what he says is right with his state because of new tax policies.

Brownback on Wednesday spoke with Republican legislative leaders and other lawmakers during a private luncheon at a Jefferson City hotel.

The event was sponsored by business groups and the conservative group Grow Missouri, which is backed primarily by wealthy political donor Rex Sinquefield.

Brownback’s statements come as Kansas faces a projected budget shortfall of nearly $600 million after the Republican governor successfully pushed lawmakers to slash personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013.

Brownback says despite the shortfall, he’s starting to see “the seeds of growth” in Kansas. He also says he’ll balance the budget as required by the state’s constitution.