EL DORADO, Kan. (AP) — El Dorado police say they have arrested a man in connection with the death of a three-month-old girl.

Deputy Chief Chad Young says officers on Tuesday were investigating and treating the baby’s death as suspicious. Young says the man, who is related to the child, was arrested for obstruction and child endangerment.

Further details weren’t announced in the case. Police say the department likely will have more information Wednesday.

JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators are returning to the Statehouse for the second part of their annual session.

Lawmakers reconvened Wednesday, the 47th day of their 90-day session, after a five-day weekend tied to their “turnaround” deadline. That’s when many bills must clear their chamber of origin to be considered further this year.

Going forward, the biggest task for the Republican-dominated Legislature and GOP Gov. Sam Brownback is erasing a budget shortfall projected at nearly $600 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Final decisions aren’t likely until the end of the session.

Lawmakers also have topics such as rules for social services programs on their agenda.

A House committee hearing was set for Wednesday on a bill requiring able-bodied applicants for state cash assistance to be working or pursuing employment.

WICHITA – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 11 p.m. on Tuesday in Sedgwick County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Cadillac Deville driven by Frank Crawford Jr., 80, Wichita, was northbound on Interstate 135.

The driver took the exit ramp to North Hydraulic and entered the grassy median. The vehicle then struck a culvert and continued northbound across the ramp, entered the ditch and overturned.

Crawford Jr., was transported to St. Francis Medical Center.
The KHP reported he was properly restrained at the time of the accident.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A former U.S. poet laureate has shared with an audience at the University of Kansas her experience of having parents of different races and being raised in the South.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports Natasha Tretheway spoke Tuesday in Woodruff Auditorium, focusing on race and gender issues.

Tretheway was born to a white father and a black mother. She described memories of her childhood, recalling strangers mistaking her mother for her maid whenever they walked together.

She also read from her past works and spoke about drawing inspiration from paintings.

The poet’s appearance at the university is the latest in the school’s Humanities Lecture Series. She also is set to participate in a less formal discussion Wednesday morning in the Hall Center Conference Hall.

NICHOLAS CLAYTON, Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s latest appointee to the Court of Appeals lectured and studied at the conservative law group Alliance Defending Freedom.

Kathryn Gardner faces her first confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and has submitted hundreds of documents on her past experience and writings.

Gardner has served as the law clerk for U.S. District Judge Sam Crow since 2000 after working for 12 years as a practicing lawyer in Wichita and two years as an assistant state attorney general. She said in the application that her experience as clerk was most applicable to the job of an appellate judge.

However, in a presentation to the Alliance Defending Freedom, she called the position servant-like.

Brownback said in a statement that Gardner brings tremendous qualities to the position.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is planning a series of public meetings across the state this month to set regional water supply goals and priorities.

The state plans to hold 26 meetings hosted by water vision regional teams. The 14 leadership teams will draft water supply goals based on public input and available resources.

That public input is expected to help each team identify its region’s water supply priorities.

Trained facilitators from Kansas State University Research and Extension and the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy will help facilitate the public meetings.

The regional water supply goals that they draft will be presented to the Kansas Water Authority in May. The finalized regional goals are expected to be approved in August.

BRANDON BAILEY, AP Technology Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Millions of people may have been left vulnerable to hackers while surfing the web on Apple and Google devices, thanks to a newly discovered security flaw known as “FREAK attack.”

There’s no evidence any hackers have exploited the weakness, which companies are working to repair. Researchers who reported the problem this week blamed an old government policy, abandoned several years ago, which required U.S. software-makers to use weaker security in encryption programs sold overseas.

Many popular websites and some Internet browsers can still be tricked into accepting the weaker software. That could make it easier for hackers to break encryption that’s supposed to prevent digital eavesdropping when a visitor types sensitive information into a website. Apple and Google say they’re distributing software updates to fix the flaw.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — School districts suing Kansas over education funding are telling the state Supreme Court that they want a lower court to still handle their lawsuit.

Four districts on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to reject the state’s request that the high court handle the lawsuit instead of a three-judge Shawnee County District Court panel.

The districts sued the state in 2010. The lower-court panel ruled in December that the state isn’t adequately funding schools.

The state asked the panel in January to reconsider. The districts filed their own request to block legislators from tampering with additional aid to poor districts approved last year.

The panel has a hearing scheduled for Thursday.

But the state also appealed the panel’s ruling to the Supreme Court and now wants it to handle the case.

DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has announced a new government-wide initiative to help millions of girls around the world attend and stay school.

His wife, Michelle, will also visit Japan and Cambodia in a few weeks to promote it.

Obama says more than 60 million girls worldwide do not attend school.

He says every girl has value and that not getting an education limits their advancement opportunities and makes them more vulnerable to societal ills.

Under what’s being called “Let Girls Learn,” a range of existing government programs will be tied together under a single, coordinated strategy.

Separately, the Peace Corps and Mrs. Obama’s office will work together on a new program to highlight community-based solutions to help girls attend and finish school.