KANSAS CITY (AP) – A spokesman of the Kansas City Aviation Department said one person has minor injuries after a small plane experienced a hard landing at a Kansas City airport.

Spokesman Joe McBride said one of the aircraft’s two occupants suffered a broken arm Sunday night.

He said the plane, which took off from an airport near Mosby, went down on the north side of the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport.

McBride said the aircraft had flown over the Country Club Plaza before its pilot flew to the Wheeler airport and practiced a “touch and go” landing.

He said the plane soon lost power and came down at the airport.

Although the plane’s landing gear is damaged, McBride said the plane didn’t turn over.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new report suggests economic growth is ahead for nine Midwestern and Plains states.

The survey report issued Monday says the overall Mid-America Business Conditions Index climbed to 57.0 in February from 54.8 in January.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the survey, and he says the regional growth is likely although areas “linked closely to the energy sector, including ethanol, are experiencing pullbacks in economic activity.”

The survey results from supply managers are compiled into a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Survey organizers say any score above 50 suggests economic growth, while a score below that suggests decline.

The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas Senate committee is having a hearing this week on Gov. Sam Brownback’s appointment of a new judge to the state Court of Appeals.

The Judiciary Committee plans to convene Wednesday for testimony on the nomination of Kathryn Gardner of Topeka to the state’s second-highest court. The committee’s agenda says the hearing could continue Thursday and a vote is possible then.

The Republican governor named Gardner to the appeals court to fill a vacancy created last year by Brownback’s elevation of then-Judge Caleb Stegall to the Kansas Supreme Court.

Gardner has been U.S. Senior Judge Sam Crow’s law clerk since 2000 and was an attorney in private practice with a Wichita law firm for 12 years before that. She also writes cowboy poetry.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man has been taken to a hospital in critical condition after sustaining burns in an apartment fire in the northeast part of the city.

The Wichita Eagle reports that firefighters found a 41-year-old man trapped inside a one-story apartment Saturday night. Fire Battalion Chief Ernie Schuler says the man was in his bed, and crews think he had mobility problems.

Emergency medical services units transported the man to Via Christi Hospital St. Francis in critical condition. Schuler says the victim suffered second- to third-degree burns.

The fire caused $10,000 in structural damage and $5,000 in property damage.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

HUTCHINSON— A Reno County man is free on bond after he led law enforcement on a high-speed chase early Sunday morning.

Law enforcement authorities reported deputies attempted to stop a Chevy Blazer allegedly driven by Donald Mayer, 46, for failing to signal a turn and also for an obstructed license plate.

Mayer refused to stop and led officers from the Sheriff’s Department, Hutchinson Police, and South Hutchinson Police on a chase that lasted an hour and 24 minutes.

At one point, the chase went as far south as Yoder, but then returned back to the Hutchinson area.

Authorities say they were unsuccessful deploying tire deflation devices. The driver avoided them each time.

The chase finally ended when Mayer pulled into the west parking lot of the Law Enforcement Center and surrendered without incident.

He was arrested for felony flee and elude, an unregistered vehicle and no proof of insurance.

Mayer is expected to make a court appearance within the next week.

JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republican officials in Kansas are working on a plan to overhaul funding for public schools designed to prevent unanticipated demands for new spending.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback is calling on the GOP-dominated Legislature to junk the state’s current formula for distributing $3.6 billion in aid to school districts. He’s proposed distributing most of the money to districts in “block grants” that remain stable while lawmakers draft a new formula.

The chairmen of the House and Senate budget committees said they expect to have a bill drafted by the end of this week. They said the measure will bring predictability to state and school district budgets.

But Kansas school boards lobbyist Mark Tallman said predictability hurts school districts with rising costs or a growing number of students.

TOPEKA- One person was injured in an accident just after 11 a.m. on Sunday in Shawnee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Chevy passenger car driven by Gabriella C. Bradley, 19, Black Creek, NY, was eastbound on Interstate 470 just north of the Kansas Turnpike gate.

The driver lost control on a curve due to wet pavement and struck the concrete barrier.

Bradley was transported to St. Francis Medical Center.

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

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita police found several items stolen from the closed Joyland amusement park in the same home where they recovered Louie the Clown.

Police last week returned to a home where the iconic clown statue was recovered and found items as ghosts and tombstones from Whacky Shack and Porky the Paper Eater.

The Wichita Eagle reports a police report lists $26,100 in property taken from the amusement park between 2006 and 2008. Wichita police say some of the items have been recovered but others are still missing.

Louie the Clown greeted visitors for years before the park closed. The statue had been missing for nearly a decade when it was found Feb. 17 at the home of 39-year-old Damian Mayes, a convicted sex offender who once worked at the park.

ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress’ dysfunction isn’t limited to the struggle to keep a Cabinet department running without interruption.

Lawmakers couldn’t finish their work last year and it’s showing now.

The leftover business could prove even more divisive than the dispute over rolling back President Barack Obama’s immigration policies on a bill providing money for the Department of Homeland Security.

Stretches of brinkmanship are certain to consume much of the legislative calendar in 2015.

One critical issue is whether to increase the nation’s borrowing authority. That debate could have major repercussions for the recovering economy.

The to-do list includes forestalling a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments to physicians, preventing a cutoff of highway and transit dollars in the middle of peak construction season this summer and renewing critical parts of the Patriot Act.