TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A legislative study committee recommends that Kansas legislators hunt for state funds to boost the pay of corrections officers in state prisons.

The proposal Tuesday from the Joint Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice Oversight will go to the House and Senate budget committees once the full Legislature reconvenes in January.

The committee made the recommendation after Corrections Secretary Ray Roberts said turnover at prisons and juvenile correctional facilities is a serious problem.

Roberts said pay is the main issue, with officers at state prisons starting at $13.61 an hour. Each 1 percent increase in pay would cost nearly $1 million a year.

Committee Chairman and Republican state Rep. John Rubin of Shawnee said lawmakers take the money from elsewhere in the budget and suggested trimming aid to public schools.

 ABILENE – A child died in an accident just after 3p.m. on Tuesday in Dickinson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Beverly M. Barnett, 59, Enterprise, was westbound on 6th street.

The vehicle stopped at the stop sign, turned left onto Buckeye and struck Tayla M. Womochil, 6, Abilene.

She was transported to the hospital in Abilene where she died.
Barnett and a passenger in the Jeep were not injured.

The accident remains under investigation.

PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) — Pittsburg State University says former President Bill Clinton will be speaking at the university later this month.

Pittsburg State President Steve Scott said Tuesday that Bill Clinton is scheduled to speak Nov. 23 at the university as part of a speaker series. The Pittsburg Morning Sun reports  that tickets for the event will go on sale Monday.

Clinton, who served as president from 1993 to 2001, is also scheduled to speak at the University of Kansas the same day when he receives the 2015 Dole Leadership Prize.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Sentencing Commission’s executive director worries that looming budget problems will pressure the state into cutting funding to treat drug offenders and divert them from prison.

Executive Director Scott Schultz told a legislative committee Tuesday that first- and second-time drug offenders who complete treatment programs are far less likely to have another conviction. He said the state also can save nearly $21,000 per offender per year by not putting them in prison.

Schultz said he’s worried about preserving the nearly $6.6 million a year in funding because of the state’s budget situation. State officials and university economists are expected Friday to issue a new, more pessimistic forecast for state revenues.

Spokeswoman Eileen Hawley said Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration has not made any firm decisions about budget issues.

FREDONIA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating after three bodies were found outside a home in southeast Kansas.

Wilson County Sheriff Pete Figgins says deputies found a married couple and another male relative dead Monday night outside a rural Fredonia home. The discovery was made after another relative asked the deputies to check on their welfare.

Figgins says deputies are not actively looking for any suspects at this time. Figgins declined to release the names of those killed Monday or how they died until autopsies are completed.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is assisting with the investigation.

Fredonia is a town of about 2,400 residents located about 150 miles southwest of Kansas City. Figgins noted that the community is small and expressed his condolences to the families, saying he also hurts.