TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A bill has been proposed in the Kansas Legislature that would allow taxpayers to donate money to local schools.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that a House tax committee held a hearing about the proposed bill Wednesday. If passed, the bill would place options for $1, $5, $10 and empty spaces for taxpayers to write in their donation of choice and unified school district of choice on state individual income tax returns.

State Rep. Joe Seiwert, who created the bill, said that his constituents often ask how they can make small donations to their school district.

Renwick USD 267 Superintendent Tracy Bourne said at the hearing that the bill does not resolve concerns with the overall issues of school funding, but does provide some potential new revenue sources.

The committee took no action on the bill on Wednesday.

SEDGWICK COUNTY – A Kansas woman died in an accident just after 10 p.m. on Wednesday in Sedgwick County.

The Kansas Turnpike Authority reported a vehicle driven by Jacob Edward Donlay, 26, Wichita, was northbound on Interstate 35 near Haysville.

The vehicle struck a 2012 Honda CRV driven by Sonephila Phanh, 63, Wichita, which was slow moving and had sustained damage from a previous accident.

Donlay and Phanh were transported to a local hospital where she died.

Donlay was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KTA.

POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY – Fire crews in Pottawatomie County on Wednesday responded to a grass fire in the 4000 block of Blue Run Road in St. George.

The Westmoreland Fire Department temporarily blocked off Black Jack Road and Some homes were evacuated along the Highway 24 corridor as the fire rapidly spread.

Firefighters also battled the fire in a wooded area using off-road vehicles.

The fire appears to have been started by an improperly discarded cigarette, according to Pottawatomie Co. Fire Chief Jared Barnes.

Approximately 40 acres burned and there were no injuries.

By MATT HODAPP

The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday about a controversial Texas law that imposes strict requirements on health clinics that provide abortions. The law requires doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals and meet ambulatory surgical standards.

The case is hugely consequential for abortion providers in Kansas and Missouri because both states have similarly restrictive laws.

Jackie Casteel, an abortion-patient advocate, and Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, traveled to Washington, D.C., as part of a contingent of abortion rights activists that gathered in front of the Supreme Court today. A group of anti-abortion demonstrators was there too.

“If these laws are upheld we will see abortion providers vanish,” Lee-Gilmore told KCUR in a telephone interview. “If they are stricken then I think that we will definitely see doors start to re-open and we will be able to better argue in our state courts the undue burden that it puts on women and the unconstitutional standards that it sets in our state.”

Casteel had an abortion in 2003 at Planned Parenthood’s Columbia, Missouri, health center. That clinic was forced to stop providing abortion services after the University of Missouri Health Care system, bowing to pressure from the Missouri legislature, voted to remove admitting privileges for the clinic’s physician.

Casteel says she would have found it exceedingly difficult to access abortion services if current laws were on Missouri’s books when she had her abortion. Missouri now has only one abortion provider, in St. Louis.

“It would have made my journey a lot harder and made the cost great and could have even led me to have to self-induce,” she says.

With the vacancy created by Justice Antonin Scalia’s recent death, Justice Anthony Kennedy is expected to provide the Supreme Court’s crucial swing vote in the case. The court is expected to hand down its decision in June.

Matt Hodapp produces Statehouse Blend for  KCUR a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz stopped at a suburban Kansas City restaurant for some barbecue before heading to a rally at Johnson County Community College.

The Texas senator ordered a smoked brisket sandwich at Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que in Olathe, Kansas, on Wednesday and sampled some of the restaurant’s ribs and burnt ends.

Cruz shook hands with supporters and said he was looking forward to trying Kansas City-area barbecue because his home state of Texas takes its barbecue seriously. He told a television reporter the best way to eat ribs is with your fingers, because “if you’re eating barbecue and you’re not getting it all over, you’re not doing it right.”

Cathy Schmidt, a 62-year-old Olathe real estate agent, reassured Cruz that he still can win his party’s nomination.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and Republican hopefuls Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are planning to come to Kansas this week ahead of the state’s presidential caucuses.

Cruz’s campaign scheduled a Wednesday evening rally for the Texas senator at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park.

Sanders state director Shelby Iseler said the Vermont senator plans to have a rally Thursday evening in Lawrence at the 4H Building on the Douglas County Fairgrounds.

Rubio’s campaign said the Florida senator will have a Friday afternoon event at Jabara Airport in Wichita.

Both parties having their Kansas caucuses Saturday.

Rubio and Cruz are battling businessman Donald Trump for the state’s national convention delegates.

Some Democrats are predicting a close race between Sanders and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An attorney for the Quapaw tribe has agreed in federal court documents that the tribe’s gambling lawsuit against Kansas should be dismissed.

The tribe, which operates Downstream Casino Resort in Oklahoma, sued Kansas in January, asking that a judge order the state to negotiate an agreement with the tribe within 60 days that would allow it to offer gaming in Kansas.

The lawsuit could still pave the way for the tribe to ask the secretary of the Department of the Interior to issue guidelines for casino gaming on the Kansas side of Downstream’s property. Currently, the Kansas side of the resort’s property is used for parking lots.

A spokesman for Kansas Attorney General’s office says it will continue to oppose gaming on the land.

A Downstream spokesman declined to comment to The Joplin Globe

SALINA – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating two cases where women were scammed out of money.

In the first instance, a woman in her 30’s lost more than $7,000 while trying to secure a $5000 loan via the internet, according to Salina Police Captain Chris Trocheck.

Between February 23rd, and 26th, the woman had applied for a loan from a website she said was a five minute loan site.

Before she contacted police, the woman had sent $6,118 to cover fees and other charges to four different addresses.

On Monday, after contacting police, the woman received another call asking her to send another $1,000 and she did. Her total loss is $7,118.

On Tuesday afternoon a Salina woman in her 70s told police she received a phone call from a man claiming to be her son.

The caller said he had been involved in a crash with a rental car and she needed to send money.

A short time later the woman said she received another call from a man claiming to be her son’s lawyer. The man said she needed to buy I-tune gift cards or her son would go to jail.

The woman purchased four cards totaling $1,800 and scratched the back of the cards and sent information off of the cards in the mail to New York City.

She then was called again and told to send another $1,800. She called police after her son who lives in Las Vegas called to she how she was doing and learned he had not been involved in an accident.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Senate committee is considering a bill that would require municipalities to give the state more of the money they receive from traffic tickets.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the measure would require cities to cough up any traffic ticket proceeds that exceed 10 percent of their annual revenues.

The bill before the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday also would require municipal courts to hand over 70 percent of all revenue they collect from traffic violations on highways.

All of the money from the municipalities would go into the state’s general fund. If a city refused to follow the new law, its municipal court would be temporarily shut down.

A long list of opponents of the bill waited to testify Wednesday, while no one spoke in favor.