LAWRENCE — Two University of Kansas seniors will travel to Chicago this weekend as finalists for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

John (Ike) Uri, from Concordia and Shegufta Huma, from Wichita will participate in interviews with a selection committee on Friday, Nov. 18, and Saturday, Nov. 19.

“Shegufta and Ike are outstanding selections as finalists for the Rhodes Scholarship. This prestigious award would allow these students to continue developing as leaders and scholars. I know they both will represent our university well during their upcoming interviews,” said Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little.

The scholarship provides expenses for one to three years of study at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

ROCK CHALK! KU has two finalists for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship! https://t.co/283WaljRBy Good luck this weekend, Shegufta and Ike! pic.twitter.com/qKxXKDVQ6G

— University of Kansas (@KUnews) November 16, 2016

Uri is majoring in sociology with minors in economics, philosophy and Russian business communication. Uri’s involvement at KU includes serving as the executive director of the Center for Community Outreach and as a volunteer coordinator for the Plymouth Language Program. He has worked as a research assistant for the DeBruce Foundation in Kansas City and has served as a regular contributor to the Midwest Voices panel in The Kansas City Star. A member of the University Honors Program, he was also selected for the prestigious University Scholars Program in 2015. He is the son of Larry and Therese Uri of Concordia.

Rhodes Foundation representatives select two winners in each of 16 districts in the United States after the interviews. Huma and Uri will compete with finalists from Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee.

KU students have earned 26 Rhodes Scholarships, more than all other colleges in Kansas combined.

Huma is majoring in political science and minoring in Spanish. Huma’s involvement at KU has included Student Senate, the Women of Color Collective, the Muslim Student Association and Margaret Amini Scholarship Hall. A member of the University Honors Program, she was also selected for the prestigious University Scholars Program in 2015. In spring 2016 she interned in Washington, D.C., with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She is the daughter of Mohammad Anwar and Anjuman Ara of Bel Aire.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas congresswoman Lynn Jenkins will be leaving a position on the House Republicans’ leadership team when the newly elected Congress convenes in January.

Jenkins said Wednesday that she is stepping down as GOP conference vice chairwoman to focus on health care and tax reform legislation.

She’s seen as a potential candidate for governor in 2018 to replace term-limited Republican Sam Brownback. Jenkins said she’s always willing to consider opportunities for returning to Kansas.

She also said she also has opportunities in Washington to work with Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress and GOP President-elect Donald Trump.

She is a member of the Ways and Means Committee and expects it to review both tax and health care proposals.

Jenkins has represented the 2nd District of eastern Kansas since 2009.

RILEY COUNTY –Law enforcement authorities in Riley County are investigating a suspect on drug charges.

On Tuesday, after a three-month investigation, detectives with the Riley County Police Department Special Investigations Unit in conjunction with the Junction City/Geary County Drug Operations Group arrested Randall Joseph Simonds, 33, Manhattan, at a location in Junction City.

Simonds was arrested and booked into the Riley County Jail on two offenses of Distribution of Methamphetamine, one offense of Distribution of Methamphetamine within 1000 feet of a School, three offenses of the Unlawful use of a Telecommunication Device, and one offense of felony flee and elude.

Simonds is confided at the Riley County jail on a bond of $26,000.00.

He has a previous conviction in Shawnee County for Criminal Damage to Property in 2012, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

The motion has been made to appoint David B. Dillon, retired Chairman and CEO of The Kroger Co. & alumnus of @KUnews as Chair.

— KS Board of Regents (@ksregents) November 16, 2016

By DAN MARGOLIES

Former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline has lost his quixotic lawsuit against the justices of the Kansas Supreme Court who suspended his law license three years ago.

A federal judge on Monday tossed the case, ruling that it presented a political question and therefore had to be dismissed.

U.S. District Judge Greg Kays also held that longstanding legal doctrine bars an attorney from challenging the results of a state disciplinary hearing in federal court.

Kline’s lawsuit, filed in October 2015, alleged the Kansas Supreme Court justices acted improperly when they suspended his license two years earlier because five of them had recused themselves and the court’s resulting composition was invalid.

The Supreme Court acted after a state disciplinary panel found that Kline had committed various acts of attorney misconduct, including misleading officials and a grand jury, while serving as Kansas attorney general and later as Johnson County district attorney.

In April 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Kline’s request to review the suspension of his license.

A fierce abortion opponent, Kline filed misdemeanor charges against Dr. George Tiller, a late-term abortion provider who was later shot and killed while attending church.

Kline had also brought a 107-count indictment against Planned Parenthood for failing to report pregnancies of underage girls. The case was later dismissed by Kline’s successor, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe.

Kline became a visiting professor at Liberty University School of Law in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 2009. A person answering the phone at the law school Tuesday said Kline was “not taking media calls at this time.”

Thomas Conditt, an attorney in Cincinnati, Ohio, representing Kline, said Kline probably would appeal.

Conditt said the central issue in the case was whether the temporary replacement of the five judges who recused themselves with other, temporary judges ran afoul of the “four-justice” requirement of the Kansas Constitution.

A provision of the Kansas Constitution requires that “not fewer than four justices shall be necessary for a decision.”

“And that’s why we think it wasn’t a valid court and a valid judgment,” Conditt said of the court that suspended Kline.

Dan Margolies is editor of the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.

CAROLYN THOMPSON, Associated Press

College students at campuses around the United States say they are planning rallies and walkouts to call on school administrators to protect students and employees against immigration proceedings under Donald Trump’s presidency.

Organizers say actions are planned Wednesday at dozens of schools, including Yale in Connecticut and Rutgers in New Jersey. Organizers are calling for their schools to become havens for people who may face deportation and rallying supporters on social media with the hashtag #SanctuaryCampus.

Yale student organizer Ramon Garibaldo says the actions are inspired by demonstrations that broke out at high schools around the country last week following the Republican’s presidential election victory.

Trump’s campaign promises included a vow to deport millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally.