TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback isn’t saying yet whether he’ll call the Kansas Legislature into special session to respond to a recent state Supreme Court order on public schools.

The Republican governor said Wednesday after lawmakers adjourned their annual session that he will work with their leaders and Attorney General Derek Schmidt to respond “aggressively” to any action by the court to close the state’s schools.

The court on Friday rejected education funding changes made earlier this year by lawmakers. It warned that schools will be unable to reopen after June 30 if lawmakers don’t approve additional changes by then.

Lawmakers adjourned without approving a response to the court order. House Speaker Ray Merrick called the court “judicial hostage takers.”

Brownback said the courts should not be “playing politics” with children’s education.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka real estate developer has been indicted by federal grand jurors on 103 counts of bankruptcy fraud.

Sixty-four-year-old Kent Lindemuth filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2012, claiming he had more than $3.5 million of debt.

While federal law stipulates that any property obtained after the bankruptcy filing belongs to the bankruptcy estate. But Lindemuth is accused in Wednesday’s indictment of buying more than 100 firearms valued at more than $80,000 from August 2013 to late 2014.

Lindemuth didn’t tell his creditors or the bankruptcy trustee about the firearms or the money used to buy them.

Online court records don’t show whether Lindemuth has an attorney.

MONTGOMERY CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Mexican national charged with five shooting deaths pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of a Missouri man.

KRCG-TV reports Pablo Serrano-Vitorino entered the plea Wednesday during a brief arraignment in Montgomery County Court.

Prosecutors allege Serrano-Vitorino shot four men to death in Kansas City, Kansas, March 7 and then fled to Missouri. They allege he shot and killed Randy Nordman the next day during a confrontation in Nordman’s garage in New Florence.

Montgomery County Prosecutor Nathan Carroz has said he will seek the death penalty for Serrano-Vitorino in Nordman’s death.

Serrano-Vitorino’s next court appearance is scheduled Aug. 3.

He also is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in Kansas. Prosecutors haven’t announced whether they will seek the death penalty in Kansas.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Three Democratic U.S. congressmen have asked a federal agency whether a top elections official had the right to unilaterally change voter registration forms in three states to require proof of citizenship.

Reps. Elijah Cummings, Robert Brady and James E. Clyburn asked the chairman of the Election Assistance Commission on Wednesday for records connected to EAC executive director Brian Newby’s amendment of forms in Kansas, Alabama and Georgia.

The group is seeking documents relating to requests from the three states to modify voter registration forms; all analysis of the impact of modifying federal voter registration forms; and all documents giving Newby the authority to unilaterally make the changes.

Voting rights activists criticized the changes Newby made in February as a “secretive move” that created additional barriers for potential voters

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former Kansas police chief has admitted in federal court that he played a role in a scheme to buy and sell discounted firearms by falsely claiming they would be used for law enforcement purposes.

John Daily pleaded guilty Tuesday in Wichita to a count of theft of government money, property or records.

Prosecutors say Daily admitted that twice in 2012, he misrepresented firearms as being solely for law enforcement purposes, wrongly exempting the guns’ makers from paying about $300 in taxes to the U.S. government.

Daily faces up to a year in prison and as much as $100,000 in fines when sentenced on Aug. 17.

Bel Aire a small community just north of Wichita.

SEDGWICK COUNTY – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 3p.m. on Wednesday in Sedgwick County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2007 Nissan Versa driven by Randa Skye Wolfe, 18, Wichita, was on the ramp from westbound U.S. 54 to northbound Interstate 235 in Wichita.

The vehicle hit a pedestrian Evan Edward Taylor, 24, Leawood, who entered the ramp from the north ditch.

Taylor was transported to St. Francis Medical Center.

Wolfe was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ top education official says he fears that school counselor positions in the state have become too focused on administrative tasks.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that education commissioner Randy Watson addressed more than 350 school counselors from across the state at an annual conference Tuesday in Manhattan organized by Kansas State University.

Kansas data indicates that each public school counselor in the state handles about 440 students each. Watson says the state needs to decrease that number.

Watson says counselors often pour many hours into administrative duties that detract them from fulfilling their mission of helping students build social and emotional skills and explore options for after high school. He says Kansas schools need to rethink the number of counselors they employ as well as what tasks they assign to counselors.