By JOHN HANNA AP Political Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ most influential anti-abortion group launched an effort Tuesday to block two candidates for a state Supreme Court vacancy even before a state commission selects finalists for Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, an abortion rights supporter, to consider.

The unusually vocal and public move by Kansans for Life comes as conservatives are trying to overturn a Supreme Court ruling that protects abortion rights and are pushing to require state Senate confirmation of the high court’s justices. Both changes would require a change in the state constitution, and legislators are expected to consider putting the proposals on the ballot next year.

The group announced it is opposing Kansas Court of Appeals Judge Melissa Taylor Standridge and Shawnee County District Judge Evelyn Wilson. It objects to Standridge because she was part of a 2016 appeals court ruling favoring abortion rights and to Wilson because of her husband’s past political contributions to Kelly and other candidates supporting abortion rights.

Standridge and Wilson are among 20 candidates for a Supreme Court vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Lee Johnson last month. A nine-member state nominating commission led by lawyers plans to interview the candidates Thursday and Friday and name three finalists. Kelly’s appointee will then take a seat on the high court, with no review by legislators.

The anti-abortion group called on the nominating commission to reject Standridge and Wilson as finalists. The commission’s interviews are public.

“Both of these applicants are extreme and out of step with Kansas values,” said Kansans for Life lobbyist Jeanne Gawdun. “Their selection by the Nominating Commission would be biased towards extreme abortion causes.”

Standridge declined to comment through an appeals-court spokeswoman. Wilson’s husband, Michael, said she would not comment because she has made a point of avoiding politics since becoming a judge.

“Evelyn doesn’t get involved in politics,” he said. “She and I don’t always agree on politics.”

Standridge has been an appeals court judge since 2008 and Wilson, a trial court judge since 2004. Both were appointed by former Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, another abortion rights supporter. Johnson also was appointed to the Supreme Court by Sebelius, in 2007.

Abortion opponents are mobilizing to change the state constitution because the Supreme Court ruled in April that the constitution’s Bill of Rights grants a fundamental right to “personal autonomy” that includes a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy. Abortion opponents fear that restrictions already in place could be successfully challenged in state courts.

Before the lawsuit raising that question reached the Supreme Court, all 14 judges on the Court of Appeals reviewed it, and the state’s second-highest court split 7-7 over whether the Kansas Constitution protects abortion rights. Standridge joined the judges who concluded it does.

Michael Wilson’s past political contributions include $3,000 to Kelly’s campaign for governor and another $3,000 to Kelly’s state Senate campaigns in 2016 and 2012, online campaign finance records show. But he noted that he’s given to Republicans and was elected as a GOP precinct committee member last year.

Conservatives have long argued that the high court is too liberal and have sought to push it to the right. Kansans for Life was a key part of unsuccessful election campaign efforts in 2014 and 2016 to oust six of the seven justices. Conservatives argue that requiring Senate confirmation of the justices would make the selection process more transparent and accountable to voters.

But Jeffrey Jackson, a Washburn University law professor, said the current process allows groups to weigh in because the names of Supreme Court candidates are public. He said it’s more typical that candidates’ supporters write letters on their behalf but said Kansans for Life’s public opposition is “certainly within the bounds of what we want the system to look like.”

“I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already, more often,” Jackson said. “I think especially in contentious times, you’re going to see this more.”

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A Kansas City area man has been charged with fatally shooting another man after fighting over a family dog.

Twenty-nine-year-old Ebe Nelson was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the killing of 63-year-old Frankie Gilmore. No attorney is listed for Nelson in online court records.

Court records say Nelson was forbidden from entering his mother’s Raytown home because of a history of breaking things. Upon showing up there Sunday, Gilmore told Nelson to leave and not to take the family’s dog, whom he had a history of mistreating.

The records say that after Nelson departed, Gilmore prepared to leave with the dog to dissuade Nelson from returning. But Nelson came back, wounded Gilmore, retrieved a rifle from a truck and shot him several more times, killing him.

Hutch Post

HUTCHINSON— A Hutchinson police officer who was fired for the handling of a traffic stop has lost his appeal for reinstatement. Attorneys representing the Fraternal Order of Police were before the Hutchinson City Council asking that former officer John Suda be allowed to return to the force.

The firings were said to be connected to an incident in which a female officer was spotted driving intoxicated with her child on board. That officer, Anna Ruzhanovska, resigned from the force. But the controversy surrounding the incident led to three officers getting fired. Others were either suspended or disciplined.

Video and audio played during the hearing showed two officers, Mike Rivers and Suda, turning off their dash and vest cameras once they discovered who was behind the wheel of the stopped SUV.

Audio of the 911 calls was also played and told the story of a motorist who was causing numerous traffic issues from K-96 Highway near Haven to where the stop was made at Lorraine and K-61 Highway:

Another video played during the hearing showed Suda asking a fellow officer what he should do in this situation saying he didn’t “want to throw anybody under the bus.” The conversation was recorded by a camera in one of the interrogation rooms. Transcripts from the arbitrator showed Suda and others tried to hide the facts into Ruzhanovska’s traffic stop by shutting off the cameras and then driving her to the police station in her own vehicle. Suda maintained during the arbitration hearing that he was not trying to hide the facts, but was trying to protect Ruzhanovska when he and Rivers shut off their cameras.

In April of this year, an arbitration hearing was held for Suda. During that hearing, an arbitrator issued a statement that Suda should be reinstated without back pay or benefits. He stated that, while Suda’s actions during the traffic stop were wrong, they did not warrant termination. He also stressed that Suda never tried to withhold the truth during follow-up interviews. In September, City Manager John Deardoff rejected that recommendation and upheld Suda’s termination.

The council agreed. After more than an hour of testimony and discussion, the council voted 5-0 to uphold Suda’s termination.

WICHITA, KAN. – A  man who was stopped in Kansas with 50 pounds of methamphetamine in his car was sentenced Tuesday to six years in federal prison, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Jesus Antonio Garcia-Maldonado, 36, Panorama City, Calif., pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. In his plea, he admitted he was stopped for speeding on US 54 near Minneola in Clark County, Kan.

Law enforcement officers found approximately 50 pounds of methamphetamine in wrapped packages under seats and behind a rear quarter panel. The defendant said he was driving the drugs from San Diego, Calif., to Minnesota.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting that injured a woman and asking the public for help with information.

Just after 7:p.m. Monday, police responded to report of a shooting at Schweiter Park in the 900 Block of South Chautauqua in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson. When officers arrived, they found a number of shell casings in the parking lot.

A short time later, a 22-year-old woman arrived at a local hospital with a gunshot wound. She was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Investigators have learned the woman and a suspect were involved in physical altercation when multiple shots were fired that wounded the victim, according to Davidson.

Police have encountered a lack of cooperation during their investigation and are asking the public for help with information to help them make an arrest, according to Davidson.

WABAUNSEE COUNTY (AP) — Federal prosecutors want to keep $180,000 in suspected drug money that was found during a Kansas traffic stop.

Court records say the money was uncovered in July when a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper pulled over a pickup truck on Interstate 70 in Wabaunsee County for a traffic violation. The driver said he was traveling from Chicago to Denver to visit his sick mother, but a vehicle search turned up seven bundles of cash wrapped in duct tape.

Documents say the driver then told law enforcement that he was being paid to take the money to a Denver hotel. A drug dog detected the odor of controlled substances coming from the currency.

Prosecutors filed last week for the cash to be forfeited to the government.