TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Transgendered students at Kansas public schools and colleges would be required to use restrooms, showers and locker rooms for their sex at birth under two bills introduced in the Legislature.

Separate but identical measures have been introduced in the House by its Federal and State Affairs Committee and in the Senate by the Ways and Means Committee. Both say schools and colleges must limit such facilities to use by a single sex and defines gender by a person’s chromosomes.

Both bills describe the measures as “student physical privacy” protections. House committee chairwoman Jan Pauls said Thursday that such questions raise serious privacy issues for both students and parents.

But Equality Kansas Executive Director Tom Witt said if the bills pass, transgendered students will be isolated and bullied.

Bumble Bee Foods is recalling 31,579 cases of canned Chunk Light tuna due to the potential for life-threatening illness if consumed, according to a media release from the FDA.

The company said due to process deviations in a co-pack facility not owned by Bumble Bee the deviations were part of the commercial sterilizations process that could result in contamination by spoilage organisms or pathogens, which could lead to life-threatening illness if consumed.

Bumble said currently there have been no reports of illness associated with the products so far.

The cases that are included in the recall were produced in February 2016 and distributed nationally.

The products subject to this recall are marked with a can code that starts with a “T” (example: TOA2BSCAFB) and have the following “best by” dates: CLICK HERE.

Consumers are advised to throw away the recalled product. Consumers looking for more information on reimbursement or whom have questions about the recall may contact Bumble Bee at (888) 820-1947 between the hours of 9am and 6pm EST seven days a week.

SHAWNEE COUNTY- A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 10:30 p.m. on Thursday in Shawnee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Christopher R. Kirk, 26, Tonganoxie, was eastbound on Interstate 470 at Gage.

The vehicle went off the roadway to the left. The driver over corrected and the vehicle went to the right and rolled.

Kirk was transported to St. Francis Medical Center. He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man has been sentenced to 24 years in federal prison for recording videos of his girlfriend’s daughter in the bathroom of a Lawrence home in 2014.

U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom says 56-year-old Ken Theis of Perry was sentenced Thursday to 292 months in prison after being convicted on two counts of attempting to produce child pornography.

A federal judge found that Theis placed a cellphone in the bathroom of his girlfriend’s home and recorded her 11-year-old daughter, later transferring the video to his laptop computer.

In a second incident, Theis activated cellphone cameras in the bathroom to record the girl getting into and out of the shower.

OTTAWA COUNTY- A Salina man was injured in an accident just before 3p.m. on Thursday in Saline County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2009 International Semi driven by Robert Steve Castro, 22, Salina, was eastbound on Kansas 18, one mile west of Tescott.

The truck left the roadway to the south. The driver over-corrected and the truck rolled multiple times.

Castro was transported to Salina Regional Medical Center.

He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — The second trial for a Kansas man whose capital murder charge has been delayed.

Luis Aguirre of Ogden on Tuesday gave up his right to a speedy trial in the deaths of his ex-girlfriend, Tanya Maldonado, and their 13-month-old son, Juan Maldonado. A new status hearing was scheduled for May 26.

Aguirre was convicted of the killings in 2012. The victims were killed in September 2009 at Aguirre’s apartment in Ogden. Their bodies were buried in shallow graves after prosecutors say Maldonado demanded Aguirre pay child support.

The Kansas Supreme Court last May overturned Aguirre’s conviction after ruling that that police violated his Miranda rights during an interrogation.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review that decision.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A survey of rural bankers in 10 Western and Plains states suggests a slightly brighter economic picture that remains shadowed by lower agriculture and energy commodity prices.

A March report released Thursday says the Rural Mainstreet Index rose to 40.2 from 37.0 in February and 34.8 in January. Survey officials say any score below 50 on any of the survey’s indexes suggests that factor will decline.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the monthly survey, and he says prices for farm products have fallen about 11 percent and fuel roughly 25 percent since June.

Goss says the confidence index dropped to 30.1 this month from 30.4 in February, reflecting the bankers’ pessimism.

Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.

COWLEY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Cowley County continue to search for an inmate who escaped from the Correctional Facility in Winfield.

Cowley County Sheriff’s Deputies are assisting the Kansas Department of Corrections and Winfield Police Department to locate 37-year-old Bradley Wayne Struble. He is 5’9” tall and weighs approximately 170 pounds.

Struble has been convicted of robbery, burglary and theft, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

Authorities ask the public to call 911, if you see him.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — A man convicted in a northwest Missouri stabbing death has been charged with attempting to escape from prison.

The escape charge was filed this week against 25-year-old Sean Liechti, of St. Joseph.

The probable cause statement says Liechti and another man forcefully exited their cell at the Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in St. Joseph on Dec. 30. They are accused of trying to assault a prison guard as they made their way into a recreation area, where they were captured.

Liechti and a Kansas woman pleaded guilty in October and another Missouri man in January to second-degree murder in the April 2015 death of Richard Berry. The 28-year-old’s body was found in the Third Fork of the Platte River near Easton.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate’s eight Democrats have sent a letter to President Barack Obama opposing moving terror suspects to Fort Leavenworth from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The letter Thursday to the Democratic president came two days after the Republican-dominated Legislature adopted a resolution decrying Obama’s push to close the Guantanamo detention center.

The GOP-sponsored resolution goes to Obama. It not only criticizes his plans but declares that he’s shown a willingness to violate American law and sought to lower the nation’s standing in the world.

Kansas officials and members of the state’s congressional delegation have promised to fight any effort to close Guantanamo and move its prisoners to Fort Leavenworth.

But state Senate Minority Leader and Topeka Democrat Anthony Hensley said the resolution contained “polarizing and uncivil rhetoric.”

LINCOLN COUNTY – A preliminary hearing scheduled Thursday for a Kansas man charged in connection with a fatal shooting on March 5, was continued.

Julie Effenbeck, Attorney for Joseph Allan Schultz requested the delay.

Schultz, 36, was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Kevin Kubik, 33, at a rural residence in the 2500 Block of Deer Drive in Beverly.

There was an altercation and Kubik died at the scene, according to Lincoln County Sheriff Michael Weigel.

Schultz remains in custody with a bond of $800,000.

The KBI is helping investigate the case.

The next hearing in the case, a scheduling conference, is March 29.

————-

LINCOLN COUNTY – A preliminary hearing is scheduled Thursday for a Kansas man charged with in connection with a fatal shooting on March 5, according to the Lincoln County Attorney.

Joseph Alan Schultz, 36, was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Kevin Kubik, 33, at a rural residence in the 2500 Block of Deer Drive in Beverly.

There was an altercation and Kubik died at the scene, according to Lincoln County Sheriff Michael Weigel.

Schultz remains in custody with a bond of $800,000.
The KBI is helping investigate the case.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas University has implemented a new strategy to improve retention among students who failed out of its College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World reports that 150 students were offered to participate in a new faculty mentoring program.

The college’s dean, Carl Lejuez, says that 125 of the students who failed came back to school through the program. Only one of those students has since left.

The program’s goal is to help these students’ grades so that they can continue to be enrolled. Lejuez says more than enough of the college’s faculty volunteered to mentor students without being paid.

He says the hope is that the quickly hatched program can help student retention until a more concrete faculty mentoring program can be implemented.

ELLSWORTH COUNTY – A Kansas teen was injured in an accident just after 10a.m. on Thursday in Ellsworth County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a Ford F250 driven by Tanner G. Kanackstedt, 17, Inman, was southbound on Kansas 141 just north of Kansas 4 attempting to pass.

The rear passenger side of the Ford struck the front of a southbound Freightliner semi driven by Terry K. Fleming, 64, Junction City, that was attempting to turn east onto Langley Point Road.

A passenger in the Ford Greyson W. Wood, 19, Inman, was transported to Salina Regional Medical Center.

Knackstedt, Fleming and another passenger in the Ford were not injured.

All were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to KHP.