TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — State officials with regulatory authority over Kansas’ underground water resources are still looking for an individual or group willing to enter into a voluntary conservation program.

The purpose of legislation signed by Gov. Sam Brownback in April was to create a network of Water Conservation Areas that would restrain consumption, maintain agricultural production and help extend life of the Ogallala Aquifer. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the program was hailed as central element of the administration’s commitment to more efficient industrial use of water.

Kansas Department of Agriculture secretary Jackie McClaskey says convincing water right holders to engage in Water Conservation Areas is critical in advancing Brownback’s 50-year plan for managing the resource.

Brownback also signed legislation aiming to extend the life of the Ogallala Aquifer in 2012.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A transgender student recently elected homecoming queen at her Kansas City-area high school says she’s happy to be in the spotlight and representing the transgender community.

Landon Patterson says it felt too good to be true on Saturday when the crown was placed on her head as Oak Park High School’s homecoming queen.

The Kansas City Star reports Patterson has been a member of her school’s co-ed cheerleading team and cheered as a boy as a freshman, sophomore and part of her junior year.

She announced in a video on social media in May that she was a girl, not a boy. The 17-year-old student says she was expecting a lot of hate, but that instead has received mostly support from her schoolmates.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Two Koch family foundations are making a $10.5 million donation in land and money to the new Wichita Center for the Arts.

A new 38,000-square-foot center is planned for 17 acres owned by the Kochs. The project, without the land, is valued at $14 million.

The Wichita Eagle reports the Charles Koch Foundation is donating the land, which is valued at $4.5 million. The Fred and Mary Koch Foundation is giving $2 million and will have another $4 million challenge grant.

Liz Koch, an honorary trustee for the arts center, says the donation honors her mother-in-law, Mary Koch, a strong supporter of the arts center who died in 1990.

Construction is expected to begin in late 2016 and be finished by late 2017 or early 2018.

TOPEKA – Federal prosecutors Wednesdayfiled an involuntary manslaughter charge against a Riley County man in connection with a shooting death at Fort Riley, according to U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom.

Juwan D. Jackson, 18, who lives on the Fort Riley base, is charged with one count of involuntary manslaughter. A criminal complaint alleges that on Sept. 11, 2015, Jackson handled a firearm in a reckless manner, resulting in the shooting death of 16-year-old Kenyon Givens, who also lives on Fort Riley.

If convicted, Jackson faces a maximum penalty of eight years in federal prison. Army Criminal Investigations Division and the FBI investigated. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Robin Graham and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Mattivi are prosecuting.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a Wichita concrete company worker.

The Wichita Eagle reports 35-year-old Donnie Lalonde pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated robbery Sept. 4 for the February 2014 death of 44-year-old Efren Antonio Villarreal-Alvarado.

According to authorities, co-workers found Villarreal-Alvarado in his car with a gunshot wound to the chest in the parking lot of Santana Concrete. He later died at a hospital.

Lalonde is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 20.

Another man, 42-year-old Deon Nolan Hale, is also charged in Villarreal-Alvarado’s death. He’s awaiting trial in November.

ANDOVER – A Kansas teen and a semi driver were injured in an accident just before 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Butler County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Ford Mustang driven by Brooke Dane Morris, 18, Murdock, was westbound on Kansas 254 six miles north of Andover.

The Mustang struck a 2004 International semi that was northbound on Butler Road and failed to stop for a stop sign.

Morris and the semi driver Dwight D. Henry, 70, Wichita were transported to Wesley Medical Center.

Both were properly restrained at the time of the collision, according to the KHP.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas State University researcher who was fired after accusing his colleagues of misrepresenting data in an academic journal has lost a bid for whistleblower protection under federal law.

The inspector general’s office at the National Science Foundation concluded that the research assistant professor of biology, Joseph Craine, didn’t qualify for the legal status based on allegations of retaliation from his superiors. However, the investigation did uncover evidence that two professors who sought Craine’s firing referred to him in profane terms in emails withheld by Kansas State University.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that university officials declined to comment on the foundation’s report, the Kansas Whistleblower Act and the nondisclosure of emails.

The National Science Foundation became involved because it sponsors research on prairie grassland coordinated by the university.

GREAT BEND -Video from a trail cam shows a mountain lion north of Great Bend in the Barton Hills area.

Officials with the Kansas Department of Wildlife Parks and Tourism have confirmed the video.

The short 20 second video that was shot at 10:06 p.m. on September 7th, made the rounds on Facebook.

It was a video that has also been seen by Wildlife and Parks biologist Charlie Swank who says he checked out the area and confirmed that the video was authentic.

“We go out and check and make sure the area matches the photograph or vide we receive,” said Swank. “We’ve had everything from pigs, dogs, house cats and more show up and be called a mountain lion.”

Swank says having mountain lions in Kansas is nothing new, but with the advent of trail cams they can now get a better handle of the number of cats that move through the state.

The first confirmed mountain lion in Kansas in modern times was shot and killed in 2007 in Barber County in south-central Kansas.

Ten more have been verified since then, for a total of 11 confirmed sightings.

The latest sighting prior to the recent sighting in Barton County was confirmed last August in Rooks County, north of Webster Reservoir.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Some state lawmakers are considering allowing some form of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act amid the looming closure of a hospital in southeast Kansas.

Mercy Hospital in Independence announced last week that it was closing its doors on Oct. 10, partly due to declining reimbursement rates from Medicare.

Senate Vice President Jeff King said Tuesday that Kansas should consider a state-centric approach to addressing poor residents’ health care needs.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that King’s support of an expansion plan could be important because the only Medicaid expansion bills introduced so far in the Legislature have been in the House, where Republican leaders have refused to allow debate and votes on any bills.

At least 30 other states have implemented some kind of Medicaid expansion plan.

GREAT BEND— Authorities have identified the victim of a fatal shooting in western Kansas as a 39-year-old Texas man.

Great Bend police say the man shot last Friday was Jeremy Saldana, of San Angelo, Texas.

An Ellsworth Correctional Facility employee is jailed on $1 million bond in the killing. The Barton County Sheriff’s Department arrest report indicates Freddie Thomas, 49, Lincoln, is being held on a charge of first degree murder. He was arrested on Saturday.

Saldana and the suspect knew each other and he was shot after an argument, according to police.

Ellsworth Correctional Facility spokesman Todd Britton says the suspect has been placed on administrative leave. The suspect worked at the prison entry and on perimeter watch, driving a vehicle.

Anyone with information is urged to contact authorities.

-The Associated Press contributed to this report

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A man has been found dead outside a bar in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park.

KSHB-TV  reports that police said they responded early Wednesday to an armed disturbance. The victim was found in the parking lot of The Roxy. The man’s name and his cause of death weren’t immediately released.

Authorities are seeking a suspect who left in a large red truck. Anyone with information is urged to call authorities.

CANDICE CHOI, AP Food Industry Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Olive Garden is bringing back its “Pasta Pass” that lets people gorge on as much pasta as they want for seven weeks. And friends and family are welcome to pig out too this year.

The restaurant chain says it will sell 1,000 of the $100 Pasta Passes starting Thursday at 2 p.m. EDT on its website. It will also sell 1,000 family Pasta Passes, which will cost $300 and let cardholders bring up to three guests.

The passes sold out in 45 minutes last year and generated considerable publicity for Olive Garden, which is trying to modernize its image.

Late night talk show host David Letterman even devoted a top 10 list to the Pasta Pass, saying that one of its clauses is that a person’s dignity is not refundable.

by MIKE SHERRY

The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City invited Kathleen Sebelius to help it celebrate its first decade of grant making, but the woman who has served as both U.S. health secretary and Kansas governor came armed with a big idea for the next decade.

“I think the challenge over the next 10 years is: How do you make Kansas City the healthiest region in the country?” Sebelius said at the foundation’s Tuesday luncheon in Kansas City.

“I think that is a very reasonable goal. I don’t think that is at all out of reach.” That mantle “does not mean you have the fewest people in the hospital,” she added, “but that you have the most people who are really living and working to their full potential.”

The foundation was established in 2003 with part of the proceeds from the $1.1 billion sale of Health Midwest, a nonprofit hospital system, to Nashville-based HCA, a for-profit company. The sale also established the REACH Healthcare Foundation, which is based in Merriam, Kan.

The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City began making grants two years after its formation, and since then, it has awarded more than $200 million to more than 400 organizations, according to its 10th anniversary website.

Sebelius lauded the foundation for the spirit of cooperation it has fostered in a decade’s worth of work, especially in the area of nutrition. “You have a lot to teach the rest of the country,” she said. She also applauded the foundation for its early recognition of the importance of the so-called social determinants of health.

Those are the factors in one’s community — such as a lack of good sidewalks or places to exercise — that can contribute to physical problems. That concept now is becoming more common in health conversations in the United States and around the world, Sebelius said.

By some estimates, she said, the U.S. economy loses about $300 billion a year in productivity from populations that are in poor health, often people in poor and minority communities.

“The leadership of this foundation over the past 10 years cannot be underestimated,” Sebelius said. “I know lots of communities would love to have that opportunity. There is no question that health is good for individuals, it’s good for families and it’s good for communities.”

Mike Sherry is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.