Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s attempts to influence immigration policy and how the U.S. conducts elections are expected to pull his home-state Legislature into two contentious political debates in the coming year.

And those debates will reinforce his reputation as a polarizing political figure.

Kobach is a conservative Republican and former law professor who helped write Arizona and Alabama laws against illegal immigration. He advises Kansas legislators looking to do the same.

He said in an interview that he’s not leading the push for measures like Arizona’s “check your papers” law. But some officials think such issues wouldn’t gain as much interest in Kansas without him.

Meanwhile, he plans to follow up a law he advocated requiring all voters to show photo identification at the polls.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Barton County Sheriff’s Office are still investigating the death of a male inmate at the Barton County Detention Facility. As of Wednesday, the only additional information provided by the Sheriff’s Office was the name of the inmate.

Barton County Undersheriff Larry Holliday says that 37 year-old Christopher Michael Grimsley of Hoisington was found dead in a one-man cell Friday evening.

Additional details will be provided after results from an autopsy being conducted in Hays become available, but until that is done, no further information is being released.

The inmate had been booked into the facility on November 15th on charges from Hoisington.

A jury trial in the federal lawsuit alleging abuse at a Kansas military boarding school has been put off to 2014.

Former cadets at St. John’s Military School in Salina filed suit in March of this year, alleging higher-ranking students were encouraged to discipline younger ones. The plaintiffs contend the practice led to physical and mental abuse.

St. John’s has denied the allegations.

The trial was initially set for October 2013, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Gale last week rescheduled it to March 2014.

Defense lawyers requested the extra time to prepare after more former cadets joined the lawsuit. The plaintiffs objected to the request.

Attorneys expect the trial to take two to three weeks.

Officials in a northeast Kansas community are pledging to fight a legal challenge to a local ban on the open carry of firearms.

The Libertarian Party of Kansas went to court last week seeking to prevent enforcement of open-carry bans by Prairie Village, Leawood and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan.

The Kansas City Star reports Prairie Village officials announced Monday that the Johnson County community will “vigorously defend” its authority to enact gun control measures. Officials for nearby Leawood and the Unified Government have not yet commented.

The Libertarian Party’s lawsuit contends the Prairie Village code conflicts with state law and the Kansas Constitution. The filing also alleges that Kansas communities that ban open carry of firearms are violating citizens’ constitutional rights.

A bacterial disease more commonly seen in the dry Southwest is infecting a large number of horses in Kansas.

WIBW-TV reports veterinarians at Kansas State University blame the outbreak of pigeon fever on the persistent drought and this year’s unusually hot summer.

Professor of equine medicine Laurie Beard says pigeon fever is painful for horses but not usually fatal. The disease causes muscles abscesses, most commonly in the pectoral muscles. That gives an infected horse a pigeon-like swollen chest.

Pigeon fever is caused by bacteria found in soil. Veterinarians at Kansas State say they treated a large number of horses throughout the fall and are still seeing more cases. They’re hoping the outbreak will subside as winter weather moves in.

The Kansas Senate’s new vice president expects fellow Republicans to decide early next month whether to make major changes in the chamber’s rules.

Sen. Jeff King of Independence says members of an all-GOP leadership panel haven’t yet reviewed any proposals in writing, although several ideas have come up.

One proposal under consideration would abolish the leadership panel, which makes committee assignments. The proposal would give that power to the Senate president, who already leads the nine-member group.

Another measure would establish a standing, bipartisan rules committee and have its leader settle rules disputes. Currently, the senator presiding over a debate handles the task.

King said if there are major changes, the Senate will consider them within days of the Jan. 14 opening of the 2013 legislative session.

Members of the all-Republican Kansas congressional delegation and officials in the GOP-dominated state government are resisting calls to tighten access to firearms following the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school earlier this month.

So far, no prominent Kansas elected official who’s strongly supported gun rights has backed away from positions that have brought him or her support from the National Rifle Association.

Officials in both Washington and Topeka say they want to examine services for the mentally ill and have expressed concern about what they see as a violent culture that fuels shootings. The GOP-led Legislature is unlikely to restrict access to firearms.

Some GOP officeholders are urging caution. They argue that it’s too early to talk about policy changes so close to the horrific events in Newtown, Connecticut.

One person was injured in a crash on I-70, 18 miles west of Salina, Sunday.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, a semi driven by 55-year-old Robin Yvette Webb of Tulsa Oklahoma, was eastbound on I-70 when it drifted off the south side of highway. Webb then overcorrected causing the vehicle to overturn onto the driver’s side coming to rest in the south ditch.

Webb was transported to Salina Regional with injuries.

Her condition was not immediately available.

The semi was hauling ethanol, which spilled after the crash, causing a portion of I-70 to be blocked off until nearly 4:30 pm.

Two people were injured in a two vehicle crash on I-70, just east of I-135, shortly before midnight Saturday.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol,  37-year-old Adrian Pacheco of Mexico was Westbound in the driving lane when 32-year-old Jeanette M. Conner, of Missouri, ran into the back of a vehicle Pacheco was towing.

Pacheco was not injured.

Conner and a passenger, 11-year-old Robert C. Bate, were transported to Salina Regional with injuries. A second passenger in Conner’s vehicle was not injured.

Two Kansas education groups are criticizing the National Rifle Association’s call to put an armed security officer in every school in the U.S. in the wake of last week’s mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary.

Even a state legislator known as a gun rights proponent had some doubts Friday about the NRA’s idea.

Kansas teachers union lobbyist Mark Desetti said the NRA’s proposal would turn schools into armed fortresses.

Kansas Association of School Boards official Mark Tallman said the move could prove expensive.

Republican state Rep. Forrest Knox, of Altoona, agreed that someone with a firearm would help stop and prevent mass shootings. But he said a killer would likely try to take out an officer first.

The Kansas State Rifle Association said it fully supports the NRA proposal.