A new report shows lobbyists are spending almost 9 percent more this year than last year to try to influence Kansas officials.

The Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission’s report says lobbyists disclosed spending nearly $709,000 through August. That’s $57,000 more than they spent during the same period last year.

Lobbyists have ramped up spending on newsletters and other communications designed to get people to pressure lawmakers. Such spending totaled $105,000 through August, compared to $15,000 for the same period last year.

This year’s biggest-spending group has been the Kansas Association of Realtors, which disclosed expenses of $152,000 on lobbying. It successfully blocked a move by Gov. Sam Brownback to eliminate an income tax deduction for home mortgage interest as part of a larger plan to rewrite the state’s tax code.

A southeastern Kansas woman is jailed on $1 million bond, accused of intentionally hitting and killing her boyfriend with a car after an argument.

The Independence Daily Reporter says 49-year-old Martin “Moochie” Dunn was pronounced dead Tuesday at an Independence hospital. His 21-year-old girlfriend was booked on suspicion of first-degree murder and made a first court appearance Wednesday.

Family members and Independence police say the two have a child together.

Witnesses said the pair argued in Dunn’s yard about changing the oil in the woman’s car. They said the woman got in the car and drove at Dunn, crossing a curb and striking him.

A large crowd of Dunn’s family and friends gathered later at the hospital where Dunn died. Nearly 25 law enforcement officers were called to maintain order.

Two Kansas legislative candidates who had been “friended” by lobbyists on Facebook have been fined for improperly posting announcements about fundraisers on the social media site.

Kansas law bars incumbent lawmakers and candidates for the House or Senate from soliciting campaign contributions from lobbyists while the Legislature is in session.

House Republican Greg Smith, of Overland Park, and House GOP candidate Becky Nioce (nys), of Topeka, posted notices about fundraising events on their Facebook pages in late May. But the Legislature didn’t formally end its session until June 1.

On Wednesday, the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission fined them both $100. Smith and Nioce both said they didn’t mean to violate the law.

Smith is running for an open state Senate seat. Nioce is challenging Democratic Rep. Annie Kuether.

A six-car accident in a construction zone injured four in Ford County Tuesday afternoon.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, at around 1:50, vehicles were stopped for a flagman in a construction zone in the eastbound lanes on US-50 near Spearville when John Borgstrom, 56, of Windom, failed to stop for traffic. Borgstrum’s 2010 Freightliner first struck the stopped pickup of Rodney Williamson, 68, of Satanta, which started a chain reaction that ultimately led to collisions with four other vehicles stopped in the construction zone.

Borgrstrom and the drivers of three of the other vehicles involved, Cristina Rosales, Nadia Richard, and Richard Thompson, were transported to Western Plains Medical Complex in Dodge City with disabling injuries.

Williamson was not injured in the accident, nor were the occupants of the sixth vehicle, Harlow Sherman and Paul Brodigan of Arizona.

Workers are preparing to remove temporary walls on the first floor of the Kansas Statehouse, unsealing part of the building’s rotunda for the first time in four years.

Statehouse Architect Barry Greis (grys) says the work will start Thursday as the massive renovation of the Capitol’s first through fifth floors nears an end.

The renovation began in 2001 and is expected to cost $332 million. The project will include a new visitor center in the building’s basement.

Greis says that with the temporary walls gone from the first floor, visitors will be able to stroll through the rotunda and look up at the Statehouse dome.

Greis expects other temporary walls to come down by Sept. 28.

A federal appeals court has upheld the way Kansas deals with small political parties.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday for Kansas in a lawsuit by the Constitution Party of Kansas, which is not among the parties recognized by the state. The Constitution Party filed suit over the secretary of state’s refusal to allow people to affiliate with it when registering to vote.

In a summary judgment last year, a federal judge said the state’s system of tracking party affiliation did not unconstitutionally burden the rights of the Constitution Party.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach argued the case before the appeals court. Kobach says in a news release that Tuesday’s ruling spares the state from having to track an untold number of political parties.

A Hoxie man was injured in a rollover Tuesday morning in Sheridan County.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, at approximately 7:50, John Walker, 32, was northbound on K-23 near mile marker 193 when he veered off the east side of the road, then overcorrected and rolled his 2005 Chevy pickup into the west ditch, with the vehicle eventually coming to rest on its roof.

Walker, who was not wearing a seat belt, was transported to Sheridan County Hospital with possible injuries.

A new report for Kansas public schools shows that students slipped in their performance on standardized tests during the past school year.

Deputy Education Commissioner Brad Neuenswander says officials are studying why the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards in reading and math fell slightly in the 2011-12 school year.

The figures from the Kansas Department of Education were presented Tuesday to the State Board of Education.

They show 85.7 percent of students taking reading tests met or exceeded standards last year, compared with 87.6 percent the previous year. In math, 83.7 percent of test-takers met or exceeded standards, down from 84.7 percent in the previous academic year.

Some educators believe the figures suggested the state’s past budget problems are hindering schools.

McPherson Police continue to investigate a case where a college football player laying on the ground early Sunday morning.

According to a release from McPherson Police on Facebook, on September 16, 2012, at approximately 4:10am, officers of the McPherson Police Department were dispatched to a loud music complaint in the 400 block of North Carrie, McPherson, KS.

Upon their arrival, officers found a man, who has been identified by several media outlets as 26 year old Brandon Brown a football player at Tabor College in Hillsboro.

He was found lying just off the street, unconscious and unresponsive.

Brown was transported to McPherson Hospital and later air lifted to Wichita where he is being treated for undisclosed injuries.

Brown is from Sacramento California.

The investigation continues, if you have any information about this incident contact McPherson Police Department (620) 245-1200 or McPherson County Crime Stoppers (620) 241-1122.

An anti-abortion group has filed an ethics complaint against Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt over the dismissal of a criminal case against a Kansas City-area Planned Parenthood clinic.

Operation Rescue confirmed the filing Tuesday, a day after sending its complaint to the state office that reviews allegations against attorneys.

The group accuses Schmidt of participating with Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe in seeing that charges against Planned Parenthood’s clinic in Overland Park were dismissed under false pretenses.

Howe’s predecessor as district attorney filed 107 charges against the clinic in 2007, accusing it of falsifying documents and performing illegal abortions. The clinic strongly disputed the allegations and the last of the charges were dismissed in August.

A spokesman for Schmidt did not immediately return telephone messages seeking comment.