A University of Kansas researcher says that gay marriage bans may have generated empathy for same-sex couples and their families.

Political science professor Don Haider-Markel has researched gay and lesbian political movements in the United States. He also wrote “Out and Running: Gay and Lesbian Candidates, Elections and Policy Representation.”

Haider-Markel says that without states pushing to ban same-sex marriage in the 1990s, people might not have been exposed to stories about the difficulties gay couples experience without marriage. Haider-Markel called that opinion-changing coverage “an ironic outcome.”

Today, six states and the District of Columbia have made same-sex marriage legal, and 12 more recognize civil unions or have domestic partner laws. Recently, three more state legislatures voted to permit gay marriage, although the New Jersey legislation was vetoed.

Gov. Sam Brownback has declared a disaster emergency in 19 counties hit this week by violent weather, including the storm that spawned a deadly tornado in the eastern Kansas town of Harveyville.

The governor’s disaster declaration Thursday brings the state into the response to the storms.

Brownback had already declared of a state of emergency Tuesday night in Wabaunsee County after the tornado hit Harveyville. But other areas also had damaging winds, hail and tornadoes.

In addition to Wabaunsee County, the new declaration covers the following counties: Butler, Chautauqua, Coffey, Cowley, Crawford, Douglas, Franklin, Harper, Kingman, Labette, Leavenworth, Marion, Montgomery, McPherson, Reno, Republic, Sumner and Wilson counties.

Kansas Congressman Mike Pompeo has joined a Republican push in Washington to end all energy tax credits.

Pompeo, who represents the Wichita area, is sponsoring House legislation ending the production tax credit for electricity produced from renewable resources such as wind, biomass and hydropower.

He was joined at a Washington news conference Thursday by Republican Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Mike Lee of Utah and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

The legislation would also end tax credits for plug-in electric and fuel cell vehicles, alternative fuel mixtures, clean coal investment and oil and gas production from marginal wells.

Pompeo says he wants to create a level playing field for energy companies. Some other lawmakers from states like Kansas that are trying to develop wind energy support the wind energy tax credits.

Text messages between a 38-year-old Kansas man and a 14-year-old girl he’s accused of killing will be allowed as evidence in his murder trial later this month.

Lawyers for Adam Longoria wanted to exclude dozens of text messages he exchanged with Alicia DeBolt after they met at a party in Great Bend. DeBolt’s burned body was found in August 2010 at a Barton County asphalt plant where Longoria worked.

Barton County District Judge Hannelore Kitts on Thursday denied the defense motion.

Prosecutors say Longoria was obsessed with DeBolt, and the text messages over the course of more than a month indicate that. Defense attorneys say prosecutors are blatantly trying to prejudice jurors by presenting the text messages.

Longoria’s trial is scheduled for March 26.

A man injured in a tornado that hit the small eastern Kansas of Harveyville has died.

Sharon Watson, a spokeswoman for the state adjutant general, said 53-year-old Richard D. Slade died Wednesday evening at Stormont-Vail Hospital in Topeka.

She says Slade was injured when his home collapsed on him during the tornado Tuesday in the Wabaunsee County town. He was airlifted to the hospital and the decision was made to take him off life support Wednesday afternoon.

Five other people treated at hospitals after the tornado have been released. Eight others were treated in Harveyville after the storm.

House Majority Leader Arlen Siegfreid has introduced a bill to set aside space in the Kansas Statehouse for prayer, meditation and reflection.

The Olathe Republican on Wednesday told the House Federal and State Affairs Committee that the U.S. Capitol and several other states have such chapels for use by all faiths. Siegfreid said the space would be paid for through private funds.

He said Republican Gov. Sam Brownback has offered to allow legislators to use a portion of the space allotted to his office on the second floor in the Statehouse for the chapel. Siegfreid said eventually the chapel would be located in the visitors’ center scheduled to be built in the Statehouse.

Siegfreid said Brownback has offered to help him raise money for the chapel project.

Funeral services are scheduled in suburban Buffalo for an Iraq war veteran who died after getting into a fight in the Kansas town where he was attending college.

Buffalo media outlets report that 27-year-old Nicholas Sardina was found dead last Saturday in his apartment in Lawrence, Kan., where he was attending classes at the University of Kansas.

Police say he had been in a fight at a house party several hours before at another home in Lawrence. Autopsy results are still pending. Authorities say no arrests have been made.

Sardina joined the Army after graduating from Clarence High School and served several tours in Iraq before being honorably discharged in 2008.

His funeral is being held Friday morning at a Catholic church in Clarence, just east of Buffalo.

Kansas City police are looking for two teenagers who a 13-year-old boy says followed him home from school and started a gasoline fire that burned his face and hair.

Detective Stacey Taylor says the boy suffered first-degree burns but no permanent damage in the incident Tuesday afternoon.

Taylor says one of the assailants picked up a gasoline can on the porch of the boy’s home while the other kept the boy from going inside.

Some of the gasoline spilled during a struggle, and the boy says one of the attackers said “this is what you get” before lighting the spilled fuel.

Taylor says the case is not being treated as a hate crime.

Kansas House members have reversed course on a bill passed last week to give cities and counties some $90 million in property tax relief.

The chamber voted Wednesday to reconsider the bill after members learned that it didn’t contain provisions many thought were in the measure to limit property tax increases.

Those provisions were popular among conservatives who were concerned about what they said were stealth tax increases caused by rising property valuations.

Those changes were deleted by an amendment from Rep. Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat, to add the money for local governments. Some House members said Ward wasn’t clear about his intentions when he offered the amendment.

House leaders said that the tax committee would consider both topics and put them in a new bill.

 A 77-year-old Kansas mail carrier accused of embezzling mail says she didn’t steal it. She just didn’t deliver it.

Federal prosecutors filed a criminal information Wednesday against Dixie Bontrager of Holton, charging her with one count of embezzling first-class mail periodicals, parcels and bulk mail entrusted to her. Bontrager told The Associated Press she intends to plead guilty.

Bontrager says she had been a mail carrier for 30 years until she was dismissed in 2010. Her 115-mile route included Holton and Circleville in northeast Kansas.

She tells The AP that she never gave any thought that it was stealing mail because she never opened anything.

The woman says lot of it was just junk mail like advertising flyers or undeliverable mail. She says some of it dated to 2003.

A northeast Kansas couple will be sentenced in March after pleading no contest to defrauding the state’s welfare system.

The Leavenworth Times reports that 44-year-old Gregory Riley and 47-year-old Diana Riley entered the pleas this week to one count each of felony welfare fraud and perjury.

The Rileys, who live in Bonner Springs, reached the plea agreement ahead of what was expected to be a lengthy preliminary hearing beginning Thursday.

Prosecutors said that from 2005 to 2009, the couple wrongfully obtained more than $22,000 in food stamp assistance and more than $60,000 in medical assistance.

At one point, the county attorney says, the Rileys reported having a total of $75 in two bank accounts when they actually had nearly $10,000 in cash in five accounts plus a second home.

Attorneys for the Kansas man accused of killing a 14-year-old Great Bend girl are seeking to close a pretrial proceeding during arguments over several motions.

Thirty-8-year-old Adam Longoria faces trial March 26 on charges of capital murder and other offenses. The Great Bend man is accused of killing Alicia DeBolt, whose charred body was found in August 2010 at the asphalt plant where he worked.

Defense attorneys contend in a filing Wednesday that Longoria’s ability to get a fair trial would be hurt if arguments on certain motions took place in open court. At issue are several sealed filings as well as motions over whether to admit into evidence various statements Longoria made to investigators.

A motions hearing is scheduled Thursday in Barton County District Court.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has published two new research summaries: Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index and Adolescent and 2010 Teenage Pregnancy Report. The teen pregnancy report provides data to support assessment and evaluation of teen pregnancies in Kansas. The Prenatal Care report enables public health to identify inequities in the quantity of prenatal health care received. KDHE has a number of programs addressing both concerns.

The Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index shows the 2010 prenatal care described as inadequate decreased by 4.7 percent compared to 2009. Adequate care increased by 3.1 percent. While Kansas’ level of adequate care (79.8 percent) is better than the Healthy People 2020 target of 77.6 percent, inequities by population group and pay source continue.

The KDHE Pregnancy Maintenance Initiative (PMI) program is addressing the prenatal health inequities by awarding grants to nonprofit organizations for services to enable pregnant women (any age) to carry their pregnancies to term. PMI services are based on a case management model with a goal to promote public/private partnerships to facilitate the availability and ready access to affordable and appropriate care, thus improving the potential for a positive pregnancy outcome for the childbearing woman and infant.

The Adolescent and Teenage Pregnancy Report added a new map this year comparing the 2010 county pregnancy rates relative to state pregnancy rates. The map gives a quick look at counties with rates statistically lower than the state rate and those that rate statistically higher than the state rate. Pregnancy rates for Kansas females ages 10-19 dropped by 13.8 percent from 2009 to 2010. Rates among females aged 15-17 and 18-19 also dropped. Inequities continue to exist among population groups in Kansas. For example, pregnancy rates for Black non-Hispanic and Hispanic teens aged 10-17 are three times higher than the rate for White non-Hispanics of the same age group.

The KDHE Teen Pregnancy Targeted Case Management program takes into consideration the counties with rates statistically above the state rate when awarding grant funding for comprehensive case management services to pregnant and/or parenting adolescents in Kansas communities. The project’s goals are: to reduce negative consequences of teenage pregnancy for Medicaid-enrolled teens and their children; to increase levels of self-sufficiency and goal-directedness relating to their own futures and that of their children; and to delay subsequent childbearing until completion of goals related to basic education/training or they reach 21 years of age.

“Maintaining and improving family health is an essential component of the public health mission of KDHE,” said Robert Moser, M.D., KDHE Secretary and State Health Officer. “Facilitating healthy pregnancies and positive birth outcomes pays dividends to Kansas society in the form of reduced maternal and infant mortality and children capable of lear