(AP) – Kansans have told a state official that they want hundreds of laws taken off the books.

Dennis Taylor, known as the state’s “repealer” says he has received hundreds of suggestions on which state laws should be repealed – ranging those regulating lynching to a recent smoking ban.

Taylor, who is head of the Kansas Department of Administration, told lawmakers Monday that he would report to Gov. Sam Brownback on is findings soon. Brownback will make recommendations to the Legislature on which laws to repeal.

Taylor says another law that has drawn several comments – both positive and negative – is one allowing the eradication of prairie dogs.

(AP) – Hundreds of holiday stockings stuffed with goodies will be sent to troops overseas as a tribute to a Garden City soldier who died in Iraq in 2007.

The stocking drive for soldiers began a year before Sgt. 1st Class Travis Bachman died but was renamed in his honor. Bachman, a member of the Army National Guard, was killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle on Aug. 1, 2007.

The Garden City News-Telegram reports that this year’s drive brought in 615 stockings, shy of a goal of 700.

Bachman’s widow, Amber Wilson, started the drive with a friend in 2006. She says that every year she is overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and generosity from the community.

(AP) – Kansas residents who use prepaid wireless phones and phone cards will pay a little more next year.

Starting New Year’s Day, the state will begin collecting a 1.06% fee on prepaid phones and phone cards.

The Department of Revenue announced Tuesday that the fee revenue will be used to help develop emergency dispatch centers with equipment, system upgrades and licensing and training fees.

Lawmakers approved the new fee earlier this year.

The fee applies to newly purchased phones with preloaded minutes or rebates for airtime. It also applies when phone cards or prepaid phones are recharged.

(AP) – A Mexican citizen is going to prison for tending a 6,000-plant marijuana field in east-central Kansas.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says 42-year-old Marcelo Parra-Ocmo was sentenced Monday to three years in federal prison based on a guilty plea.

Prosecutors said Parra-Ocmo was in the U.S. illegally when he was arrested June 16 at a marijuana field in Osage County. Also arrested in the raid were Ernesto Duenas-Aceon, who is set for sentencing in January, and Parra-Ocmo’s minor son, a high school student.

Law enforcement first noticed the field in February after it had been abandoned for the winter. Agents flew over the site in May and saw that the cultivation had resumed.

(AP) – Republican presidential candidates Ron Paul, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney will participate in the Kansas GOP’s 2012 caucus in March.

The Kansas Republican Party said the three had completed the process of putting their names on the ballot ahead of the Dec. 31 deadline.

Republicans say that the campaigns for Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain were coordinating with Kansas officials to complete their process of getting on the ballot.

Kansas Republicans will hold their caucus on March 10 to determine how the state’s 40 convention delegates are apportioned to the candidates. Republicans who are registered by Feb. 17, 2012, may vote in the caucus.

(AP) – A Kansas City architecture firm has teamed up with a Habitat for Humanity group to develop green, affordable housing in Kansas and Missouri.

The Kansas City Star reports that Heartland Habitat for Humanity plans to break ground next spring on a prototype building that’s being developed by El Dorado Inc. Heartland Habitat works in three Kansas counties and two counties in Missouri.

Josh Shelton is with El Dorado. He says the concept for the project focuses on a “common sense approach to sustainability” and incorporates such things as energy-efficient ventilation and a rainwater collection system.

The project is 1 of 5 pilot efforts nationwide selected by Habitat for Humanity International and Public Architecture, a San Francisco organization that produces and promotes new ideas for affordable housing.

(AP) – Topeka police are investigating whether DNA evidence stored in California in 1992 could solve a 1985 rape case.

The Lawrence Journal-World discovered the existence of the DNA while reporting on the case of Topeka resident Joe Jones, who was released from a Kansas prison in 1992 after DNA evidence exonerated him of a 1985 rape.

No one has been arrested for the crime, in which the victim was kidnapped at knifepoint in downtown Topeka.

Ed Blake, who originally tested the DNA and testified at Jones’ 1992 release hearing, said his DNA testing firm has leftover DNA material. He says new technology could possibly identify the rapist.

The DNA remnants have been frozen in a cooler for the past 19 years in California.

(AP) — A science teacher at Olathe East High School has been named the 2012 Kansas Teacher of the Year.

Tiffany Richard was named Teacher of Year at ceremonies Saturday night in Wichita.

Richard, who was selected from eight finalists, has been a biology and chemistry teacher at Olathe East High School for eight years.

As Teacher of the Year, she receives a $4,000 cash award and other gifts.

(AP) – A Kansas agency that distributes millions of state tax dollars to emerging bioscience companies is promoting its contributions to the economy as it waits for results from a financial audit and a prosecutor’s review of its operations.

The Kansas Bioscience Authority calculates that its investments over the past seven years have created more than 1,300 jobs that on average paid more than $68,700 during the state fiscal year that ended with June.

Earlier this year, Gov. Sam Brownback said publicly he was concerned about the authority after questions arose about its spending. An outside audit is in the works.

Meanwhile, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe says an investigation of the authority’s operations by his office is ongoing. The authority’s offices are in Olathe, the county’s seat.

(AP) – Wallace County authorities are investigating damage done to markers and signs at Mount Sunflower, the state’s highest point.

Sheriff Larry Townsend says someone caused extensive damage to the monument in early November, probably by using a flatbed truck.

The truck backed into and pulled apart a Mount Sunflower sign made of railroad spikes and broke a limestone sign in half, as well as damaging a fence and the visitor’s registration book.

The Hays Daily News reports that vandals did not damage a sign that recognizes Mount Sunflower as the highest point in Kansas, with an elevation of 4,039 feet. The rolling hill about a mile from the Colorado border draws between 700 and 1,200 visitors ca year.

(AP) – Kansas transportation department says the state needs to stop using transportation dollars for other priorities.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that in the last dozen years, the state has used $1.4 billion earmarked for transportation projects for other priorities.

The money was used for such things as operations for the Kansas Highway Patrol, subsidized airline tickets in Wichita and state Medicaid programs.

Deb Miller, secretary of the transportation department, says the department cannot meet its obligations to the public if the cash drain continues.

Senate President Steve Morris, a Republican from Hugoton, said he would oppose removal of future funding from the transportation department in the fiscal year 2013 budget.