(AP) – A professional ethics panel is recommending that former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline should have his state law license suspended over his conduct during investigations of abortion providers.

The ruling Thursday was on a complaint alleging that Kline, an anti-abortion Republican, and subordinates misled other officials to further their investigations.

It also accuses them of mishandling abortion patients’ private medical records.

Kline strongly disputes the allegations.

The Kansas Supreme Court will review the case and have the final say.

Kline was attorney general from 2003 to 2007, then Johnson County district attorney for two years.

(AP) – Kansas City police have again searched a large wooded area near the home where an 11-month-old baby was reported missing last week.

Police returned Thursday to the area about one mile from the home where Lisa Irwin’s parents reported her missing early Oct. 4. Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley said the baby was gone from her crib after Jeremy Irwin returned from a late shift at work. The parents say they believe someone abducted the child.

Police have said they have no suspects or leads.

The area that was searched Thursday had been checked the previous day by teams with all-terrain vehicles and tracking dogs, but police said they wanted to give the area a more complete search.

(AP) – Kansas has joined a growing number of states that will seek federal permission for flexibility from the No Child Left Behind law.

The State Board of Education on Tuesday authorized the Kansas Department of Education to request a waiver in February. The request would spell out how the state will continue to work toward the national student achievement goals.

President Barack Obama last month encouraged states to apply for waivers, saying he was frustrated that Congress was slow to make changes. The law was passed in 2002 and was due for revisions in 2007 but has been delayed.

Thirty-seven states are planning to request waivers.

A man and woman from Wichita were killed in a rollover accident on K-14 (approximately 10 miles south of Beloit) at around 4:30 AM Thursday morning.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, 53-year-old Bobby J. Counterman of Wichita was northbound on K-14 when the vehicle he was driving left the east side of the roadway, crossed back over the highway, and then rolled approximately 3 times.

Counterman and a passenger, 65-year-old Sandra K. Armstrong, also of Wichita were both pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.

The cause of the accident is not known at this time.

(AP) – The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is examining the death of a 22-year-old Glen Elder man who was being held at the Lincoln County Jail.

Lincoln County attorney Jennifer O’Hare says Nathaniel Grabast was jailed on Monday after being arrested in a non-injury hit & run accident in Barnard.

During routine checks Monday evening, Grabast was found unconscious in a cell. O’Hare said a deputy administered CPR and an ambulance was called, but Grabast was pronounced dead at a hospital in Lincoln.

(AP) – Deer in some parts of Kansas are dying from a disease spread by tiny insects.

The state’s park department says epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD, has been found in much of the eastern one-third of the state and as far west as Butler and McPherson counties.

Lloyd Fox, a big game coordinator with the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, says the disease is most common in years with extended drought. That forces deer to drink from stagnant pools of water, which are breeding grounds for midges, tiny insects that pass infected blood from one deer to another.

The Wichita Eagle reports the disease cannot be passed to humans or pets. Cattle can get the disease but it rarely kills them and sheep can be vulnerable to EHD.

(AP) – An outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe is now linked to 23 deaths in the U.S., making it the deadliest known outbreak of food-borne illness in more than 25 years.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that 116 people have been sickened in the outbreak, including those who died. The number of deaths has now surpassed a 1998 outbreak of listeria in processed meats that was linked to 21 deaths. A 1985 listeria outbreak in Mexican-style soft cheeses killed 52 people.

The CDC confirmed two more deaths in Louisiana that the state had said it was investigating last week. Other deaths were reported in Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming.

Colorado’s Jensen Farms recalled the tainted cantaloupe last month.

(AP) – A former northeastern Kansas county prosecutor has pleaded no contest to stealing more than $70,000 from a church.

Brian Carroll entered the plea Tuesday in Marshall County District Court. The judge pronounced Carroll guilty and set scheduling for Nov. 22.

Carroll was charged in June with felony theft. He was accused of misappropriating funds from Marysville Berean Church between August 2006 and 2010 while serving as the church treasurer.

Carroll resigned as Marshall County attorney in August to take a job as a trust officer with a bank in Pratt. He had served as prosecutor for several years.

The theft case was prosecuted by the Kansas attorney general’s office.

(AP) – Advocates for abuse victims say a dispute between the city of Topeka and the district attorney over the prosecution of domestic violence misdemeanors will make people who are already scared think twice before reporting abuse.

The mayor and council of Kansas’ capital city voted to repeal the city’s ordinance against domestic violence Tuesday night. It was a dramatic escalation in their attempt to force the county to back away from its budget-driven decision to stop prosecuting misdemeanors committed inside the city.

The director of Topeka’s YWCA Center for Safety and Empowerment said Wednesday the decision sends the wrong message about domestic violence and makes it more unlikely that abuse victims will step forward for help.