TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate is debating a proposed constitutional amendment that would prevent the state’s courts from closing schools in deciding future education funding lawsuits.

Republican leaders expected the Senate to vote on the measure Friday. A two-thirds majority was needed for passage.

The proposal is a response to a state Supreme Court ruling last month declaring that the state’s education funding system remains unfair to poor school districts. The justices warned schools might not reopen after June 30 if lawmakers didn’t make changes.

The measure also would prevent legislators from closing schools in response to a court order. Supporters said future school closure threats need to be eliminated. Critics said the proposal is designed to handcuff the courts.

If lawmakers pass the measure, it goes on the ballot in November.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernie Sanders says he will vote for Hillary Clinton for president.

While stopping short of a full endorsement, Sanders says he’s “pretty good at arithmetic.” The Vermont senator says he understands that Clinton has more pledged delegates than he does. Sanders says, “I will do everything I can to defeat Donald Trump” because he says Trump’s campaign is built on bigotry and denying climate change.

Sanders tells MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that his job now is to “fight for the strongest possible platform” at the convention. Sanders says that includes a higher minimum wage.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A suburban Kansas City man accused of invoking a “triple dog dare” in a threatening message to a judge has been charged with a felony.

The Kansas City Star reports that 58-year-old Timmy Graves, of Independence, is charged with tampering with a judicial official. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

Court records say threatening messages that were sent to the Jackson County judge’s email address were traced to a telephone number assigned to Graves. In one expletive laden message, Graves is accused of daring the judge to come to his house.

Graves has been involved in several domestic cases at the circuit court, including two orders of protection and a divorce.

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — A man who drove 115 mph and used marijuana before a deadly suburban Kansas City crash has pleaded guilty to a felony.

The Kansas City Star reports that Julian Melissinas, of Blue Springs, admitted Thursday in Jackson County Circuit Court to involuntary manslaughter. The charge stemmed from a crash that killed his friend, 19-year-old Clint Reno, in May 2015 in Independence.

The plea comes almost a month after a judge revoked Melissinas’ bond after the 20-year-old again tested positive for marijuana during a drug screening. A jury trial had been scheduled for September.

Sentencing is set for Aug. 25. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors will not seek a sentence longer than five years in prison.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A former St. Louis sheriff’s deputy who is seeking office as sheriff has filed a lawsuit accusing the department of racial discrimination.

Former St. Louis sheriff’s deputy Johnnie Chester filed the lawsuit Tuesday in St. Louis court against Sheriff James W. Murphy alleging a “pattern and practice” of racial discrimination in the department.

Chester is a former deputy and is now seeking to replace Murphy, who is not seeking re-election. Chester is black; Murphy is white. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports five men, including Chester, are running to replace Murphy in the August primary.

Murphy’s executive aide Michael Guzy said neither he nor the sheriff had been served in the case yet and therefore couldn’t discuss it.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — World financial markets were rocked Friday by Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, with stock markets and oil prices crashing and the pound hitting its lowest level in three decades.

The uncharted, unexpected path of a European Union without Britain sparked the sell-offs, with more jitters expected as global markets try to digest the shock result.

Tokyo stocks plummeted nearly 8 percent, their biggest fall since 2008, while South Korea’s Kospi tumbled about 3 percent.

Crude oil prices and U.S. futures also took a big hit, and the British pound plummeted more than 10 percent in six hours while the yen surged about 3 percent to the U.S. dollar as investors seeking safety snapped up the Japanese currency.

By early afternoon in Asia, a tally by the BBC showed Britain had voted to leave the 28-nation European Union by about a 52 percent to 48 percent margin.

On Thursday, Wall Street finished with rallies as pre-poll forecasts showed that Britain would keep the EU membership.

U.S. futures took a dive. Dow futures fell 3.9 percent and S&P futures nosedived 5.1 percent.

Besides the pound’s decline, the fell against the yen and gained against the euro.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil plummeted more than $3, or 6.2 percent, to just above $47 per barrel.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States respects the decision of the people of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, President Barack Obama said Friday, insisting that the special relationship between Washington and London will endure.

In his first public reaction to the vote, Obama said the people of the U.K. had spoken. Obama had strongly urged that the UK remain in the EU, and the decision is a significant blow to his efforts to counter the isolationist viewpoints taking hold in many parts of the world.

“The United Kingdom and the European Uniion will remain indispensable partners of the United States even as they begin negotiating their ongoing relationship to ensure continued stability, security, and prosperity for Europe, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the world,” Obama said.

Obama’s comments came in a written statement issued by the White House while the president was traveling in California.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is promising to “work closely with both London and Brussels and our international partners to ensure continued economic stability, security, and prosperity in Europe and beyond.”

Stock markets and the pound have plunged amid investor concerns about the economic repercussions of Britain’s departure from the EU, the world’s largest economic bloc.

NIXA, Mo. (AP) — Police in the southwest Missouri town of Nixa are investigating how a decomposed body ended up in the back seat of a car parked at fast-food restaurant.

Nixa spokeswoman Jill Finney says police were called to a Wendy’s restaurant early Thursday after the body was found in a car that had been in the parking lot for several days.

Finney says the body was so badly decomposed it was nearly unrecognizable but it is apparently a male.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that Finney says foul play has not been ruled out. No other details were released.

WARSAW, Mo. (AP) — A man already in prison on drug charges was convicted of raping and killing a 15-year-old rural Greene County girl and dumping her body in Truman Lake.

A Cooper County jury on Thursday convicted Anthony Balbirnie in the September 2012 death of Khighla Parks. He will be sentenced Sept. 1 for second-degree murder and other charges.

Prosecutors say Balbirnie choked Parks during sex at a home in Buffalo then dumped her body in the lake near Warsaw.

Balbirnie is awaiting trial for second-degree murder in the 2008 death of Theresa Mohler, of Springfield. Investigators believe Balbirnie held Mohler against her will for several days at his home in Polk County. She allegedly was forcibly injected with meth and raped before escaping. Prosecutors say the injection caused a fatal infection.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Prosecutors say an Iowa man who ran a bar code theft ring in several states has been given 70 years in federal prison.

Bradley Prucha was sentenced Thursday. He’d been convicted of conspiracy, mail fraud, production and possession of child pornography and other crimes.

Prosecutors say Prucha printed bar code stickers and placed them on store items that would ring up at lower prices.

He then had accomplices return them for refunds on their full prices or sold them online. Prosecutors say the West Des Moines resident ran the scheme in Iowa, Florida, Nebraska and other states. He’d previously been convicted of a similar scheme in Florida.

Prosecutors also said Prucha recruited teenage girls for the scam and paid them for sex at sessions that he recorded without their knowledge.