TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate has advanced a bill that would lessen the penalties for sexting by middle and high school students in hopes that prosecutors will be willing to combat the practice.

Senators gave the measure first-round approval on a voice vote Monday, and a final vote is expected Tuesday.

The House approved its own version of the legislation earlier this month.

Both bills focus on 12- to 18-year-olds accused of transmitting images of a nude child. Under existing state law, prosecutors are restricted to filing a felony charge that carried a prison sentence up to 11 years and four months and lifetime registration as a sex offender.

Both measures make a first offense by someone 18 or younger a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Business, labor and civil rights groups are opposing a bill that would require all Missouri employers to use a federal program checking employees’ authorization to legally work in the U.S.

Bill sponsor Rep. Rick Brattin told a House panel Monday that mandating participation in the E-Verify system is a quick and cheap way to ensure employers follow immigration laws. His bill would establish a three-strike system.

Businesses would lose their license the third time someone is hired who is unauthorized to work in the country.

Opponents said immigration is a federal matter, and creating a patchwork of state requirements would damage the business environment.  Nobody testified in favor of the legislation.

A 2008 Missouri law already requires some businesses with government contracts, grants or tax breaks to use E-Verify.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate has postponed a debate on a measure declaring that state Supreme Court justices can be impeached for attempting to usurp the power of the Legislature or executive branch.

On a voice vote Monday, senators removed a list of impeachable offenses from the bill.

The measure clarifies the Supreme Court’s authority to administer the judicial branch. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Jeff King promised that his panel would consider a separate bill on impeachment next month.

The Senate gave the narrowed bill first-round approval on a voice vote and plans to take final action Tuesday.

The state constitution says justices can be impeached and removed for treason, bribery or other “high crimes and misdemeanors.” The proposal to spell out other grounds comes after a court ruling against a school funding law.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers have declined to join a national campaign seeking to amend the Constitution and limit the federal government’s power.

Senators voted 25-18 Monday to return the resolution to the Legislature’s Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, where it is unlikely to see any more activity this year.

The measure would have added Nebraska’s voice to a coalition calling for a convention of states. A convention requires 34 states to call for one under Article V of the U.S. Constitution.

Opponents say the resolution does not clearly define the process for selecting delegates or limit the topics the convention will cover.  The measure’s sponsor, Sen. Laura Ebke of Crete, argues the 38 states required to approve potential amendments would provide sufficient oversight from citizens and courts.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas House has rejected a measure aimed at calling a convention of the states to propose changes in the U.S. constitution.  The vote Monday was 77-47 for a resolution pushed by conservative Republicans unhappy with the federal government’s reach. But supporters needed a two-thirds majority of 84 votes in the 125-member chamber.

Supporters said a convention could propose ideas for lessening the federal government’s power. The resolution decried the federal debt.  Critics questioned whether a convention’s scope could be limited.

Lawmakers in five other states have approved the same resolution.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska is one step closer to finding a chancellor as the final four candidates ready themselves to navigate an intense interview process over the next two weeks.

The search for a new chancellor began in April after Chancellor Harvey Perlman announced he would retire this June.

The finalists for the position are Ronnie Green, University of Nebraska interim senior vice chancellor for academic affairs and vice president for agriculture and natural resources; April Mason, Kansas State University provost and senior vice president; Sabah Randhawa, Oregon State University provost and executive vice president; and Daniel Reed, University of Iowa vice president for research and economic development.

University president Hank Bounds will begin his deliberation after the interviews conclude March 4. His choice will require the Nebraska Board of Regents’ approval.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas would make it illegal to distribute images or videos of nude adults without their consent under a bill the state House has overwhelmingly approved.

The House’s vote Monday was 113-11 in favor of the measure, which is aimed at deterring an online phenomenon known as “revenge porn.” The bill goes next to the Senate.

The measure would make it a felony to illegally disseminate nude images of an adult. While a first offense typically would be punished by putting the defendant on 18 months’ probation, a second conviction within five years could result in up to three years and seven months in prison.

It’s already illegal to use compromising pictures for blackmail, but it’s not against the law to disseminate pictures taken during an intimate relationship without another’s consent.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas House members have approved a proposal to add a right to fish and hunt and trap wildlife to the state constitution.

The measure would add a new section to the constitution’s Bill of Rights to preserve hunting and fishing as a preferred way to manage wildlife. The House voted 117-7 in favor of it Monday, sending it to the Senate.

Several legislators said it would prevent future legislation from infringing on the right to hunt and fish. They said any future measures seeking to limit the sports would need to prove that a particular animal could become endangered.

Kansas would become one of about 20 states that make hunting and fishing a constitutional right if the Senate adopts the measure and voters approve it in the Nov. 8 election.

OLD APPLETON, Mo. (AP) — A southeast Missouri couple is accused of locking their 15-year-old daughter in a room with small food rations and only a bucket for a toilet.

Thirty-six-year-old James Bradley Hughes, and 33-year-old Rebekah Elizabeth Hughes, both of Old Appleton, were charged over the weekend with one count each of abuse or neglect of a child. They are jailed on $50,000 bond.

No attorneys are listed for them in online court records.

The Cape Girardeau County sheriff’s department said in a news release that the teen escaped Saturday through a window and alerted an off-duty deputy. The release said she was kept in a small locked back porch room that was accessible only from the outside. The interior walls had been carpeted and several windows had been screwed shut.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The University of Kansas Cancer Center is joining nearly 70 other cancer centers in sounding an alarm about the high number of children not getting the HPV vaccine.

The Kansas City Star reports Kansas is last in the nation in the percentage of girls who have received the vaccine, which protects against a virus that causes cancer. The Centers for Disease Control says Missouri isn’t far behind, and both states also rank low in the number of boys who are vaccinated.

Doctor Terry Tsue at the Kansas Cancer Center says he’s troubled that so many children are not getting the vaccine.

He says some people some don’t think their children need the vaccine because they don’t have sex, while others think it will make their kids promiscuous.