Kansas House Speaker Ray Merrick has turned down a request from Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss to address the 2013 Legislature.

Traditionally, the chief justice appears during the legislative session to give lawmakers an update on the status of the state’s court system.

Merrick has said the time could be better used for other purposes.

Merrick, a conservative Republican from Stilwell, was chosen by his GOP colleagues to be the House speaker for the next two years.

The top House Democrat says Merrick’s decision is a sign of growing animosity between the GOP and the courts.

Nuss wrote a letter to court employees informing them of Merrick’s decision and saying that the annual report would be put in writing.

Some of the North Kansas City school buses that are outfitted for longer trips will also soon be wired with Wi-Fi access.

The district will begin wiring four school buses used for longer trips with industrial grade Wi-Fi in January. The service will be available on buses used for trips such as those taken by band members and sports teams.

The cost is about $700 per bus for the equipment and $50 in monthly Internet access charges.

The first use will be by students who make the 50-minute round trip daily to a career center in Platte County.

A Topeka couple who found a sperm donor online are supporting the donor’s fight against a request that he pay child support.

Angela Bauer says she and her former partner, Jennifer Schreiner, are “kind of at a loss” about the Kansas Department for Children and Families’ decision to file a child support claim.

William Marotta is the Topeka man who provided sperm used to artificially inseminate Schreiner in 2009.

When Marotta responded to the Craigslist ad he agreed to relinquish parental rights, including financial responsibility to the child.

But when the women applied for state assistance this year, the state demanded they provide the donor’s name so it could collect child support.

A spokeswoman for the department said Friday she can’t comment on the case.

A 20-year-old St. Louis man has been charged with burglarizing a single church three times, most recently last week when a valuable, 19th century Bible was stolen.

Jacob Lenau was arrested Wednesday, the same day police returned the 15-pound German Bible to Saint Johns Lutheran Church.

A “scruffy-looking man” had sold it Sunday for $30 to antique book dealership, where someone called police after hearing about the theft.

Lenau was charged Thursday with nine counts stemming from break-ins at the church on September 12th, December 11th and last Friday. He did not have a lawyer or a listed phone number.

Saint Johns has been burglarized at least a half-dozen times since September. Now, an anonymous donor is contributing money so the church can buy a security system.

Nearly two centuries after its founding, Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis County is taking on a new mission as a military intelligence operation.

The military post founded in 1832 has been picked by the Defense Department for a detachment that will gather intelligence on adversaries.

Lt. Col William Banwell of the Missouri National Guard says planners were seeking a Midwestern location because similar operations already exist on both coasts.

Soldiers have begun moving into Building 27 at the barracks site in south St. Louis County, but the facility needs renovations that will cost up to $3 million. Banwell says a variety of funding options are under consideration.

Two new exhibits in Sedalia explore the divided loyalties of the city and Missouri in the Civil War.

The exhibits opened this week at the Katy Depot.

One is the Missouri Historical Society’s free, traveling exhibit called “The Civil War in Missouri.” Visitors can enter their ZIP codes into computers to learn about battles in their areas.

The other is “Sedalia and the Civil War,” which was curated by a Sedalia historian and costs $1 to tour.

As one of four states that allowed slavery but didn’t secede from the Union, Missouri was the site of frequent conflicts.  Sedalia played a role in the war as the site of a Union supply house. Near the war’s end, the city was captured by Confederates.

The North Dakota State Patrol has identified the six men killed Wednesday in a crash on Interstate 94 near Jamestown. All of the victims were from Missouri.

Officials say the six men were in a westbound pickup when the driver lost control on the icy road.

The pickup went through the median and was struck on the passenger side by an eastbound semitrailer.

Killed were the pickup driver, 47-year-old Martin Zuniga of Republic; 51-year-old Mayolo Lopez of Springfield; 43-year-old Albino Martinez of Springfield; 50-year-old Epitacio Padron of Springfield; 54-year-old Jose Avila of Springfield; and 34-year-old Herson Orellana of Nixa.

The driver of the semitrailer, 23-year-old Stuart Hauge of Glen Ullin, North Dakota was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Hunters using muzzleloaders, handguns and other non-traditional weapons took nearly 15,000 deer in Missouri’s recent alternative methods deer season.

The Missouri Department of Conservation issued a report Wednesday on the season.

The season ran from Dec. 15 through Dec. 25.

The agency says this year’s number was down slightly from 2011’s alternative-methods hunt, which saw more than 15,200 deer taken. The record for the special season is 15,907, set in 2009.

Southern Missouri’s Oregon County recorded the highest number of deer bagged this year at 320. That was followed by Franklin County in second place and Howell County in third.