TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — New Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly is expected to make a pitch to the Republican-dominated Kansas Legislature for boosting spending on public schools and expanding Medicaid.

Kelly was scheduled to deliver her first State of the State address Wednesday evening to a joint session of the Legislature. She took office Monday.

The governor and fellow Democrats want to move quickly to boost education funding.

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled last year that a new law increasing aid to public schools wasn’t enough because it didn’t account for years of inflation. The state school board has proposed phasing in a $364 million increase over four years.

Kelly also wants to expand the state’s Medicaid health coverage for the needy.

Republican leaders have been skeptical that the state can afford the two initiatives.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a suburban Kansas City woman has died from injuries sustained when she crashed into a pond.

Police in Olathe, Kansas, say 61-year-old Helen Riddle apparently suffered a medical emergency last week before her sport utility vehicle struck a car and went off the side of a road. She then crashed through a fence before the SUV became submerged in the pond.

Police announced Tuesday that she died after she was rescued and rushed to a hospital with critical injuries. Divers also searched the water after the crash to make sure no one else had been in the SUV.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri House lawmakers on Tuesday voted against protections for LGBT staffers and gave themselves the option to make some of their emails confidential, despite a voter-approved requirement for transparency.

House members changed their records policy as part of a broader package of internal House rules for the 2019 legislative session, which began last week. The new policy deals with lawmakers’ documents on party strategy and correspondence with constituents.

Republican House Majority Leader Rob Vescovo originally proposed making those records confidential, but GOP Rep. Nick Schroer on Tuesday recommended giving individual lawmakers the discretion to close those records or leave them open, which the Republican-led House agreed to in a voice vote.

“Each individual member, as the custodian of their own records, should have this right,” Schroer said, adding that lawmakers “should be able to determine what is confidential (and) what should remain confidential.”

House lawmakers in a voice vote also defeated a proposed rule change aimed at protecting staffers from being fired for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

“Your religious views may say we’re going to hell,” said Democratic Kansas City Rep. Greg Razer, who is gay and pushed for the change. “But we also have the right to have a job, and that’s what this amendment is about. As an employer, the House of Representative will say if you show up and do a good job, you get to keep your job.”

Springfield Republican Rep. Curtis Trent raised concerns that adding those protections for LGBT House staffers could infringe on religious liberty, and said the issue shouldn’t be decided in an internal rule change.

The new House records policy comes just months after Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved Constitutional Amendment 1 . Known as “Clean Missouri” by its supporters, the measure added lawmakers to a list of public officials who were already subject to the state open-records law, which grants the public access to government documents.

“It explicitly states that we have to follow the Sunshine Law. Whether we agree with that or not, that’s what our Constitution reads,” Kansas City Democratic Rep. Jon Carpenter said during Tuesday’s debate. “We ought not create a House rule saying that we can choose not to follow it.”

Clean Missouri campaign director Sean Nicholson said the Missouri Constitution “requires representatives to follow the generally applicable state laws governing public access to public records, including the Sunshine Law.”

“If the House starts crafting special exemptions for itself, that violates the plain text of the reforms that voters just approved by a 2-to-1 margin,” Nicholson said.

Democratic state Sen. Scott Sifton on Tuesday introduced a proposed constitutional amendment that would require a two-thirds vote in each chamber to change or repeal ballot initiatives during the first two years after voters decide them, making it harder for legislators to change measures decided by voters.

But even with that change, Sifton acknowledged there could be some “fuzzy instances” about whether legislators are overturning the people’s will. For example, Tuesday’s House rule change allowing lawmakers to close some records creates an exception to open-records requirements but does not directly repeal or amend the new constitutional amendment.

JASPER COUNTY — A Missouri man died in an accident just after 6:30p.m. Tuesday in Jasper County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2007 Yamaha driven by George E. Farrow, 26, Joplin, was westbound on First Street in Carterville.  The motorcycle traveled off the road and struck a tree.

Farrow was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Simpson Funeral Home in Webb City.  He was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. –– A Kansas nurse has been sentenced to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to Medicaid fraud and related charges, according to Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

Erin Grae Whitlow, 29, of Lansing, pleaded guilty in November to one count of Medicaid fraud, one count of felony possession of a controlled substance and two counts of felony mistreatment of a dependent adult. Wyandotte County District Judge Jennifer L. Myers on Thursday sentenced Whitlow to 21 months in the Department of Corrections. Convictions such as this one may also result in a period during which the defendant is prohibited from being paid wages through a government health care program.

The charges stemmed from an investigation by the attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Division and the Bonner Springs Police Department, which revealed that Whitlow stole morphine from vials during a time she was employed as a nurse by a Bonner Springs nursing facility. The crimes occurred between July and August 2017.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Ed Brancart of Schmidt’s office. The Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office also assisted with the investigation.

This was the first conviction stemming from a statewide sweep by the attorney general’s office cracking down on illegal and harmful activity in Kansas facilities that receive Medicaid funding, which was announced in September. Charges against nine additional defendants remain pending.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Federal authorities say two homicides in northwest Missouri last year were linked to a large methamphetamine trafficking ring based in Kansas City.

A search warrant affidavit filed in U.S. District Court cites the death of James Hampton, whose body was found in the trunk of a burned-out car in August in Lafayette County. It also cites the death of 28-year-old Brittanie Broyles, who was shot to death in Kansas City.

Authorities have charged a dozen people in the alleged drug ring led by 29-year-old Trevor Scott Sparks.

Investigators say Hampton and Broyles were associates of some of those people but no one has been charged in the homicides.

Federal charges allege the trafficking ring sold more than 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine and made $8.5 million.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A caregiver who reported a 4-year-old Missouri boy missing about a week before his body was found has pleaded not guilty in his death.

26-year-old Quatavia Givens, of Jefferson City, is charged with neglect or abuse of a child resulting in death. She entered her plea Tuesday in Cole County.

Givens reported Darnell Gray missing on Oct. 25. The report prompted a search by hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement. His body was found about a week later in a wooded area in Jefferson City. An autopsy found he suffered multiple injuries including blunt force trauma.

Charging documents said Givens initially told officers that Darnell either was abducted or ran away, but she later told police that she hurt the child.