TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer says Secretary of State Kris Kobach should pay out of his own pocket the more than $26,000 in sanctions imposed by a federal judge for his “contemptuous behavior” in a voting rights case.

Kobach said Thursday that it is his office, not him personally, who is the defendant in a federal lawsuit that struck down the state’s proof-of-citizenship registration law. The case is being appealed.

The contempt ruling against Kobach comes just days before Republicans will vote in the state’s primary election for governor. Kobach is seeking to unseat Colyer for his party’s nomination.

Colyer said in a statement that it is outrageous for a politician who spends so much time talking about cutting government spending to use taxpayer dollars to pay the fines.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – Boone County prosecutors have reduced some charges against a 32-year-old woman charged after a car crash killed one of her three children.

Demetres Washington of Columbia was charged in April 2017 with second-degree murder, three counts of first-degree kidnapping and two counts of second-degree assault. Prosecutors on Friday amended the three kidnapping charges to second-degree kidnapping.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports attorney Matthew Uhrig said the facts of the case didn’t allow the state to charge his client with the more severe degree of kidnapping.

Washington and Mackenzie Quiovers are accused of driving off with Washington’s children from a supervised family visit in March 2017. The car rolled and injured all five people. Washington’s 13-year-old Shianna Mays later died.

Quiovers faces three counts of first-degree kidnapping and one count of second-degree murder.

SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) – A Sedalia man has been charged with physically abusing three children over several years.

Pettis County authorities on Tuesday charged 48-year-old James Hays Jr. with three counts of abuse or neglect of a child. He is being held on $1 million bond.

The Sedalia Democrat reports the children are ages 12, 9 and 8. Their grandmother took them to a hospital in July after seeking large bruises on their bodies.

A probable cause statement says the children told investigators that Hays would kick them, withhold food and make them eat hot peppers. The 12-year-old also told police the children had been forced to sleep in a bathroom for four years.

Online court documents do not list an attorney for Hays, and a hearing has not been scheduled.

MIAMI COUNTY— Two Kansas sheriff’s deputies and a suspect were hospitalized after becoming ill during an arrest for alleged drug violations.

Just after 1:30p.m. Wednesday, deputies stopped to check on a car for a possible motorist assist on Old Kansas City Road north of 239th near Spring Hill, according to a media release.

Following an investigation, the deputies arrested the driver for possessing drug paraphernalia and narcotics. The suspect and deputies were overcome by some type of substance. Miami County EMS and South Johnson County Fire-Ambulance transported all three to an area hospital.

The deputies were released from the hospital Wednesday night. The suspect remained hospitalized Thursday, according to Sheriff Frank Kelly. He did not release the suspect’s name.

Investigators don’t know what substance caused the deputies to become ill but it may be linked to the narcotics or another substance in the car or on the suspect, according to the media release.

Kelly released no additional details Thursday morning.

KEARNEY, Mo. (AP) – Authorities are investigating a report that a missing Iowa college student might have been seen in northwest Missouri.

Police in Kearney, Missouri, say an employee at a truck stop reported Sunday that she saw a young girl resembling Mollie Tibbett’s.

The department said in a statement that it spoke to witnesses and reviewed video footage before forwarding a report to a task force investigating Tibbetts’ disappearance.

KMBC-TV reports Kearney police Sgt. Joe Kantola said only one person reported seeing the woman who resembled Mollie. And he noted he didn’t say in the statement that she had been seen on video from the truck stop.

Tibbetts, a 20-year-old University of Iowa student, hasn’t been seen since July 18.

Kearney is about 25 miles  northeast of Kansas City.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Eudora man has been found guilty of fatally shooting a man at a bar.

A Douglas County jury on Wednesday found 37-year-old Danny Queen guilty of second-degree murder in the June 2017 death of Bo Hopson outside the D-Dubs Bar and Grill in Eudora.

Queen was intoxicated and had been thrown out of the bar that night. Hopson reportedly asked Queen if he needed someone to drive or walk him home but Queen responded by shooting him at close range.

He also tried to shoot two other men but the gun jammed.

Queen said he had been roughed up by other patrons inside the bar and fired the shots because he was afraid he would be attacked again.

He will be sentenced Oct. 9.

By ROXANA HEGEMAN 

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge imposed on Wednesday more than $26,000 in sanctions against Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach as punishment for his “contemptuous behavior” during a voting rights case that challenged the state’s proof-of-citizenship registration law.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson found Kobach in contempt in April stemming from a 2016 preliminary injunction. The decision handed down Wednesday specified the amount of attorney fees and expenses awarded after considering arguments from the parties.

Robinson ruled in June that Kansas cannot require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, finding such laws violate the constitutional right to vote. That decision struck down the Kansas proof-of-citizenship registration law and made permanent the earlier injunction that had temporarily blocked it.

In issuing the latest sanctions, Robinson said Kobach failed to ensure local election officials sent voter registration postcards to people who registered when applying for a Kansas driver’s license or when using a federal form, regardless of documentary proof of citizenship, after she issued her initial order. She also noted that until recently the county election manual advised local election officials that people needed to submit citizenship paperwork to register to vote.

Kobach did not respond to cellphone, text, and email messages left with his spokeswoman, and his cellphones were not accepting any more messages.

Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s voting rights project, said Kobach remains the only person for whom he’s sought a contempt citation during a federal lawsuit. He said Kobach had engaged in “willful bad behavior.”

“The court sent a message that it’s unacceptable to defy court orders, as Mr. Kobach has done, unacceptable to give voters incomplete or misleading information, which Secretary Kobach has done,” Ho said. “The whole purpose of fines like this is to deter conduct like that.”

Ho added: “Something I’ve learned from this case is that Secretary Kobach does not own up to his behavior and take responsibility for it.”

Robinson wrote in her ruling that the services provided by the attorneys representing the voters in the case were “undoubtedly multiplied” by Kobach’s conduct that led to the contempt finding.

Instead of responding to the ACLU’s initial efforts to informally resolve the compliance issues, Kobach insisted for months that he need not comply at all. Almost five months later, Kobach took the position that he had taken the very compliance measures he initially disclaimed. That “needless gamesmanship” led to another round of letters, meetings, written filings and ultimately a three-hour contempt hearing in March, according to the decision.

“The Court will award the reasonable value of counsel’s services directly caused by Defendant’s contemptuous behavior,” Robinson wrote.

Robinson awarded $24,658 in attorneys’ fees and $1,557 in expenses as a sanction for the contempt found by the court in its April order.

The amount of sanctions fell short of the more than $50,000 initially sought by the ACLU after the judge reduced the claim due to lack of details in records, the excessive number of attorneys working on the tasks and duplication of work.

As for the reduction in the ACLU’s proposal, Ho said the original amount was calculated based on the time ACLU attorneys spent on their contempt motion. He said in such cases, attorneys typically will reduce the totals before the judge considers it, but the ACLU decided to let the judge decide the issue.

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MANHATTAN — The Division of Conservation at the Kansas Department of Agriculture is pleased to announce the availability of funds to assist landowners with their efforts to mitigate the impact of drought.

The Livestock Water Supply Financial Assistance Initiative will provide financial assistance for livestock water supply wells, pipeline and tanks installed after June 1, 2018, and before the announcement of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) Drought Initiative by NRCS on July 24, 2018.

The State Conservation Commission took action on July 31, 2018, to approve the initiative for these qualifying drought mitigation efforts that took place prior to the NRCS EQIP Drought Initiative. Eligible areas will be the same as for the federal initiative.

Additional program details can be found at agriculture.ks.gov/DOC-assistance. Applications must be made through local conservation districts, and questions should be addressed to local conservation districts as well. Contact information for districts can be found at agriculture.ks.gov/conservation.