ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior House Republican says that it’s impossible to block President Barack Obama’s upcoming moves on immigration in a spending bill.

Congressman Harold Rogers of Kentucky is Appropriations Committee chairman. Rogers says the Citizenship and Immigration Services agency gets its money through application fees, so Congress can’t stop it by withholding funding in a spending bill.

A temporary government funding bill expires next month, and some conservative Republicans want to use a must-pass spending bill to block Obama on immigration. A similar effort last year to block the new health care law led to a 16-day government shutdown.

But next month’s spending bill could carry legislative language designed to thwart Obama on immigration.

FORT CARSON, Colo. (AP) – A Fort Carson soldier convicted of murder in the slaying of his soldier-
girlfriend is returning to a military courtroom for his sentencing hearing.

Sgt. Montrell Lamar Anderson Mayo faces a sentence of life in prison without parole at the hearing Thursday.

A military jury convicted Mayo of premeditated murder and assault on Wednesday in the death of 28-year-old Sgt. Kimberly Walker of Cincinnati. Walker was stationed at Fort Riley.

Prosecutors said Mayo hit Walker three times in the back of the head with a drinking glass and then suffocated her with a pillow on Valentine’s Day in 2013.

Defense lawyers acknowledged Mayo hit Walker but said it was in the heat of passion and that he didn’t mean to kill her.

Walker is from Greenville, South Carolina, and is stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Democrats are pushing a petition calling for the ouster of the Republican House speaker for saying government employees produce nothing, but they acknowledge the effort is mainly to draw attention to the Stilwell representative’s remarks.

Ray Merrick told The Wichita Eagle last weekend that government workers are net consumers whose employment amounts to a Democratic jobs plan that doesn’t stimulate the economy.

Merrick later issued a statement praising state employees.

Teachers, law enforcement officers, social service workers and court officials all are government workers. Overland Park Republican House member Stephanie Clayton told The Topeka Capital-Journal some constituents who are upset by the speaker’s comment.

Assistant House minority leader Tom Burroughs of Kansas City acknowledges that Democrats don’t have any influence on the choice of House speaker.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas Hospital has received a $10 million challenge grant for a new expansion project.

The hospital announced Wednesday that it had received the grant from Kansas City civic leader Annette Bloch, president of the R.A. Bloch Cancer Foundation. The money is intended to support cancer programs at the new Cambridge North Tower.

The programs will include construction and technology for interventional labs and operating suites for surgical oncology.

The hospital announced the expansion earlier this year, with a goal of raising $100 million of the $279 million project through gifts and donations. The construction schedule depends on donations.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gay couples in Kansas can get married, but the state isn’t yet allowing them to change their last names on their driver’s licenses.

The Wichita Eagle reports that state government agencies under Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s direction aren’t yet changing their policies on recognizing marriages. They include the Department of Revenue, which issues driver’s licenses.

Brownback spokeswoman Eileen Hawley said Wednesday that changes will not be made while the state defends its ban on gay marriage as the federal courts consider a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The U.S. Supreme Court has said the state can’t enforce its ban while the lawsuit proceeds, but marriage licenses aren’t being issued to same-sex couples in some counties.

Equality Kansas Executive Director Tom Witt called the administration’s stance outrageous.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The U.S. attorney’s office says it has collected more than $11.4 million this year from criminal and civil actions in Kansas.

That includes $5 million collected in criminal cases and $6.4 million collected in civil actions.

U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said in a news release Wednesday that his office works hard to be good stewards of taxpayers’ money. He noted that the collections almost equaled his office’s total budget of $11.9 million.

Grissom cited as an example an investigation of a cancer clinic in Kansas this year. The Hope Cancer Institute and Dr. Raj Sadasivan agreed to pay $2.9 million to make up for false claims they submitted to Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs.

On the national level, the Justice Department collected $24.7 billion.

JEFF HORWITZ, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Obama administration housing official tells lawmakers that regulators are still considering an overhaul of a controversial type of homeowner’s insurance.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has not yet delivered on the comprehensive changes promised earlier this year. Agency director Mel Watt told the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday that he’s “looking at it aggressively.”

Banks buy so-called force-placed insurance to protect the properties of homeowners behind on their loan payments. It costs several times more than regular homeowners’ insurance. State regulators and plaintiff’s attorneys allege that banks inflate the cost of force-placed insurance for homeowners in exchange for insurer kickbacks.

Watt calls addressing abuses a “tough area.” In response, Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon tells Watt that Watt’s in a position to stop it.

The states of Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska have reached what’s described as “an historic agreement” on management of water in the Republican River basin.

During a special meeting of the Republican River Compact Administration, representatives of the states approved adjustments in 2014 and 2015 that will benefit water users throughout the basin.

Chairman Brian Dunnigan, Nebraska Director of the Department of Natural Resources, cited recent comments by U.S. Supreme Court Special Master William J. Kayatta, who encouraged the states to work toward greater consensus for administering the waters of the Basin. “It is in that spirit that the States have negotiated the resolution that was approved today,” said Chairman Dunnigan.

The agreement addresses how water is administered for the benefit of irrigators in the Basin. It provides Nebraska with 100% credit for water delivered from augmentation projects to Harlan County Lake prior to June 1, 2015, and the delivered water is for exclusive use by Kansas irrigators.

Today’s agreement is in addition to two cooperative agreements signed in October. Together, these three agreements change the traditional ways the compact has been previously interpreted and implemented for a more cooperative approach.

Kansas Commissioner David Barfield acknowledged that the new resolution comes on the heels of another mutually acceptable pair of resolutions signed in October in Denver, Colorado. “Approving the resolutions will bring significant benefits to the States by preserving the remaining water supply in Harlan County Lake and providing additional certainty to water users throughout the Basin.”

“These resolutions reflect the States’ strong resolve on these matters,” said Dick Wolfe, Commissioner from Colorado. “We know there is additional work to do, but we are moving in the right direction to reach long-term agreements that are fair to all parties and reflect good management of the Basin’s water supply.”

The Republican River Compact Administration is comprised of one member each from the States of Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska. The purpose of the Republican River Compact Administration is to administer the Republican River Compact. This Compact allocates the waters of the Republican River among the three states.