TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Republican Party is criticizing an event aimed at boosting support among teachers for Democrat Paul Davis in the governor’s race because it was being held at a state Supreme Court justice’s home.

Tuesday’s evening barbecue was organized by Richard Green, who is a retired high school teacher and the husband of Justice Carol Beier.

A flyer for the event suggested that participants make a $20 donation.

Beier told The Associated Press she was not involved in setting up the event and was not attending. Neither Davis nor lieutenant governor candidate Jill Docking were attending.

Davis hopes to unseat Republican Gov. Sam Brownback in the November election. The Kansas GOP called the event inappropriate.

Davis spokesman Chris Pumpelly said the GOP is resorting to what he called “manufactured outrage.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration says consumers in most states will have more insurance options next year under the president’s health care law.

The Health and Human Services department on Tuesday reported a net increase of 63 insurers joining the market in 44 states. The preliminary figures show 77 insurers entering for the first time, while 14 are dropping out.

The health insurance exchanges offer subsidized private plans to people who don’t have coverage on the job. Last week the largest provider in Minnesota’s marketplace announced its exit, prompting concerns in that state and beyond.

HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said greater competition will help keep premiums in check.

There will be winners and losers. Indiana will see a net gain of five insurers, while California faces a net loss of two.

SEYBERT (AP) – The body of a fisherman who disappeared last week has been recovered in a southwest Missouri lake.

Crews had been searching for 61-year-old Rodney David, of Golden City, since his empty boat was spotted Friday evening running in circles in the middle of Stockton Lake.

The Highway Patrol says David’s body was found around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and released to the Dade County coroner. Authorities said the death appears to be drowning, but the patrol will continue investigating how David went into the water.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A group of dissident former Republican legislators has endorsed Democrat Jean Schodorf in her campaign against Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

Schodorf had a news conference Tuesday outside the Statehouse to publicize her endorsement by Traditional Republicans for Common Sense.

Schodorf is a former moderate GOP state senator from Wichita who switched parties after losing her seat to a conservative challenger in 2012. She was among the founding members of Traditional Republicans for Common Sense but no longer belongs to it.

The group has also endorsed independent candidate Greg Orman for U.S. Senate, and many of its members back Democrat Paul Davis for governor.

Kobach said the group’s move isn’t surprising and said it is as little a Republican group as he is a Democrat.

 

RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer

A new survey from the Pew Research Center indicates American support for gay marriage could be leveling off.

The study’s authors caution it’s too soon to draw any definitive conclusion. But the new poll released Monday found a 5 percentage point drop since February in Americans who want legal recognition for same-sex relationships.

Last month, 49 percent of Americans said last month they support same-sex marriage, compared to 54 percent in February. The margin of error for the new poll is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

The latest Gallup survey on gay marriage found acceptance of gay marriage was at 55 percent in May, but support was increasing by smaller margins than it had in previous years.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Convicted national security leaker Chelsea Manning is suing the Defense Department for hormone therapy.

Lawyers for the Army private formerly known as Bradley Manning and the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Washington.

It seeks an order for the Defense Department to provide Manning with hormone therapy and other treatment for her gender identity condition at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Army Lt. Col. Alayne Conway said she could not comment on pending litigation, per military policy.

Manning also seeks to be allowed to follow female grooming standards, including dress and hair length.

The 26-year-old former intelligence analyst is serving a 35-year sentence for sending classified documents to the WikiLeaks website. She changed her legal name in April after disclosing at her court-martial last year that she had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Pulaski County authorities say an inmate who escaped in Little Rock while being taken to a court hearing has been recaptured.

Sheriff’s Lt. Carl Minden says Anael Castro-Hernandez was captured Tuesday by U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force members from Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas. Minden says a source provided Arkansas authorities with information that Castro-Hernandez was in the Kansas City metro area.

Castro-Hernandez was being taken to the county courthouse for a hearing in August when authorities say he slipped out of his handcuffs and ran away as the jail transport van was being unloaded.

Minden has said Castro-Hernandez was being held on rape charges and was due in court for a hearing regarding his mental state when he escaped.

 

HIAWATHA, Kan. (AP) — A northeast Kansas woman has been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for the beating death of her boyfriend’s 4-year-old son.

KNZA-FM reports 30-year-old Janice Summerford, of Hiawatha, was sentenced Monday in Brown County District Court.

Mekhi Boone died in March 2013, two days after he was taken unresponsive to a hospital. His father, Lee Davis IV, is serving nearly 20 years for second-degree murder and felony child abuse.

Prosecutors said Summerford was the father’s live-in girlfriend and the little boy’s primary caregiver. She entered Alford pleas last month to second-degree murder, child abuse and interfering with law enforcement.

An Alford plea does not admit guilt but acknowledges that prosecutors can likely prove the charge.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has sent a lawsuit attempting to force Democrats to name a new U.S. Senate nominee to a lower court.

The Supreme Court’s order Tuesday said that the petition filed last week by disgruntled Democratic voter David Orel, of Kansas City, Kansas, didn’t contain enough evidence for the justices to make legal decisions. The high court sent the case to Shawnee County District Court.

Democrat Chad Taylor’s withdrawal from the race against three-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts was widely seen as helping independent candidate Greg Orman’s chances of winning by avoiding a major split in the anti-Roberts vote.

Orel filed his petition last week only minutes after the Supreme Court removed Taylor from the Nov. 4 ballot. Orel’s son works on Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s re-election campaign.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former Kansas man has been sentenced in Missouri to more than seven years in federal prison for his role in a $2.7 million mortgage fraud scheme.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says 49-year-old Terrence Matthew Brown must also pay $1.2 million in restitution under the sentence he received Tuesday in federal court.

Brown, formerly of Wichita and now living in Texas, was convicted earlier in a conspiracy that defrauded lenders in 10 loans for five properties in western Missouri and northeast Kansas.

Prosecutors said the conspirators obtained loans with false information on applications and other documents. Brown bought homes at inflated prices and received more than $200,000 in kickbacks from the excess loan proceeds.

All of the loans went into default and the properties were foreclosed.