By Bryan Thompson
Kansas Public Radio

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is working to energize his conservative Republican political base with events featuring former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum.

Santorum called Brownback a warrior for conservative social and fiscal ideas during a rally Monday in Olathe. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, says the governor’s race in Kansas shouldn’t be close because of Brownback’s small government, low-tax philosophy and his opposition to abortion and gay marriage.

Santorum ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

Brownback casts the race between him and Democrat Paul Davis as a choice between Ronald Reagan-style conservatism and Barack Obama-style liberalism.

The Davis campaign issued a statement saying it’s looking for moderate, common sense policies.

Brownback also faces Wichita landscaping business owner Jennifer Winn in the Aug. 5 Republican primary.

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OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum plans to join Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback for re-election campaign rallies in Olathe and Wichita.

The first event Monday morning was at an Olathe car dealership, and the second in the afternoon was at a Wichita theater. Brownback’s campaign sent out an email to supporters last week urging them to attend and help spread what it called its conservative message.

Santorum has strong appeal among GOP conservatives in Kansas. Santorum ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 but won the Kansas caucuses by a wide margin. He is a former Pennsylvania senator.

Brownback has a potentially tough challenger in presumed Democratic nominee Paul Davis. But the governor also faces Wichita landscaping business owner Jennifer Winn in the Aug. 5 Republican primary.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The attorney for a Missouri death row inmate says the state is about to execute an innocent man, but the sheriff where the crime occurred disagrees.

John Middleton is scheduled to die Wednesday. He was a northern Missouri methamphetamine dealer convicted of the 1995 murders of Randy “Happy” Hamilton and Stacey Hodge, then Alfred Pinegar a week-and-a-half later, out of fear they would snitch to police. He was sentenced to death for killing Pinegar.

Harrison County Sheriff Josh Eckerson revisited the case based on the affidavit of the new witness. His determination: Middleton was the killer.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new report says increased enrollment in Kansas schools is being driven by births in the Hispanic population.

The report by the Kansas Association of School Boards predicts that within five years, Kansas public school enrollment will reach 500,000 for the first time since 1970.

The report’s author, Ted Carter, says most of the increase is because of births among Hispanics, not migration into the state.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports total student enrollment has been growing steadily since the 2006-2007 school year. But without the growth among Hispanics, total enrollment would have been declining since the late 1990s.

Carter estimates that in five years, Hispanics will make up 22 percent of the total student body in Kansas, an increase from less than 5 percent in the early 1990s.

ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior defense official says Bowe Bergdahl, the Army sergeant who spent nearly five years as a Taliban captive in Afghanistan, has been returned to regular Army duty.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Another Ashcroft has entered politics in Missouri.

John Ashcroft was a two-term governor, a senator and U.S. attorney general under President George W. Bush. Now, his 41-year-old son, Jay, is seeking the Republican nomination for a state Senate seat out of St. Louis County in a three-way race on Aug. 5.

It won’t be easy. Even if Ashcroft wins the primary, the district leans Democratic and state Rep. Jill Schupp, a Creve Coeur Democrat, promises a well-funded race in November.

Ashcroft told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that some supporters urged him to move to a more Republican district, but he wanted to stay.

LEBANON, Mo. (AP) — A southwest Missouri teenager has died days after a shooting that also claimed the life of his father.
Laclede County Coroner Steve Murrell says 15-year-old Riley Gerber died Saturday from a gunshot wound he suffered Tuesday at his home in Grovespring. Gerber’s father, Chad Gerber, died at the scene from a gunshot wound.

Sixty-five-year-old Matthew Mitchell Rumbaugh of Mountain Grove has pleaded not guilty to murder, assault and armed criminal action charges connected to the shooting. The Springfield News-Leader reports  the assault charge could now be upgraded to a second murder charge.

Deputies say Rumbaugh shot the Gerbers last week because he was tired of waiting for Gerber’s wife to leave her husband.
Rumbaugh has been denied bond in Laclede County.

LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO (AP) — Unexplained rash? Check your iPad. It turns out the popular tablet computer may contain nickel, one of the most common allergy-inducing metals.

Recent reports in medical journals detail nickel allergies from a variety of personal electronic devices, including laptops and cellphones. But it was an Apple iPad that caused an itchy body rash in an 11-year-old boy recently treated at a San Diego hospital, according to a report in Monday’s Pediatrics.

Nickel rashes aren’t life-threatening but they can be very uncomfortable, and they may require treatment with steroids and antibiotics if the skin eruptions become infected, said Dr. Sharon Jacob, a dermatologist at Rady Children’s Hospital, where the boy was treated. Jacob, who co-wrote the report, said the young patient had to miss school because of the rash.

The boy had a common skin condition that causes scaly patches, but he developed a different rash all over his body that didn’t respond to usual treatment. Skin testing showed he had a nickel allergy, and doctors traced it to an iPad his family had bought in 2010.

Doctors tested the device and detected a chemical compound found in nickel in the iPad’s outside coating.

“He used the iPad daily,” she said.

He got better after putting it in a protective case, she said

Whether all iPad models and other Apple devices contain nickel is uncertain; Apple spokesman Chris Gaither said the company had no comment.

Nickel rashes also have been traced to other common products including some jewelry, eyeglass frames and zippers.

Jacob said evidence suggests nickel allergies are become more common, or increasingly recognized. She cited national data showing that about 25 percent of children who get skin tests for allergies have nickel allergies, versus about 17 percent a decade ago.

She said doctors need to consider electronic devices as potential sources when patients seek treatment for skin rashes.