WICHITA, Kansas (AP) — Dirt is slowly filling lakes and ponds in Kansas, and experts are divided over how much to worry. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says there is still plenty of room for flood control. But some experts fear the influx of silt will threaten water quality and quantity. About 60 percent of Kansans currently get their water from lakes. And that number is expected to grow.

Consider the John Redmond Reservoir, which supplies water to several Kansas towns and the Wolf Creek nuclear plant. It has only about 58 percent of its original capacity. The cost of dredging a large reservoir could cost $1 billion. Building a new one would be even more costly and could take 20 years from initial planning to completion.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – A newly formed group is urging Kansas lawmakers to abolish the state income tax during the next legislative session.

Ashley McMillan is president of Kansans for No Income Tax. McMillan – who’s also the former executive director of the Kansas Republican Party – said in a news release Monday the group already has 200 members and hopes to sign up more than 2,000 by the end of the year.

A proposal during this year’s legislative session would have phased out the state income tax. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback is considering a tax overhaul package that is likely to reduce income tax rates for businesses and individuals.

Kansans for No Income Tax is planning a bus tour in November to build support for its cause.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Nebraska’s governor is calling lawmakers into a special session that could allow them to challenge the route of a transnational oil pipeline that would cut through six states.

Republican Gov. Dave Heineman said Monday he wants to find a legal solution for state oversight of oil pipelines, including the hotly contested Keystone XL project.

The U.S. State Department has authority over the Keystone project because it would cross the national border. It’s scheduled to approve or deny a permit by year’s end.

Heineman says he’ll call the lawmakers into session Nov. 1. He acknowledges they’ll face steep challenges with any proposal that might affect the Keystone project that has been in the planning and review stage for years. Any state law that derails the proposal faces an all-but-certain legal challenge.

RAMONA, Kan. (AP) – A central Kansas sheriff’s department is looking for a man who a 12-year-old girl says tried to abduct her from a city park. The incident happened late Sunday afternoon in the Marion County town of Ramona.

The girl told officers the man drove up in a black Ford Mustang and said the girl’s mother had told sent him to get the girl. The girl says she told the man she doubted the story, and asked him if he knew her mother’s name.

When the man didn’t know the name, the girl ran home and told her mother what had happened.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Department is investigating.

Great Bend (AP) – Kansas officials are cautioning drivers to be extra alert for deer as the animals’ mating season approaches.

Deer will be on the move more than unusual next month, with breeding season peaking in mid-November. Many also move to new locations in the fall as crops are harvested and trees and shrubs lose their leaves.

November brings the highest number of deer-vehicle collisions in Kansas, but they also occur throughout the year and in all 105 counties.

The state Transportation Department says Kansas recorded slightly more than 9,100 deer-vehicle collisions in 2010. Sedgwick County led the state with near 400 such collisions.

WICHITA, Kansas (AP) Seven men are under arrest including a Garden Plain teacher after a sex sting this weekend. Wichita Police say they started setting up the sting a month ago, and it began on Friday night. Over the course of two days, seven men thought they were going to meet a young girl for sex, but instead they wound up in jail. The seven face electronic solicitation charges and six of the seven suspects also face charges of human trafficking. Four others could also be charged.

Police say the suspects thought they were meeting with a girl for sex not realizing they were actually communicating online with a detective from the Exploited and Missing Children’s Unit. The teacher is suspended pending the results of the investigation.

Detective are putting their cases together and formal charges won’t happen until the end of the week at the earliest. Police plan to talk to both the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office as well as the US Attorney’s Office to decide if the cases will proceed in state or federal court.