WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – A farm equipment trade group says January sales of combines in the United States were down 50 percent from the same month a year ago.

A report released Monday by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers shows 445 combines were sold in January, compared with 890 sold in January 2011.

But tractor sales were up. The association says that slightly more than 9,300 tractors were sold nationwide last month, an increase of 3.5 percent from January of last year.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – The Kansas Board of Education is receiving one more update about the state’s proposal for seeking a waiver from some provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind education law.

The update is planned for Wednesday during the second day of the board’s two-day meeting in Topeka. Kansas officials plan to submit the request by Feb. 28, the deadline for the second round of requests.

Ten states were granted waivers last week from the first round of requests.

States excused from following the law no longer have to meet a 2014 deadline for ensuring that 100 percent of their students perform well on state tests. Instead, they had to show how they will prepare children for college and careers and set new targets for improving achievement among all students.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – A southeastern Kansas man has admitted pulling down a power pole in an attempt to steal copper wire, an act that knocked a radio station off the air for several hours.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says 39-year-old Jeffrey Blake, of rural Scammon, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of damaging an energy facility. He faces up to 20 years in prison when he’s sentenced April 30.

Prosecutors said Blake damaged equipment in Cherokee County owned by Heartland Rural Electric Co. and KKOW-AM around 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 7, 2011. An indictment noted that KKOW is part of the national emergency alert system.

Blake was arrested later after being held at gunpoint by a property owner who discovered him on his property and a copper coupling missing from his propane tank.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) – Kansas retailers say they’ll have plenty of helium on hand to blow up those heart-shaped Valentine’s Day balloons despite tight supplies across the country.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that retailers have been stockpiling helium for months to meet Tuesday’s expected demand.

Marty Fish, head of the Wichita-based International Balloon Association, says that stores around the country have been coping with the helium squeeze.

The nation’s helium supply has been reduced in recent years because the gas is used in industries that take priority over retailing. Helium is used in hospitals to cool MRI machines and for other medical research, for instance.

Fish says a tank of helium that cost $35 in the 1990s may go for more than $70 today, depending on location.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – Kansas abortion providers who won a federal injunction to keep temporary clinic regulations from taking effect are asking a judge to award them more than $221,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs.

Dr. Herbert Hodes and his daughter, Dr. Traci Nauser, filed a motion Monday seeking about $174,000 in attorneys’ fees, expenses and costs. A second Kansas clinic, Central Family Medical, also filed its own motion Monday seeking $47,000 for its attorneys’ fees and costs.

Their federal lawsuit named the Kansas health secretary as a defendant. The parties have jointly moved to dismiss that lawsuit once the court decides on the attorneys’ fees and other costs.

Abortion providers have filed a separate lawsuit in state court in Shawnee County challenging the final version of the health and safety regulations for abortion clinics.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – A Kansas House committee has opened a week of hearings on immigration issues and will study competing proposals that represent opposing philosophies.

The Federal and State Affairs Committee started Monday with a bill backed by a coalition of business groups to help some illegal immigrants hold down hard-to-fill jobs in agriculture and other industries with labor shortages.

The committee planned two days for hearings on the bill drafted by the coalition, which includes agriculture groups and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce.

But the committee also plans to start hearings Wednesday on multiple bills designed to crack down on illegal immigration. Those measures are backed by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the former law professor who helped draft tough immigration laws in Alabama and Arizona.