TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – A Kansas House committee is signing off on a proposal to redraw the chamber’s 125 districts to reflect changes in the 2010 census.

The reapportionment committee took less than 10 minutes on Monday to approve the map, endorsing it on a bipartisan, voice vote.

There were no amendments offered to the plan, which would collapse three current House districts and create three new ones in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

One district each would be lost in southeast, southwest and central Kansas, reflecting the population gains over the past decade in Johnson and Wyandotte counties.

House Speaker Mike O’Neal, chairman of the redistricting committee, said the decision was quicker than he anticipated, but that it is possible that the full House could debate the proposal yet this week.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has formally submitted an executive order to legislators to reorganize three state agencies that deal with social services.

The order signed Monday by Brownback is part of his administration’s plan to overhaul the state’s $2.9 billion Medicaid program, which provides health coverage for the poor, disabled and elderly.

The changes sought by Brownback will take effect July 1, unless one chamber votes to reject his order by April 6.

The order would shrink the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services so it would focus on services to children and families, removing it from involvement with Medicaid.

Services for disabled and mentally ill would move from SRS into the Department on Aging, which also would pick up some regulatory responsibilities from the Department of Health and Environment.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Gov. Sam Brownback has hit the highlights of his legislative agenda and touched on some specific proposals in meeting with two dozen Kansas legislators at his official residence.

Brownback had the gathering Monday evening, amid ongoing questions about other events with lawmakers in January. He allowed an Associated Press reporter and photographer to observe.

The governor said afterward that the meeting was typical of the ones he’s had previously. He had seven meetings at the residence in January with fellow Republicans on 13 legislative committees, and the Shawnee County district attorney is investigating whether they violated the Kansas Open Meetings Act.

Monday night’s group was bipartisan. In remarks after dinner, Brownback mentioned a range of issues, including taxes, education funding and water policy. Lawmakers asked a few questions.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – A Kansas prosecutor expects to decide soon whether to pursue criminal charges over the shredding of state documents seen as key evidence in a criminal case against a Planned Parenthood clinic.

Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor says he hopes to have a decision by the end of February.

At issue is a 2009 decision by the Kansas attorney general’s office to shred copies of reports to the state on individual abortions from Planned Parenthood’s clinic in Overland Park.

The shredding occurred 18 months after 107 criminal charges were filed against the clinic in Johnson County, with some alleging the clinic had falsified the reports. Once the shredding became public, a judge dismissed 49 of the charges.

The shredding has been described as routine, but abortion opponents are suspicious.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – A federal judge has granted conditional class-action status to a lawsuit filed on behalf of an estimated 700 workers at a slaughterhouse in south-central Kansas.

U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren ruled Monday that the class would include all hourly production employees subjected to allegedly unfair compensation practices at Creekstone Farms Premium Beef in Arkansas City for the past three years.

The workers claim the company hasn’t been paying employees for all the time they spend working. Creekstone contends it has paid employees for all time worked and any overtime they were entitled to get.

Melgren ordered the company to give the plaintiffs the names and contact information for each member of the class and to post notice of the lawsuit in both English and Spanish at its facility.