WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita lawmaker is brushing aside criticism after he tweeted that about two dozen guns were on the House floor during a debate over concealed weapons.

Republican Rep. John Whitmer sent the tweet in response to Republican Rep. Stephanie Clayton. The outspoken opponent of campus carry had tweeted that she was “so scared” because lawmakers were about to take up a gun measure.

Whitmer responded with, “Nothing to be scared of, there’s at least 25 guns on the floor of the House right now!” Lawmakers ultimately approved a bill to keep concealed guns out of public hospitals and mental health centers.

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley said Whitmer’s tweet was “disgraceful.” Whitmer responded that the peaceful debate showed there was nothing to fear.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities have arrested a 21-year-old man in the deadly shooting of his roommate during a Wichita party.

Wichita Police Lt. Jason Stephens says 18-year-old Joseph Seabolt died at a hospital where he was driven early Thursday. Stephens says Seabolt was shot in the lower abdomen during a birthday celebration that spanned two duplexes. Seabolt and his roommate lived in one of the duplexes.

His roommate Manuel Lee Trotter is jailed in Sedgwick County on suspicion of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, and discharge of a firearm at an occupied dwelling.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A judge has delayed until next year the trial of three Kansas men accused of plotting to attack Somali immigrants in the meatpacking town of Garden City.

The trial for Curtis Wayne Allen, Patrick Eugene Stein and Gavin Wayne Wright had been scheduled to begin June 13. But U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren granted on Friday the men’s request for a continuance and set the trial to begin Feb. 20. Trial is expected to last four weeks.

His written order follows a hearing Wednesday in which defense attorneys asked for more time to review the large amount of evidence. Prosecutors also had not yet turned over to the defense some discovery.

The three men are accused of conspiring to detonate truck bombs at an apartment complex where Somali immigrants live.

By SAM ZEFF

The Kansas Legislature isn’t close to coming up with a school funding formula.

However, lawmakers are working with a bill that looks a lot like the formula they scrapped in 2015 for block grants.

That bill, and the struggle this session to write it, is not just back to the future, but back 25 years to the future. That’s when another school funding suit bogged down the session.

When the history of Kansas school finance lawsuits is written — whenever that may be — two names will loom large. And they’re not governors, attorneys general or legislative bigwigs.

The first name is Judge Terry Bullock.

Many Kansans have never heard of Bullock, who served 30 years on the Shawnee County District Court. But his rulings are, essentially, the law.

Bullock was a player in three school funding cases starting in 1991. “So I’ve had quite a lot of exposure to these kinds of pieces of litigation,” Bullock says.

The other name is Alan Rupe, a lawyer, who is still in the game.

Rupe has been suing Kansas for nearly 30 years over school funding and is right in the middle of the ongoing Gannon case that is currently tugging at negotiations in the statehouse. He says it reminds him of the 1991 suit, Mock v. Kansas, when Bullock called all the parties into a conference in the state Supreme Court chambers.

“I can remember that session because, I think, it was supposed to start at 10 o’clock and Governor (Joan) Finney and then Attorney General Bob Stephan remained in the hallway because neither wanted to enter the room before the other one did,” he says.

Finally, Rupe says, one of them came to their senses, and Bullock set the group, which included lawyers and legislative leaders, to work.

“I reminded them that everybody in the case — everybody, including me — was being paid by the state,” Bullock says. “It seemed to me if we could get this case resolved in a reasonable manner that it would be a wise thing for the public and a good thing for the schoolchildren.”

In a few hours, the group agreed to form a task force to come up with a new school funding plan. That led to lawmakers passing a school funding formula in 1992 that changed the way Kansas funds public schools.

That ended the Mock case, but it didn’t end the lawsuits.

In 1999, the state was sued in a case called Montoy v. Kansas. The plaintiffs argued the state wasn’t spending nearly enough money to fund education adequately and equitably.

The Montoy case resulted in the lawmakers agreeing to put in an additional $755 million for public schools between 2005 and 2009.

But as the economy soured, the Legislature reneged on the deal and actually cut funding in 2009.

Rupe says these past few legislative sessions are like going back in time.

“It feels like Montoy when the … Kansas Legislature adopted a formula (in 2005) that did not pass Supreme Court muster and we went into a special session, went on the cusp of a constitutional meltdown,” Rupe says.

Constitutional meltdown. Special session. Sound familiar?

This year’s House bill would provide extra money for students who are poor, English language learners or live a long way from school, among other things. A Senate plan would do the same thing.

Rupe says it’s basically the same formula hammered out after the Mock case 25 years ago.

Bullock says it’s hard to watch history repeat itself.

“So it’s frustrating for me, of course, but more importantly, I think, for the families and the children who watch some districts have all the funds needed,” Bullock says. “Some of the districts in my cases had so little that they couldn’t buy classroom textbooks. They didn’t have pencils and paper. And yet other schools, for example, had a full-size Olympic swimming pool for the recreation time for the children.”

Rupe says he also is frustrated. Gone is the attitude of everyone — legislators to lawyers to state leaders — rolling up their sleeves to negotiate school funding. “I don’t think you could get that group into one room,” he says.

“I don’t think that there is a room that would hold those folks in a fashion where people could work through the issues.”

The days of working together, Rupe says, seem to be over.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the name and date of the Mock v. State of Kansas court case. The timeline of litigation and legislation has been clarified.

Sam Zeff covers education for KCUR.org and the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @SamZeff. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to KCUR.org.

TREGO COUNTY – Three teens were injured in an accident just before 2:30 a.m. Friday in Trego County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a Toyota 2000 Toyota 4-Runner driven by Zoe A. Martin, 15, Hays, was westbound on Old 40 Highway one mile west of WaKeeney.

The driver lost control of the vehicle. It traveled off the roadway and rolled over.

Passengers in the Toyota Dawson M. Arnold, 15, WaKeeney; Maci E. Fisher, 16, Hays, were transported to Hays Medical Center.

Another passenger Neomy Soto, 16, Hays, was transported to Trego County Hospital.

Martin was not injured. Soto was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

RENO COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a three-vehicle crash and arrested a Kansas woman.

Just after 4:30p.m. Thursday, vehicle driven by Holly Fain, 41 Salina, collided with a vehicle driven by 62-year-old Cynthia J. Kidd, Hutchinson which then caused that vehicle to strike one driven by 54-year-old Jackie P. Stimatze in the 2500 block of East 30th Street in Hutchinson, according to police.

Fain is suspected of aggravated battery, possession of methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, driving under the influence, driving while suspended and illegal transportation of liquor.

She was transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center for treatment of injuries.

DETROIT (AP) — Toyota is recalling 36,000 Tacoma pickups in North and South America because they can stall without warning.

The recall involves Tacomas with V-6 engines from the 2016 and 2017 model years. Most of the trucks — 32,000 — are in the U.S. The rest are in Canada, Mexico, Bolivia and Costa Rica.

The company says an engine crankshaft timing rotor may have been produced with excessive anti-corrosion coating, which could cause the crank position sensor to malfunction.

If the sensor malfunctions, the vehicle may run roughly, misfire or stall.

Vehicle owners will be notified of the recall starting next month. Toyota dealers will replace the crank position sensors for free.

In addition, Harley-Davidson is recalling about 46,000 motorcycles in the U.S. because an oil line can come loose, spewing oil into the path of the rear tire.

The recall covers certain 2017 Electra Glide, Road King, Street Glide and Road Glide models built from July 2, 2016 through May 9, 2017.

Harley says a clamp on an engine oil cooler line may not have been installed correctly. The company says it has nine reports of oil lines coming off. The problem caused two crashes and one minor injury.

Dealers will inspect the clamps and fix them free of charge. The recall is expected to start on Tuesday.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A St. Louis couple, along with financial service firm Edward Jones, has donated $2 million to Kansas State University.

The university says the donation from Doug and Vicki Hill and Edward Jones will be used for to hire faculty and promote growth for the National Strategic Selling Institute in the College of Business Administration.

Doug Hill is a Kansas State alumnus and senior partner and former managing partner at Edward Jones. He said he and his wife want the donation to help the National Strategic Selling Institute become a full major degree program at the university.

The donation is part of a fundraising campaign led by the Kansas State Foundation, which has a goal of $1.4 billion of private donations for the university.

SUMNER COUNTY – A second earthquake in as many days shook portions of Kansas early Friday. The quake at 2a.m. measured a magnitude 2.5 and was centered approximately 9 miles northwest of Bell Plaine, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Just before 1:30p.m. Thursday, a 3.3 magnitude quake was centered approximately 6 miles southeast of Harper, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

It was the first quake in Harper County since May 19.

The agency reported 9 Kansas earthquakes in May including two quakes in Sumner County over the Memorial Day weekend. They measured 2.5 and 2.6 and were centered near Belle Plaine.

The USGS recorded nearly a dozen Kansas earthquakes in April, seven in March and six in February. They measured from 2.5. to 3.3.  There are no reports of damage or injury from Friday’s quake, according to the Sumner County Sheriff’s Department.

WASHINGTON —President Donald Trump says the U.S. could try to re-enter the international climate agreement sealed in Paris if the deal were more favorable to Americans.

Trump indicated that wasn’t a priority as he explained why he was pulling the U.S. out of the Paris accord in the first place. In a Rose Garden announcement Thursday, the president framed the decision as one made in the best interest of his country.

In an email, Kansas Senator Jerry Moran said he “opposed the Obama administration’s decision to enter into the Paris climate accord without appropriate congressional input. But given the change in administrations, I would have preferred staying at the table.”

On May 25, Kansas Senator Pat Roberts joined 22 other Senators and signed a letter asking Trump to pull out of the Paris agreement.

According to Moran, ” The U.S must now engage in this debate to avoid decisions made without us that lack common sense, are not based on sound science and are damaging to jobs in the United States. We can put America first by leading,”

Many U.S. allies are expressing alarm over the U.S. abandoning the chief effort to slow the planet’s warming. The leaders of France, Germany and Italy joined to “note with regret” the Trump decision and express doubts about any change in the accord.

Several of Trump’s top aides opposed the action, including his daughter Ivanka Trump.

The AP contributed to this report