Updated: 2:10 PM The House Health and Human Services Committee is having hearings this week on a bill to ban smoking in most public places in Kansas.

Updated: 11:28 AM Gov. Kathleen Sebelius likes what she's seeing so far from legislative committees when it comes to education funding.

Updated: 11:20 AM The President's budget director is facing tough questions from senators who want more details on the administration's health care reform plans.

Updated: 11:12 AM An activist who ran for Pennsylvania governor three times says she will challenge Arlen Specter for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.

Posted: 10:18 AM President Obama says he backs the idea of merit pay for the best school teachers -- a position that his union supporters have fought.

Updated: 10:16 AM The government is looking to put salmonella detection on the fast track with a quicker test.

Posted: 10:12 AM Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the nation's financial regulatory system needs to be overhauled.

Updated: 4:16 PM Gov. Sebelius is expected to veto the final product, just as she vetoed three similar bills last year.

Posted: 5:24 PM The bill also would allow Sedgwick County voters to say whether they want slots at Wichita Greyhound Park.

Updated: 1:26 PM President Barack Obama says "medical miracles do not happen simply by accident." That's why he says he's allowing federal taxpayer dollars to fund broader research on embryonic stem cells.

Posted: 9:47 AM The measure would require any candidate who raises over $5,000 in contributions of under $50 each to list the donors.

Posted: 9:43 AM Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and legislative leaders will be in Washington D.C. this week to promote two research projects in the state.

Updated: 11:53 AM Attorney Dan Biles of Shawnee is to be sworn in this afternoon as the 74th justice of the state's highest court. He replaces Chief Justice Kay McFarland, who retired in January.

Updated: 10:45 AM The Obama administration says it will do what is necessary to "break the destructive cycle" of job loss and put Americans back to work.

Posted: 8:18 AM Another round is coming in the ongoing dispute between Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and most legislators over two proposed coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas.

Posted: 3:47 PM The Judiciary Committee voted today to send the bill to an interim study committee rather than advance it to the chamber floor for debate.

Posted: 1:30 PM The Kansas House has passed two bills that would impose new restrictions on abortion providers.

Updated: 1:14 PM Kennedy, scion of an Irish-American political dynasty, is known in Britain for his involvement in the long process that led to Northern Ireland's 1998 Good Friday peace accord.

Updated: 8:33 AM The Treasury Department on Wednesday released detailed guidelines designed to let the lending industry know how to enroll borrowers in the program announced last month.

Posted: 8:16 AM Kansas' senior senator is bucking anti-abortion opposition to support fellow Kansan Kathleen Sebelius for health and human services secretary.

Updated: 11:01 PM After a night of watch party mingling, it's time for candidates to get back to the campaign trail.

Updated: 2:07 PM The Kansas House has given first-round approval to two abortion bills, including one that would impose stricter reporting requirements on doctors doing late-term abortions.

Posted: 11:55 AM President Barack Obama is comparing the stock market to the daily tracking polls used during campaigns, saying that paying too close attention to Wall Street's "fits and starts" could lead to bad long-term policy.

Updated: 10:37 AM Kansas Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson says he's not planning to make any major policy or staff changes once Gov. Kathleen Sebelius resigns to take her new job in Washington.

Posted: 10:28 AM Barack Obama's budget chief is on Capitol Hill defending the president's $3.6 trillion budget while Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan calls it the biggest expansion of government since the New Deal.