Posted: 3:47 PM House and Senate negotiators reopened talks Thursday on a proposed $14.5 billion state budget for each of the next two fiscal years, starting in July.

Posted: 3:38 PM Critics of multi-state, Common Core reading and math standards are pushing Kansas legislators to block their use in the state's public schools.

Posted: 2:16 PM This is the second year for the program, which encourages children to read when they're not in school.

Posted: 10:07 AM Gov. Mary Fallin has vetoed two bills and signed more than four dozen others less than a week after lawmakers adjourned the 2013 legislative session.

Posted: 9:49 AM The political arm of the Republican Party is seeking any emails and documents that might exist between the State Department and President Barack Obama's re-election campaign about the deadly assault last year in Benghazi, Libya.

Posted: 8:59 AM The Douglas County Commission will ask the state for an exemption from a new law that allows concealed weapons in public buildings.

Posted: 8:47 AM Kansas legislators hope to make progress toward resolving their differences on tax and budget issues.

Posted: 4:44 PM Switzerland said Wednesday it will allow its banks to skirt the country's strict client secrecy laws in order to end a long-running dispute with the United States over tax evasion by American clients with hidden accounts.

Posted: 3:02 PM Gov. Sam Brownback believes Kansas lawmakers are making progress in resolving tax issues even though the House and Senate have suspended negotiations for now.

Posted: 11:47 AM Unemployment rates fell in almost all large U.S. cities in April, helped by stronger hiring. The gains show the job market is improving throughout the country.

Posted: 10:21 AM New revelations that China used cyberattacks to access data from nearly 40 Pentagon weapons programs and almost 30 other defense technologies have increased pressure on U.S. leaders to take more strident action against Beijing to stem the persistent breaches.

Updated: 10:16 AM NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen (AHN'-derz fohg RAHS'-moo-sihn) will visit the White House on Friday.

Updated: 11:56 AM Kansas legislators aren't resuming negotiations yet on tax issues, and their work on the state budget has stalled.

Updated: 3:33 AM A video posted by Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann on YouTube announced she would not seek a fifth term in Congress in 2014.

Posted: 11:58 AM Americans are more confident in the U.S. economy than at any point in the past five years, thanks to surging home prices, a brighter job market and record-setting stock prices.

Updated: 8:28 AM Kansas legislators are going back to work on tax cuts and the budget, still uncertain when they'll wrap up their annual session.

Posted: 8:22 AM Some states are pushing back against uniform benchmarks for reading, writing and math that have been fully adopted in most states and are being widely put in place this school year.

Updated: 6:09 AM Politicians who have helped gun-control measures in Colorado are seeing an increasingly common result of their politically risky votes: recall attempts.

Updated: 3:50 AM Some Kansas lawmakers have have decided to turn down additional pay as the Legislature heads past its 90-day session limit.

Updated: 9:50 AM Legislators will take up both issues when they return to Topeka from the Memorial Day holiday.

Updated: 10:51 PM The Secretary of Corrections says he will have to make $12.5 million in cuts if a legislative budget agreement is adopted.

Posted: 4:41 PM The deal emerged Friday from talks among three senators and three House members to reconcile differences between the two chambers.

Posted: 2:23 PM Gov. Sam Brownback says Kansas residents want their legislators to get tax policy right and are willing to accept the annual session going longer than anticipated.

Updated: 7:31 PM The vote Friday was 109-5 against the measure.

Updated: 8:31 AM An agreement struck earlier in the week on the 2014 Kansas budget remains on the back burner while Republican legislative leaders seek agreement on taxes.