The National Prison Summit on Incarceration will be held in Wichita this weekend. Experts will discuss ways to help those behind bars, and their families. They will also talk about reducing recidivism to help the next generation stay out of jail.

Summit coordinator, David Wilkinson, says it’s been several years since the community has collectively come together to work with people that are incarcerated or transitioning out of prison.

The Kansas National Guard says it will furlough about 1,100 members for up to 11 days because of federal funding shortfalls.

Major General Lee Tafanelli, who heads the Kansas National Guard, says the furloughs will affect members whose jobs are federally funded, such as those in administration and logistical support.

No furloughs are planned for active-duty and reserve members. The furloughs were ordered by the Defense Department.

After making little progress for weeks, public negotiations on taxes have continued in the Kansas Statehouse.

Legislative leaders and the governor had been meeting behind closed doors, but this week it appeared those talks had stalled.

House and Senate negotiators held a public meeting Wednesday and House members offered a new compromise.

The House and Senate have been divided on the issue of sales taxes.

The Federal Reserve says farm income growth slowed across the Plains and western states in the first quarter, as costs increased and the drought lingered.

Bankers expect farm income to weaken further in the region during the second quarter.

But land values continued to increase in the first quarter on top of several years of significant growth. Cropland values rose 20 percent over 2012, and ranchland values grew 14 percent.

The 10th Federal Reserve District covers Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Colorado, northern New Mexico and western Missouri.

The Great Gatsby is so good that I am required to give up my dislike of writer-director Baz Luhrmann for his William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge, because in The Great Gatsby Luhrmann forgets about calling attention to himself and devotes himself to his material, and comes as close to doing justice to F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel as I expect any movie director ever can.

My research includes the study of buildings constructed from about World War II to the 1970s.

It began with a study of Route 66 and the features along the “Mother Road.” Since then, my interest in the postwar built-landscape has extended to suburban ranch homes, one of which I just purchased, and to the religious landscape of 1950s and 1960s America.

1. Spirit In The Room--Tom Jones
2. The Harder They Come--Various Artists
3. This River--JJ Grey & Mofro
4. American Kid--Patty Griffin
5. Volume 3--She & Him
6. Up On The Sun--Meat Puppets
7. Nomad--Bombino
8. Unstoppable Momentum--Joe Satriani
9. Stories Don’t End--Dawes
10. Wing Beat Elastic--Mike Keneally

The chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court and a prominent legislator are butting heads. At issue are allegations made the the justice.

He says the legislator, who's an attorney, tried to make a deal tying a pay raise for court workers to a constitutional amendment.

Chief Justice Lawton Nuss wrote a letter to a group of judges outlining the allegations. He said that Senate Vice President Jeff King told a group of judges in a meeting if they didn’t support a plan to overhaul how Supreme Court justices are selected, then the pay increase might not pass.

Critics of the Kansas Board of Education's decision to adopt national standards for math and reading urged the board to reconsider its decision Tuesday.

Kansas is among 46 states that have adopted the national standards; they set academic expectations for students from kindergarten through high school.

The state adopted the standards in 2010, and school districts have begun implementing them in the classrooms and in teacher training.

The Kansas Legislature's top Republican leaders are acknowledging that their private negotiations on tax issues have hit an impasse.

Senate President Susan Wagle of Wichita told fellow GOP senators Tuesday that her chamber and the House don't even agree on assumptions to use in projecting state revenues and spending.