The Maize School District has decided to stop doing random drug tests on students who participate in extra-curricular activities.

Maize's School Board recently voted to eliminate the testing after hearing reactions from school administrators and students. The suburb just west of Wichita had conducted the random tests on students from grades 7 through 12.

A spokeswoman says the district has spent almost $31,500 on the program since it began in 2007.

Throughout May, Crossroads teams up with Global Village, Strange Currency, Night Train and Straight No Chaser to celebrate B3 Month on KMUW. At the Crossroads, it's great players and recordings from both blues and soul that feature the instrument.

The drum machine is the most culturally important new musical instrument since the electric guitar.

Electronic drums have been around for generations, and the early ones sounded like the cheesy rhythm attachments on home organs.

Westar Energy officials who are dealing with $200,000 in damage at a substation over the weekend say thieves also hit two other substations.

The utility discovered damage Monday at substations near Valley Center and in Wichita.  Westar Manager Doug VenJohn says thieves have hit 31 substations just in April. There were only 15 similar thefts in all of 2012.

Westar crews were at six different substations Monday to make repairs related to copper thefts. The company will replace the stolen copper with materials that have no scrap value.

State officials say travel and tourism in Kansas generated almost $8 billion in 2011. Becky Blake, the state director of tourism, says 32 million people visited Kansas in 2011 -- and each visitor spent about $236.

Mary Catherine Bateson is a well-known cultural anthropologist and writer. She serves on the boards for the National Science Foundation and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

For decades Bateson has worked in the field of anthropology. She is a Harvard and Radcliffe graduate and the daughter of social anthropologist Margaret Mead and cybernetics pioneer Gregory Bateson. She’s written on religion, family dynamics and aging but now is deeply involved in environmental issues. 

Kansas legislative committees are taking separate paths to solve differences over the state's 2014 budget.

The House Appropriations Committee met Monday to review spending adjustments required by bills that have been signed into law. They're also getting an update on state revenue estimates.

The Senate, whose budget committee met last Thursday, plans to have a separate catch-all spending bill on its calendar when it returns.