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Gov. Sam Brownback urged the extension of the wind Production Tax Credit at a news conference Tuesday in Washington, D.C., held by the Governors' Wind Energy Coalition.

Brownback is part of the bipartisan group of governors that is working to get the tax credit extended during the lame duck session of congress that began Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters and legislators by phone, Brownback said there was almost 1400 megawatts of wind energy produced in Kansas in 2012, but the uncertainty around the credit was causing the industry to slow.

The Veterans Administration and the University of Kansas Medical Center plan to provide more telemedicine access for Kansas veterans.

Officials from the VA and the medical center said Tuesday the effort will allow veterans to access mental health care without traveling great distances to a VA facility.

The effort began two years ago as a pilot program between the VA and the Kansas Medical Center facility in Garden City. Contracts are being worked out to first expand the access to two more facilities in rural Kansas.

For a thousand years, there has been a division between musicians who could read music and those who played by ear. Both skills are essential, and so the music industry has become a strange world in which the literate and illiterate coexist.

Music reading is useful because it is so efficient. When the music is written down, composers don’t have to take the time teach their music to the musicians, and musicians don’t have to rely on memory to play their parts.

A southeast Kansas hospital will break ground next week on an $18 million expansion.

Construction of the new surgery center at Via Christi Hospital in Pittsburg will begin November 19. Crossland Construction Company, of Columbus, Kansas, was chosen recently as the general contractor for the 40,000-square-foot addition.

Brownback to appoint judge to the Kansas Court of Appeals; Brownback to announce Veterans' health initiative; Via Christi expansion in Pittsburg set to break ground.

Panel Interviewing 20 For Court Of Appeals Spot

A statewide nominating commission is interviewing 20 applicants for a seat on the Kansas Court of Appeals.

Gov. Sam Brownback's administration has asked state agencies to prepare contingency plans for 10 percent budget cuts. The head of the Juvenile Justice Authority told a legislative committee what that could mean for the juvenile corrections system in Kansas.

Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers approved a five-year contract deal with Bombardier Learjet in Wichita over the weekend.

Machinists Union spokesman Bob Wood said people will be returning to work at the Wichita plan Monday. Wood described Saturday's offering as a "substantial improvement" over the proposal that prompted the October 8 walkout.

Machinists Union approves new contract with Bombardier contract; Major player in opposition to fluoridating Wichita's water vows to take fight nationally; Budget cuts to Juvenile Justice Services could mean fewer services.

Machinists Union Approves New Bombardier Contract

Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers approved a five-year contract deal with Bombardier Learjet in Wichita over the weekend.

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A Kansas House Democrat has filed a lawsuit hoping to force Shawnee County officials to turn over a list of voters who cast provisional ballots.

Rep. Ann Mah of Topeka is trying to avert a narrow election loss.

Democratic Party officials gave The Associated Press a copy of Mah's petition before it was filed in Shawnee County District Court Friday.

Mah trails Republican challenger Ken Corbet of Topeka by 27 votes out of almost 11,000 cast. She says she wants to ensure that all provisional votes are counted and that maybe 150 votes are in play.