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Here are Today's Headlines from The Associated Press as Compiled by KPR Staffers.

(Photo by Stephen Koranda)Kansas Governor Sam Brownback today (WED) signed a bill that changes the way some judges in Kansas are selected. Under the new system, the governor will select candidates for the state appeals courts. The nominees will then need to be approved by the Senate. The current system involves a nominating commission that selects candidates. The governor then chooses from those candidates. Brownback says the current system gives too much power to attorneys, who hold five of the nine seats on the commission.00000184-7fa7-d6f8-a1cf-7fa7be540000The top Democrat in the House, Paul Davis from Lawrence, says the change will introduce politics into the selection process for appellate court judges. Brownback is also pushing a similar change to the selection system for Kansas Supreme Court justices. But Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce says it may be too late in the legislative session to advance plans to revamp the selection process for Supreme Court justices.

The Kansas Judicial Center, which houses the state Supreme Court. (Flickr Photo by J. Stephen Conn)Governor Sam Brownback has proposed overhauling the way judges are selected in Kansas. In his State of the State address last (TUE) night, Brownback criticized the current system. Right now, a nominating commission selects candidates for the state Supreme Court and Kansas Court of Appeals, and the governor chooses one of the candidates. At the federal level, the president chooses judges, which must then be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Brownback proposed moving towards the federal model or another system.00000184-7fa7-d6f8-a1cf-7fa7b9250000Paul Davis, from Lawrence, is the top Democrat in the Kansas House. He doesn’t like the idea of going to a system modeled after the federal government.00000184-7fa7-d6f8-a1cf-7fa7b9250001Five of the nine people on the state’s judicial nominating commission are attorneys. Some lawmakers have said that gives attorneys too much power in selecting judges.

Senate President Susan Wagle (R-Wichita) speaking at the hearing. (Photo by Stephen Koranda)A Kansas Senate committee continued hearings today (WED) on a controversial bill affecting union paycheck deductions. The bill would bar unions from taking automatic deductions from members’ paychecks for political purposes. Voluntary deductions of that type are currently allowed. The bill also expands the definition of political activities in which public employee unions can't participate. Senate President Susan Wagle supports blocking the paycheck deductions. She says redefining the union political activities concerns her because those changes cost the bill some votes in the House.00000184-7fa7-d6f8-a1cf-7fa7ba7d0000The top Democrat on the committee, Tom Holland of Baldwin City, says he believes the bill is written too broadly and would bar unions from taking part in ANY political activities.

The Kansas Legislature has approved a bill that would close a budget gap in the current fiscal year's budget, largely by transferring funds from other areas of state government, including the highway fund.

Lawmakers are staring down a budget deficit topping $400 million.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas trade official says Russia's ban on U.S. food imports will hurt Russia more than it will harm Kansas farmers. The state Agriculture Department says Kansas ships more than $50 million worth of agricultural products to Russia, mostly soybeans and live breeding cattle. The department's international trade director, J.J. Jones, said Thursday that Kansas sold $15 million worth of soybeans to Russia in the first half of 2014. Sales of live breeding cattle to Russia are down because of domestic demand as U.S. ranchers rebuild their own herds. Russia buys $149 million in live cattle each year from the United States, and Kansas is one of its top three suppliers. Kansas hasn't sold beef to Russia in two years because of Russia's ban on growth additives fed to cattle.

The Southwest Chief train, headed toward Trinidad, Colo. (Photo via wikipedia.org)NEWTON, Kan. (AP) — Top executives of Amtrak and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway will make a whistle-stop trip on the passenger railroad's Southwest Chief in Kansas. Friday's event takes place amid efforts to preserve the current route between Newton, Kan., and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The route is in jeopardy because the track, which is owned by BNSF, needs to be upgraded for passenger service, but BNSF doesn't require the upgrades for its freight operations. Discussions have been taking place about how the costs of improvements might be shared. Amtrak president and CEO Joe Boardman and BNSF executive Matt Rose plan to talk with local officials at each stop Friday about the funding issues. The train is scheduled to leave Topeka at 9 a.m. and stop in Newton, Hutchinson, Dodge City and Garden City.

Community college football teams in Kansas are showing up in national championship games and your Netflix queue. Butler Coach Tim Shaffner says big changes started coming after the league opened the way for more top talent from out of state. The Kansas News Service takes a look at how community college football in Kansas became the center of attention and scandals.

This is not Governor Brownback's appointment book. This is Bob Hope's appointment book from back in 1983. Look: hanging out with Lucy on Saturday! (Photo via The Library of Congress)TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Governor's office is releasing a month's worth of calendars detailing appointments for Governor Sam Brownback and three top aides, but isn't disclosing the applicants for a state Court of Appeals seat. The governor's office responded Wednesday to an open records request from the League of Women Voters. It requested the calendars following Brownback's nomination last week of Caleb Stegall for a new judgeship on the state's second-highest court. Stegall is Brownback's chief counsel. After fulfilling the request, the governor's office provided copies of the records to The Associated Press. The governor's office released daily calendars for Brownback, Stegall and two other aides from July 15 through August 16. But the names of appeals court applicants who were interviewed were redacted. Brownback had said publicly that applicants' names would remain confidential.