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With the close of voter registration, Shawnee County Elections Official Andrew Howell now has some details on the make-up of the area's electorate. He says that in Shawnee County, party affiliation is pretty evenly split. Howell said that so far, nearly 9200 Shawnee County voters have already cast their ballots for the November 6th election. ======================Thousands Choose Early Voting in Shawnee CountyWhile Election Day isn't until November 6th, several thousand people have already voted in Shawnee County. Elections official Andrew Howell says there are around 110,000 registered voters in Shawnee County, split almost equally among Republicans, Democrats and those who are unaffiliated.

(Photo by J. Schafer)WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The newly released 2012 Census of Agriculture shows the number of Kansas farms has decreased but those that remain are larger. The National Agriculture Statistics Service reported Thursday that the average number of farms in Kansas in 2012 was 61,773. That is down 6 percent from the 2007 census. Kansas had 46.1 million acres of land used for farming operations, about the same as reported five years earlier. But the average size of the farm, 747 acres, is larger since the previous census. That is up 6 percent, or about 40 acres larger than the average in 2007. The service portrays the average Kansas farmer as 58 years old. The number of farmers under age 34 was 4,327, nearly unchanged from the last count.

The annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower is set to peak early on May 6 and will be viewable in the dark predawn skies.

The judge said it was "reasonable" the Justice Department interpreted Trump's Jan. 6 commutations to cover the defendants' prison sentences and wipe away their terms of supervised release.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Negotiators from the Kansas House and Senate are moving closer to a deal on cancelling all or part of a scheduled drop in the state sales tax. Three negotiators resumed their talks on tax issues Tuesday and plan to continue Wednesday. The sales tax is the key issue. It's scheduled by law to decline in July from the current 6.3 percent to 5.7 percent. But the Senate has approved Republican Governor Sam Brownback's plan to keep the tax unchanged. The House favored allowing the tax to decline as planned, but the chamber's Republican leaders later proposed resetting it at 6 percent. Senate negotiators Tuesday proposed a sales tax of 6.25 percent. Many GOP legislators want to cut personal income taxes, but lawmakers must stabilize the budget.==================An earlier version of this story follows:TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Negotiators from the Kansas House and Senate are reporting progress on approving a new state budget, with plans to send the latest House proposal to the chamber floor for a vote. Details of the $14.5 billion proposal for the fiscal year that starts in July weren't immediately released Tuesday. But the possible House vote on Wednesday would be the first by either chamber since legislators returned May 8 from a monthlong break. Senate and House negotiators were to meet late Tuesday afternoon to make the procedural moves. A separate group of negotiators also planned to meet Tuesday to seek compromise on tax legislation. The House and Senate have been at odds on canceling a scheduled decline in the state sales tax from 6.3 percent to 5.7 percent.====================a prior version of this story follows: TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators were preparing to resume their negotiations on budget and tax issues as freshman Republicans in both chambers gathered for a joint meeting on Tuesday. First-term GOP lawmakers were caucusing Tuesday ahead of meetings of separate teams of senators and House members appointed to reconcile their chambers' differences on budget and tax issues. Republican leaders in both chambers have been at a stalemate. The biggest budget disagreement is over higher education spending. Both chambers want to cut, but the House wants to go deeper than the Senate. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback wants no cuts. On taxes, the biggest conflict is over Brownback's plan to stabilize the budget by canceling a scheduled decrease in the sales tax. The Senate has approved the measure, and the House wants the tax to decrease.

Here's the latest Kansas and regional news from the Associated Press, compiled by KPR staff.

These are the headlines for the KPR listening area, as compiled by KPR news staffers.

Here are the headlines for our area, as compiled by KPR news staffers.

Democrats want to push a health care message; Republicans had been planning to talk about tax cuts. But not much is breaking through, except Trump, who is top of everyone's minds.

Some House GOP hard-liners say Speaker Kevin McCarthy shouldn't rule out a shutdown to achieve spending cuts and social policy changes sought by the far right of his party.