TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) _ The Kansas House has given first-round
approval to a congressional redistricting bill keeping the Kansas
City area in a single district rather than splitting it between
two.

House members advanced the measure on a voice vote Tuesday after
substituting their favored plan for one drafted by House Speaker
Mike O'Neal, a Hutchinson Republican.

The House expects to take final action Wednesday.

The measure would cut southeast Kansas in half, putting
Pittsburg in the 4th District with Wichita, about 150 miles away.

The O'Neal plan would have split the Kansas City area between
two districts. It would have put much of Wyandotte County, with
urban Kansas City neighborhoods, into the 1st Congressional
District of western and central Kansas with rural communities more
than 400 miles away.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)