TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas City Star asked a Kansas judge Friday to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed against the newspaper by state Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, calling it a "meritless hand grenade" lobbed for political purposes.

Denning in turn called the allegations made in the newspaper's filing in Johnson County District Court "absurd."

Denning's lawsuit alleges that the newspaper and freelance columnist Steve Rose defamed him by falsely attributing multiple statements to him in a column last month about expansion of the state's Medicaid health coverage for the needy. The colu...