TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will soon make it easy for workers to claim religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccine requirements and promise unemployment benefits to people who are fired after refusing the shots, joining other states in resisting federal mandates from President Joe Biden.

But Gov. Laura Kelly angered some fellow Democrats in the Republican-controlled Legislature by promising to sign a measure pushed to passage late Monday night by GOP lawmakers. Meanwhile, Republicans frustrated the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, normally influential within the GOP, by embracing proposals that the...