Brandon Eber and Rachel Dunmire were all smiles when they went to the Sedgwick County Courthouse to get their marriage license Friday.

But they were frowning in frustration after being told they couldn’t because the courts were closed and the employees who issue marriage licenses were on furlough due to budget difficulties.

Work in district court offices throughout northwest Kansas will continue to pile up Friday, but the pay for its employees won't.

Friday is the first day of a possible five-day furlough for most of the 1,500 court employees in Kansas, a move announced last week by Kansas Chief Justice Lawton Nuss.

He made the announcement after the Kansas Legislature went home without passing a state budget, or a $1.4 million supplemental funding bill for Kansas courts.

A bill aimed at better protecting women from breast cancer is running into trouble in the Kansas Legislature, apparently after becoming entangled in a political rivalry.

The bill would require medical personnel to inform women that they have dense breast tissue that can hide cancer detection during a mammogram.

Kansas' state courts will close five Fridays and 1,500 court employees furloughed a total of one week without pay in response to the Legislature's inability to pass a bill fixing a budget shortfall for the judiciary, officials said Wednesday.

Lawton Nuss, chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court, said he would sign an order setting April 13, April 27, May 11, May 25 and June 8 as furlough and closure days.