Topeka ? If some legislators have their way, hypnotists will perform with impunity, motorized scooters will be banned from the highways, and Maisie DeVore will finally get her due.

That’s just a sampling of some of the unusual bills up for a vote in the Kansas Legislature this session.

When Kansas Walker, of Larned, invited a hypnotist to perform at his steakhouse, he expected hilarious laughter, maybe one or two people strutting like roosters.

What he didn’t expect was for a sheriff’s deputy to show up later that month telling him the performance was against a Kansas law that prohibits hypnotism for entertainment purposes. Walker eventually enlisted the aid of Sen. Janis Lee, D-Kensington, who got a proposal to repeal the law on the agenda.

So today, sandwiched between a bill on “the interstate compact for juveniles” and another bill “phasing in the use of administrative hearings over the years” is Senate Bill 337 — “Repealing the crime of hypnotic exhibition.”

Another bill would bar motorized scooters and skateboards from using state roads.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said emergency room visits related to motorized scooters more than doubled from 2,250 in 2001 to 5,900 in 2002.

Supporters of Maisie DeVore, who want to rename a section of the K-4 Highway for her, say that it’s a fitting way to recognize her service to her hometown of Eskridge. DeVore spent 30 years recycling cans and bottles and holding bake sales and raffles to pay for a community swimming pool. She was one of five Americans to receive the prestigious Jefferson Award for public service in 2002.

Lee, who is sponsoring the hypnotism bill, said that offbeat bills were just part of the democratic tradition.

“There will be a lot of one-interest-group issues, but that’s part of the whole process,” she said. “What may seem minor to one individual is important to another. It all depends on whose ox is being gored.”