TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Board of Regents is urging the governor and lawmakers to restore higher education funding.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the regents took the stance Wednesday unanimously and without comment. For fiscal years 2018 and 2019, their proposal calls for reinstating about $30 million per year sliced from the fiscal 2017 budget.

The cuts announced in May represented a 4 percent higher education reduction. The University of Kansas and KU Medical Center lost about $10.7 million, and Kansas State University’s campuses lost about $7 million.

Regents chairwoman Zoe Newton says the board is “not unaware of the straits that we are in as a state.” But she says the board feels it needs to “put out there what it is that we feel we need as a system.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City woman was sentenced to nearly two years in prison without parole for stealing from a bank where she worked.

Federal prosecutors announced Thursday that 36-year-old Elisha Nicole Araiza was sentenced to 21 months and ordered to pay $213,090 in restitution to Bank of America.

She pleaded guilty in April to embezzlement.

Araiza worked as a portfolio officer on the Small Business Accounts Team at Bank of America, which involved working with small businesses on financial questions.

She admitted that she deposited a bank customer’s money in her own account in July 2011 because her account was overdrawn. The diversion of client checks to her account continued until the embezzlement was discovered in March 2015.

Bank of America found 121 loan payment checks diverted to Araiza’s personal account.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man suspected of killing a Lincoln convenience store clerk in July has been slain in Mississippi.

The clerk, 51-year-old Robert Hanna, was fatally shot during a robbery at a Kwik Shop early on July 7.

The Lincoln Police Department said in a news release Thursday that the suspect, 20-year-old Rodzela Jones, was found dead 12 days later in Jonestown, Mississippi.

Lincoln investigators say they identified him through the store’s video surveillance and through phone records and family interviews that placed him in Lincoln at the time of the shooting.

Lincoln police say Jones was killed before they received enough information to conclude that he was the man who shot Hanna. A spokesman for the Coahoma County, Mississippi, sheriff didn’t immediately return a call from The Associated Press.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a man and a woman have died in a fire at a central Missouri apartment complex.

Boone County Fire Protection District Assistant Chief Gale Blomenkamp says crews were dispatched around 5:30 a.m. Thursday to blaze at the complex north of Columbia. He says the Missouri State Fire Marshal believes the fire originated from a candle on a TV stand in a lower-level apartment.

Fire crews found the victims’ bodies in a bathroom in an apartment directly above that unit.

The fire was brought under control in less than 30 minutes. The fire damaged six apartment units, causing at least $250,000 in damages.

No one else was hurt.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Internal Kansas City police documents show a police unit set up to investigate crimes against children failed to properly investigate thousands of cases, with some detectives doing no work at all.

A special squad asked to clear backlogged cases found such serious problems that Police Chief Darryl Forte in January suspended nearly all of the detectives and sergeants in the Crimes Against Children Unit.

The Kansas City Star’s review of internal police department memos uncovered the depth of the problem. The memos describe 148 “severely mishandled” cases, “incompetence,” and evidence of efforts to cover up the problems.

A unit created in April has reviewed tens of thousands of cases.

Forte, prosecutors and child care advocates say they have seen marked improvement in investigations since the unit was overhauled.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — An attorney defending a proposal to raise Missouri tobacco taxes for early childhood programs says taking it off the ballot would violate backers’ constitutional right to use the initiative petition process.

Attorney Jane Dueker argued Thursday to state Supreme Court judges that it should go to voters Nov. 8, despite concerns that it made it on the ballot after using a misleading summary.

An appeals court has ruled that the short description of the proposal given to petition signers was unfair.

The measure would hike cigarette taxes from 17 cents to 77 cents a pack by 2020 and create a 67-cent-per-pack “equity” fee on off-brand cigarettes that would increase annually for inflation.

Attorney Chuck Hatfield told judges to kick it off the ballot. He says the original summary was misleading.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Most of 30 protesters arrested last month at a central Iowa petroleum pipeline construction site have appeared in court on a trespassing charge.

All but one took responsibility and will pay just over $270 in fines and fees. One pleaded not guilty and faces trial.

The protesters are members of environmental and citizens actions groups. They rallied Thursday after court appearances. They’re calling on President Barack Obama to halt the Dakota Access pipeline claiming it will harm water supplies and disturb American Indian burial and cultural sites.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota and property owners in Iowa are suing to stop the project.

Pipeline supporters say half the pipeline is completed and stopping it now undermines the regulatory process and chills future infrastructure projects.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri lawmakers have concluded their annual veto session after overriding Gov. Jay Nixon to enact measures loosening state gun laws and tightening voting requirements.

The Republican-led Legislature overrode the Democratic governor on a total of 13 vetoes Wednesday.

The guns law allow most adults to carry concealed weapons without needing permits.

The photo ID requirement is contingent on passage of a November ballot measure.

Nixon, who is in his final year in office, already was the most overridden governor in Missouri history.

Over his past six years in office, lawmakers have successfully overridden 96 vetoes of bills and budget measures. That doesn’t include one additional override of an unemployment benefits bill last year, which the Supreme Court declared void because it was not done in a timely fashion.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German drug and farm chemical company Bayer AG says it has signed a deal to acquire seed and weed-killer company Monsanto for $66 billion.

Bayer says it is paying Monsanto shareholders $128 per share, which represents a 44 percent premium over Monsanto’s closing price on May 9, the day before a proposed deal was announced.

The deal is subject to approval by Monsanto shareholders and anti-trust regulators. The latest bid includes $10 billion in debt.

Bayer said Wednesday the transaction brings together two different but complementary companies. Bayer makes a wide range of crop protection chemicals, while Monsanto is known for its seeds business.

Leverkusen-based Bayer said the merged companies’ agriculture business would have its seeds business and North American business headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, where Monsanto is currently based.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa City Board of Adjustment is scheduled to decide Wednesday whether to let a couple build a 7,500-square-foot home designed to resemble Kinnick Stadium.

A group called the Neighbors of Manville Heights Association and property owners in the area are appealing the city’s June issuance of a building permit to Reed and Sandy Carlson. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that the opponents cited the home’s size, the potential for big parties, as well as concerns about drainage, fire safety and erosion.

The board has the final say over matters of zoning, variances and permits, unless someone takes the board to court over its decision.