KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Prosecutors say a man who pleaded guilty to a series of shootings on Kansas City-area highways in 2014 will be sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said in a news release that 30-year-old Mohammed Whitaker pleaded guilty Tuesday to 20 felony charges arising from the shootings.

The random shootings in March and April of 2014 frightened drivers and injured at least two motorists.

Shootings were reported in Kansas City; the Missouri suburbs of Lee’s Summit and Blue Springs; and the Kansas suburb of Leawood.

After tips directed officers to Whitaker, they followed him for days before arresting him in April 2014 at his apartment in the Missouri suburb of Grandview.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Lawmakers are expressing concerns that Kansas won’t be able to quickly catch up with $100 million in delayed contributions to public employee pensions.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that members of the Joint Committee on Pensions and Investments discussed their concerns Monday. The pension payments were delayed this spring to address budget shortfalls. Under the plan, the delayed payments were to be repaid with interest by 2018.

Republican Rep. Steven Johnson, of Assaria, says he’s “not optimistic” about the prospects of the money being paid back in time. Committee members note that the state faces budget difficulties that lawmakers must confront next year.

But Gov. Sam Brownback noted Tuesday that the pension system’s finances have improved significantly since he took office in 2011, partly because the state boosted its contributions.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — The Johnson County sheriff says federal immigration authorities have placed a detainer on the man charged in the death of sheriff’s deputy killed when a pickup slammed into his patrol car during a traffic stop.

Adrian Espinosa-Flores, of Kansas City, Kansas, is being held in Johnson County on $2 million bond after being charged Monday with involuntary manslaughter/DUI in the death Sunday of Master Deputy Brandon Collins. Collins was making a traffic stop at the time.

Sheriff Frank Denning said Tuesday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed a detainer on Espinosa-Flores.

Denning says the detainer is a request to local law enforcement agencies to hold a person for possible deportation once they’ve gone through the court system. Denning says the detainer also means Espinosa-Flores won’t be released on bond.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Seven Midwest governors have sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency seeking regulation changes intended to increase sales of gasoline blended with a higher percentage of ethanol. The governors of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota sent a letter Tuesday to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.

The letter requests new standards that would allow stations to sell more gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol rather than the current standard of 10 percent ethanol.

The letter says the current setup “is stifling the widespread adoption” of E15 ethanol blends.

The governors — five Republicans and two Democrats — are all from leading ethanol-producing states. The letter was also sent to President Barack Obama.

A telephone message seeking a comment from McCarthy was not immediately returned Tuesday.

NEW YORK (AP) — An analysis of newly uncovered documents shows the sugar industry began funding research that cast doubt on sugar’s role in heart disease — in part by pointing the finger at fat — as early as the 1960s.

A sugar industry group paid Harvard researchers to write an article published by a prominent medical journal in 1967 that concluded that reducing cholesterol and saturated fat was the only dietary intervention to prevent heart disease.

While scientists are still working to understand links between diet and heart disease, concern has shifted in recent years to sugar and carbohydrates, and away from fat.

The documents are detailed in a study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, and is the latest evidence showing how food makers influence nutrition science.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NCAA has pulled seven championship events from North Carolina for the coming year due to a state law that some say can lead to discrimination against LGBT people.

The NCAA has issued a news release saying the decision by its board of governors came “because of the cumulative actions taken by the state concerning civil rights protections.”

The season-opening NCAA men’s basketball tournament games scheduled for Greensboro will be relocated. Also affected are the Division I women’s soccer, golf and lacrosse championships, along with the Division II men’s and women’s soccer and tennis championships and the Division II baseball championship.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City officials say they’ve secured historic preservation status for Kemper Arena.

The Kansas City Star reports that the National Park Service made the decision last week to list the arena on the National Register of Historic Places.

City manager Troy Schulte says the decision allows officials to move forward to redevelop the arena as an amateur sports complex. The city hopes to transfer ownership of the arena to Foutch Brothers by the end of this year for the $25 million to $30 million project.

The historic designation makes the arena eligible for tax credits.

As we reported last month, officials announced the facility would be renamed “Mosaic Arena.”

Historic preservation consultant Elizabeth Rosin says the arena represents “a specific point in time,” in the late 1960s and early 1970s when many cities built multipurpose arenas that became community gathering spots for concerts, sports and other entertainment.

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — A federal safety agency has proposed more than $411,000 in penalties against the operator of a south-central Nebraska grain elevator where a worker was killed.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in a news release Monday that Cooperative Producers Inc. was being cited for three egregious willful and three serious violations following the agency’s investigation.

OSHA says 41-year-old Jason Weston died March 16 at the CPI elevator in Prosser after his lifeline tangled in an unguarded, rotating auger.

President Allan Zumpfe said the co-op disagreed with OSHA’s categorizing some violations as “willful” but said the co-op will work with OSHA to resolve those points.

OSHA has placed the co-op in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which focuses on employers that the agency says commits willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violations.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An Indiana man who fell from a golf cart at a car racing event in Lincoln earlier this month has died.

Lincoln Police Officer Katie Flood told the Lincoln Journal Star that Anthony “Tony” Rietdorf died Sunday at a Lincoln hospital.

Rietdorf suffered a traumatic brain injury on Sept. 4 during the fall from the golf cart. He had been competing at the Sports Car Club of America’s Solo Nationals in Lincoln.

The 36-year-old from Fort Wayne, Indiana, was married with a young son.