ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court has disbarred a former St. Louis city prosecutor who helped cover up a police detective’s beating of a handcuffed man.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the state’s high court last month revoked Bliss Barber Worrell’s Missouri law license.

Worrell was sentenced in July to 18 months of probation and 140 hours of community service. She pleaded guilty in October of last year to misprision of a felony, or helping conceal a crime.

She admitted failing to tell officials what she knew about the 2014 attack involving former St. Louis officer Thomas A. Carroll at a police station, and that she helped file a bogus charge against the victim.

Carroll is serving four years in federal prison for violating the man’s civil rights.

Prosecutors charged Korrey Raine White Rinke of Ottawa, Kansas, on Thursday in the death of 46-year-old Julianna Pappas. Her body was found late Wednesday in a wooded area of Overland Park. She was last seen Aug. 22.

Court records do not indicate how Pappas was killed.

During Rinke’s initial court appearance Thursday, an attorney from the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit was appointed to represent him. His next court date is scheduled for Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree on Tuesday issued the ruling against Ananstacio Gallardo for $750,000 in actual damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages for sexually assaulting the woman in October 2007.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Gallardo was a vocational plumbing instructor at the all-woman prison when he forced the victim to have sex with him. She became pregnant and alleged Gallardo tried to get her to have an abortion.

Gallardo later pleaded guilty to one felony count of unlawful sexual relations with an inmate and two counts of trafficking contraband.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A national trade association reports that commercial contractors in Kansas say they are struggling to fill construction jobs.

The Associated General Contractors of America reports that 83 percent of surveyed construction firms say they are facing difficulties filling in hourly craft positions, even though the state lost over 4,000 construction jobs from July 2015 to July 2016.

Lawmakers have attributed the job losses to delayed highway projects, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal .

Trade association CEO Stephen Sandherr says the most difficult positions to fill are carpenters, electricians, roofers, plumbers and concrete workers.

He says nearly half of firms nationwide have responded to worker shortages by raising base pay rates for craft workers.

But Sandherr says shortages are not going to be alleviated any time soon, partially due to the increasing demand for construction work in many other parts of the country.

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — Relatives of a 25-year-old St. Louis County Justice Center inmate who hanged himself are questioning why he wasn’t on suicide watch.

Micah Joel Lees, 25, of Lake St. Louis was found hanging in his cell Monday. Relatives say he was taken off life support at a hospital and died Tuesday night.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports police have not disclosed why Lees was hospitalized, but relatives told the newspaper he hanged himself.

Jennifer Lees says her brother was addicted to heroin and arrested Friday on a probation violation. She believes he should have been on suicide watch.

The director of the county’s Department of Justice Services declined comment until Clayton police finish their investigation.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas opponents of concealed weapons on college campuses are preparing to fight again against the law ahead of its implementation in 2017.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that state-run universities must begin allowing concealed weapons onto campuses next July.

The next legislative session begins in January and lawmakers who want to stop concealed carry on campuses will have six months to change Kansas law.

Democratic state Rep. Barbara Ballard, whose district includes part of the University of Kansas, says lawmakers who oppose the law see better prospects for repealing it in the next legislative session, but they can’t be sure.

Republican state Rep. Melissa Rooker says she supports Second Amendment rights for hunting and self-protection, but is concerned about firearms in a college environment. Rooker says she supports allowing universities to create site-specific guidelines.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Arrests have been made in North Dakota and Iowa during protests against the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

Authorities cut free a man who bound himself to construction equipment and arrested at least two protesters Wednesday during a rally near Highway 6 outside St. Anthony, North Dakota.

The site is about 20 miles west of the main protest near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, where pipeline construction has been halted for days.

Several anti-pipeline protesters also were arrested during a rally Wednesday in Boone, Iowa. The local sheriff’s office says they could face misdemeanor trespassing charges after blocking access to a Dakota Access construction staging site.

In North Dakota, Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson says troopers briefly closed the highway due to the protest, and construction was temporarily halted.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A 17-year-old Kansas boy has been found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for setting a fire that killed his mother and sister.

Sam Vonachen also was convicted Wednesday of aggravated arson and attempted murder.

According to the Hutchinson News, during closing arguments, prosecutors said the teen wanted people to die. Vonachen was 14 at the time of the Sept. 26, 2013, blaze.

Vonachen’s attorney countered that he had a mental defect and wasn’t responsible for his actions.

Prosecutors say Vonachen waited until his three family members went to sleep before pouring gasoline around the stairs in his home and lighting it on fire. His father, Steven Vonachen, escaped. His mother, 47-year-old Karla Jo Vonachen, and his 11-year-old sister Audrey died in the blaze.