The former recreation director for the City of Osawatomie was sentenced Monday to five years on federal supervised probation for embezzling more than $125,000 from the city.

Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said Ron Maring, 54, Osawatomie, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of tax fraud and false statement, and one count of money laundering. In his plea, he admitted the crimes occurred while he was director of the Osawatomie Recreation Commission.

He wrote checks from the recreation commission’s account to himself and to American Legion Baseball. He converted the money for his own use and not for the use of the recreation commission or American Legion Baseball.

As part of the scheme, he persuaded recreation commission board members to sign blank checks, used his own signature as an endorsement and instructed a recreation commission employee to endorse checks.

When he filed his 2010 federal income tax return he failed to report the embezzled income, which would have added $14,902 in taxes owed.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed legislation that would increase aid to poor school districts to meet a court mandate and end a threat that the state’s public schools might shut down.

The bill signed Monday increases poor districts’ state funding by $38 million for the 2016-17 school year by diverting funds from other parts of the budget. It also redistributes some funds from wealthier districts, which is in line with a state Supreme Court ruling last month.

The court said Kansas’ school funding system is still unfair to poor districts and gave lawmakers until Thursday to make further changes. It had warned schools might not be able to reopen otherwise.

The bill had broad bipartisan support when the Republican-dominated Legislature passed it last week during a two-day special session.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Two people have been killed in a two-vehicle, head-on collision just outside of Topeka. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports 16-year-old Daniel Jordan Warner and 40-year-old Thad H. Hess were pronounced dead at the scene after the crash occurred around 6:15 a.m. Monday.

Lt. Adam Winters of the Kansas Highway Patrol says the pickup truck Warner was driving crossed a center line “for an unknown reason.”

The truck crashed head-on into the pickup truck Hess was driving. Warner wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. Hess was.

The crash occurred at a point where the road slightly curves. Winters says investigators are looking into whether fog in the area may have contributed to the accident.

The drivers didn’t have any passengers in their trucks.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Army has identified a man who died in an Alaska motorcycle crash as a soldier from Junction City, Kansas.

Thirty-one-year-old Staff Sgt. Maurice Tucker crashed on Anchorage’s Minnesota Drive just before 8 p.m. Saturday.

Witnesses say the Tucker had stopped for a red light at Spenard Road while heading south. On a green light, he took off at high speed, lost control and began doing “speed wobbles.”

Witnesses tell police Tucker was thrown from the bike and struck the pole at Jefferson Avenue as the motorcycle slid several hundred feet down the roadway.

Emergency responders declared Tucker dead at the scene.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down Texas’ strict regulations of abortion clinics is expected to affect the fate of similar state regulations currently on hold in a Kansas court.

Texas rules required abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and forced clinics to meet hospital-like standards for outpatient care.

Kansas lawmakers passed similar requirements in 2011, but that law has been temporarily blocked pending trial in a Shawnee County courtroom.

The nation’s highest court held Monday that the regulations are medically unnecessary and unconstitutionally limit a woman’s right to an abortion.

That ruling was lauded in Kansas by abortion rights supporters who contend it clearly tells legislatures such laws are unconstitutional. Abortion opponents contend the decision jeopardizes women’s health.

Kansas has four clinics offering abortion services.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The company that wanted to build the Keystone XL pipeline is seeking $15 billion in damages from the federal government after the Obama administration rejected the Canada-to-Texas project.

TransCanada Inc. filed a request for arbitration Friday, arguing that the decision violated the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The pipeline would have carried 830,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Hardisty, Alberta, in Canada to Steele City, Nebraska, where it would have connected to existing pipelines running south to Gulf Coast refineries.

A spokesman for the Canadian developer says the November rejection was “arbitrary and unjustified.” The company also argued in its filing that the administration rejected the project to bolster its environmental credentials.

A State Department spokesman said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 23-year-old man has been sentenced to additional prison time for his participation in a deadly riot at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution last year. Johnson County District Judge Daniel E. Bryan Jr. sentenced Ian Yelton to 20 months to five years in prison for the attempted second-degree assault of inmate Cory Bewley.

His term will run consecutively with a 30- to 50-year sentence he received in Madison County in 2012 for a sexual assault.

Yelton pleaded guilty to the charge. He was the second of five inmates charged in the riot to enter a plea and be sentenced.

Twenty-two-year-old William T. Harris pleaded no contest to third-degree assault in May. Judge Bryan added a year to his 51- to 74-year sentence.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has vetoed a bill that would have let people carry concealed guns without a permit and expanded their right use weapons in self-defense.

Nixon said the bill “would make Missouri more dangerous” by relaxing current safeguards for concealed guns. The Democratic governor vetoed the measure Monday.

The Republican-led Legislature could try to override his veto during a September session.

The bill would allow most people to carry concealed guns even if they haven’t gone through the training required for permits.

It would create a “stand-your-ground” right, meaning people don’t have retreat from danger any place they are legally entitled to be present. The bill also would expand the “castle doctrine” by allowing invited guests such as baby sitters to use deadly force if confronted in homes.

KIOWA, Kan. (AP) — Two women are turning an old southern Kansas hospital into an oasis for unwed mothers during and after their pregnancies.

Miranda Allen and Brenda Myers paid $1 for the old Kiowa hospital after voters decided to build a new one.

They are transforming the facility into what they’ve named Project Pink House, which will take in its first resident in mid-July. The two breast cancer survivors say residents will take steps to better themselves while they’re there, including doing volunteer work and attending classes.

Allen and Myers figure women who need them will find their way to the town of fewer than 1,000 residents a few miles from the Oklahoma border.

The Hutchinson News reports they’re willing to buy bus tickets for applicants who need help getting there.