TOPEKA, KAN. – A Topeka man pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to operate an interstate sex trafficking business, Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said.

Sean P. Hall, 46, Topeka, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy. In his plea, he admitted to conspiring with co-defendants to operate a Topeka-based prostitution business. At times, as many as 20 females were working as prostitutes for the organization.

The leader of the organization rented houses where some of the prostitutes were allowed to live. The organization used Web sites, social media and cell phones to advertise sexual services and to keep track of prostitutes.

Hall admitted that in 2012 he started working for co-defendant Frank Boswell at Club Magic, a nightclub in Lawrence, Kan. Hall became a trusted employee and learned from Boswell how the prostitution business operated. Hall transported prostitutes to and from meetings with clients. He posted photos of prostitutes on Internet sites advertising their services. He also promoted the business by posting reviews of prostitutes on other Web sites that advertised sexual services.

Sentencing is set for Oct. 3. He faces a penalty of up to five years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 on each count.

Co-defendant Frank Boswell, 42, Topeka, Kan., is awaiting trial. Co-defendant Rachel Flenniken, 34, Topeka, Kan., pleaded guilty earlier this month and is set for sentencing Oct. 17.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — State officials have revoked a stop-work order on the Bakken oil pipeline where it crosses American Indian land that includes burial grounds.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources granted Texas-based Dakota Access LLC an amendment to its sovereign lands construction permit.

Department spokesman Kevin Baskins says the pipeline will be located about 85 feet underground in the Big Sioux River Wildlife Management Area by using special equipment rather than digging a trench for a route.

State Archaeologist John Doershuk said in an email last week to department director Chuck Gipp that the proposed method is a satisfactory avoidance procedure.

Indigenous Environmental Network organizer Dallas Goldtooth says his organization opposes the department’s decision to allow the pipeline to be constructed in the area.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 29-year-old Kansas City man has been charged in the death of transgender woman who a witness said was intentionally run over several times and left to die.

Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced Monday that Luis M. Sanchez was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.

Sanchez is accused in the Aug. 15 death of 36-year-old Tamara Dominguez. Court records indicate a video showed Dominguez getting into a truck. Authorities say a witness saw the victim get out of the vehicle and slam the door before walking away. The witness said he saw the vehicle run over Dominguez several times.

Charges against Sanchez were unsealed Friday after he was arrested in Colorado.

Prosecutors have requested a bond of $250,000.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Twenty-six Syrian refugees have arrived in St. Louis to start new lives.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the International Institute of St. Louis helped four families make their way to the city over the weekend. Volunteers with the institute spent last week preparing housing and gathering food items for each family.

The families will go through orientation. That includes enrolling in English classes and filling out applications for Social Security cards, Medicaid and food stamps.

President Barack Obama announced in September that he would increase the number of refugees accepted into the U.S. this year from 70,000 to 85,000, with 10,000 of them from Syria.

The institute is expected to sponsor about 965 refugees this year.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas has tentative plans to try and save some notable ash trees on its campus from the invasive beetle known as the emerald ash borer.

According to a draft of the University of Kansas’ ash tree management plan, about 20 trees that are in significant locations on campus would be injected with insecticide to prevent ash borer infestation.

Trees left untreated would be monitored for signs of infestation. Diseased or distressed trees would be removed.

The plan also calls for replacing ash trees with other species over five years.

The University of Kansas Facilities Services would carry out the management plan.

The ash borer feeds on tree tissue beneath the bark, destroying the ability to move water and nutrients to branches.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A federal report showed that construction jobs in Kansas fell 3,400 over the past year.

The U.S. Labor Department report released Saturday showed that employment in Kansas’ construction industry since May 2015 slipped 5.6 percent. The Kansas percentage decline was surpassed only by drops in West Virginia and North Dakota.

The report also showed that four neighboring states experienced growth in the construction jobs sector, adding a combined 20,000 jobs to the economy.

Bob Totten, executive vice president of the Kansas Contractors Association, said diminished state spending on bridge and road work was a factor in Kansas’ low ranking on construction employment.

In April, Kansas delayed up to three years authorization of highway construction projects valued at $550 million because of budget shortfalls.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — An activist group has suspended its efforts to loosen marijuana restrictions in Columbia while awaiting the fate of a statewide push to allow Missourians to vote on legalizing medical marijuana.

Mid-Missouri NORMAL wants Columbia to decriminalize the cultivation of six or fewer marijuana plants. Group president Josh Chittum says the issue would be moot if medical marijuana is legalized.

New Approach Missouri collected more than 250,000 signatures on petitions to make marijuana available for patients with diseases and conditions including cancer, AIDS and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The secretary of state’s office has until August to determine whether the issue will be on the ballot in November.

If the statewide measure fails, Chittum said the Columbia petitioners likely would resume their efforts.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal appeals court said a judge wrongly tossed a lawsuit by a woman who wants to speak publicly about her time on the grand jury that declined to indict a Ferguson police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man.

The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday reinstated the lawsuit by the woman identified as “Grand Juror Doe.”

The 8th Circuit concluded U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel should have put the lawsuit’s proceedings on hold until a Missouri court decides the constitutionality of a state law barring grand jurors from publicly discussing the secret proceedings.

The lawsuit claims St. Louis County’s prosecutor mischaracterized the jury’s findings when he announced in November 2014 that the panel declined to indict officer Darren Wilson in Michael Brown’s death.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A pack of five African wild dogs — an endangered breed down to a few thousand in the wild — has a new home in suburban St. Louis.

The Endangered Wolf Center in Eureka has taken in the animals — an adult male, an adult female and three pups. The center, whose mission is to preserve and protect wild canid species through managed breeding, reintroduction and education, is now among 30 facilities around the world that together house 97 African wild dogs for breeding and species survival.

Many conservationists, including those at the Endangered Wolf Center, are pushing a new name for the breed, African painted dogs. The goal is to dispel the myth that they are simply wild strays unworthy of protection.

The breed features big round ears and a patchy white, yellow and black pelt. Its geographical range in Africa was vastly reduced over the decades as livestock owners and others killed them. The dogs hunt relentlessly as a pack in the wild, sometimes exhausting their prey in the chase and even learning to use fences to corral animals.