SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Missouri prosecutors say a man imprisoned for a 2013 strangling had raped a woman days before the killing but avoided arrest by claiming the sex was consensual.

Greene County prosecutors charged 27-year-old Sean David Roberson on Tuesday with first-degree rape. Online court records don’t show whether he has an attorney.

Court documents allege that in March 2013, the alleged rape victim secretly left a note in a Springfield convenience store, saying she had been kidnapped and attacked. Investigators say the note asked for help and gave Roberson’s address.

Police notified about the note questioned Roberson but made no arrest. He insisted the sex was consensual.

Roberson is serving a 15-year sentence for manslaughter in a Branson strangling that took place six days later.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kansas Republican Sen. Pat Roberts is blocking a vote on the nomination of Eric Fanning to be the next Army secretary. At issue are efforts by the president to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer detainees to the United States.

Republican Sen. John McCain tried to secure a vote on Fanning, who if confirmed would be the first openly gay leader of a U.S. military service.

But Roberts objected on Thursday, saying he won’t relent until the White House promises no detainees will be moved to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

McCain says it’s unfair to block Fanning’s nomination over an unrelated issue. McCain calls it a distortion of the Senate’s advise and consent role.

Fanning has served in several roles at the Pentagon.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Topeka fire officials say a blaze that occurred at a motel following a shootout between federal agents and a suspect caused an estimated $350,000 in damage.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports three members of a federal fugitive task force were wounded Saturday night while trying to arrest 28-year-old Orlando Collins, who was killed in the shootout at the Country Club Motel complex. A fire broke out in the gunman’s room during the exchange of gunfire.

Topeka Fire Marshal Michael Martin says the damaged building housed 20 motel rooms. He says the blaze was started with “common combustibles” that could include paper or a mattress.

Collins was being sought on a federal robbery warrant. Topeka police have said Collins also was wanted for questioning about a tobacco store robbery.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Three Republican senators are proposing a bill to reinstate income taxes for more than 330,000 Kansas business owners.

The Senate Tax Committee reviewed the proposal Thursday as lawmakers try to address the state’s $290 million budget deficit in an election year.

State budget officials say reinstating the tax on farmers and business owners would bring in an estimated $170.6 million in fiscal year 2017. The bill would tax 70 percent of their income.

The Wichita Eagle reports business groups strongly oppose reversing the tax exemption. Democrats and others say the bill doesn’t go far enough to solve the state’s budget problems.

Gov. Sam Brownback proposed the tax exemption as part of a package slashing personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013, which he said would stimulate the state’s economy.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A measure to allow beer-makers to lease coolers to stores to keep drinks frosty has passed the Missouri House.

House members voted 103-38 Thursday to tack the provision onto a bill that already had Senate approval. The measure then passed the chamber.

The underlying bill would allow a state wine board to oversee marketing of the beverage.

Supporters say the provision to allow beer coolers will help consumers, stores and brewers because it will lead to more refrigerators to store cold beer.

It’s been criticized by craft brewers, who say it could give an unfair advantage to larger breweries such as Anheuser-Busch.

The amendment was one of several added to the Senate proposal by the House. That means it heads back to the Senate.

The legislative session ends May 13.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri lawmaker is urging students to reconsider attending the University of Missouri in Columbia following campus turmoil last year.

Democratic Rep. Courtney Allen Curtis of Ferguson said in a statement Thursday he’s concerned about the welfare of minority students.

His warning follows student demonstrations at the Columbia campus over what protesters saw as administrators’ indifference to racial issues.

Protests culminated with the resignations of the University of Missouri system president and Columbia chancellor.

University of Missouri has since been under national and state scrutiny, including from lawmakers calling for change.

Curtis, a member of the Legislative Black Caucus, slammed legislation to create a commission to review the system. He says there is no requirement that members will be diverse and no penalties if recommendations for change are not followed.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Civil rights advocates are suing the Wilson County sheriff over his jail’s policy of allowing inmates to receive and send only postcards in the mail.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Social Justice Law Collective contend the policy violates the free speech and due process rights of prisoners and the people who write to them.

Their class-action lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court of Kansas, seeks a court order that puts an end to the practice.

Wilson County Sheriff Pete Figgins says the mail policy was put in place for security reasons to know what is being said in them.

ACLU lawyer Doug Bonney says these policies create a huge problem for inmates and their loved ones because they don’t allow enough space to correspond about anything meaningful.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Thieves took mischief to new heights when they absconded with a 14-foot-tall cutout of a Kansas City Royals player.  Authorities say the 150-pound, roughly $7,500 image went missing Wednesday night or Thursday morning from its perch along Interstate 435.

The cutout is that of a center-fielder leaping against an image of the outfield wall at Kauffman Stadium, the Royals’ home.

As vice president of Lamar Advertising, Bob Fessler says he’s been in the business for three decades and has seen the handiwork of vandals, but never anything like this theft.

Fessler says the billboard’s lights go off about midnight, leading him to believe the caper took place after that.

Jackson County authorities are reviewing surveillance video from a nearby gas station for any clues.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police in Wichita, Kansas, are trying to unravel who made off with costumes of the Blue Man Group while the performance artists were there this week.

Police say theft Tuesday night or Wednesday morning involved costumes worth more than $1,000 from a performance arts center. The heist was discovered about noon Wednesday.

Police have publicly released on social media a picture of a man shown walking in what appears to be a hallway, carrying a laundry basket of items stolen.

The Blue Man Group was in Wichita for two nights of shows. It was not immediately clear if the theft affected their ability to perform.

PINE LAWN, Mo. (AP) — A former Pine Lawn police officer has been charged with assaulting a clerk at a gas station.

Monday 36-year-old Nicholas Stone was charged with third-degree assault following an investigation by the Missouri Highway Patrol.

Court documents say that while Stone was on duty on Nov. 17, he went behind the clerk’s counter at a Phillips 66 gas station and slapped a woman working there on the buttocks. The newspaper says the incident was captured on surveillance camera.

Edward McGee, a spokesman with the St. Louis County circuit attorney’s office, said that Stone resigned from the Pine Lawn Police Department a day or two after the incident. Pine Lawn no longer has a police department. The city is being patrolled by the North County Police Cooperative.