PRATT, Kan. (AP) — The superintendent of a south-central Kansas school district has resigned so the district won’t have to pay his $81,000 salary.

Superintendent Mike Sanders announced Wednesday that he would resign from the Skyline district in Pratt County at the end of the school year.

Sanders says he and the school board had already decided he would be part-time and a consultant next year, but it was apparent the district couldn’t afford his salary.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports 18 people in the district have been reassigned, had their hours cut or are losing their jobs, saving about $477,000.

Sanders says the district’s financial problems began with the 2008-2009 recession but has not improved. He says the district is anticipating increased costs and further reductions in education funding.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Jackson County jury has assessed about $82 million in damages against a debt collection firm that demanded payment from the wrong woman.

The jury awarded $251,000 in damages to Maria Guadalupe Mejia Alcantara and assessed $82 million in punitive damages against Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, a debt collection firm.

The Kansas City Star reports the case began two years ago when Alcantara learned she was being sued by the company for not paying a credit card debt of about $1,130 that wasn’t her debt.

Her lawyers filed a counter-claim, alleging violation of a federal fair debt collection act. The jury returned the award Monday.

Company spokesman Michael McKeon says PRA will ask the judge to set aside what McKeon calls an “outlandish” verdict that “defies all common sense.”

ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) — Jurors recommended a 30-year prison sentence Friday for a 23-year-old man convicted of infecting another man with HIV and endangering four others with the disease while attending college in Missouri.

The St. Charles County jury deliberated about two hours before recommending the prison term for former Lindenwood University student Michael L. Johnson, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. A sentencing date has not been set.

The suburban St. Louis jury convicted Johnson on Thursday of one count of recklessly infecting another with HIV and four counts of recklessly risking infection of another with HIV. Jurors acquitted him of a sixth charge — exposing another man to HIV — after that man testified he had unprotected sex with Johnson in the fall of 2012, but wasn’t diagnosed with HIV until September 2013.

Johnson, a college wrestler, was expelled from the university in St. Charles and has been jailed since his arrest in 2013. Prosecutors argued that Johnson knew he was HIV positive but lied to his sexual partners.

Johnson’s case has drawn the attention of gay rights activists and some legal reform groups. They argue that laws in Missouri and dozens of other states criminalize a medical condition and deter those at risk of infection from seeking medical treatment.

During Friday’s sentencing phase of the trial, St. Charles police Detective Don Stepp testified that after media accounts of Johnson’s 2013 arrest, he was contacted by about a dozen other men who said they had sex with Johnson. But Stepp said they did not want to file a formal complaint, with some saying they hadn’t told their families they were gay and one man saying he did not want to upset his wife.

Stepp said one of 32 videos on Johnson’s computer depicting sex with unknown partners showed Johnson engaged in unprotected sex the same day he got his HIV test at Lindenwood’s health clinic.

“The six men you heard testify were only the tip of the iceberg,” said Phil Groenweghe, an assistant prosecutor.

Testifying on behalf of Johnson, Meredith Mills said Johnson was her stepson’s friend in high school and that Johnson was especially helpful with her autistic daughter. Mills described Johnson as someone who always focused on the positives of life and never said or did anything mean.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has reversed the conviction of a 27-year-old man serving a life sentence for suffocating his former girlfriend and their baby after she demanded child support.

The court ruled Friday that Luis Aguirre’s confessions weren’t admissible because he was questioned after invoking his constitutional right to remain silent. Luis Aguirre was convicted in June 2012 of capital murder in the deaths of 18-year-old Tanya Maldonado and the couple’s 13-month-old son, Juan.

A hunter found their bodies in a shallow grave near Ogden in October 2009. A month earlier, Maldonado told a case worker at a Chicago homeless shelter that she was leaving with her son’s father. Aguirre was living in Austin, Texas, at the time but had previously lived in Ogden.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Young adults in the custody of the state who earn money from work or job training may have funds deposited in a trust fund under a measure sent to Missouri’s governor.

The House on Friday approved the measure that would require the money go to the person who earned it once they are released from state custody.

Republican Rep. Jeanie Lauer, of Blue Springs, says the provisions help protect the funds earned by the young people.

The money would be deposited with a financial institution and any interest earned would also be credited to the individual.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri House has passed a bill limiting police use of deadly force, but it faces a big hurdle on the Legislature’s final day.

The House’s vote Friday sends the bill to the Senate, where activity has been stalled this week. Legislators face a 6 p.m. deadline to give final approval to bills.

The legislation was filed in response to the fatal shooting in August of black 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white Ferguson police officer.

Current law allows the use of deadly force when an officer believes a suspect has committed or attempted a felony, is escaping with a deadly weapon or poses a serious threat to others.

The measure would limit the justification based on a felony to those that involve inflicting or threatening serious physical injury.

BENTON, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man jailed on murder charges is now facing additional counts for allegedly using a stun gun on three officers at a county jail.

The Sikeston Standard-Democrat reports that 28-year-old William Henry Applewhite III faces new counts of first-degree assault on corrections officers and armed criminal action.

The incident happened Sunday. Scott County Sheriff Rick Walker says Applewhite created a disturbance and three officers intervened. Applewhite allegedly was able to take a stun gun from one officer and used it on all three, along with two other inmates, before he was subdued.

One of the officers was treated at a hospital.

Applewhite is jailed awaiting trial for a January killing in Sikeston. He is charged with first-degree murder.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate has rejected a measure to allow supermarkets and convenience stores to sell full-strength beer.

The chamber voted 26-11 Thursday against adding the proposal to a bill on alcohol regulations. The Senate later approved the bill on a 31-5 vote. It goes to the House.

Supermarkets and convenience stores in Kansas now can sell only beer with 3.2 percent alcohol. Stronger alcoholic drinks can only be sold in the state’s roughly 750 individually-owned liquor stores.

The issue of expanding alcohol sales has generated fierce lobbying efforts on both sides.

The bill would allow alcohol to be consumed at official events at the Statehouse. It would also create a permit process for alcohol to be sold and consumed at venues like fairs, farmer’s markets and art galleries.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers say they have come to a regulatory agreement that will keep ride-hailing company Uber in the state.

Republican Senator Jeff Longbine and Republican Representative Scott Schwab announced at a news conference Thursday that they had come to a deal with all interested parties.

Uber announced in early May that it had ceased operations in Kansas after the Legislature overrode the governor’s veto on regulations the company opposed.

Under the agreement, Uber and other ride-hailing companies would be allowed to do third-party background checks on their subcontracted drivers. But, they would face possible lawsuits from the state attorney general if drivers were found to be operating with a criminal background.

Both chambers are expected to vote on the deal Friday, sending it to the governor to sign.