LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A couple considered people of interest in the slaying of a Nebraska woman have pleaded not guilty to charges in an unrelated gold coin scheme.

Aubrey Trail entered his pleas Thursday in a U.S. District Court videoconference. He’s being held in a Leavenworth, Kansas, prison. Bailey Boswell entered her pleas Monday in Lincoln.

Investigators say Trail used a false name in November 2015 when he persuaded a Kansas couple to enter a joint venture to purchase a gold coin, with the understanding they would later sell the coin and split the profits.

Prosecutors say the coin wasn’t worth what Trail had said and that Trail and Boswell used false documents and websites for the ruse.

Authorities say the two are people of interest in the death of a 24-year-old Lincoln woman, Sidney Loofe. They were arrested Nov. 30 near Branson, Missouri

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – A task force at the University of Missouri’s flagship campus in Columbia has recommended cutting 27 doctoral, masters and graduate certificate programs.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports that the 15-member group released its findings Thursday. Programs on the proposed chopping block include religious studies masters and doctoral programs and a graduate certificate program in gerontology. They were selected for possible elimination because of low enrollment, few graduates and a lack of research productivity.

The group also recommended studying possible consolidation in some areas. It made no recommendations on undergraduate programs.

The review process is part of an effort to reduce spending that began last summer. The report doesn’t say how much money, if any, would be saved.

The deans and department chairs will be able to challenge the findings.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas took an ethics database offline Thursday over questions about how it gave users access to financial disclosure forms for hundreds of elected officials and state employees that included the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.

Secretary of State Kris Kobach acted after the tech website Gizmodo posted a story saying it had contacted Kobach’s office about the issue, according to news reports. Gizmodo called the failure to redact the partial Social Security numbers “beyond reckless” and “stupid.”

Kobach, a conservative Republican, was vice chairman of President Donald Trump’s now-disbanded voter fraud commission, which alarmed some state officials last spring by issuing a broad request to states for detailed information on voters, including partial Social Security numbers. Also, a multistate registration crosschecking program administered by Kobach’s office has faced questions about how well it secures voter data it collects and uses.

But the database taken down Thursday went online in 2005 during the tenure of one of Kobach’s predecessors as secretary of state, Republican Ron Thornburgh. It allowed users to view the disclosure forms that must be filed annually by elected officials, candidates, department heads, other key department employees and members of boards and commissions.

Kobach’s office said in a statement that it is required by law to make the full disclosure form accessible to the public and that the state Governmental Ethics Commission designed the form. He said he agrees that partial Social Security numbers should be redacted and is working with the ethics commission, which plans to meet next week to consider the issue.

“Secretary Kobach takes security measures very seriously and is looking for a solution that would allow this sensitive information to be redacted, while still following the requirements of Kansas law,” the statement said.

Kobach’s office said the disclosure forms are “an important tool in ensuring government transparency.” Paper copies remained open for inspection at Kobach’s office.

LYON COUNTY —Officials monitored a large fire in Lyon County early Friday.  A truck carrying 32 hay bales caught fire on Thursday evening, according to the Lyon County Sheriff’s Department.  Emergency officials closed Lake Road and Kansas 5 and Kansas Street in the community of Olpe.

Photos released by the sheriff’s department indicate the truck’s cab was safely removed from the trailer. Officials reported no injuries or what caused the fire.

MARSHFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A southwest Missouri couple is charged with repeatedly sexually assaulting a teenage girl whom a prosecutor alleges was kept as a “sex slave.”

Larry and Alicia Dykes of Strafford are jailed on $500,000 bonds. Larry Dykes was charged Friday with 10 felonies, and his wife with three. Both are 42.

Court records say the girl was younger than 14 when the alleged abuse began in 2016. It continued until recently and the girl was sometimes handcuffed and blindfolded.

Webster County Prosecutor Ben Berkstresser says the girl was “primarily a sex slave” and that Larry Dykes could face up to life in prison if convicted on all charges.

Larry Dykes’ attorney hasn’t returned a call Thursday from The Associated Press. Berkstresser says Alicia Dykes doesn’t have an attorney.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A former New Jersey church pastor was sentenced to about 1.5 years in prison for an unprovoked attack on a stranger’s baby inside a Kansas Walmart.

The Kansas City Star reports 55-year-old Oleh Zhownirovych was sentenced Thursday to 11 months in prison and six months in the Johnson County Jail, to be served consecutively.

Zhownirovych pleaded no contest in December to felony aggravated battery and misdemeanor battery.

In October 2016, Zhownirovych walked up to a woman waiting in a checkout lane at a Walmart in Overland Park and began choking her 4-month-old daughter. The woman screamed and several people came to her aid and got the baby away from him. The child was not seriously injured.

Zhownirovych is the former pastor of a Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Clifton, New Jersey,

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A Jefferson City, Mo., business owner has been indicted by a federal grand jury for tax evasion and for failing to pay over more than $400,000 in payroll taxes, according to Timothy A. Garrison, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Gina Marie Volmert, 53, of Jefferson City, was charged in an 11-count indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Jefferson City on Jan. 17, 2018. That indictment was unsealed and made public today upon Volmert’s arrest and initial court appearance.

Volmert is the majority owner and operator of GVA and Associates, LLC, in Jefferson City. GVA provides medical billing and coding services for the electronic submission of medical claims.

According to the federal indictment, GVA withheld payroll taxes from its employees’ paychecks. However, from 2012 through 2014, GVA allegedly made only partial payments to the IRS. Volmert is charged with eight counts of failing to pay over to the IRS a total of $403,912 in payroll taxes.

Volmert is also charged with three counts of tax evasion. In 2012, 2013 and 2014, the indictment alleges, Volmert decreased her reported income by fraudulently shifting her income to reimbursable expenses. Volmert fraudulently submitted $6,300 in reimbursable expenses every two weeks in order to conceal her income, according the indictment, which caused her income to be falsely reported on her W-2 to the IRS.

Garrison cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

 

TROY, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri man has been arrested after being accused of covertly installing video cameras in bathrooms at a Catholic church and at an amusement center where he worked.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 28-year-old Jeffrey Eisenbath was arrested Monday after investigators found he possessed videos made in bathrooms and downloaded child pornography.

Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Andy Binder says authorities were called to Adrenaline Zone, a bumper car and laser tag complex in St. Charles, on Jan. 15 after a camera fell through a bathroom ceiling. The camera’s recording showed Eisenbath installing the device.

Authorities say Eisenbath has admitted to recording the Adrenaline Zone bathroom and another bathroom in Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Troy, where he volunteered teaching religious classes to children.

He faces charges on invasion of property, invasion of privacy and possession of child pornography.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas House and Senate leaders say they want the state’s top school finance official suspended in a dispute over whether he has the authority to allocate money to school districts for transportation.

Senate President Susan Wagle and House Speaker Ron Ryckman say Dale Dennis, the deputy education commissioner, unlawfully allocated up to $405 million in transportation funds over 45 years. They also want Dennis’ immediate staff suspended.

Dennis said he’s been calculating transportation payments to school districts the same way for decades. He says he uses a method based on what he was told to do in the past and no one has questioned it before.

Some legislators on Thursday supported Dennis, saying the move was meant to prevent lawmakers from getting independent information on school financing.

ROLLA, Mo. (AP) – Authorities say a student at the Missouri University of Science and Technology has been charged with threatening to open fire on the Rolla campus with an assault rifle.

The Rolla Daily News reports that Alexander Beetler, of St. James, was charged Wednesday with making a terrorist threat. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

The probable cause statement says Beetler’s father told authorities that his son had threatened to kill him and “empty the rest of the clips” on the Missouri S&T campus.

The father also said Beetler had an AK-47 rifle and about 900 rounds of ammunition, and the weapon was recovered during a search. The statement says Beetler was charged earlier this year in Kansas with discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling.