TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma’s former lead seismologist says he felt pressured by an official at the University of Oklahoma to not link the state’s surge in earthquakes to oil and gas production.

The Tulsa World reports that Austin Holland’s sworn testimony came in a lawsuit filed by a resident against two oil companies for damages sustained during an earthquake in 2011. The quake also was felt in Illinois, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Texas.

University President David Boren and the former dean of university’s Earth and Energy College deny Holland was pressured by the school.

In his testimony, Holland says he also was reprimanded for helping publish a peer-reviewed journal article on how to cope with man-made earthquakes.

Boren told the newspaper he couldn’t respond to specific comments Holland made because he hasn’t seen the testimony.

HOLTON, Kan. (AP) — A man whose cases sharply divided his small Kansas town was given more jail time by a judge who departed from a plea deal.

Jackson County District Judge Norbert Marek on Wednesday sentenced 23-year-old Jacob Ewing to a total of 7.5 years for attempted rape of a woman and child exploitation related to images he had of an underage girl.

Ewing was sentenced in September to 27 years for raping and sodomizing two other women.

Ewing’s attorney and the prosecutor had agreed the sentences could be served concurrently but Marek departed from that agreement.

The sentencing ends a saga that roiled the town of Holton for more than a year. When Ewing was first arrested, many people in the town supported him and criticized his accusers.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri’s Republican Treasurer Eric Schmitt is meeting with members of President Donald Trump’s administration to show support for a tax code overhaul.

Schmitt on Wednesday said he’s making a day trip to Washington, D.C. on Thursday to meet with Trump administration officials and advisers. He says other state treasurers and officials also will be in attendance.

Schmitt said he supports cutting taxes despite estimates reported by the Columbia Daily Tribune that current proposals to double the standard deduction used by most Americans could mean a state revenue loss between $500 million and $1 billion. Schmitt said the impact on the Missouri budget is unknown at this time but generally praised cuts as a way to spur the economy.

Schmitt says he’s paying for the trip with campaign money.

By MADELINE FOX

Officials with the Kansas Department for Children and Families responded Tuesday to concerns about destroyed evidence in child abuse cases during a legislative task force meeting.

After a Kansas City Star investigation suggested DCF employees had shredded documents regarding children in state care, an agency official told lawmakers that the claims by former DCF deputy director Dianne Keech were inaccurate.

“During Mrs. Keech’s time with the department, she claims the agency’s attorney directed staff to keep information from the public’s reach by a shredding of all notes. This is not an accurate statement,” said Steve Green, director of policy and legislative affairs for DCF. “Ms. Keech is likely referring to direction given to staff that they should not include personal notes in case files for incident review. … This is not an effort to keep information from the public, but rather an effort to ensure the file only contains facts, observations pertinent to the case.”

Sen. Laura Kelly, who had asked Green about the claims, said she was unsatisfied with the response to questions about the destruction of case file notes.

“They still have not answered my question,” said Kelly, a Topeka Democrat. “My question was very specifically, ‘Have social workers been asked to shred notes that they have taken during meetings on kids in custody?’ I don’t have the answer to that question from them yet.”

DCF has been confronted about child welfare problems during meetings of the task force, which legislators established earlier this year to examine issues with the state’s privatized foster care system. In the last few years, Kansas has repeatedly set records for the number of children in foster care.

During the September meeting, task force members learned that some children taken into custody were sleeping in contractors’ offices because placements could not be immediately found. At last month’s meeting DCF Secretary Phyllis Gilmore told task force member she was not aware of specific cases of foster kids running away from care.

Gilmore, who did not attend Tuesday’s meeting, announced earlier this month that she will retire Dec. 1.

In response to last month’s concerns about missing kids, DCF provided an updated count Tuesday to the task force. Officials said 77 kids were missing from care as of Nov. 12, with the largest number of runaways ages 15 to 18.

Madeline Fox is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @maddycfox.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri Democrat is suing Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley for not living in the capital city.

Donna Mueller on Tuesday sued Hawley, who she says is breaking a state law requiring the attorney general to reside in the seat of government.

Hawley has an apartment in Jefferson City but the neighboring county clerk says his permanent residence is in Ashland. Scrutiny over his residency intensified after he voted in an August election in Ashland.

Democrats in particular have questioned Hawley’s residency as he campaigns for Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill’s seat.

Hawley’s Deputy Chief of Staff Loree Anne Paradise says Hawley’s residency “clearly complies with Missouri law and precedent.” She says his office is in Jefferson City and he has a nearby residence as a matter of custom.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — State agencies have asked for more than $274 in new funding for next year just months after Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback called the current budget bloated.

The agencies are collectively seeking a 4.1 percent increase in spending in next year’s general fund budget. Preliminary budget requests for the next fiscal year became public when agencies presented them to a legislative committee last week.

One agency seeks money to restore earlier cuts to universities. Another wants money to eliminate waiting lists for people with disabilities. A third wants more money for social workers.

The requests do not include additional spending for schools.

Legislative leaders have created a committee after the Kansas Supreme Court decision last month which struck down the state’s education funding formula as unconstitutional.

LENEXA, Kan. (AP) – Preliminary autopsy results confirm that dismembered human remains found inside a suburban Kansas City storage unit are those of a woman whose husband was living in the unit with his 4-day-old baby and 2-year-old child.

An arrest affidavit for 35-year-old Justin Rey was released Tuesday. He’s jailed on $1 million bond in Johnson County, Kansas, on child endangerment charges.

He’s not charged in the death of his wife, whom family identified as Jessica Monteiro Rey.

The dismembered remains were discovered Oct. 24 inside a cooler and tote at a U-Haul Moving and Storage facility in Lenexa. Surveillance video showed Rey pulling a cooler when he checked out of a Kansas City, Missouri, hotel one day earlier.

A search warrant says Rey told authorities his wife killed herself after giving birth.