TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man convicted of raping and killing an 8-year-old Topeka girl will not face the death penalty.

A Shawnee County jury on Tuesday said it was unable to unanimously recommend that 31-year-old Billy Frank Davis Jr. receive capital punishment for the death of Ahliyah Nachelle Irvin. The girl disappeared from a Topeka apartment in March 2012. Her body was found later the same day stuffed inside a clothes dryer in a blood-stained basement near the apartment.

Defense attorneys argued that Davis had mental health issues and was under the influence of drugs and alcohol and didn’t intend to kill the girl.

Under state law, the jury’s decision means that Davis will be sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. His sentencing was scheduled for Feb. 13.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas officials say record cattle prices have led to an increase in cattle theft reports.

Authorities say five longhorn cows and a bull, worth at least $10,000, were recently taken from a pasture in southeast Kingman County. A Reno County producer says four 600-pound calves were stolen this month.

The Kansas Animal Health Commissioner tells the Hutchinson News he noticed an uptick in theft reports funneled through his agency’s brands department.

On Monday, the Kansas attorney general and the state’s agriculture department announced an agreement to form a new investigative unit to combat the increase in cattle thefts. It will assist local law enforcement agencies in their suspected cattle theft investigations.

MANHATTAN -A Riley County man was sentenced Monday in connection with a fatal car crash. On October 19, 2013, Police say Garrett Olson, then 19, Leonardville, was driving a Honda Accord northeast of Manhattan when the vehicle hit a rock wall, overturned and ejected Trevor Redding, 17, Randolph. Redding died at the scene.

In January 2014 Olson was arrested. After entering a plea for involuntary manslaughter, charges of DUI and failure to remain at the scene of an accident were dropped.

Olson was sentenced to 30 months in the Kansas Department of Corrections with 36 months of probation following his release.

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The health insurance industry says companies will give consumers more time to pay January’s premiums under President Barack Obama’s health care law.

The move is an attempt to head off potential problems as the Obama administration renews millions of current customers, while trying to accommodate new ones as well.

Renewing coverage each year is standard operating procedure for private insurance plans.

But 2015 is the first renewal year for the health law, and the process involves a massive electronic data transfer from the government to insurers, happening right around the holidays. Last year, many files had errors.

America’s Health Insurance Plans — the industry trade group — plans to announce the grace period Tuesday.

Insurers say they’ll also act promptly to clear up any double-billing of consumers who’ve switched plans.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A commission charged with studying efficiencies in Kansas schools considered a proposal that would ban teachers from most collective bargaining.

A proposed bill one of several considered Monday by the K-12 Student Performance and Efficiency Commission. It would limit teacher negotiations to only wages, salaries and hours of work, even if the teachers union and Boards of Education agreed to negotiate on other issues.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports  other draft legislation would allow districts to consolidate administrative services and others creating commissions to study district reorganization and district cash balances.

The commission was created as part of a school finance bill during the last session to study whether the state is effectively spending its education dollars to benefit students. It will make recommendations to the Legislature next year.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas bitcoin company that was shut down after being sued by the federal government will be allowed to reopen.

A federal judge has ruled that Overland Park-based Butterfly Labs can resume operations under several restrictions. The company was closed in September after the Federal Trade Commission charged it had taken millions of dollars for computer equipment it didn’t deliver. It was later allowed to resume limited operations under a court-appointed receiver.

The Kansas City Star reports U.S. District Judge Brian Wimes last week rejected the government’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have kept Butterfly Labs under the receiver’s control while the original complaint was pursued. Wimes said the FTC has not shown that it was likely to succeed on the original charges.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office says a first-grade student brought a loaded handgun to school but didn’t display it or make any threats.

Sheriff’s Maj. Phil Blume told The Topeka Capital-Journal (http://bit.ly/1IVgUGn) that the pupil “self-reported” having the gun on Monday at Indian Hills Elementary School in Topeka.

Blume says the gun was “rendered safe” by an officer at the scene. He says the weapon was loaded but there were no rounds in the chamber.

A news release from the Sheriff’s Office says the child brought the gun from home.

Indian Hills Principal Jim McDaniel sent an email to parents advising of the weapon, though school officials declined to say what kind of weapon was found.

The email says the weapon was never taken out of the student’s backpack.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Two Kansas men have pleaded guilty in federal court to operating a synthetic drug business that generated at least $16 million in sales in less than two years.

U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom says 58-year-old Tracy Picanso and 56-year-old Roy Ehrett, both of Olathe, each pleaded guilty Monday to one count each of conspiracy, producing and selling misbranded drugs, producing and selling counterfeit drugs and conspiracy to launder money.

Prosecutors say the men owned an Olathe-based business that produced and sold synthetic marijuana and stimulants in Kansas, Missouri, California, Texas, Georgia and Colorado.

Prosecutors say some of the drugs were manufactured in buckets with drill-powered mixers and tried out on “testers” who helped tweak the recipes by reporting on the drugs’ effects.

Sentencing is set for April 13.

CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the Obama administration’s harshest congressional critics will get a final high-profile shot Tuesday when the House Oversight Committee grills witnesses about the president’s health care overhaul.

California Republican Darrell Issa (EYE’-suh) will lead the questioning of former health legislation adviser Jonathan Gruber.

The MIT economist recently apologized for saying voters’ “stupidity” was vital to passing the health law in 2010.

The committee also will question Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Issa has used the committee chairmanship to probe and attack the administration on issues such as the Benghazi attacks, the IRS scandal and guns. Talk radio conservatives love him, but even some GOP colleagues say he overdoes the combative partisanship at times.

Issa will surrender the chairmanship next year.