LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — Several civic and business leaders in Leavenworth are asking Army officials to spare the community from thousands of potential job cuts.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the military is considering where to make reductions required by law. Federal officials must cut the Army from 490,000 to 450,000 people by 2020. A commission has already announced a potential loss of 2,500 personnel at Fort Leavenworth.

An official with the Mid-America Regional Council warns an extra 2,500 jobs could be lost in the Kansas City metro region because of a reduction at Fort Leavenworth. The director of the Governor’s Military Council says tax revenue could decline in Leavenworth by $1.7 million annually.

Brig. Gen. Roger Cloutier stressed that nothing has been decided yet and that officials’ comments would be taken back to senior leadership.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man convicted of killing a woman over a dispute about an inheritance will be resentenced.

The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday upheld the first-degree murder conviction of Olin Coones for the 2008 killing of 45-year-old Kathleen Hadley-Schroll of Wyandotte County. But the court vacated his sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 50 years and ordered that he be resentenced.

Prosecutors said Coones killed Hadley Schroll, who had been his father’s caretaker, because he was angry that his father left her some of his estate. Coones was acquitted of killing Hadley-Schroll’s husband, who was also found dead in their home.

The new sentence was ordered because a judge, and not a jury, imposed the sentence, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in June 2013.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas obesity specialist who co-authored the “Atkins Diabetes Revolution” has been sentenced to three years and five months in federal prison for tax evasion.

The U.S. attorney’s office said Friday that 62-year-old Mary Vernon of Lawrence also was ordered Thursday to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution. Vernon was convicted earlier of five counts of tax evasion.

The “Atkins Diabetes Revolution” was published in 2004, a year after the death of weight loss expert Dr. Robert Atkins. Prosecutors said she earned nearly $800,000 for services to Atkins’ companies from 2003 to 2008.

Vernon also practiced medicine in Lawrence and Shawnee, and served as a medical director for nursing homes. Later, she directed a southwest Kansas emergency room.

Prosecutors said she evaded incomes taxes from 2004 to 2008.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The city of Topeka and the school district have agreed on the number of city police officers that will work in the district’s schools.

The city and district announced Thursday that 10 city police will work in the schools for the rest of this school year, then the number will drop to seven next year.

The city had a contract to provide four officers but had assigned 11 to the district. Chief James Brown said earlier this week he wanted to take some officers out of the schools and put them back on the streets.

The new agreement calls for eliminating the truancy officer position this year.

School officials said they will study ways to expand the district’s 12-person security force to provide security at its middle and high schools.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback has appointed a county prosecutor to a judgeship on a district court in eastern Kansas.

Brownback announced Thursday that the new judge is Terri Johnson of Fort Scott. She is the Bourbon County attorney and also serves as the county’s lawyer in civil-court matters.

Brownback said her mix of legal experience makes her well-prepared to be a judge. Both he and the new judge are Republicans.

She’s filling a position on the bench in the 6th Judicial District of Bourbon, Linn and Miami counties that will become vacant when Chief Judge Richard Smith of Mound City retires next month.

Smith recently sat with the Kansas Supreme Court as it reviewed a case involving Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s attempt to defend the state’s ban on gay marriage.

The Associated Press

The economic recovery has not been equal among the races, a Pew Research Center study shows.

The study released Friday found that the wealth gap between white households and minorities has widened.

The wealth of white households was 13 times greater than that of black households in 2013, versus eight times the wealth in 2010. And the wealth of white households was more than 10 times that of Hispanic households, up from nine times the wealth in 2010.

Pew researchers — analyzing data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances— found that the gap between whites and blacks has reached its highest point since 1989. The wealth ratio for whites-to-Hispanics is at a level not seen since 2001.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Jurors have convicted a man of snatching an 8-year-old girl from a Topeka apartment, raping her, killing her and stashing her body in a dryer.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Shawnee County jurors found 31-year-old Billy Frank Davis Jr. guilty Thursday afternoon of 10 counts, including capital murder, in the March 2012 death of Ahliyah Nachelle Irvin. Her parents wept as the verdict was read.

Jurors will return Friday to hear more evidence before deciding whether to recommend whether Davis should receive the death penalty or life without parole.

Prosecutors said Davis killed the child to hide that he had sexually assaulted her. But the defense said Davis didn’t have the mental wherewithal to form the intent to kill the girl because he been drinking and using cocaine.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new report from the Kansas Legislature’s nonpartisan research staff shows that Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan for closing a shortfall in the current budget mostly pushes the problem into the next fiscal year.

The researchers released new budget projections Thursday for the Legislative Budget Committee, a panel of lawmakers from both chambers.

It shows that Brownback’s plan eliminates a projected $279 million deficit for the current fiscal year. But it also shows that under his plan, a projected $436 million gap for the fiscal year beginning in July grows to $648 million.

Brownback proposes curing much of the current shortfall in the state’s main bank account by diverting funds from other accounts to it for general government programs. Those funds aren’t included in the next fiscal year.