MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A former Fort Riley soldier whose five life sentences were vacated by the Kansas Supreme Court will instead serve 77 years in prison.

Tony Tremayne Lewis was convicted in a series of crimes including rape, kidnapping and assault that occurred in Riley County in the spring of 2009.

He was initially given five life sentences. The state’s high court in June upheld the convictions but sent the case back for a new sentencing, finding that a judge misinterpreted Kansas law on punishment for habitual sexual offenders.

KMAN-AM reports Riley County District Judge Meryl Wilson imposed the 77-year sentence during a hearing Tuesday. Lewis will serve the time concurrent with sentences in Geary County for similar crimes.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City health authorities in Missouri and Kansas are investigating infections among 14 infants with a virus that can cause meningitis and other inflammation.

The Kansas City Star reports the first cases of a strain of a human parechovirus were discovered in June.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment spokeswoman Aimee Rosenow says none of the infants has died from HPeV3 but all have been hospitalized. Shawnee Mission Medical Center and Children’s Mercy Hospital have reported cases.

She says it’s unclear if the infections are connected. Nine of the children are from Kansas and the rest are Missouri residents.

Rosenow says the department is working with the Missouri Health Department and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine if there have been other infections.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback says his plan to create 100,000 new private-sector jobs in Kansas over the next four years will also close a projected state budget shortfall.

Brownback pledged Tuesday to work to create the new jobs if he’s elected to a second, four-year term. The promise is a key part of his campaign platform.

He said during a rally at a Topeka business that aggressive income tax cuts enacted at his urging are creating economic growth. But he’s facing questions about whether the reductions are undermining the state’s finances.

The Legislature’s nonpartisan research staff issued a new forecast last week predicting the state will have a $238 million budget shortfall by July 2016.

But Brownback said economic growth will allow the state to avoid budget problems.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is protesting a planned federal labor rule applying to domestic service workers, arguing it would reduce the care available to the disabled and elderly in their homes.

The state Department for Aging and Disability Services said Tuesday the new rule would increase the cost of services and force consumers to cut back.

Secretary Kari Bruffett wrote this week to U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez, requesting an exemption from the rule for disabled and elderly Kansans who direct their own care.

The rule is set to take effect next year. The federal agency says it’s designed to ensure that domestic service workers are protected by federal wage and overtime rules.

But Bruffett said the law will treat health care consumers as employers.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man has been found guilty of strangling a 39-year-old woman to death and setting her car on fire.

A Shawnee County District Court judge convicted 30-year-old Andrew Charles Redick on Tuesday. He was found guilty of premeditated first-degree murder and arson in the 2013 death of Lena Keithley.

Maintenance workers found her body November 15 in a room at the Country Club Motel in Topeka. A coroner says she died due to strangulation causing a lack of blood flow to the brain.

Redick elected for his case to be heard by the judge rather than a jury. He’s scheduled to be sentenced in October.

The Keithley family says the verdict is “sound and just.”

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a St. Louis County police officer has shot and critically wounded a man who police said pulled a handgun on the officer. It happened near the site of protests over the death of unarmed black teenager who was fatally shot by police last weekend.
Police told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch  they received a call about several armed men and reports of shots fired. Police spokesman Brian

Schellman said an officer approached one of the men, who pulled a gun, and the officer fired. The man was taken to a hospital.
The area has seen several protests since 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed by a Ferguson officer Saturday. Some turned into looting, and police have used tear gas to break up crowds. Community leaders have called for calm.

LAWRENCE- A Kansas man died in an accident just after 2 p.m. on Tuesday in Douglas County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Ford Explorer driven by Marvin W. Buzzard, 67, LeCompton, was westbound on North 1800 Road just east of Kansas 10 near Lawrence. The vehicle went left of center sideswiped a Mack truck.

Buzzard was pronounced dead at the scene.
The truck driver Nathan Daniel Heinen, 32, Valley Falls, was not injured.

The KHP reported Buzzard was not wearing a seat belt.

PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) — Authorities in southeast Kansas say two employees of a fireworks manufacturer were severely burned in an explosion outside the company’s former headquarters in Pittsburg.

Crawford County Undersheriff Steve Geier says the blast occurred at 2:35 p.m. Tuesday while the employees of Jake’s Fireworks were moving materials from a shipping container. The materials were to be transported to the company’s new headquarters in a Pittsburg industrial park.

The Morning Sun newspaper reports both workers were flown to hospitals in Missouri. Crews extinguished a fire caused by the explosion but planned to remain at the scene overnight.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A government report predicts bountiful fall crops in Kansas following a devastating winter wheat harvest.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service forecast on Tuesday that Kansas farmers would bring in 544 million bushels of corn this year. That is 7 percent more than a year ago.

The report also estimated the state’s grain sorghum harvest at 187 million bushels. That is up 13 percent from last year.

Kansas soybean production is forecast at 151 million bushels, up 18 percent from the previous year.

All of the fall crops benefited from widespread rains throughout their growing season. But drought conditions earlier this spring decimated the state’s winter wheat.

Wheat production is estimated at 235 million bushels. That is down 26 percent from last year for the worst harvest in 25 years.