ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis police are searching for a group of teenagers who attacked a local musician as part of the so-called “knockout game.”

KMOV-TV reports that Tom Hall was assaulted four weeks ago in the Soulard area of the city. Hall was forced to take off work until returning Monday.

Police say they have no solid leads in the case.

Hall says he has no idea who his attackers are, but says he’d like to sit down and talk to them about why they felt a need to beat him so badly that he’ll need plastic surgery and dental work. Nearly $50,000 has been raised through a Go Fund Me account on his behalf.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Ninety-six-year-old Cyrus Porter is a devoted Taylor Swift fan and has traveled to her shows, but on Monday, he didn’t have to go anywhere. Swift came to him.

A day after Porter hosted 72 people for Christmas, a van pulled into the driveway of his home in New Madrid, about 130 miles south of St. Louis.

Out stepped Swift and her parents. The 27-year-old singer stayed about an hour and sang “Shake It Off” as Porter’s relatives sang along.

Swift had learned about the World War II combat veteran’s fandom and decided to surprise him.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actress Carrie Fisher, who found enduring fame as Princess Leia in the original “Star Wars,” has died. She was 60.

Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, released a statement through her spokesman saying Fisher died Tuesday just before 9 a.m PST. Lourd said her mother was “loved by the word and she will be missed profoundly.”

Fisher had been hospitalized since Friday when she suffered a medical emergency on board a flight to Los Angeles.

She made her feature film debut opposite Warren Beatty in the 1975 hit “Shampoo” and was also an accomplished author who detailed her experiences with addiction and mental illness in several best-selling books. Besides her daughter, Fisher is survived by her brother, Todd Fisher, and her mother, actress Debbie Reynolds.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) — A southeast Missouri high school senior has pulled off a rare feat: Perfect scores on both SAT and ACT exams.

Amy Dai is a senior at Cape Girardeau Central High School. In preparation for attending college, she scored a perfect 36 on her ACT and a 2,400 on the SAT. For good measure, she also scored a perfect 1,520 on her PSAT, a pre-test for the SAT.

It’s unclear how many people have scored top scores on both. Neither the ACT nor College Board, the company that administers the SAT, track that.

Central High principal Chris Kase told the Southeast Missourian that a couple of students have scored 36s on their ACTs, but he’s not aware of anyone scoring perfect on both tests.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — One of mid-Missouri’s fastest growing tourist attractions is a place where nobody wanted to be prior to its closing in 2004 — the Missouri State Penitentiary.

The Jefferson City News Tribune reports that 32,811 people this year visited the old state prison, a haunted-looking place that first opened in 1836. The number of visitors was a 25 percent increase over 2015. And Mayor Carrie Tergin noted that as recently as 2009, just 3,000 people visited the landmark.

Decommissioned prisons are popular tourist spots around the county. Perhaps the most famous is Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay, which draws about 1 million visitors annually. The Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, which closed in 1971, drew 350,000 visitors last year.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri lawmaker wants to increase fines for people who release feral hogs in the state.

The Springfield News-Leader reports letting feral hogs loose is a misdemeanor now and comes with a fine of up to $1,000 for each hog released, and up to a year in jail for the perpetrator.

House Rep. Sonya Anderson’s bill would raise the fine to $5,000 for each hog released. The person responsible would also lose hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for three years. She said she has no intention of eliminating the jail-time provision.

Anderson says feral hogs can destroy field crops and cause other extensive damage to land and waterways.

The Missouri Department of Conservation has expressed concerns that some people release hogs to help establish a population they can hunt.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An election that saw Republicans gain unprecedented power in Missouri has been named the state’s top story of 2016 by Associated Press reporters and editors.

Republicans were dominant from president on down in the November election, sweeping statewide races.

NFL owners approving the Rams’ move back to Los Angeles after 21 seasons in St. Louis was the second biggest story of the year.

Coming in third was the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson reaching a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and ongoing efforts to move forward from the racial unrest that followed Michael Brown’s 2014 death. That story was followed by several police officers being shot while on duty.

Rounding out the top five was three women being awarded nearly $200 million combined in talcum powder lawsuits in St. Louis.

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Got milk? Vermont’s sole congressman says if it’s from soybeans, almond or rice, it should not be labeled as milk.

Democratic Rep. Peter Welch, Republican Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson and 23 other members of Congress have signed a letter asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to investigate and take action against manufacturers of what they say is “fake milk.”

They want the FDA to require plant-based products to adopt a more appropriate name, other than milk, which they say is misleading.

The FDA says it received the Dec. 16 letter and plans to respond directly to lawmakers.

The Soyfoods Association says it has asked the FDA to recognize the one-word name “soymilk” but that the FDA has not made a decision on the petition.

HOUSTON (AP) — The number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. increased by 16 this week to 653.

A year ago, 700 rigs were active. Depressed energy prices have curtailed exploration, although the rig count has been rising in recent weeks.

Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday that 523 rigs sought oil and 129 explored for natural gas this week. One was listed as miscellaneous.

Oklahoma gained six rigs, Texas gained four, Alaska increased by three and Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wyoming each added one.

West Virginia declined by two and Arkansas lost one.

California, Kansas and Utah were unchanged.

The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. It bottomed out in May at 404.

NEOSHO, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say 53 puppies died of overheating when they were left in a vehicle in southwestern Missouri.

The Newton County Sheriff’s Department said a truck company employee was struggling to keep the puppies warm Sunday night because temperatures outside were in the single digits and the truck’s heater was malfunctioning. Chief deputy Chris Jennings said the worker added an extra heating component and found the dogs dead after returning to check on them 90 minutes later. Jennings described it as a “horrible accident.”

Renee Ray, an owner of the trucking company RDR Transport, says some puppies survived and were treated by veterinarians.

The sheriff’s department doesn’t plan to seek charges, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture is looking into the deaths to determine if animal welfare laws were broken.