ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis animal shelter operator says more than a dozen dogs died because of a virus outbreak.

Stray Rescue owner Randy Grim told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch that 17 dogs — mostly puppies — died because of the distemper outbreak Saturday at Stray Rescue.

Distemper is a virus that can affect the respiratory and central nervous systems. Distemper in dogs cannot be transferred to cats or humans. About 24 dogs in the facility have tested positive for the disease so far.

The shelter, which cares for up to 400 dogs at a time, won’t be accepting any rescues for the next 30 days.

Grim said he believes the outbreak was caused by distemper-infected raccoons in the area.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas officials are considering lowering the expected rate of return for public employee pension investments.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System has assumed an annual return on investment of 8 percent for three decades. A transition wouldn’t change pension benefits to KPERS’ members. But a lower expected return on investments would mean taxpayers and possibly employees would need to chip in more money.

Consultants have been meeting with the pension’s board for months to weigh options. Retirement system executive director Alan Conroy says the board is “in the thick of considering it.”

A final decision might be made at the Nov. 18 meeting or put off until January.

HESSTON, Kan. (AP) — Authorities in central Kansas’ Harvey County say three people have been found shot to death outside a rural home, and investigators located an unharmed 18-month-old child inside the residence.

Sheriff Townsend Walton says the bodies were found Sunday night near Hesston after a passing motorist reported seeing bodies on the home’s driveway. Walton says he believes the shootings happened earlier that day.

Walton says the victims were a man in his 50s, and a woman and man in their mid-30s. Their names have not been released.

The sheriff says the case is being investigated as a homicide.

There was no immediate word about any arrests or charges.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is assisting in the probe.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man has been charged with crashing into and killing a 91-year-old driver while fleeing from police in a stolen car.

Eighteen-year-old Alex Davis was charged Thursday with first-degree murder in the crash that killed James Dexter on Monday.

Davis also is charged in the alternative with second-degree murder, and with fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, leaving the scene of an accident, burglary, theft, attempted aggravated robbery and driving with a suspended or canceled license. The Wichita Eagle reports that he is jailed on $250,000 bond.

Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay has said the pursuit started after an officer saw Davis run a stop sign and lasted just 14 seconds before the fatal crash.

His attorney didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A FedEx truck pulling two trailers crashed into a closed Olive Garden restaurant in Columbia, causing a fire.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports that the crash happened a little after 3 a.m. Friday.

The Columbia Fire Department said in a news release that 17 fire units responded and that the blaze was under control in about 40 minutes.

The release says the truck driver was taken by ambulance to a hospital with injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening.

Damage estimates and information about the cause of the crash weren’t immediately available.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Hallmark plans to hire about 400 more employees at its warehouse in Liberty, Missouri, as it consolidates its warehouse and distribution work.

By this time next year, the plant will have between 1,100 and 1,200 full-time employees. The plant currently has about 700 full-time employees.

The jobs will be added during the next 12 months. Those gains are offset by losses at another Hallmark warehouse.

About 570 employees at the company’s distribution center in Enfield, Connecticut, were told Tuesday that they would lose their jobs. That center will close by the end of June.

It’s the latest of several cost-cutting moves in recent years by Hallmark. The company’s U.S. employment now is about half what it was at its 1997 peak of 13,500.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. official says newly discovered emails that have prompted a fresh FBI review in the Hillary Clinton email case did not come from her private email server.

FBI Director James Comey told members of Congress on Friday that it is investigating whether there is classified information in new emails that have emerged in its probe of Clinton’s server. Comey says the emails surfaced during an unrelated FBI case.

A U.S. official with knowledge of the case said the emails were uncovered very recently and did not arise during the federal investigation into Russian hacking of the presidential election. The official was not authorized to discuss details publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri voters will be the first in the nation to decide whether to amend their state constitution to prohibit sales taxes from being expanded to services.

The proposal on the Nov. 8 ballot is a backlash against efforts in various states to extend sales taxes from consumer goods to services such as auto repairs, haircuts, legal work or financial accounting.

If the Missouri measure passes, supporters hope that it could become a national model.

Sales taxes have long provided an important financial foundation for governments. They are levied by 45 states and more than 10,000 local jurisdictions. But only a few states currently charge sales taxes on a wide array of services.

Lawmakers have considered expanding sales taxes to keep pace with a service-driven economy.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Federal prosecutors say the government isn’t required to pay for an expert to investigate whether recordings inside a private prison violated inmates’ constitutional rights.

Attorneys say some of their meetings and phone calls with clients at the Corrections Corp. of America prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, have been recorded in violation of the inmates’ Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson has appointed Ohio attorney David Cohen as special master to look into possible violations of attorney-client privilege. He will be paid $500 an hour to identify confidential information in possibly hundreds of hours of recordings, and Robinson ordered the Department of Justice to pay him.

Prosecutors argue in a motion filed Thursday that Robinson isn’t authorized to force the government to pay for Cohen’s services.