FLORISSANT, Mo. (AP) — A man is in custody after allegedly striking an Illinois Department of Conservation police officer with a car near Litchfield, then leading police on a 60-mile chase into Missouri.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the conservation officer’s injuries do not appear to be serious but he was taken to a hospital for evaluation.

Authorities say the conservation officer was trying to make a traffic stop Monday morning on a boat ramp at Lake Lou Yaeger. The driver of the car allegedly backed up and the car’s door knocked the officer to the ground.

The car then traveled south on Interstate 55, drove through stop sticks near St. Louis, and traveled to Florissant in St. Louis County. The 32-year-old suspect tried to run but was quickly arrested.

POTWIN, Kan. (AP) — An 82-year-old Kansas woman never knew why strangers kept calling or showing up at a property she owns in rural Kansas.

But she gained some clarity recently when Fusion.net published a story about a Massachusetts company, MaxMind, which helps companies learn where their Internet traffic comes from.

MaxMind inadvertently used the same geographic coordinates for its default IP address as Joyce Vogelman Taylor’s family home. An IP address helps tell computers where to send information and where information is coming from.

The Wichita Eagle reports the mix-up led some of MaxMind’s customers to Taylor’s property, claiming that the IP address for their complaints was associated with the property.

MaxMind has since changed the IP address. It says it also intends to apologize to Taylor.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri cities no longer could ban pit bulls under a bill advancing in the Legislature.

The measure passed 117-17 by the House this past week would ban breed-specific local ordinances.

That means municipalities no longer could ban pit bulls or other dog breeds sometimes considered dangerous.

Hicks said ordinances targeting specific breeds amount to discrimination. He said pit bulls are no more dangerous than other breeds, and that the owners are to blame if a dog becomes vicious.

Hicks owns a boxer named Rosie that he said could be mistaken for a pit bull.

Independence banned pit bulls in 2006 following a series of attacks. Mayor Eileen Weir said it should be up to local governments and not the state to decide how to handle certain dog breeds.

WILDWOOD, Mo. (AP) — A 7-year-old St. Louis County girl on her way to a father-daughter dance died after being hit by a vehicle as she crossed a roadway near a school.

St. Louis County police said in a release that an SUV turning left out of the parking lot of Babler Elementary in Wildwood struck Rachel Bick of Ballwin Saturday evening.

Rachel’s mother, Susan Bick, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sunday the family’s devastated. She says her daughter was so excited to pick out a white lace dress for the dance.

Police said Rachel and her father walked from the parking lot of a nearby school and onto the highway where Rachel was struck. Rachel’s grandmother, Barb Nethery, says her father feels he failed her.

Police say the SUV driver is cooperating.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A trial is scheduled to begin this week for a man accused of killing a Kansas City woman who disappeared more than a decade ago while conducting door-to-door market research.

Jeffrey S. Sauerbry is scheduled to stand trial in the death of Summer Shipp, a 54-year-old Kansas City mother, who vanished in Independence in December 2004. Her dismembered body was found four years later in a plastic bag along the banks of the Little Blue River, about 7 miles east of where she was last seen.

The Kansas City Star reports that Sauerbry told investigators he had nothing to do with Shipp’s disappearance.

His lawyer, John Picerno, said this month that the state has hinged its hopes on a “highly circumstantial case without any physical evidence.”

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Forest Service has faced budget constraints as it works to deal with wildfires like the largest in the state’s history last month.

Larry Biles, director of the Kansas Forest Service, told The Wichita Eagle the service has a budget of around $3 million, but only about 10 percent has come from the state.

Biles has been asking the state to provide at least $1 million in matching funds, but as the biggest fire in state history was raging in March, he had to return more than $15,000 as part of statewide budget cuts.

The small budget means the Kansas Forest Service has only been able to hire four staffers whose primary responsibility is fire, and only one of those is specifically tasked with direct fire prevention.

LENEXA, Kan. (AP) — A suburban Kansas City nonprofit has sent a team to Ecuador to see what type of medical assistance the group can provide in the wake of the deadly earthquake.

Rescuers pulled survivors from rubble Sunday after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Ecuador, killing at least 238 people and injuring more than 1,500.

Jim Mitchum, CEO of Lenexa-based Heart to Heart International, said Sunday his organization has sent a three-member advance team to Quito, Ecuador.

He says the team, which includes Heart to Heart’s chief medical officer, will work with local officials to determine how the group can assist. Heart to Heart works with several area medical volunteers to provide aid during crises in developing countries. Mitchum says the group typically sends medical professionals as well as supplies and medicine.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Legislature will end the session having passed a budget and property tax measures, but many other proposals have fallen by the wayside.

Legislators used filibusters at least a dozen times in last-ditch efforts to stop bills that otherwise likely would have been approved.

The drawn-out-debates helped block contentious bills, such as a new Medicaid expansion proposal and gun-rights legislation, but they also derailed proposals that weren’t controversial.

While bills can win approval with a simple majority in the 49-seat single-chamber Legislature, it takes 33 votes to overcome a filibuster. That’s an even higher hurdle than the 30 votes it takes to override a governor’s veto. Filibusters also burn valuable time in the session, forcing lawmakers to work longer days and delaying votes on other issues.

ROLLA, Mo. (AP) — A committee leading the search for a new president of the University of Missouri system nagged by racial unrest says candidates must have “a deft command” of communications and public relations.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports that the committee approved a list of qualifications for the successor to Tim Wolfe during a meeting Thursday in Rolla of the system’s governing board of curators.

Wolfe resigned in November along with the Columbia campus’ chancellor amid protests spurred by what activists said was administrators’ indifference to racial issues on campus.

The 12-point list of qualifications approved Thursday also requires candidates for the system’s presidency to have an acumen to handle political and business relationships, as well as the business judgment to run a large organization.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City, Missouri, law firm says Kansas’ U.S. attorney will join its national team specializing in government investigations and compliance.

Polsinelli announced its addition of Barry Grissom on Friday, Grissom’s last day as Kansas’ top federal prosecutor. Grissom announced his resignation from the federal post Monday.

Sixty-two-year-old Grissom says in a statement that he’s “particularly excited by Polsinelli’s national footprint, which will enable me to deploy my skillset nationwide.”

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Beall will serve as acting U.S. attorney for Kansas.

Grissom was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2010 and made civil rights enforcement and community outreach top priorities during his tenure.