FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — A veteran Miami police officer with two decades of experience dealing with the media and community leaders will take over as Ferguson’s police chief, hoping to help the St. Louis suburb heal as it rebounds after the fatal 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown.

Miami Police Major Delrish Moss was announced as chief Thursday, putting a black man in charge of a mostly white department that serves a town where African-Americans make up two-thirds of the residents.

The 51-year-old Moss has been with the Miami department 32 years, the past 20 as public information officer. He was among 54 candidates for the Ferguson job.

Former chief Tom Jackson resigned in March 2015 following a Justice Department report that cited racial bias in Ferguson’s criminal justice system.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The trial of one of Omaha’s most notorious crimes will be delayed after a judge ruled that the out-of-state defense lawyers lost their authorization to work in Nebraska. The local lawyers who were working with the Chicago defense lawyers defending former doctor Anthony Garcia were allowed to withdraw from the case Thursday.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine had filed a motion seeking to remove the Illinois lawyers after Alison Motta falsely told reporters that DNA evidence exonerated Garcia.

Garcia is charged in the 2008 deaths of the 11-year-old son of Creighton University pathologist William Hunter, as well as the family’s housekeeper. Garcia’s also charged in the 2013 deaths of Creighton pathologist Roger Brumback and his wife.

Garcia’s trial had been scheduled to begin on Monday.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Part of the Wilkinson Wildlife Management Area in Platte County has been closed temporarily because three whooping cranes are using the area.  The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission says the cranes have been at the park since March 25, so the eastern third of the park has been closed off.

The commission routinely closes off areas once whooping cranes are found.

The birds’ total wild population of about 300 individuals migrates through Nebraska each fall and spring between wintering sites along the Texas coast and breeding areas in northern Alberta.

They are protected by state and federal endangered species laws. Penalties for killing, possessing or harassing whooping cranes may include fines of up to $50,000, up to a year in jail, or both.

CLEVER, Mo. (AP) A former southwest Missouri high school teacher has been charged with molesting a student.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that 39-year-old Roy Tarvin was charged Monday with endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of sexual contact between a teacher and student. The attorney for the former Clever High School agriculture teacher didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Tarvin is accused in court records of molesting the girl while giving her a ride home in fall 2014 and at a school-related event at his home a few weeks later.

Clever School District superintendent Steve Carvajal says school officials contacted law enforcement as soon as they became aware of the allegations. Carvajal said Tarvin resigned in January after the allegations were made.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)€” Men from Missouri and Kansas have been indicted in two armed bank robberies.

The U.S. attorney’s office says 46-year-old Terry Jacobs, of Kansas City, Missouri, and 26-year-old Jayme Wilson, of Basehor, Kansas, were charged in a seven-count superseding indictment returned Wednesday. It replaces an earlier indictment, adds Wilson as a co-defendant and includes additional charges.

Jacobs and Wilson are accused of robbing UMB Bank branches in Independence and Kansas City at gunpoint in December.

Besides the bank robberies, Jacobs is charged with robbing a Burger King restaurant, a Family Dollar Store and a Taco Bell restaurant. The three armed robberies happened in December in Kansas City.

Prosecutors say a total of about $8,100 was stolen.

BALLWIN, Mo. (AP) — Six teenagers are facing robbery and home invasion charges after police say the broke into an apartment armed with AK-47s and other weapons.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the crime happened Saturday night at Woodcrest Manor Court apartment complex in west St. Louis County. Police say the teens, all ages 17 and 18, were armed with two AK-47s, a Glock pistol and other weapons when they took wallets from at least two people.

Authorities say some of the teenagers knew the victims.

All six suspects are jailed on $250,000 bond. Three are from Ballwin, two from St. Louis and one from Town and Country.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Health officials say a pregnant Missouri woman who traveled to Honduras has the second confirmed case of Zika virus in the state.

The health department said in a release Wednesday that Honduras is a known area of Zika transmission. The department didn’t provide any other information about the new case. The first case of Zika in a Missouri resident was reported earlier this month.

Health officials say the virus is mainly transmitted by a specific type of mosquito, and most people who get the virus have no symptoms. Others with the Zika virus suffer from fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes.

Health officials are investigating whether the virus is linked to birth defects in the children of women who caught the virus while pregnant.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Senate has agreed on a plan to raise the state’s fuel tax by nearly six cents per gallon to pay for road and bridge projects.

Senators endorsed the proposal Wednesday. The plan would also require voter approval.

Bill sponsor Senator Doug Libla faced some opposition from fellow Republicans who said the Transportation Department needs to use its current funding more efficiently.

Libla said Missouri’s infrastructure needs drastic repairs the state cannot currently afford, and a fuel tax increase would provide a more predictable funding stream than any other alternative.

Missouri’s current fuel tax of 17 cents is among the lowest in the country.

The legislation needs another vote to move to the House.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s office says that a detention corporal has been arrested on multiple counts of unlawful sexual relations with an inmate.

Sheriff Jeff Easter said Wednesday that authorities received a complaint from a third party on March 25th that a corporal at the Sedgwick County Jail and a female inmate had sexual contact.

Easter said that the corporal, who has not been identified, was arrested Wednesday on two counts of unlawful sexual relations and one count of attempted unlawful sexual relations.

The corporal, who is no longer with the sheriff’s office, had been an employee since October 2008. The woman is no longer in the custody of the Sedgwick County Jail.

The case will be handed over to Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett’s office for review.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian police have stepped up the search for an American student who went missing on a hike in the mountains on Sunday.

Twenty-five-year-old Colin Madsen of Jefferson City disappeared a day after he arrived as part of a group from the east Siberian city of Irkutsk, where he was a university student. Madsen is believed to have ventured out before dawn in below-freezing conditions from a guest house in a mountainous stretch of Buryatia in eastern Siberia. The group planned to hike in the mountains later that day.

Police in Buryatia said in a statement Thursday that they were stepping up the search and that regional police chief Major General Oleg Kudinov is supervising it.

Madsen’s parents were heading Wednesday to Russia to be closer to the search.