LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska lawmaker has renewed his quest to ban mountain lion hunting just one day after a committee rejected his latest effort.

Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha introduced a bill Thursday to eliminate the state’s mountain lion hunting season.

The Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee voted Tuesday to indefinitely postpone an identical bill that Chambers introduced last year. The new bill is likely to be reviewed by the same committee.

Chambers is a well-known animal welfare advocate who passed legislation in 2014 to strengthen the state’s animal cruelty laws.

Supporters of the hunting season say it’s necessary to help regulate the population and to ensure that mountain lion kills are tracked, rather than hidden.

ALTON, Mo. (AP) — Missouri is looking at more than 4,000 acres in the southern portion of the state for a new state park, but it’s not without opposition.

The proposed park would be along the Eleven Point River in Oregon County near the Arkansas border and includes a portion of a ranch where the Beatles stayed during their first U.S. tour.

Nearly $11 million from settlements with lead-mining companies will pay for the land, which will be deeded to the state Department of Natural Resources.

The money also will cover the purchase of about 1,100 acres near Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park and smaller parcels totaling 200 acres.

Opponents say the money should be saved for cleanups in mining-impacted southeastern Missouri communities.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A southern Missouri man has been sentenced to five years of probation for purchasing one of the shotguns that a white supremacist used in a deadly attack at two Jewish sites in suburban Kansas City.

Forty-nine-year-old John Mark Reidle, of Aurora, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Springfield. He previously admitted to falsely claiming he was buying the gun for himself on a federal form on April 9, 2014.

Four days later, convicted killer Frazier Glenn Miller killed three people in Overland Park, Kansas. Miller said he was targeting Jews but none of the victims were Jewish.

The Joplin Globe reports that Judge Beth Phillips said Miller took advantage of Reidle’s limited intellectual ability.

Reidle will be confined at home during the first six months of his sentence.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Supporters of legalizing poker in Nebraska have been dealt a bad hand.

Lawmakers defeated a bill Thursday that would classify poker as a game of skill, rather than a constitutionally banned game of chance. That classification would allow draw poker and community card games to be licensed and regulated in Nebraska.

The bill by Sen. Tyson Larson of O’Neill would permit groups such as churches and nonprofits to host poker tournaments at events where alcohol is served.

Opponents pointed to a Nebraska attorney general’s opinion which concluded that draw poker is primarily a game of chance. Some say expanded gambling would harm Nebraska families and communities.

The Legislature could continue the bill’s debate this year, but only if a senator or committee designates it priority.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita doctor accused of unlawfully distributing prescription drugs has been indicted after a patient died from an overdose.

The U.S. attorney’s office says the 31-count indictment against Dr. Steven R. Henson was unsealed Thursday. The 54-year-old is accused of writing prescriptions for cash, when there wasn’t a medical need and for people other than the ones who came to see him.

Federal prosecutors say the drug scheme resulted in the death of a patient in July. Charges against Henson include unlawfully distributing the painkiller oxycodone, the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam and methadone. Methadone often is used to wean addicts off heroin.

Eight people who got prescriptions from the doctor also are charged with unlawful drug distribution.

Dr Henson’s attorney, Kurt Kerns, didn’t immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Back-to-school shoppers could save money in Nebraska if a new bill becomes law.

Sen. Rick Kolowski of Omaha, a former high school principal, introduced a measure Thursday that would create a sales-tax-free weekend each year during the first weekend in August.

The bill would exempt clothing, school supplies and computers and computer accessories priced at less than $750.

The Washington-based Tax Foundation says 18 states offered sales tax holidays last year, including Nebraska’s neighboring states of Iowa and Missouri.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University in St. Louis will receive $60 million to study the genetic factors of several common diseases.

The National Institutes of Health announced Thursday that the institute is one of four organizations receiving a total of $240 million as part of a new Centers for Common Disease Genomics network.

The goal is to discover how differences in DNA contribute to the risk of disease.

The universities will sequence the complete DNA, or genome, of 150,000 to 200,000 people with diseases such as diabetes, stroke and epilepsy. Many of the research subjects will be blacks and people from different ethnic backgrounds.

The other organizations in the project are the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Baylor College of Medicine and the New York Genome Center.

ST. PETERS, Mo. (AP) — Authorities investigating complaints that a suspicious bag was left outside a suburban St. Louis dressing room have found images of nude and partially clothed women on a man’s phone.

KMOX-AM reports that police began investigating after a woman became concerned about an oddly placed bag that had a small hole while trying on clothes at Mid Rivers Mall in St. Peters. Police officer Melissa Doss says the woman provided a description of a man.

After the same thing happened in Chesterfield, investigators caught a 47-year-old man. Doss says there are 20 or more unidentified women in photos on the man’s phone.

Police want to hear from people who noticed a suspicious bag while shopping at Mid Rivers Mall in late December and early January.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The first bill the Missouri House has passed this year would increase reporting of elected officials’ and others’ personal finances.

House members voted 143-11 in favor of the measure Thursday. It heads to the Senate.

The legislation would require personal financial disclosure reports to be filed twice a year. Currently, they are filed once a year.

In a 143-16 vote, the House also approved legislation to require reporting of lawmakers’ trips paid for by third parties.

The measures are part of a push to change ethics laws in the state following the resignations in 2015 of two former lawmakers accused of inappropriate behavior toward interns.

A bill to limit lawmakers from becoming lobbyists for a year after the end of their terms is expected to get a vote Thursday.