TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — For the first time, the Topeka Zoo has made its youngest bears available to the public for viewing.

Topeka media outlets report Valor and Independence were out for public viewing Thursday in the Hill’s American Black Bear Woods exhibit. Zoo director Brendan Wiley said they had the opportunity to be acclimated to the exhibit space on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Independence, nicknamed “Indie,” arrived at the zoo last May from Oregon. Valor, or “Val,” came to the zoo from Alaska in August. Both are thought to have been born around the end of January 2014.

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kansas City, Kan., tax preparer has pleaded guilty to preparing false tax returns, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom.

Ahferom Goitom, 35, Kansas City, Kan., pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of preparing false tax returns. In his plea, he admitted that the crime occurred while he was working as a tax return preparer for Instant Tax Services in Kansas City, Kan. He prepared tax returns for clients that included false deductions and credits – often unbeknownst to his clients. He fabricated business expenses, inflated charitable deductions and exaggerated child care expenses. In addition, he told an IRS agent working undercover that the agent should find someone to claim as a dependent in order to inflate his refund.

Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date. The parties are recommending probation of 36 months and restitution of $101,157. The Internal Revenue Service investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Rask is prosecuting.

HANNIBAL, Mo. (AP) — A Civil War-era building soon will be housing a classic car museum in the Mississippi River city of Hannibal, Missouri.

The Hannibal Courier-Post reports that work is underway to transform the former American Woodworking shop into the museum that’ll hold the vintage collection Steve and Jacklyn Karlock have amassed over four decades.

The Karlocks now live in California but are planning to move to Hannibal.

The future home of the car collection was built in 1860 and for years served as the site of Hannibal Produce.

It’s not immediately clear how soon the planned museum will open.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man has filed a $2 million lawsuit against the Shawnee County Jail claiming it failed to provide proper medical attention for a broken bone in his foot and subsequent head injury.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports 34-year-old Junction City resident Jason Dixon filed the lawsuit in a handwritten petition May 13.

Dixon is being held on a federal hold order and pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to distribute 280 grams or more of crack cocaine.

Dixon says he broke the bone while playing basketball in plastic flip-flops after being stepped on by another inmate, then later hit his head when he fell trying to get to his cell’s emergency button.

Shawnee County counselor Rich Eckert says his office hasn’t been served with the lawsuit.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A new judge has been named to hear the trial of a man suspected of kidnapping and killing a 10-year-old Springfield girl.

Craig Wood is charged with kidnapping, rape and first-degree murder in the February 2014 death of Hailey Owens. Prosecutors say he grabbed her off the street as she walked home, sexually assaulted her and shot her in the head. Her body was found in Wood’s home.

The 47-year-old defendant is scheduled to stand trial in Springfield in front of a Platte County jury.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that retiring judge Dan Conklin recused himself from the case this week, and the case has been assigned to Judge David Jones.

Prosecutors say they’ll seek the death penalty if Wood is convicted. A trial date hasn’t been set yet.

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri judge has yet to decide on an activists’ request for an independent probe of the county prosecutor’s handling of grand jury proceedings in the Ferguson police shooting of Michael Brown.

St. Louis Circuit Judge Joseph Walsh III ended a hearing Friday by saying he’ll weigh the matter and begin working on his ruling after a vacation next week.

The activists who filed the lawsuit want Walsh to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate county prosecutor Robert McCulloch’s handling of the Brown case.

They say the grand jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson, a white former Ferguson officer, in the fatal shooting of Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, was inappropriately influenced by McCulloch’s desire for Wilson not to face charges.

A Justice Department investigation also cleared Wilson.

SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) — Police have released photos of the crate where they say a Missouri man held a woman captive before she escaped and was later shot to death.

James Barton Horn, of Sedalia, was accused of holding Sandra Sutton captive off-and-on for months before she escaped last month. Sutton and her 17-year-old son, Zachary Wade Sutton, were found shot to death last week at a relative’s home in Clinton, where Sutton had gone to live after escaping Horn.

Horn was being sought on kidnapping charges and later for the Suttons’ deaths. Police found and killed Horn Saturday in a rural area in western Missouri.

The photos released Thursday showing a crude wooden crate that contained a sleeping bag, water bottle and other items, including a bucket police said held urine and feces.

Photos courtesy Sedalia Police Dept.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 30-year-old Jefferson City man has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for trying to set up a meeting with someone he thought was a 12-year-old girl for illicit sex.

Jeremy Ryan Bappert pleaded guilty in October to attempted sex trafficking of a child as the result of an undercover investigation. He was sentenced on Thursday in Jefferson City.

Bappert admitted sending a text message asking a confidential informant to find a young girl around 9 to 11 years old. A police detective assumed the role of a woman named Julie who had a 12-year-old daughter Bappert could meet.

Investigators arrested Baffert on July 5th, 2013 when he went to a restaurant in Columbia to meet the girl.

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — For the second straight year, the Scripps National Spelling Bee ended with co-champions each holding one side of the golden trophy while being showered with confetti.

Gokul Venkatachalam of Chesterfield, Missouri, and Vanya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kansas, were the last two standing yesterday after exhausting the 25 words reserved for the final three spellers without stumbling.

Before last year, there hadn’t been a tie since 1962.  The 13-year-old Vanya of Kansas is the first sibling of a past champion to win. Her sister, Kavya, won in 2009.

No one was surprised to see Vanya and Gokul dueling for the title. They came in with high expectations — Vanya, the longtime darling of the bee and Gokul, who last year had the trophy nearly in his grasp.

But the tie shocked Paige Kimble, the bee’s executive director and the 1981 champion, who predicted last week that another half-century would go by before the bee would crown two winners.