WAYNESVILLE, Mo. (AP) — Crews have resumed searching for a woman who’s believed to be the mother of a child killed in flooding in south-central Missouri.

The 4-year-old boy was killed as heavy rain drenched the Pulaski County town of Waynesville, damaging homes and businesses on Monday night and Tuesday morning. The boy’s name hasn’t been released.

Authorities believe the child was swept away when the car he and his mother were in was swept up in rising waters. The boy’s body was found near Mitchell Creek in western Waynesville on Tuesday.

Dale Moore, spokesman for the Southwest Missouri Incident Report Team, said the search for the woman resumed Wednesday. The search had been suspended earlier because of hazardous conditions brought on by the swiftly rising waters.

Those bones found in Livingston County this week are not human.

That’s the word from Livingston County Sheriff Steve Cox, who says his deputies investigated a possible crime scene in the southeastern part of the county. A resident reported finding bones and what appeared to be a pair of shorts in a remote location.

Livingston County Coroner J. Scott Lindley assisted with the investigation in an attempt to identify the evidence.

There was enough of a concern the evidence was given to a pathologist to examine. The evidence was found to NOT be human, according to Sheriff Cox.

ATCHISON, Kan. (AP) — A northeast Kansas sheriff wants to know who dumped a small alligator in a lake, where it was spotted by fishermen.

A group of anglers made the discovery Saturday while fishing at Atchison County Lake.

They alerted the lake’s caretaker, who called the sheriff’s department.

Sheriff Jack Laurie says deputies and members of the Atchison County Humane Society caught the alligator Monday using a net, a dog kennel and other tools. The Humane Society planned to turn it over to an animal reserve called Monkey Island, near Lee’s Summit, Mo.

Laurie believes that someone had the alligator as a pet but released it when it started growing. If the owner is found, the sheriff says charges including animal cruelty are possible.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis County man is facing drunk-driving charges — for the 11th time.

Florissant police on Monday stopped a vehicle for a traffic offense. Authorities say the driver, 53-year-old Joseph Arthur Hayes of Florissant, was arrested.

Prosecutors charged Hayes with driving while intoxicated as a chronic offender, and driving with a suspended or revoked license. He is jailed on $100,000 bond.

St. Louis County Police say Hayes had 10 prior convictions for driving while intoxicated and for driving while suspended or revoked.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Police in northeast Kansas are looking into a possible sighting of a man who escaped custody in Arkansas, but they haven’t been able to confirm the report.

Someone called Overland Park police Monday to say they saw a vehicle that had a license plate associated with Derrick Estell.

Estell escaped July 28 from a jail in Garland County, Ark., and he was believed to have been headed to southwest Missouri’s Dallas County. He broke out by diving head-first through a window at the jail lobby, running outside and getting into a waiting car believed to have been driven by his girlfriend.

His mother also is charged with aiding his escape.

Police say Estell should be considered armed and dangerous.

ROLLA, Mo. (AP) — Heavy rains are falling again in waterlogged areas of south-central Missouri, causing power outages and some evacuations.

The Missouri Department of Transportation closed lanes of Interstate 44 south of Rolla after about 6 inches of rain fell in the area Wednesday morning.

Evacuations also were occurring in Newburg, a Phelps County town of about 450 residents.

Authorities issued mandatory evacuations for residents living along the Little Piney River.

The weather service says the heavy rains caused power outages in Rolla and St. James and some flooding in homes in Miller County.

Pulaski County Sheriff Ron Long says the search for a missing woman resumed Wednesday morning. The woman is believed to be the mother of a 4-year-old boy who was swept out of a vehicle Tuesday.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka man who escaped from a minimum-security unit at a Hutchinson facility is back in custody.

State corrections officials say 44-year-old Mark Edward Lucas turned himself in Tuesday morning to authorities in Shawnee County.

Lucas escaped Saturday afternoon and authorities had said he likely was traveling to Topeka.

Lucas’ latest convictions were for shoplifting from at Topeka Walmart store, where he had been permanently banned for previous thefts.

Lucas had made guilty or no contest pleas to resolve 19 previous theft cases before his latest conviction. A judge called him a “serial shoplifter.”

Before his last sentencing, he blamed his struggles on crack cocaine.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. defense officials say they will be able to ease the pain of mandatory, unpaid furloughs that civilian employees have had to bear for a month because of budgetary pressures.

The Associated Press learned that civilians facing 11 unpaid days off will have those cut to six days.

Officials say the Pentagon found sufficient savings in the final months of the current fiscal year to lessen the burden on those who have had to take a day off a week without pay since early July.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel approved the final numbers this week after meeting with top leaders. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The decision comes as about 650,000 civilian workers began their fifth week of furloughs.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 53-year-old man who worked as a church youth director in Arkansas and western Missouri has pleaded guilty to child sex crimes.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says Monday’s plea by Dennis Myers in federal court also requires him to plead guilty to charges in Missouri state court.

Myers, of Blue Springs, is a former youth director at First United Methodist Church in Springdale, Arkansas and at Christ United Methodist Church in Independence, Missouri.

He admitted engaging in illegal sexual activity with a 16-year-old Arkansas girl in the early 1990s and later bringing her to Kansas City, Missouri for the same purpose.

He also pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography over the Internet.

The plea agreement requires Myers to plead guilty to Missouri charges of statutory sodomy and attempted child enticement.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A 31-year-old Joplin man has admitted lying about his residence to get federal disaster assistance after the May 2011 tornado.

Andy Eric Brownlee was indicted last December on a charge of fraudulently receiving about $2,700 in federal benefits. The U.S. Attorney’s office says he pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Springfield.

Brownlee completed an application citing damage to his home on May 26th, 2011, four days after the tornado that destroyed thousands of homes and buildings in Joplin.

Brownlee admitted Monday that the address he used was actually that of the Lazarus Ministries Halfway house. Prosecutors said he had previously lived at the halfway house, but had moved out before the tornado.