EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Mo. (AP) — The Humane Society of the United States is offering a $5,000 reward for information about the fatal beating of a Missouri dog named Snowball.

The Kansas City Star reports that the 17-year-old dog was severely beaten last month on the front porch of his owner’s Excelsior Springs home and died three days later from internal bleeding.

The Humane Society’s Missouri state director, Amanda Good, says the “savage act shows complete contempt for an innocent creature.”

The new reward is contingent upon information that leads to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person or people involved. An anonymous donor had previously put up $500 for information about those responsible.

Police have said it is possible that the suspect recorded the beating on video.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A woman says she wants her late brother “back home” after a bag containing his ashes was stolen from her car in Kansas City.

The Kansas City Star reports that the theft happened Saturday when Naida Shipp and her fiance went to a doughnut shop with their fathers in the Westport bar and entertainment district. While returning to her car, she found that a backpack containing the ashes of her brother, David Anothony Shipp, was missing.

He died four years ago. He had hiked part of the Pacific Crest Trail, and Naida Shipp and her family eventually hoped to bring him back to the part of the trail he wasn’t able to finish. His ashes were kept in a navy blue box with his name inscribed on the front.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A man convicted of fatally shooting an eastern Missouri couple has had his death penalty overturned for a third time.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry called the portion of the trial that led up to Carman Deck’s latest death sentence “fundamentally unfair.” She ordered him to serve life in prison without parole for the killings of James and Zelma Long during a 1996 robbery of their home near De Soto.

She wrote Thursday that jurors were prevented from “adequately considering compassionate or mitigating factors that might have warranted mercy.” It was unclear whether the state would appeal.

Two other death sentences also were overturned, including by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 because he had been shackled in the presence of jurors.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The FBI has set up a hotline to collect information about a suburban Kansas City teacher who is charged with sex crimes.

The Kansas City Star reports that the FBI said Monday that its Kansas City Child Exploitation Task Force has joined Blue Springs police in investigating allegations against James Green Jr.

The 52-year-old Blue Springs man is on administrative leave from teaching and coaching in the North Kansas City School District. He faces six second-degree statutory sodomy counts.

While working for Blue Springs South High School, he’s accused of sexually assaulting a Smithville High School student in 2005. Court documents say Green told police he’s had sexual relationships with two underage boys and secretly filmed boys in locker rooms.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for Green.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri lawmakers are considering a bill to give student journalists more freedom by restricting the types of content school administrators could censor.

The bill passed out of the House in March and is awaiting debate in the Senate.

The Kansas City Star reports current law allows administrators to censor anything they consider sensitive material. The new law would restrict censorship of student work to stories that are libelous, invade privacy, violate law or incite a clear and present danger.

Sandy Davidson, a lawyer and professor of communications law at the University of Missouri, says the bill creates some “breathing space” for high school and collegiate journalists to report important stories.

A similar bill made it out of the House last year but was never debated on the Senate floor.

SIDNEY, Neb. (AP) — Bass Pro Shops acquisition of rival outdoor gear retailer Cabela’s looks a bit more likely with a cheaper price and new terms of the credit card unit’s sale.

Cabela’s said Monday that Bass Pro will pay $61.50 per share, or $4.2 billion, for the company, down from $65.50 per share, or $4.5 billion. The company declined to say why the price was cut.

Cabela’s also says Georgia bank Synovus will now buy the credit-card unit as a middleman. Synovus will keep its $1.2 billion in deposits before reselling it to the original purchaser Capital One. The terms of that transaction weren’t detailed Monday.

Capital One had said that banking regulators questioned the deal because of an unrelated issue.

Cabela’s CEO Tommy Millner says the changes make the deal more certain.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri mental health officials say a 55-year-old woman should be found unfit for trial on a charge that she abandoned a body in a Columbia apartment.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports that the Missouri Department of Mental Health says Deborah Berardi, of Columbia, doesn’t have the “capacity to understand the proceedings against her.” A judge ordered her to undergo a mental exam in February but hasn’t ruled on the mental competency recommendation. If approved, her mental competence would be reevaluated in about six months.

Her public defender wasn’t available for comment.

Columbia police said the body of 60-year-old Steven Summa appeared to have been dead several days before an employee of a property management company found his body in January. Preliminary autopsy results revealed no indication of foul play.

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — An Independence police officer who was critically wounded during a home invasion has been moved from a hospital to long-term rehabilitation.

Officials with Centerpoint Medical Center said Friday that officer Tom Wagstaff has a long road to recovery but his progress so far has been “remarkable.”

Wagstaff was shot in the head March 29 when he responded to a report of a home invasion at an Independence home.

Investigators say police and two of the men exchanged gunfire when the men fled from the home.

Four suspects are charged in the home invasion and are being held on $500,000 bond.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker has said it’s possible Wagstaff was hit by a bullet from another officer but she holds the suspects responsible for the officer’s injuries.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A suburban Kansas City teacher is accused of sexual misconduct a dozen years ago with a male who was a teenager at the time.

Jackson County prosecutors charged 52-year-old James R. Green Jr. of Blue Springs with six felony counts of second-degree statutory sodomy.

Green is a teacher and coach at Northgate Middle School in the North Kansas City School District.

Court documents allege that the victim, now 27, was a Smithville High School student when he was sexually assaulted by Green starting in 2005. At the time, Green was a Blue Springs South High School teacher and swim coach.

The North Kansas City School District says Green is on administrative leave.

Online court records don’t show whether Green has an attorney.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A mild winter has drawn oak mites out of hibernation earlier than expected.

Extension agent Dennis Patton said the mites never did go fully dormant. He said there have been lots of reports of people getting bit while raking leaves and cleanup for spring.

The fear is that the problem will get worse this fall. But he said other summer factors such as temperatures and rainfall affect the pest’s reproduction so it’s difficult to say whether there will be another severe outbreak like last winter.

He recommends people wear long sleeves and spray bug repellant to avoid being bit.

Patton said there is no way to spray for the bugs because they can hide within the tree ridges.