KANSAS CITY, KAN. – Four defendants were charged Wednesday in an indictment alleging they “washed” $1 bills to produce counterfeit $100 bills that they passed during a shopping spree, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Steven Shane Escamilla, 30, Laguna Hills, Calif., Courtney Campbell, 37, Bouse, Ariz., John Sebestyen, 50, Mission Viejo, Calif., and Jonathan Washington, 33, no known address, are charged with conspiracy to commit counterfeiting. In addition, Escamilla is charged with one count of possessing counterfeit bills and one count of possessing methamphetamine; Campbell is charged with one count of possessing counterfeit bills and one count of possessing methamphetamine; Sebestyen is charged with one count of possessing counterfeit bills and one count of possessing methamphetamine and heroin; and Washington is charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

According to documents filed with the court, an employee at a hotel in Overland Park contacted police to report that the defendants were acting suspiciously. They deposited trash in containers away from their rooms that contained evidence of criminal activity.

The indictment alleges that in some cases defendants purchased goods with counterfeit cash and then returned the goods for a refund at another branch of the same store.

Upon conviction, the crimes carry the following penalties:

Conspiracy: Up to five years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000.

Possessing counterfeit cash: Up to 20 years and a fine up to $250,000.

Possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine: Not less than five years and not more than 40 years and a fine up to $4 million.

Possessing a controlled substance: Up to a year and a fine up to $1,000.

The Overland Park Police Department and the U.S. Secret Service investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Leon Patton is prosecuting.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — An animal rescue has named a litter of puppies born during an outbreak of severe weather after Kansas City TV meteorologists.

Midwest Animal Resq of Raytown says the puppies were born May 24, when tornado warnings were issued. One day earlier, storms injured about two dozen people in Missouri’s capital city and killed three others elsewhere in the state.

The animal rescue said in a Facebook post that, “We figured they needed to be named after some of the folks who helped keep KC safe that night! Welcome to the world weather pups.”

One of the puppies is named for KMBC-TV chief meteorologist Bryan Busby, while the mother was named for the station’s meteorologist, Katie Horner. The other puppies were named for meteorologists at other TV stations.

O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) — A convicted pedophile who ran an international child pornography ring has been charged with the 1993 abduction, rape and killing of a 9-year-old Missouri girl, after previously undetected DNA found on her clothing implicated him in the crime, authorities announced Wednesday.

Earl Webster Cox, who has been in custody for years because the state deemed him a sexually dangerous person likely to re-offend if set free, is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and sodomy in the death of Angie Housman, St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar said at a news conference.

Angie disappeared after getting off her school bus on Nov. 18, 1993, less than a block from her home in St. Ann, a St. Louis suburb. Her body was found nine days later in the August A. Busch Wildlife area, which is about 20 miles west of St. Ann, in St. Charles County.

Investigators said she had been sexually assaulted, starved and handcuffed, and that she died just hours before she was found. Lohmar said her head was covered in duct tape except for her nose and that she had tried hard to free herself.

“She was dehydrated, she was malnourished and she was alive when she was left out in the woods to die,” Lohmar said, noting that investigators don’t know where she was kept while she was missing.

Angie’s mother, Diane Bone, died of cancer in 2016 at age 52. Her stepfather, Ron Bone, told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday, “I can’t say anything about being happy until he’s found guilty.”

The disappearance of Angie and a 10-year-old girl, Cassidy Senter, the following month caused a panic in the area. Hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement officers searched for Angie before a deer hunter found her body. Cassidy, meanwhile, was later found dead in a St. Louis alley.

Investigators feared that a child serial killer was on the loose before determining that Cassidy’s killer was one of her neighbors, who was eliminated as a suspect in Angie’s death.

In late February, St. Charles County crime lab investigators caught a break: They found previously undetected DNA on a pair of Angie’s Barbie-themed underwear that was found at the crime scene that matched a DNA profile in a national crime database.

“They were looking for a needle in a haystack without a magnet and still found the needle,” Lohmar said.

Lohmar said investigators have spoken with Cox about the killing, but he declined to say if Cox acknowledged knowing anything about it. He also wouldn’t say if his office will pursue the death penalty, and that investigators “have reason to believe that Earl Cox was not the only suspect,” though he didn’t elaborate.

Cox, now 61, grew up in the St. Louis area. He was living in another suburb, Ferguson, when Angie was abducted, but he had relatives who lived near her school and not far from her home, Lohmar said.

Cox enlisted in the Air Force in 1975 but was dishonorably discharged in 1982 after being convicted in a court-martial for molesting four young girls for whom he babysat while stationed at Rhein-Main Air Base in Germany. He was paroled in 1985 and returned to the St. Louis area, where he was questioned in at least two reported instances of child molestation in the four years before Angie’s killing.

He was arrested in October 1989 in Overland, which borders St. Ann, after he allegedly had inappropriate contact with two 7-year-old girls. Cox was not charged in that case, according to court records, but the arrest led authorities to revoke his parole for crimes in Germany and he was returned to federal custody from January to December 1992. He got out 11 months before Angie was killed.

At some point during the 1990s, Cox moved to Colorado. In January 2003, he set up a meeting with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl whom he had asked to become his sex slave. It turned out to be an undercover federal agent.

After Cox was arrested, police seized about 45,000 images of child pornography from his computer and discovered that he led an international online child pornography ring known as the “Shadowz Brotherhood.” The subsequent investigation led to the arrest of about 60 people in 11 countries.

Cox was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Before he was scheduled for release in 2011, Cox was certified as a sexually dangerous person, which allowed authorities to keep him incarcerated even after he completed his sentence because he was considered likely to re-offend. He has unsuccessfully appealed the government’s decision to keep him incarcerated, arguing in part that his poor health makes it unlikely that he would re-offend.

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MANHATTAN — The suspect arrested in connection with the May 9 shots fired incident at the KSU Foundation building has been identified as Erin Trent Boykin, 23, of Junction City, according to the Riley County Police Department arrest report.

He is being held on a $50,000 bond on requested charges of attempted murder in the 1st degree; In the commission of a felony, criminal damage to property; without consent value < $1000, aggravated assault; use of a deadly weapon, criminal discharge of firearm; recklessly at occupied dwelling, according to the report.

Police determined that the individuals involved in the incident are not connected to the university.

The May 9 incident began on the east side of Manhattan off campus and continued to the parking lot north of the KSU Foundation Building, where shots were fired. There were no injuries.

MANHATTAN — The Kansas State University Police Department has arrested a suspect in connection with the May 9 shots fired incident at the KSU Foundation at Kimball and Denison avenues, according to a media release from K-State.

The suspect is currently detained at the Riley County Jail on charges of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault, criminal damage to property and criminal discharge of a firearm. Additional charges may be pursued. This is an ongoing investigation and names will not be released at this time.

Police determined that the individuals involved in the incident are not connected to the university.

The May 9 incident began on the east side of Manhattan off campus and continued to the parking lot north of the KSU Foundation Building, where shots were fired. There were no injuries.

PHOENIX (AP) — The federal government has stopped paying for English-language courses and legal services at facilities that hold immigrant children around the country, imposing budget cuts it says are necessary at a time when record numbers of unaccompanied children are arriving at the border.

The Health and Human Services department notified shelters around the country last week that it was not going to reimburse them for teachers’ pay or other costs such as legal services or recreational equipment. The move appears to violate a legal settlement known as the Flores agreement that requires the government to provide education and recreational activities to immigrant children in its care.

But the agency says it doesn’t have the funding to provide those services as it deals with a soaring number of children coming to the U.S., largely from Central America.

It’s now up to the various nonprofit and private organizations run facilities for the children to cover the cost of teachers, supplies, legal services and even recreational activities and equipment — if they can, or choose to.

BCFS, a nonprofit provider in several Texas cities, said in a statement that it would continue providing services because not doing so would violate state licensing standards. It said it will use emergency funding from its parent organization.

“The health and well-being of those in our care are of the utmost importance and we hope there is a rapid resolution to this funding issue,” spokeswoman Evy Ramos said.

The government says it currently has 13,200 children in its care, and more are coming. The Border Patrol said Wednesday that 11,500 children crossed the border without a parent just last month. The kids are transferred to the care of Health and Human Services after the Border Patrol processes them. Health and Human Services contracts out their care and housing to nonprofits and private companies.

“As we have said, we have a humanitarian crisis at the border brought on by a broken immigration system that is putting tremendous strain (on the agency),” spokeswoman Evelyn Stauffer said. “Additional resources are urgently required to meet the humanitarian needs created by this influx – to both sustain critical child welfare and release operations and increase capacity.”

Health and Human Services is seeking nearly $3 million in emergency funding to cover more beds and provide basic care.

An official at one of the shelter providers said the government notified them on May 30 that they wouldn’t be reimbursing costs of providing education and other activities. The providers pay for things like teacher salary upfront and are then reimbursed by the government.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said his employer was scrambling to figure out how it would cover the cost of teachers. The provider hasn’t laid anyone off, but worries about children who desperately need to learn English and be intellectually stimulated.

Advocates are also worried about the ramifications of cutting recreational activities. Funding cuts may result in physical education coordinators from being let go and in a lack of adults who can supervise children playing outside.

“The kids are inside 23 hours, and the hour they spend outside is a real lifeline for them,” said J.J. Mulligan, an attorney at the Immigration Law Clinic at University of California, Davis, who has visited and spoken to many of the children at the facilities. “Most of them come from Latin American countries where soccer is king, so the ability to play with their friends really brings them joy in dark circumstances.”

In a memo to staff obtained by The Associated Press, Southwest Key interim CEO Joella Brooks said she was working with the government to figure out why the funding had ended and how it can continue to offer the services. Southwest Key is a nonprofit and the largest provider of shelters for immigrant children.

“In the meantime, remember the service, encouragement and compassion you provide to these youth every day matters a great deal. Please continue to stay focused on taking good care of them,” Brooks wrote to her staff.

U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona, was critical of the cuts.

“By eliminating English classes and legal aid that are critical to ensuring children successfully navigate the asylum process, the Trump Administration is essentially condemning children to prison and throwing away the key until their imminent deportation,” Grijalva, who represents a district on the border, said in a statement.

NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City police say two people are in custody after a chase that included a bound person falling out of the vehicle and police using tear gas to get the suspects out of the vehicle.

Police said in a news release the pursuit began when officers spotted people wanted for several property and assault cases in Clay County.

At one point, a passenger with hands tied opened a rear door and fell out of the vehicle. That person told officers a potential kidnapping was occurring.

The vehicle stopped and started several times, requiring officers to break the windows with beanbags. When the car still wouldn’t stop, armored tactical vehicles surrounded it. The two suspects, a man and a woman, left the vehicle when tear gas was deployed.

Further information was not immediately available.