(AP) — If a dog that sniffs out pregnant polar bears is correct, the Kansas City Zoo isn’t getting a new addition to its exhibit.

A beagle in Shawnee, Kan., can tell whether a bear is pregnant by sniffing her waste. But the dog, named Elvis, didn’t detect a pregnancy for Kansas City’s female bear, Berlin.

The Kansas City Zoo was among more than a dozen to submit a stool sample as part of a study being conducted by the Cincinnati zoo. The Cincinnati zoo’s Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife says Elvis has demonstrated 97 percent accuracy in detecting polar bear pregnancies.

But the Kansas City Zoo plans to keep caring for Berlin as though she may be pregnant, just in case.

U.S. Senators and former prosecutors Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), and Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) have announced a new set of bipartisan provisions to strengthen and augment the already historic reform package that passed the Armed Services Committee in June to curb military sexual assault.

“This has always been about a very simple concept-what can we do to make prosecutions successful and what can we do to protect victims,” said McCaskill, a former courtroom prosecutor of sex crimes. “That’s the only yardstick that matters to me.”

“All along I have said that while we must deal with sexual offenders, we can’t lose sight of the victims. This amendment keeps that important focus. These changes, both in our amendment and in this year’s NDAA, are significant. But importantly, they are also serious and thoughtful – and they are based on sound policy. Changes to the UCMJ should come after a deliberate and transparent process, with input from all sides. This amendment is the product of such an effort,” said Fischer.

The amendment includes a host of reforms, attached and available online HERE, and including:

Eliminating the Good Soldier Defense
Modifies the Military Rules of Evidence to prevent defendants from using good military character unless it is directly relevant to an element of the crime for which they are charged.
Allows Victim Input in Prosecution of Perpetrators
Requires Special Victims Counsels to advise victims of the advantages & disadvantages of a case being prosecuted in the military or civilian justice system and provides victims the opportunity to express their preference on where the case is heard, giving a victim a greater degree of control of his or her case.
Allows Sexual Assault Victims to Challenge Their Discharge or Separation from Service
Requires the services to set up a confidential process that will enable a victim of a sexual assault who was subsequently discharged to challenge the terms or characterization of his or her discharge-in order to take a retrospective look at possible instances of retaliation.
Strengthens the Role of the Prosecutor in Advising Commanders on Going to Court Martial
In the event a prosecutor recommends a case go forward and the commander disagrees, under the amendment, the case is kicked up for review to the civilian service secretary, providing yet another level of review in these cases when needed. The NDAA currently requires the higher-level review only when there is disagreement between the commander and his or her legal counsel/judge advocate.
Boosts Accountability of Commanders for Addressing Sexual Assault & Setting Appropriate Command Climate
Strengthens evaluations for commanding officers and the command climate they establish as it relates to allegations of sexual assault and the way victims of crimes are treated within the unit following reports.
Extends Protections to the Military Service Academies
Clarifies that all changes in the NDAA related to sexual assault prevention and response apply to the military service academies.
The Senators also pointed to new statistics of drastically increased reporting as a strong indicator that retaining a role for commanders, while instituting historic, aggressive reforms, is the key for curbing sexual assaults.

McCaskill, Ayotte, and Fisher have relentlessly fought to reduce sexual assaults in the military. Earlier this year, the Armed Services Committee gave approval to a series of aggressive, historic reforms addressing sexual assault, including bipartisan, bicameral provisions that will significantly boost accountability for perpetrators and protections for survivors.

Reforms included in that package would strip commanders of their ability to overturn jury convictions, install civilian review over decisions to not prosecute cases, mandate dishonorable discharge or dismissal for anyone convicted of sexual assault, make it a crime to retaliate against victims who report a sexual assault, provide a Special Victims Counsel to give independent legal advice to servicemembers who report a sexual assault, and eliminate the statute of limitations in these cases.

(AP) — Germany’s Volkswagen AG issued a global recall Thursday for 800,000 of its Tiguan models, saying it needs to replace a problematic fuse that can cause the cars’ lights to fail.

The Wolfsburg-based company said the replacement should only take minutes and concerns vehicles built between the start of 2008 and the middle of 2011.

VW also asked the owners of 1.6 million vehicles sporting seven-speed, dual-clutch gearboxes to come in for an oil exchange.

The company said that models with the DQ200 gearbox, which include the Golf, can suffer electric malfunctions in hot, humid climates, if synthetic oil is used.

Spokesman Pietro Zollino said the gearbox problem was a “minor issue” but for legal reasons the recall was compulsory in China, where some 750,000 vehicles are affected.

(AP) – A two-year investigation of drug trafficking and violent crime in the Sedalia area has led to indictments against 37 people from western and central Missouri.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Kansas City says 28 defendants were picked up during a multi-agency sweep Thursday. Five others were already in custody, and four were still at large.

The defendants are accused in a half-dozen indictments with taking part in conspiracies that distributed more than $1 million worth of cocaine and crack cocaine. Several are also charged with illegally possessing firearms.

Most of the defendants are Sedalia residents. Several are from towns in neighboring Johnson County, Mo., and the rest are from Columbia, Blue Springs and Raytown.

Federal agents joined the Missouri Highway Patrol, several sheriffs’ departments and police in Thursday’s sweep.

(AP) — A federal grand jury has indicted a central Kansas man on charges that he worked with an Alton, Ill., company and its owner in a $3 million scheme to sell foreign versions of Botox and Juvederm.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Kansas City, Mo., says 43-year-old Christopher Tozier of Hesston, Kan., was charged Thursday with smuggling goods into the U.S. and several other similar counts.

The superseding indictment adding Tozier replaces an indictment in April that charged Illinois-based Orthopaedic Solutions Inc. and its owner, 48-year-old Christopher Carstens, with similar counts.

The superseding indictment alleges that Carstens and his company distributed nearly 5,900 units of foreign versions of Botox and Juvederm in the U.S. between 2008 and 2011 with a retail value of more than $3 million.

Two Kansas City men who were involved in a crash that killed a police crime scene technician are now facing federal firearms charges.

The U.S. Attorney’s office on Thursday announced the indictments of 28-year-old Larneal Davis and 25-year-old Christopher L. Murray. They’re charged with illegally possessing firearms as convicted felons.

Davis already faces a state charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of 29-year-old Michael Chou, whose vehicle was broadsided around 3 a.m. on July 6 as he drove out of the police crime lab parking lot.

Authorities allege Davis and Murray were in a car being chased by police at high speeds when the crash happened. Police identified Davis as the driver and Murray as a passenger.

Neither man had a lawyer Thursday.

 (AP) — Nine former employees of the southwest Missouri city of Bolivar are claiming age bias in a lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Springfield. It claims the city violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act by pushing out the employees who were between ages 44 and 65, and replacing them with workers younger than 40.

The complaint says 13 employees were fired or coerced to resign on or about April 13, 2012, and 10 of those employees were older than 40.

The complaint accuses Mayor John Best and City Clerk Kimberly Strader of saying that the city “could not continue to afford to pay employees age 55 and older.”

City Administrator Darin Chappell said he hadn’t seen the lawsuit.

 

A Missouri woman accused of killing her husband in southeast Wyoming in the mid-1970s has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

The current husband of 74-year-old Alice Uden recently pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in a similar case in central Wyoming. Seventy-one-year-old Gerald Uden admitted killing his ex-wife and her two children in 1980. A judge sentenced him to life in prison.

The Udens are from Chadwick, Mo., and were arrested in September.

Alice Uden entered her plea Thursday in Laramie County District Court. She was in a wheelchair and spoke in a soft voice.

Her attorney said Uden has serious health problems, including diabetes. He said she should be allowed to return to Missouri to be closer to her doctors.

District Judge Steven Sharpe did not grant the request.