KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An animal rights group is offering a $5,000 reward for information after a dog was left to drown at a Kansas City-area lake.

PETA officials say park rangers found the dog tied to a cinder block Friday on the shore of Longview Lake in Jackson County. He had no food or water and was caked in mud.

On Wednesday, PETA announced the reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction on animal cruelty charges.

PETA vice president Colleen O’Brien says someone left the dog, who is now called Deputy, to drown in the lake’s rising waters.

Deputy is now being cared for at Great Plains SPCA and was available for adoption on Thursday.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A woman in Kansas has been charged in the death of a 7-month-old boy who died earlier this year at her day care.

The Kansas City Star  reports 54-year-old Bilma Maese-Sanchez of Overland Park was charged in Johnson County District Court on Wednesday with aggravated child endangerment and unlawfully operating a child care facility. She was released from custody the same day after posting a $5,000 bond.

Court documents show Gabriel Omar Rivera-Contreras died in February at Maese-Sanchez’s home after reportedly not breathing. She isn’t accused of intentionally harming the child.

The charges allege the woman “recklessly” placed Gabriel in a situation where his “life, body or health is injured or endangered.”

Maese-Sanchez’s next court hearing is scheduled for May 11. She is banned from owning, operating or working at any day care facility as part of her bond.

WICHITA- A Kansas man was charged in U.S. District Court Wednesday with producing child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

Ian Nathanial Smith, 20, Viola, Kan., is charged with one count of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of possessing child pornography.

An investigator’s affidavit alleges Smith used social media to communicate over the internet with a 14-year-old girl in another state. He asked the girl to send him live streaming video of herself engaged in sexual activities. Investigators found child pornography on his phone, including 204 images and four videos.

If convicted, he faces not less than 15 years and not more than 30 years in federal prison on the charge of exploiting a minor and up to 10 years and a fine up to $250,000 on the possession charge. The FBI investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hart is prosecuting.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on an executive order on an IRS rule on churches (all times local):

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that will further weaken enforcement of an IRS rule barring churches and tax-exempt groups from endorsing political candidates.

Trump signed the order at a White House ceremony marking the National Day of Prayer.

 

The executive order has disappointed some of Trump’s supporters who were hoping for a more sweeping measure.

The order asks the IRS to use “maximum enforcement discretion” over the regulation, known as the Johnson Amendment, which applies to churches and nonprofits.

Trump noted that “freedom is not a gift from government, freedom is a gift from God.”

And he insisted that no American should be “forced to choose between the dictates of the federal government and the tenants of their faith.”

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — New regulations being considered by the Kansas school board includes a lifetime ban on working as a school bus driver for people who commit any crime involving a child.

State director of pupil transportation Keith Dreiling tells the Wichita Eagle the ban was proposed by a law-enforcement representative on the committee that drafted the regulations about three years ago. He says the process has taken this long because the rules have to be reviewed at several government levels.

Current regulations say a person who has committed a crime involving a child doesn’t have to report it to the bus driver hiring agency if the conviction was over 10 years ago. The rewritten rule changes the 10-year threshold to a lifetime.

Wichita school district spokeswoman Susan Arensman says the change isn’t expected to impact the district.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the Kansas Supreme Court’s continued review of the capital murder cases of two brothers sentenced to die for what became known as “the Wichita massacre” (all times local):

12:30 p.m.

The Kansas Supreme Court is struggling with how much discretion it has to spare two brothers from execution for four notorious Wichita slayings following a U.S. Supreme Court decision against them.

The Kansas court heard arguments Thursday in the cases of Jonathan and Reginald Carr. They were convicted of dozens of crimes against five people in December 2000 that ended with the victims being shot in a field. One woman survived.

The Kansas court previously overturned their death sentences in 2014 in part because it believed it was unfair to have them tried and sentenced together rather than separately. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that the U.S. Constitution didn’t require separate proceedings.

Attorneys for the men argued that the Kansas Constitution requires separate sentencing hearings.

———-

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court is considering for a second time whether to spare two brothers from being executed for four murders in what became known as “the Wichita massacre.”

The justices were hearing arguments from attorneys Thursday in the cases of Jonathan and Reginald Carr.

They were convicted of dozens of crimes against five people in December 2000 that ended with the victims being shot in a field. One woman survived.

The crimes were among the most notorious in the state since the 1959 slayings of a western Kansas family that inspired the book “In Cold Blood.”

The Kansas court overturned the death sentences in July 2014 and cited flaws in their joint trial and sentencing hearing. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Kansas court’s rulings and forced another review.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An 81-year-old Topeka man has been charged with fatally shooting another man in the presence of an 8-year-old child.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Anthony Darcy was charged Wednesday with premeditated first-degree murder in the Monday night killing of 36-year-old Stephen Snyder. Darcy also faces felony charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated child endangerment. Bond is set at $1 million cash or professional surety.

District attorney Mike Kagay said in a news release that Snyder was on the driveway of a home suffering from what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds when police arrived. Darcy was at the home and taken into custody.

It wasn’t immediately known whether Darcy had an attorney. The prosecutor’s office didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Court documents say the family of a 10-year-old boy who died on a giant waterslide at a Kansas water park will receive nearly $20 million in settlement payments.

The Kansas City Star reports that $14 million of the payment to Caleb Schwab’s family will come from SVV 1 and KC Water Park. The two companies are associated with Texas-based water park company Schlitterbahn.

The rest of the money will come from the general contractor, the raft manufacturer and a company that consulted on the 17-story “Verruckt” waterslide that was dubbed the tallest in the world.

The waterslide at the park in Kansas City has been closed since Caleb’s death on Aug. 7, 2016.

The settlements were announced previously, but the amount involved wasn’t disclosed.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators are resuming negotiations over increasing income taxes to fix the state budget and provide additional funds for public schools.

House and Senate negotiators planned to meet Thursday morning after top Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature canceled a vote on tax legislation for the second consecutive day.

Kansas faces projected budget shortfalls totaling $887 million through June 2019 and the Kansas Supreme Court ruled in March that state education funding is inadequate.

A proposal drafted by negotiators Tuesday but scrapped Wednesday would have rolled back past income tax cuts championed by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback to raise more than $1 billion over two years. It was drafted after a similar but smaller plan fell flat.

Democrats and GOP moderates complained that neither plan raised enough new revenue.

COFFEY COUNTY – A Kansas elementary school is closed Thursday and Friday due to illness.

USD 243 reported due to the large number of student and staff illness, Waverly Elementary school will not have school on Thursday, May 4th and Friday May 5th, according to the school web site.

“We have been hit hard with a stomach bug. Please make sure that your child is symptom free for 24 hours before sending them back to school. This includes attending field trips. If your child is not feeling well, please consider keeping them home,” on their social media page.

They also canceled the field trip for Thursday. After a thorough cleaning, the school hopes to reopen next week.