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CHICAGO — Officials say Peoria County residents are now eligible to apply for federal aid following flooding and storms in September and October.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday that Peoria got the federal disaster declaration after a review of damage sustained during the severe weather.

The preliminary assessment showed 64 homes were affected, including 15 with major damage.

The aid includes cash grants for temporary housing, home repairs and other disaster-related costs. Flood victims and businesses also are eligible for low-interest loans through the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Eight other Illinois counties were already eligible for aid.

INDIANAPOLIS — A psychiatrist has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for illegally dispensing painkillers.

Adolfo P. Hernandez, 67, of Noblesville had pleaded guilty to one count of unlawfully dispensing the painkiller Percocet, generically known as oxycodone, a controlled substance. He was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison said in a news release.

Hernandez was arrested in March and charged with eight counts of unlawfully dispensing the painkiller after undercover police obtained prescriptions for oxycodone and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, authorities said.

Morrison said the doctor did not conduct medical examinations and created no medical records at his Broad Ripple office, which apparently had no medical staff.

CEDAR RAPIDS — City leaders in Cedar Rapids have approved a flood protection plan that could cost $1 billion and take 15 years to build.

The City Council unanimously approved a River Corridor Redevelopment Plan on Wednesday night that was aimed at protecting Cedar Rapids from a historic deluge like the one that hit the city five months ago.

The flood plan represents City Council input and review, public suggestions and comment and the work of a team of outside consultants.

The city's focus will now shift to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is in the early stages of a feasibility study required by law before federal funds can be committed to the project.

Corps engineers have worked alongside the city's consultants in developing the plan.

WINFIELD — Authorities have confirmed that propane played a role in a deadly house explosion and fire near the south-central Kansas town of Winfield.

But Winfield Fire Marshal Alan Stoll said Thursday it's still not clear what ignited the propane. The house was a rental that was being prepared for occupancy.

The explosion and fire Tuesday afternoon killed 54-year-old Randy Porter of Derby and sent 45-year-old Toni Brothers to a Wichita hospital with burns. She was listed Thursday in stable condition.

Porter and Brothers had been working on the house when the explosion occurred, leveling the building and leaving only the chimney standing.

LANSING — The Michigan House has voted to increase the number of groups whose members could be considered victims of hate crimes.

A bill to revise the ethnic intimidation law was approved 82-18 Thursday and now goes to the Senate.

Rep. Paul Condino, a Southfield Democrat, said police and prosecutors favor the measure. He said it would give more flexibility in cases such as the display of nooses at Central Michigan University last year.

Under the bill, a person could be charged with a bias-related offense for a crime based on disability, sexual identity or expression. That's in addition to characteristics covered by existing law, such as race, gender and religion.

Republican Rep. Tonya Schuitmaker of Lawton supported the measure but said it might run counter to reducing the prison population.

ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Department of Health says it's seeing an increase in the number of whooping-cough cases being reported in the state.

A recent outbreak in Dakota County includes 16 cases among upper elementary students and another in Douglas County includes 24 cases so far in mostly high school students.

Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, occurs in cycles of 3-5 years. The last peak year in Minnesota was in 2005, when more than 1,500 cases were reported.

A person infected with pertussis develops a cough that comes in bursts or spells. The illness takes a few weeks to run its course, but health officials don't consider it serious or life-threatening. Officials do recommend people get vaccinated for the illness.

The Health Department says most of the outbreaks have been in Hastings, Alexandria, Albert Lea, Fergus Falls and the counties of Dakota, Douglas, Otter Tail and Wright.

CLINTON — An Elks Lodge that was the scene of a deadly collapse two years ago has been replaced, and a western Missouri town prepares to celebrate.

Citizens of Clinton were stunned when the lodge on the town square collapsed in June 2006.

Local Elks Club leader Tony Komer was killed and nine other people were injured. It took rescuers 10 hours to free them from the wreckage of the three-story building, which housed a clothing store on the first floor.

An adjacent drugstore was also damaged in the collapse.

The new lodge building occupies the same site on the town square as the building. On Monday, Clinton city leaders will hold a prayer breakfast to celebrate the reopening of the lodge and the other two businesses. All three had relocated temporarily after the collapse.

LINCOLN — The Nebraska State Historical Society's Museum of Nebraska History has been reaccredited by the American Association of Museums.

The reaccreditation is the highest national recognition an American museum can receive.

Of the more than 20,000 U.S. museums, 774 are accredited. Those with the accreditation undergo a subsequent review within 10 years of their last accreditation award. The Museum of Nebraska History is one of 54 museums in the nation to have been reaccredited four times.

Among other museums to be reaccredited this fall are the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and The White House.

BISMARCK — Four of the North Dakota Legislature's youngest members are asking Gov. John Hoeven to include a two-year tuition freeze in his budget plans.

The four sent a letter to Hoeven's office Thursday requesting the freeze. Hoeven said he'll consider the idea. His budget plans already include $40 million in tuition grants for lower-income students.

The letter's signers include all three legislators from Grand Forks' District 42, which includes the University of North Dakota. They are Republican Rep. Stacey Horter and two newly elected Democrats, Sen.-elect Mac Schneider and Rep.-elect Corey Mock.

Sen.-elect Joe Miller of Fordville also signed the letter. He represents District 16, which includes Walsh County and part of Pembina County in northeastern North Dakota.

Horter, Schneider, Mock and Miller are all in their 20s. Schneider is the oldest at 29. The newly elected legislators take office Dec. 1.

YANKTON — The Missouri River crossing of the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, which eventually will carry Canadian crude oil, has been completed, company officials said.

Keystone spokesman Jeff Rauh says the workers finished getting the pipe under the river at Yankton last week.

The pipe will be capped and await construction to reach it next summer, he said. In the spring, construction will begin in several areas in South Dakota and Nebraska, he said.

"In the Yankton area, construction will start in Hutchinson County and work south into Yankton and Cedar County (Neb.) and progress south, almost to the Platte River. And another group will start just north of the Platte and work south from there," Rauh said.

"And then there's another crew in South Dakota that will start working in Day County and work south from Day County into Hutchinson County by the end of the summer."

The Keystone Pipeline will run 2,148 miles from oil fields in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma. Its full capacity is pegged at 591,000 barrels of oil a day..

MADISON — A consumer agency is advising residents to discard Wonderfarm brand "Successful" biscuits amid concerns the cookies are contaminated with melamine.

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection said Thursday the product has been shipped to at least two Asian specialty markets in the state. Supermarkets with ethnic-food sections also may carry that brand.

Melamine is a synthetic industrial chemical. In China and southeast Asia, it's been linked to kidney-related problems and food recalls, but no illnesses have been reported in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin department issued its warning after the Minnesota Department of Agriculture reported elevated levels of melamine in the product.

RICHMOND, British Columbia — Another human foot has washed up on British Columbia's south coast, the seventh to be found on the province's beaches since August 2007.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Annie Linteau confirmed that human remains were inside a New Balance running shoe spotted Tuesday afternoon.

"My first reaction was this was a small size, maybe a woman's shoe," said Ken Johnston, who fished the shoe out of the Fraser River off Richmond after his wife spotted it while walking their dog.

One right-foot New Balance running shoe — the only one belonging to a woman — has been found since the first foot was located on Jedidiah Island in Georgia Strait on Aug. 20, 2007. That shoe turned up May 22 on Kirkland Island in the Fraser River, not far from the site of Tuesday's discovery.

All the other feet were found at several sites on or near Georgia Strait, including remains in a shoe found in August in Pysht, Wash., about 30 miles west of Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula.

Authorities say it appears that all of the feet separated naturally from bodies as they decomposed in the water.