EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — The BNSF Railway Company has announced plans to invest $125 million in Kansas this year to improve its railways in the state.

The Emporia Gazette reports the investment is part of the company’s $3.4 billion capital expenditure plan in 2017.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe plans to expand a Kansas City, Kansas, auto facility and track maintenance work. The plan includes new rail ties and replacement of track portions between Wellington and Kansas City, and Emporia to Garden City.

BNSF Railway Public Affairs Director Andy Williams says the maintenance on the section from Emporia to Newton will start later in February. According to Williams, the project should not drastically affect trains using the rails because BNSF has enough rails to re-direct trains in order to avoid delays.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Ferguson, Missouri, has dropped its appeal of a federal jury’s $3 million award to survivors of a naked, unarmed man who died after a police officer repeatedly shocked him with a stun gun and will pay the money.

A federal judge in St. Louis on Wednesday deferred his approval of the settlement until March 1. The settlement is between Jason Moore’s wife, mother and son and the St. Louis suburb, ex-officer Brian Kaminski and the former police chief.

It’s unclear why the city agreed to settle for the same amount as what jurors awarded Moore’s family in November. A Ferguson spokesman said Friday the city had no comment.

The family has said Moore suffered from a psychological disorder when Kaminski confronted him in 2011. Moore argued that his use of force was justified.

(Missourinet) – A Missouri lawmaker wants to toughen restrictions on sex offenders.

State Rep. Kathryn Swan (R-Cape Girardeau) has filed legislation to prohibit registered sex offenders from being present or loitering within 500 feet of any children’s museum, zoo or “other location with the primary purpose of entertaining or educating children under 18”.

Representative Swan is scheduled to present her bill Tuesday morning at 8 in Jefferson City before the Missouri House Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee, which is chaired by State Rep. Don Phillips (R-Kimberling City).

The House Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee is not scheduled to vote on Tuesday.

Swan chairs the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Administrators at Missouri public colleges and universities say they are reluctant to consider raising tuition, but they might have no choice.

New Republican Gov. Eric Greitens proposed on Thursday a nearly 10 percent reduction in core higher education funding in his budget proposal for the coming year.

Missouri public universities have been able to keep tuition relatively stable, thanks to yearly agreements with lawmakers. In 2007, then-Gov. Jay Nixon signed a law capping in-state tuition at 4-year schools, allowing only small increases.

University leaders say that Greitens’ proposal to slash another $22 million on top of $68 million in cuts announced in January makes higher tuition almost inevitable.

The budget still has to pass through the House and Senate, and lawmakers say they will try to reduce the planned cuts.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Authorities are trying to determine who fatally shot a woman that a Missouri State Trooper found lying near a vehicle on the side of Interstate 29.

The trooper stopped at the 56th Street exit on I-29 when he saw what appeared to be a stranded motorist around 10 p.m.

But the trooper couldn’t find anyone inside the vehicle. After looking around, he saw the wounded woman lying on the ground.

The woman died later at a local hospital.

MOBERLY, Mo. (AP) — Moberly police are investigating the death of a 54-year-old man as a homicide.

Police say Christopher Shawn James was found with a possible gunshot wound early Thursday and was later pronounced dead at Moberly Regional Medical Center.

The Moberly Monitor-Index reports the Randolph County coroner ruled the death a homicide.

Moberly police say people of interest were interviewed in the case but further details were not available.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A prosecutor says no charges will be filed against an Omaha teenager who accidentally shot and killed his father.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine says the shooting of Ben Majestic was a “terrible accident.”

Kleine says that on Tuesday, Majestic and his 17-year-old son were in their apartment when the boy noticed one of his father’s several guns was loaded.

Kleine says the revolver fired when the boy tried to unload it. The bullet struck Majestic in the head, fatally wounding him. It was his 44th birthday.

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — The rodeo program is among budget cutbacks approved by the Hastings College board of trustees as it wrestles with an operational deficit of more than $3 million.

A message posted online earlier this week by President Don Jackson says the trustees have approved a plan to realize $2.3 million in savings during the 2017-18 school year.

The plans for 2018-19 include eliminating three to four faculty positions, three to four staff positions and ending the rodeo program.

The college competes as part of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. Among its Nebraska members are Mid-Plains Community College, the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln man has been imprisoned for a motorcycle crash that killed his girlfriend in 2014.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that 23-year-old Tyler Wilson on Thursday was given four to eight years behind bars. He’d pleaded no contest to a manslaughter charge in the death of 21-year-old Jessie McCain.

Prosecutors say McCain was on the back of Wilson’s motorcycle going at least 80 mph in a 40 mph zone in 2014.

Wilson says he laid the bike down on the pavement to avoid a sport utility vehicle turning in front of them. McCain hit the SUV and died at the scene.

Before receiving his sentence, Wilson said he thinks about the crash every day and that he “never meant for this to happen.”