LARNED, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has launched an audit of a state mental hospital’s finances a day after the announcement that its chief financial officer no longer was affiliated with the site.

The Wichita Eagle reports that the Larned State Hospital’s superintendent and special counsel announced David Fender’s departure Monday in an email to staff.

Fender was hired last year.

A spokeswoman for the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, Angela de Rocha, declined to discuss reason’s for Fender’s departure, calling it a private personnel matter.

De Rocha said Tuesday that though the department has “no reason to believe anything is amiss” at Larned, the agency’s internal auditing unit is scrutinizing the hospital’s finances.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As work progresses on an oil pipeline crossing Iowa opponents are holding protest rallies and taking the state utilities regulators to court in hopes of stopping construction.

A hearing is scheduled for Friday in Des Moines on a motion to stay construction on several parcels of land.

It’s part of a lawsuit challenging the Iowa Utilities Board’s authority to give for-profit Texas oil company Dakota Access the right to condemn private farmland for the pipeline.

Company attorney Bret Dublinske says the stay is another attempt to halt the project without a legal or factual basis.

The board, meeting Tuesday, learned 60 percent of the project right-of-way is cleared, 40 percent graded and trenches are dug on about 15 percent of the needed path.

Outside the meeting two dozen opponents protested.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Federal workplace safety officials are investigating two separate on-the-job deaths last week in Missouri.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced the investigation Monday of a 25-year-old tree trimmer killed in Columbia.

Police said that worker died at a hospital Aug. 10 shortly after the limb fell on top of him.

OSHA also is probing the suspected heat-related death Aug. 11 of a worker who was found unresponsive after prepping soil and laying sod for a new housing project in Kansas City, Missouri.

OSHA says preliminary reports indicate the worker sustained heat stroke while working outdoors in conditions with a heat index of 105 degrees.

The victims’ names haven’t been released.

O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) — Police in the St. Louis suburb of O’Fallon, Missouri, are investigating a fatal shooting at a home where a burglary was reported.

Police were called to the home shortly after noon Tuesday in the St. Charles County town. The caller said a burglary was in progress.

When officers arrived they found that a woman in the home had confronted the suspect and apparently shot him.

The name of the suspect was not released.

WEST PLAINS, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a person of interest in the disappearance of a missing woman has led detectives to her remains in a wooded area in southern Missouri.

KYTV reports that the discovery was made Monday near West Plains. Charges are pending.

Police said the victim was a 35-year-old woman who was last seen July 20 and was reported missing Aug. 9. The woman’s name wasn’t immediately released. The investigation remains open.

TECUMSEH, Neb. (AP) — A jury has convicted as Nebraska inmate of assault by a confined person for an attack on a prison guard during a riot at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution last year.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that the Johnson County jury convicted 60-year-old Roger Weikle on Tuesday after deliberating about 50 minutes following closing arguments.

Weikle faces sentencing in October.

He already is serving a sentence of up to 218 years for first-degree murder and a number of other charges. He is currently serving that sentence at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln.

A Johnson County jury heard Cpl. Joseph Hatzenbuehler testify Monday and watched video of the deadly riot. The video was the first public glimpse into the yard and the inmate-on-prison worker assaults that sparked the destructive riot May 10, 2015.

Inmate Roger Weikle was accused of running at Hatzenbuehler and trying to stomp on his head while he fought another inmate on the ground. Weikle didn’t appear in court for his trial Monday.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge is considering whether to appoint an independent third party to look into prison recordings of confidential conversations between inmates and their attorneys at the Leavenworth Detention Center.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson has scheduled a hearing Tuesday to determine the appointment and scope of a special master in the case. The practice surfaced in a case over distribution of contraband at the prison in which video recordings were subpoenaed by a grand jury. But the defense outcry is now rippling across cases.

The federal public defender’s office filed a motion Monday seeking a special master’s inquiry.

Robinson last week ordered all jails housing federal detainees in Kansas and Missouri to stop any recordings.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says it would not knowingly seek privileged attorney-client communications.

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri couple who were among victims in apparently random shootings in Joplin say they’re grateful the incident didn’t turn out much worse.

Don and Debbie Pugh were driving to work Saturday when a man shot at their truck, hitting Don three times.

Six people and two dogs were injured before the suspect, Tom Mourning II, was captured.

The Pughs said Monday that doctors treating Don found no permanent damage from the gunshots. But they did discover that one of his heart valves was almost completely blocked. During surgery Monday to have a stent implanted, doctors decided even that wasn’t necessary. Instead, Don Pugh was being released to go home to Duquense.

Mourning is the Jasper County jail on multiple felony charges. A motive for the shootings remains unclear.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Three journalists who reported on the 2014 Ferguson riots for Al-Jazeera America have filed a lawsuit accusing police officers of violating their rights.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court in St. Louis.

Ash-har Qurashi, Marla Cichowski and Sam Winslade name St. Charles County and three police officers as defendants.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the journalists claim they were tear-gassed and that police officers shot at them more than once, dismantled their equipment, ordered them to leave the scene of protests and then tried to cover up their behavior. The lawsuit cites incidents on August 13, 2014 and seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages and expenses.

St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann says the officers acted professionally, and the county intends to clear them of any suspicion.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas oil and gas producers listened to dire warnings about their industry’s future from two House members during their convention in Wichita.

U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins told the Kansas Independent Oil and Gas Association on Monday that it is still an assault on the industry by President Barack Obama’s administration from a regulatory environment to tax proposals.

She claims the administration wants to put them out of business.

U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo recounted the coal industry’s problems, and told oil and gas producers they should know they are next. He called it a “full-scale assault” by the environmental left on the fossil fuel industry.

The Kansas delegation has been a staple fixture at the industry’s annual meeting in Wichita, but only Pompeo and Jenkins attended for the panel this year.