DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A massive frozen foods recall involves millions of packages of fruits and vegetables that were shipped to all 50 U.S. states, Canada and Mexico.

Authorities worry it’ll be difficult to get consumers to dig through their freezers and check for products they may have bought as far back as 2014 from places like Costco, Target, Trader Joe’s and Safeway.

The more than 400 products from CRF Frozen Foods in Pasco, Washington, could be contaminated with listeria. Products tied to the plant have caused eight listeria-linked illnesses, including two deaths.

The CRF plant closed two weeks ago and CRF spokesman Gene Grabowski said the company is still trying to pinpoint the source of the contamination.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration offers more information online (click here).

ABERDEEN, S.D. (AP) — Construction is underway in three of four states on a $3.8 billion pipeline that will carry oil from western North Dakota to Illinois.

Spokeswoman Lisa Dillinger tells the American News that work on the Dakota Access Pipeline has begun in North Dakota, South Dakota and Illinois.

The pipeline also will cross Iowa, but regulators there have declined to act quickly on a request to allow Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners begin construction in that state.

The 1,150-mile oil pipeline will carry nearly half a million barrels of crude from western North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields each day. It’s been approved by regulators in all four states. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers still must issue permits for the pipeline to cross the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and the state’s leading agricultural groups are touting the benefits of a major trade deal proposed between the United States and 11 Pacific Rim nations.

The coalition released an analysis on Thursday showing that the Trans-Pacific Partnership would increase Nebraska’s total cash receipts by more than $378 million annually from the sale of agricultural products.

The analysis says Cuming, Custer, Platte, Dawson and Lincoln counties would see the biggest economic benefits, but every county would see gains.

The Nebraska Farm Bureau, Nebraska Cattlemen, Nebraska Pork Producers Association, Nebraska Corn Born and the Nebraska Soybean Association are all calling on Congress to ratify the agreement.

Ricketts says lowering tariffs through the agreement would help Nebraska expand its trade relationship with Japan, one of the state’s biggest partners.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The latest population estimates indicate Columbia has overtaken Independence as Missouri’s fourth-largest city.

Population data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau show Columbia has gained about 10,600 residents between 2010 and 2015, a 9 percent increase that brought the population to roughly 119,000.

Only Kansas City gained more residents over the same period, adding about 15,600 to a population that grew to roughly 475,000.

St. Louis City continues to lose residents. The Census Bureau estimates the city has lost 3,600 people since 2010, putting its population around 316,000.

More Missouri towns have lost residents over the last five years than have gained. Towns that lost residents saw an average decrease of about 30 people, while places that gained experienced an average increase of 300.

SULLIVAN, Mo. (AP) — An eastern Missouri man has been fatally shot by a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper after allegedly pulling a gun on the officer.

The shooting happened Wednesday near Sullivan, 70 miles southwest of St. Louis. The man killed was 44-year-old Joseph Weatherby of Sullivan.

Patrol spokesman Cody Fulkerson says the trooper initiated a traffic stop on an Interstate 44 service road one mile west of Sullivan. Weatherby sped across a parking lot of the Ditch Witch Groundbreaking Co.

After a brief chase, Fulkerson says Weatherby got out and ran, pointing a gun at the trooper during the foot chase. The trooper shot him once in the chest.

Weatherby died later Wednesday at a Sullivan hospital.

Fulkerson says Weatherby did not fire a shot. The trooper’s name has not been released.

BERLIN (AP) — German drug and chemicals company Bayer AG says it has entered talks with the Monsanto Company about the possible acquisition of the U.S.-based specialist in genetically modified crop seeds.

Leverkusen-based Bayer said in a short statement Thursday that its executives had met recently with their Monsanto counterparts “to privately discuss a negotiated acquisition of Monsanto Company.”

Bayer, whose farm business produces seeds as well as compounds to kill weeds, bugs and fungus, says the proposed acquisition would help it “create a leading integrated agriculture business.”

St. Louis, Missouri-based Monsanto said late Wednesday that it was reviewing Bayer’s proposal. Neither company gave other details.

The possible deal had been rumored for a week but it was the first comment from either company.

Monsanto has some 20,000 employees; Bayer 117,000 worldwide.

OTTAWA, Kan. (AP) — A man convicted of killing two men, a woman and her 18-month-old daughter on a Kansas farm three years ago has been sentenced to death.

Victims’ relatives applauded Wednesday when Franklin County District Judge Eric Godderz announced the sentences against 30-year-old Kyle Flack, of Ottawa.

Jurors convicted Flack of capital murder in the deaths of 21-year-old Kaylie Bailey and her daughter, Lana, at a farmhouse about 50 miles south of Kansas City. They convicted him of first-degree murder in the death of 30-year-old Andrew Stout and second-degree murder in the death of 31-year-old Steven White.

Investigators believe Flack killed Stout around April 20, 2013, and killed the other three a little more than a week later.

Kansas hasn’t executed anyone since it reinstated capital punishment in 1994.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines student mural project has been rescued by a fundraising campaign and city efforts to make things right. Officials blamed miscommunication for the loss of the mural on a flood wall outside the school district’s Central Campus on Monday.

An anti-graffiti team used beige paint to cover the colorful, 200-foot-long artwork, which had taken students nearly 100 hours to create.

An Internet fundraising campaign that began Tuesday exceeded its $4,000 goal by Wednesday afternoon. City officials have agreed to streamline approval for a new mural.

Ironically, the words painted over by the graffiti-abatement crews included “writing is sacred,” and “ideas are forever.”

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis Children’s Hospital is opening a new center that will allow young patients enduring long hospital stays to reunite with their pets.

The Purina Family Pet Center officially opened Wednesday with a golden retriever mix named “Happy Jack” tugging away the ribbon.

The hospital said the room gives patients a chance to see their pets without leaving the building and the medical technology that is important in their treatment and recovery.

Hospital officials cite studies showing that spending time with pets can reduce pain, anxiety, depression and fatigue in people dealing with health issues, those staying in long-term care facilities.

St. Louis-based Nestle Purina gave $450,000 to help fund construction and staffing of the 300-square-foot room, which can accommodate a wheelchair or hospital bed.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Thirteen Muslims are suing U.S. immigration officials, alleging in the federal case filed in St. Louis a secret “blacklist” was slowing their quest for citizenship.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the lawsuit names U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services and immigration officials as defendants.

The suit alleges the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program has flagged the immigrants as “national security concerns,” wrongly relying on such things as “innocuous activity and associations, innuendo, suppositions and characteristics such as national origin.”

The lawsuit alleges the program holds aspiring Muslim citizenship applicants to a higher legal standard and illegally bars them from upgrading their immigration status.

A USCIS spokesman says the agency “adjudicates all applications and petitions on a case-by-case basis according to existing laws, regulations, and USCIS policies.”