HUGGINS, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a Utah State Board of Education member, his wife and two of their children died when their small plane crashed while taking off from a relative’s grass airstrip in southwest Missouri.

Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesman Jeff Kinder says witnesses reported that the Beechcraft A-36 got about 100 feet off the ground Friday morning before stalling. C. Mark Openshaw and his family were returning to their Provo, Utah, home after visiting relatives.

Kinder identified the other victims as Openshaw’s 43-year-old wife, Amy; their 15-year-old son, Tanner; and 12-year-old daughter, Ellie. The couple’s 5-year-old son was taken to a Springfield-area hospital in serious condition.

Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board officials say the agencies are investigating.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri transportation officials are warning drivers that construction projects will cause delays on Interstate 70 between Kansas City and St. Louis this summer.

The state is encouraging drivers to avoid using the interstate at peak travel times on Friday and Sunday afternoons. It says delays of up to an hour are possible in some areas.

Alternate routes include U.S. 50 south of the interstate or U.S. 36 to the north.

The Missouri Department of Transportation says the main cause of congestion will be work on bridges over the Blackwater River near Marshall Junction.

Work on the westbound bridge is expected to be finished in mid-August, with the eastbound lane finished in mid-October.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A special prosecutor says he won’t file criminal charges against a Boone County sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed a murder suspect in February.

The deputy shot 28-year-old Cornelius Parker in February during a gunfight near Columbia after Parker shot three people, killing two. The deputy recently returned to regular duty after spending time on administrative duties.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports that Callaway County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Wilson said in a letter to the Missouri State Highway Patrol on Thursday that he believes the deputy’s use of lethal force was justified.

The sheriff’s department asked the patrol to investigate the deputy-involved shooting. Wilson was appointed the prosecutor in the case June 4th.

LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — The longtime president of William Jewell College in suburban Kansas City has announced plans to retire in August 2016.

The liberal arts college in Liberal said in a news release Thursday that David Sallee has led the school since August 2000. The release said Sallee is the longest serving president among Kansas City area colleges and universities.

William Jewell credited Sallee with raising the profile of the school and the availability of technology. Sallee previously was vice president for enrollment management at Luther College in Iowa and at Oklahoma Baptist University.

The school’s Board of Trustees is forming a committee to search for his replacement.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A suburban Kansas City school district has opened a pair of year-round elementary schools in an experiment that’s proving popular with families.

More than 750 children arrived Wednesday at the Winnwood and Crestview schools to start an academic year, which will run through the summer and continue alongside all other schools’ regular academic calendar until May 2016.

The Kansas City Star reports that the children in the year-round schools will get 31 more days of instruction, totaling 208.

The chief financial officer for the North Kansas City School District says the extra days of learning come at an estimated cost of $575,000 in salaries and services.

The district picked Winnwood and Crestview partly due to the majority of their students qualifying for free or reduced-priced lunches.

CLAYCOMO, Mo. (AP) — A federal agency has cited Ford Motor Company and a Kansas City company for violations after the death of a 52-year-old contractor crushed by a piece of equipment at the automaker’s Kansas City assembly plant.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Thursday the December 2014 accident was preventable. The accident occurred when a 7,600-pound piece of equipment broke loose and hit the worker.

OSHA said Thursday it cited Ford for a serious violation and Kansas City-based KCI Inc. for a willful safety violation. The worker killed was employed by KCI, which OSHA says was rebuilding the assembly line.

OSHA proposed fines of $7,000 for Ford, and $70,000 for KCI.

Ford said in a statement the automaker “fully cooperated” in the investigation. KCI didn’t respond to a request for comment.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper who was critical of the agency after an Iowa man drowned at the Lake of the Ozarks last year has been demoted for speaking out.

An attorney for Randy Henry says the trooper was moved from the Lake of the Ozarks, where he had patrolled for nearly three decades, and demoted from sergeant to corporal.

The Kansas City Star reports attorney Chet Pleban of St. Louis issued a news release Thursday describing his client as a whistleblower after the death of Brandon Ellingson.

The 20-year-old suburban Des Moines man was handcuffed and in the custody of a state trooper when he fell from the boat and drowned.

Henry told Missouri lawmakers road troopers who occasionally helped the Water Patrol didn’t receive enough training.

DETROIT (AP) — Acura is recalling two models of SUVs because their automatic emergency braking systems can mistakenly slow the car, increasing the risk of a collision.

The recall involves just under 48,000 MDX and RLX SUVs worldwide from the 2014 and 2015 model years and shows how even sophisticated safety technology can be prone to real-world glitches.

Acura’s “Collision Mitigation Braking System” uses radar to scan in front of the vehicles. If it determines the SUVs might hit an object, it automatically applies the brakes. But Honda, the maker of Acuras, has determined that the system can be fooled into sensing that a guardrail or metal fence on the side of the road is actually an object in front of it.

Dealers will update software to fix the problem.

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A worker is dead after falling 10 to 12 feet from a Missouri roof.

The Daily Journal newspaper in Park Hills, Missouri, reports that the accident happened Tuesday in Bonne Terre. The victim’s name has not been released but he was in his 50s and believed to be from Texas.

The man was working on the roof of a women’s shelter when he fell. Authorities say he may have lost his footing and slipped due to morning dew.

The man was flown to a St. Louis hospital, where he died.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Republicans are pushing to block an Obama administration rule designed to protect water quality in small streams, tributaries and wetlands before it goes into effect later this year.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved legislation Wednesday to force the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw and rewrite rules issued in May that clarify which of those smaller bodies of water are regulated under the Clean Water Act.

Republicans in Congress say the rules are overreach and could be a costly and confusing burden for landowners and farmers. The House passed a similar bill last month, which the White House threatened to veto.

The EPA says the rule would protect those waterways against pollution and safeguard drinking water for 117 million Americans.