COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Authorities have arrested a man suspected of filming patrons of a Columbia library in a bathroom and fleeing to Iceland.

43-year-old Jay Paul Robinson was arrested in Chicago and transferred Sunday to the jail in Boone County, Missouri. He faces charges of rape, sodomy, first-degree invasion of privacy and first-degree attempted sodomy. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

Boone County Sheriff’s Department Det. Tom O’Sullivan says he didn’t know the circumstances of Robinson’s arrest.

He was indicted last year after library staff discovered a hidden camera in the unisex restroom. A city press release said the camera showed patrons using the restroom and Robinson concealing it. Investigators believe he booked a flight from Chicago to Reykjavik, Iceland.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will be taking steps toward allowing farmers to grow hemp for industrial use under a measure Gov. Laura Kelly signed into law Monday.

The new law taking effect later this month replaces a state program only for researching hemp and its potential uses with a program for commercial production. Lawmakers authorized the research program last year after federal farm legislation allowed commercial hemp production.

The new law requires the Kansas Department of Agriculture to submit a plan to the federal government for regulating commercial hemp production. The department is required to confer with the governor’s and attorney general’s offices before submitting the plan.

Kelly said in a statement that the new law will help the state’s agricultural economy by giving farmers another crop to grow.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man has been found guilty of killing five people in September 2014 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Jurors on Monday convicted 38-year-old Brandon Howell of five counts of first-degree murder and seven other felonies.

The jury deliberated for less than two hours.

Prosecutors said Howell beat 80-year-old George Taylor and his wife, 86-year-old Anna Taylor, while trying to steal their vehicle. They died a week later.

The Taylors’ neighbor, 69-year-old Susan Choucroun, was shot in her driveway. Two others — 88-year-old Lorene Hurst and Hurst’s son, 63-year-old Darrel Hurst — were killed as they returned from a store.

Howell was arrested that night walking along a freeway carrying a shotgun in his pants.

Howell previously was acquitted of killing two teens from Kansas.

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KANSAS CITY (AP) — Deliberations have begun in the trial of a man charged with killing five people in 2014 during a rampage in a quiet Kansas City neighborhood.

Jurors got the case Monday after closing arguments in the case against 38-year-old Brandon Howell. He is charged with five counts of first-degree murder and seven other felonies.

While trying to steal a classic Jaguar from a home, Howell is accused beating 80-year-old George Taylor and 86-year-old Anna Taylor so badly that they later died.

The couple’s neighbor, 69-year-old Susan Choucroun, was shot in her driveway. Two others — 88-year-old Alice Hurst and Hurst’s son, 63-year-old Darrel Hurst — were killed as they returned from a store.

Howell was arrested that night walking along a freeway carrying a shotgun in his pants.

Howell previously was acquitted of killing two teens from Johnson County, Kansas.

AURORA, Mo. (AP) — A southwest Missouri man charged in the death of a woman who was fatally shot by police was sentenced to seven years in prison as part of a plea deal.

Twenty-year-old Mason Farris, of Aurora, was charged with second-degree murder and other felonies in the May 2018 death of 21-year-old Savannah Hill.

Farris on Friday pleaded guilty to resisting arrest and the other charges were dropped. He was sentenced to another three years for resisting arrest in an unrelated case.

Court documents say Hill called Aurora police to tell them she was with Farris, who was wanted for a parole violation.

When the police tried to stop the car, it sped backward and hit an officer. A second officer fired at the vehicle, hitting Hill. Prosecutors cleared the officer of wrongdoing.

PARIS (AP) — A massive fire engulfed the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral in the heart of the French capital Monday, toppling its spire and sending thick plumes of smoke high into the blue sky as tourists and Parisians looked on aghast from the streets below.

A spokesman said the entire wooden frame of the cathedral would likely come down, and that the vault of the edifice could be threatened too.

“Everything is burning, nothing will remain from the frame,” Notre Dame spokesman Andre Finot told French media. The 12th-century cathedral is home to incalculable works of art and is one of the world’s most famous tourist attractions.

So sad to see that a great history is burning at a fire in #NotreDame pic.twitter.com/RiEirSfC55

— Bulent GUNDUZ (@Bulentgnd) April 15, 2019

The cause of the catastrophic blaze was not known, but French media quoted the Paris fire brigade as saying the fire is “potentially linked” to a 6 million-euro ($6.8 million) renovation project on the church’s spire and its 250 tons of lead. Paris police said there were no reported deaths.

Flames shot out of the roof behind the nave of the cathedral, among the most visited landmarks in the world. Sights of the flames stopped passers-by in their tracks along the Seine River that passes beneath the cathedral.

French President Emmanuel Macron postponed a televised speech to the nation because of the stunning blaze and was going to the cathedral himself.

French historian Camille Pascal told BFM broadcast channel the fire was destroying “invaluable heritage.”

“It’s been 800 years that the Cathedral watches over Paris”, Pascal said. “Happy and unfortunate events for centuries have been marked by the bells of Notre Dame.”

He recalled that Notre Dame bells sounded the death knell following the 2015 Paris attacks.

“We can be only horrified by what we see”, Pascal said.

Associated Press reporters at the scene saw massive plumes of yellow brown smoke filling the air above the Cathedral and ash falling on the island that houses Notre Dame and marks the center of Paris.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is in despair at the “terrible fire.” Hidalgo said in a Twitter message that Paris firefighters are still trying to limit the fire and urged Paris citizens to respect the security perimeter that has been set around the cathedral.

Hidalgo said Paris authorities are in touch with Paris diocese.

LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a woman has died after driving into a Kansas City area lake.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol identified the victim as 22-year-old Gerran Stone, of Raytown.

Her car went into Longview Lake on Friday night in the marina area. Several people tried unsuccessfully to help her before recovering her body.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Child welfare advocates in Kansas who spent more than a year examining the state’s troubled foster care system are frustrated with what they see as the Legislature’s lack of action on their recommendations for fixing the problems.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly says she understands their frustrations but argues that her administration and lawmakers are making progress. She also says it will take time to fix the years of problems left by her Republican predecessors.

More than a dozen members of a child welfare task force and its subcommittees have signed a letter urging lawmakers to do more to address problems in the system that provides foster care for abused and neglected children.

The GOP-controlled Legislature might not have much time left this year. Lawmakers reconvene May 1 after their annual spring break and are scheduled to wrap up their business for the year by May 17.

“It seems like a waste,” social worker Sarah Coats, who signed the letter, told The Kansas City Star. “We have all of this information, all of the research done, people are committed to work and know what needs to be done and no one is doing anything. It’s like screaming at a brick wall.”

In recent years, the state faced questions about several high-profile deaths of abused children after the Department for Children and Families was alerted to problems. Until September, some children in state custody slept overnight in foster care contractors’ offices, including a 13-year-old girl who was raped in an office.

Lawmakers are close to funding dozens of new child welfare workers over the next two years. They also have passed a bill that would allow Kansas for the first time to use federal funds to pay for prevention services to help keep children out of foster care.

And DCF Secretary Laura Howard told The Star that Kelly and legislators have pursued the task force’s top recommendations, including improving the child welfare system’s workforce, bettering DCF’s information technology and drawing down federal funds for prevention services.

Kelly told reporters that like the advocates, she would like the state to be moving faster on the task force’s recommendations, but said it can’t happen.

“I share their frustrations, but I also have to deal with reality,” she said. “You know, there are so many things wrong within our child welfare system that you have to sort of prioritize and attack them in a systematic way.”

The task force made nearly two dozen recommendations,including improving information sharing among parties involved in the child welfare system, investing more in foster care recruiting and creating a new task force to examine the cost of better services and how to fund them.

Task force members said in their letter that they have “deep concern” that lawmakers have only made minimal progress and have made no progress on most recommendations.

“I certainly hope it doesn’t take further child tragedy to inspire the actions of the Legislature,” Lori Ross, a longtime child advocate in Missouri and Kansas, told The Star.

Both Kelly and Howard suggested the issue may be that DCF needs to do a better job of communicating how it’s attempting to address problems.

“They’ve been so focused on doing the work that they haven’t been publicizing what they’re doing,” Kelly said. “Obviously, people are anxious to get these done.”

JOHNSON COUNTY — A 14-year-old Kansas girl injured after she was hit by a vehicle while walking home from school Friday near 123rd and Switzer in Overland Park has died.

Alexandra “Alex” Rumple was walking home when a vehicle traveling northbound on Switzer left the road and hit her on the sidewalk, according to a media release from Overland Park Police. She was transported to a local hospital and died on Sunday, according to the release.

Hundreds gathered Sunday at a vigil to remember Alex as an athletic, art-loving, straight-A student. Students talked about how she wanted everyone to feel included. Her principal encouraged her classmates to wear flannel Monday because it was Alex’s favorite material.

The Blue Valley School District will have counselors available for students this week.

The Overland Park Police Department Traffic Safety Unit continues their investigation of the crash and asks that anyone with information on the incident contact police.

Police haven’t released the driver’s name. It isn’t yet known what caused the car to leave the road.