SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A judge has set a trial date for a southwest Missouri man charged with raping and killing a 10-year-old girl.

A Greene County judge ruled Monday that the case against 47-year-old Craig M. Wood will go to trial starting Sept. 26, 2016.

Wood is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping, rape, sodomy and armed criminal action in the February 2014 death of Hailey Owens. Prosecutors have said they’ll seek the death penalty if Wood is convicted.

County Prosecutor Dan Patterson sought a March 2016 trial date, but Wood’s attorneys asked that the trial be set for March 2017 because they had several other capital murder trials coming up.

Judge Thomas Mountjoy compromised by scheduling the trial for Sept. 26 through Oct. 21 of 2016.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis’ credit rating has been downgraded by a credit rating agency.  Moody’s Investors Services downgraded the rating on $27.4 million of the city’s outstanding general obligation bonds by one notch.

Moody’s attributes the downgrade o the city’s weak socioeconomic profile, relatively narrow financial position; and a high debt burden.

The agency also downgraded the rating on the St. Louis Municipal Finance Corporation’s $123.5 million of outstanding rated lease revenue debt issued for essential purposes, as well as the rating on the corporation’s $138.6 million of outstanding rated lease revenue debt for non-essential purposes.

St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green said in a statement Monday the downgrade is because of the agency’s “revised rating’s methodology.”

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — The body of a Missouri man has been found in the Current River, three days after he fell out of his kayak.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says 52-year-old Russ D. O’Neal of Doniphan fell out of his 12-foot kayak while paddling the Current River eight miles south of Doniphan on Thursday.

He held onto his kayak for a long time but became dislodged by exhaustion and debris. The patrol says O’Neal was not wearing a life jacket.

Crews recovered his body from the river Sunday evening.

O’Neal’s death was the 37th drowning in Missouri so far this year, compared to 29 in all of 2014.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A group of Missouri gas station and convenience store owners is backing taxing cigarettes an additional 23 cents per pack.

The Missouri Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association on Monday announced it is filing two similar initiative petitions for the tax increase.

The initiative petitions would change state law to hike the current cigarette tax from 17 cents to 40 cents per pack, a roughly 135 percent increase.

The petitions also call for a 50 percent tax increase on other tobacco products.

Missouri now has the lowest cigarette tax in the country. The association estimates the taxes would raise more than $800 million in a decade. One petition would funnel that money into the state’s general revenue fund. The other would set revenue aside for transportation needs.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The U.S. Army’s parachute team will not appear at the Kansas City Air Show this weekend.

The Golden Knights canceled after one of the team’s members died from injuries suffered in a jumping accident at the Chicago Air & Water Show during the weekend.

Sgt. 1st Class Corey Hood died when he collided with another jumper and smashed into a high-rise apartment.

Ed Noyallis, director of the Kansas City Airshow, says this will be the first time the Golden Knights have not appeared in Kansas City’s show. But he says the show will still offer several other events.

The show will be Saturday and Sunday at the Wheeler Downtown Airport. The U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels is one of the main attractions.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Spectators have gathered to watch tens of thousands of birds swirl like black leaves in the sky to roost in a row of ash trees in Omaha.

Each evening in late summer, numerous purple martins and a lesser number of grackles and starlings swirl around the trees located along a street at the Nebraska Medical Center to eventually settle for the night.

Several dozens of people, including the Omaha Youth Birding Group, stood nearby to watch the swarm of birds on Saturday. Tisha Johnson described the birds’ chatter like a rushing waterfall, calling the sound like “nothing else.”

An Omaha birder who monitors the roost estimated that 20,000 to 30,000 martins were at the roost Saturday night.