JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Many of Missouri’s top officials are planning to join mourners at a memorial service for Auditor Tom Schweich (shwyk).

The Tuesday morning service is to be held at an Episcopal church that Schweich attended, not far from his home in the St. Louis suburban of Clayton.

The 54-year-old Republican auditor fatally shot himself last Thursday in what police describe as an apparent suicide. He leaves behind a wife and two children.

Schweich had won re-election in November to a second, four-year term. He announced in January that he was seeking the Republican nomination for governor in 2016 and was preparing for a tough primary against Catherine Hanaway, a former Missouri House speaker and U.S. attorney.

Former U.S. Sen. John Danforth is to speak at Schweich’s funeral.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A Missouri state senator is challenging colleagues to clean up their campaign tactics following the death of Auditor Tom Schweich in an apparent suicide.

Republican state Sen. Mike Parson took to the Senate floor Monday to denounce a political environment in which he says candidates are torn down with “misleading statements, outright lies and propaganda.”

Parson, of Bolivar, referenced a negative radio ad that had run against Schweich the weekend before his death. Schweich also had called reporters, just minutes before his death Thursday, to say he wanted to go public with allegations that the Missouri Republican Party chairman had made anti-Semitic comments about him.

The party chairman has denied doing so.

Many of the state’s top elected officials are expected to attend Schweich’s funeral Tuesday in Clayton.

MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The construction sector is making a rebound after losing more than 2 million jobs during the economic downturn.

In the past four years, hundreds of thousands of workers have returned to construction, making it among the nation’s fastest growing job sectors.

Some markets lack enough construction workers to keep up with the pace of building. Four out of five contractors in a recent survey say they’re having trouble filling positions such as carpenters, roofers and equipment operators.

Wages are going up in some hot construction markets such as North Dakota, Utah, Houston and Miami.

In some places, construction workers are getting signing bonuses of $5,000 to $10,000.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Koch Industries Inc. will donate $2.6 million to Kansas State University.

The university announced in a news release Monday that the funds will support diversity initiatives, research and creative inquiry.

Koch has sponsored Project IMPACT at the university for eight years, and the latest gift renews that support and directs new money to other projects. Project IMPACT recruits and retains multicultural students, and develops their interest in business, engineering and diversity.

The new gift will also support the Kompass program, an orientation and first-year retention program providing incoming multicultural and first-generation students effective study habits.

Koch also will help sponsor the Research and Creative Inquiry Enrichment Fund, which gives students real-world learning experiences, and supports faculty-led and undergraduate research projects and an annual Research Symposium.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill released the following statement, paying tribute to her mentor and colleague Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland—the longest-serving woman in Congressional history—who today announced her retirement from the Senate:

“Our Dean of the Senate women, Barbara has never met a barrier she couldn’t tear down. What’s been more inspiring is that as she made history time and again, she was never satisfied with just gaining a title—she wanted to get things done, and she did, from concrete advances in equal pay for women to finally getting government funding bills passed as the first female Chair of Senate Appropriations. As a colleague, a mentor, and a friend, I’ll miss her dearly. The Senate and this country are better places for her service.”

Mikulski was elected to the U.S. House from Maryland’s third Congressional district in 1976, where she served until she was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986. Since then, she was reelected to the Senate four times.

McCaskill is the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – Kansas City’s school district has settled a lawsuit over its punishment of students who during a speech last year by Missouri’s governor protested the deadly Ferguson police shooting of Michael Brown.

The district says it isn’t required to compensate any of the affected students or pay the American Civil Liberties Union’s attorney fees in settling the free-speech lawsuit filed in December. That suit came a month after Gov. Jay Nixon’s speech at the Lincoln College Preparatory Academy.

U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple dismissed the lawsuit Monday. Court records don’t provide details of settlement terms.

The school system says it ordered the protesting students to serve Saturday detention not for exercising their free-speech rights but for refusing to sit down as ordered.

The ACLU didn’t immediately return messages Monday.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri lawmakers are clearing their schedules to allow members to attend Auditor Tom Schweich’s funeral.

The Missouri House and Senate canceled most committee hearings scheduled for Tuesday and will go into session later than usual at 4 p.m.

Schweich’s funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Church of St. Michael and St. George in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton. The church is an episcopal one where Schweich was a member.

The Senate canceled all hearings and the House canceled all hearings except for Budget and Ways and Means committee meetings.

Schweich died Thursday morning at his Clayton home in what police say is an apparent suicide.

He was serving his second term as auditor and was seeking the GOP nomination for governor.

KANSAS CITY- Two children were injured in an accident just after 8:30 a.m. on Monday in Wyandotte County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported traffic was slowing on Interstate 435 just south of Kansas 32 due to another accident.

A 2004 GMC Sierra pickup driven by Michael Wisdom, 52, Leavenworth, struck the rear of 2004 Toyota Avalon driven by Walter Lenoir Jr., 53, Kansas City.

Two children in the Toyota Christyian Allen, 6, and Dominique Wilson, 12, both of Kansas City were transported to Children’s Mercy.

Wisdom, Lenoir Jr., and another passenger in the Toyota were not injured.

The KHP reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.