(AP) – Joplin officials say an investigation into the city’s public works department’s failure to collect some fees has found no criminal wrongdoing.

The police department was asked in July to investigate the department’s failure to collect $150,000 in building permit and code enforcement fees.

City Manager Mark Rohr has said a software audit turned up fees that were collected or deposited, some going back to 1999.

The city announced in a news release Thursday that inefficiencies were found in how the fees were recorded and handled.

The Joplin Globe reports public works now submits all collected money to the city finance department. And the finance department is auditing all city departments that handle money or fee collection to ensure those functions are handled properly.

(AP) — A Kansas woman admits she stole more than $100,000 from three co-workers at a Department of Agriculture office in Kansas City.

Forty-nine-year-old Paula Steen, of Overland Park, Kan., pleaded guilty Wednesday in a wire fraud and identity theft scheme. Prosecutors say the former information technology specialist for the Farm Service Agency took at total of about $103,000 from her co-workers.

Steen admitted that one of her victims was legally blind. She allegedly charged $57,693 on credit accounts belonging to that co-worker. She repaid some of that but took another $48,171 from the same worker.

As part of her plea bargain, Steen agreed that she should receive a longer sentence because she took advantage of a vulnerable victim.

(AP) – The Missouri attorney general is warning people to beware of a scam in which fake representatives of utility companies are seeking money for supposedly overdue bills.

Attorney General Chris Koster says his consumer protection hotline has received several reports of phone callers claiming to be from a power company and demanding money to avoid disconnecting their service.

Koster says the scam has targeted residential and small-business customers and seems to have become more common as the weather has gotten colder.

The attorney general’s office says people should never provide personal or banking information on phone calls they did not initiate. Koster suggests people hang up and instead call the utility company using a number listed on a bill or the company’s website.

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill released the following statement after the Senate successfully passed a bipartisan budget agreement:

“It’s not a perfect deal for any Member, but that’s because it’s a compromise, which is something we need more of around here. I’m pleased that responsible people got in a room and worked together, instead of taking a ‘my way or the highway’ approach. This agreement reduces the deficit while also addressing some of the heavy-handed aspects of budget cuts by sequestration-which were harming our military and our communities. I’m pleased that the agreement keeps us on a glide path to lower spending, and I am hopeful this step forward will allow us to continue working together to find additional budget savings and keep our economy moving in the right direction. A great deal of work remains to be done.”

(AP) — A festive holiday train that has chugged through Kansas and other states has ended its journey at Union Station in Kansas City, Mo.

The Kansas City Southern Holiday Express Train began its journey late last month in Texas. It’s made stops along the way in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas.

The train arrived Wednesday at Union Station and will be on display through the weekend. It features a specially decorated engine dubbed “Rudy,” a gingerbread boxcar, a flatcar carrying Santa’s sleigh, plus reindeer and a miniature village. There’s also an elves’ workshop and even a little red caboose.

Guests get to visit Santa and tour the train.

(AP) — “Duck Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertson is off the hit A&E reality series indefinitely after disparaging gays as sinners akin to adulterers and swindlers, the network said.

A&E announced Wednesday what it called a “hiatus” for Robertson, 67, after he disparaged gays in the January edition of GQ magazine. He also said that, growing up in Louisiana before the Civil Rights movement, he never saw mistreatment of blacks.

In a statement, A&E said it was extremely disappointed to see Robertson’s anti-gay remarks, which it said were based on his personal beliefs and do not reflect those of A&E Networks or the show. A&E called itself a supporter of the lesbian and gay community.

The channel’s move was lauded by the gay and lesbian media advocacy group GLAAD, which had quickly condemned Robertson’s comments.

“What’s clear is that such hateful anti-gay comments are unacceptable to fans, viewers, and networks alike,” said GLAAD spokesman Wilson Cruz. Robertson’s removal “has sent a strong message that discrimination is neither a Christian nor an American value.”

Robertson and his extended family became wealthy manufacturing duck calls and were turned into TV and pop culture stars by “Duck Dynasty,” which has set cable ratings records for a non-fiction series. Several family members appeared in this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.

In his GQ interview, Robertson was asked his definition of sinful behavior.

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there,” such as bestiality, he said.

GQ said he then paraphrases a biblical reference: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers – they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

Robertson and his family had no comment on his hiatus, A&E said on their behalf. He may be in some previously taped scenes when the show returns Jan. 15 for its fifth season, a network spokesman said.

Robertson did respond to initial criticism of his GQ remarks.

“I myself am a product of the `60s” who indulged in sex and drugs until hitting bottom and accepting Jesus as his savior, he said in a statement. Although his mission is to teach people that men and women are meant to be together, Robertson said he “would never treat anyone with disrespect” because they are different.

In the interview, he also said that in his Louisiana youth he picked cotton with African-Americans and never saw “the mistreatment of any black person. Not once.”

“We’re going across the field…. They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, `I tell you what: These doggone white people’ – not a word!” Robertson told the magazine.

A&E said it had received no complaints about those remarks.