KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old in Kansas City, Kansas.

Police say Taveon Brooks was killed early Sunday when a car packed with youths came under fire.

Brooks was driving and crashed into a tree. Another person in the car also was wounded and is hospitalized in stable condition.

Brooks’ mother, Tionna VanRoss House, said she just got out of prison and was trying to reconnect with her son, who had been living with a relative. She said her son and a group of friends came under fire after sneaking out. Police are investigating what led up to the shooting.

Taveon was a point guard on the F.L. Schlagle High School basketball team. He also enjoyed making music.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Kansas teen with cystic fibrosis has died in a Missouri hospital less than a week after Grammy Award winner Jason Mraz serenaded her as she waited for a second double-lung transplant.

The Mercer Funeral Home in Holton says on its website that 18-year-old Madison Eileen Taliaferro, of Holton, died Saturday after spending more than two weeks at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Madison was 12 years old in November 2012 when she received a double-lung transplant. But The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that her body recently rejected those lungs.

On Dec. 9, Mraz stopped by her bedside while he was in Missouri for a concert. Taliaferro’s mother, Desiree Taliaferro, shared videos on Facebook. She described her daughter in a post early Monday as “beautiful” and “amazing.”

HERCULANEUM, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Department of Transportation is giving away a Jefferson County bridge that was built during the Great Depression for free, but the offer comes with a catch.

The state’s transportation agency plans to demolish the truss bridge that carries cars across Joachim Creek along State Route 61 in Jefferson County, unless state officials find a new owner. But anyone interested in the bridge must be willing to either maintain the structure or pay for it to be moved.

The Missouri Department of Transportation and its partners have a practice of making historic bridges that they plan to remove available for use by others. Joachim Creek isn’t the only bridge that’s available for the taking. The department is offering more than a dozen others, varying in size.

Multiple federal grants could make up to 80 percent of demolition costs available to potentially reimburse those interested in reusing the bridge, according to the department’s website .

“It’s interesting, but it’s not something I’d want to do, own a bridge,” said Sam Shelton, who lives near the historic bridge.

Shelton’s neighbor, Kenneth Chailland, predicted that the bridge’s upkeep will require a lot of money.

Both Shelton and Chailland said they’ve seen the bridge flood too many times to be its new owner.

GREENE COUNTY — One person died in an accident just before noon Sunday in Greene County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Chevy Truck driven by William A. Dorlac, 39, Springfield, was eastbound on Interstate 44 inside the Strafford City limits.

The driver lost control of the truck. It crossed the median cables into the westbound lanes and struck a 2015 Chevy Equinox driven by Deborah R. Coleman, 65, Lebanon, head-on.

Coleman was pronounced dead at the scene.  Dorlac was transported to Mercy Hospital.  Coleman was not wearing a seat belt, according to the MSHP.

 

 

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal accident.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri State Capitol has recently completed an effort to restore and conserve the building’s murals that provide visitors with snapshots of the state’s history.

Neosho-born artist Thomas Hart Benton’s “A Social History of the State of Missouri” was a focus of the preservation project.

Benton’s murals give visitors a chronological guide through the lives of Missouri residents, from fur trading and early farming to a political gathering. Some of the artwork captures uglier parts of the state’s history, such as slavery and the 1838 expulsion of Mormons from the western part of Missouri.

The Legislature commissioned Benton’s murals in 1935 for $16,000, according to Dana Rademan Miller, chair of the Missouri State Capitol Commission. Benton traveled the state to find and sketch residents before featuring them on canvas. His artwork depicts 235 people.

“At the time, he was at the height of his fame as a regionalism artist that captured these themes from the Great Depression and of the Midwest particularly,” Miller said.

Benton’s murals were met with mixed reactions at the time. Supporters argued that every detail in the murals were true, while critics said Benton focused on the wrong stories from the state’s past.

But now, Capitol officials hope to preserve Benton’s work for future generations to admire.

The Capitol Commission started consulting with professional conservators two years ago to assess the conditions of Benton’s murals. The assessment led to 75 murals throughout the Capitol being inspected for damages.

“The nice thing is that our murals, we found out, were actually in pretty good shape,” Miller said. “We were afraid there would be a lot more deterioration and paint loss.”

She said the preservation project is important because the Missouri Capitol’s murals make the building unique.

“It’s something that is a legacy really for the future, for those who come after us,” Miller said.