JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A statue of the Roman goddess of agriculture that topped Missouri’s Capitol building has been removed for the first time in nearly a century for maintenance.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that construction crews used a massive crane to take down the statue of Ceres on Thursday.

The 10-foot-four bronze statue weighs about one ton.

Thursday’s removal marks the first time the statue has touched the ground since it was installed in October 1924. It will be gone for about a year for maintenance.

The Missouri Capitol Commission picked the goddess more than a century ago to adorn the Capitol because of the state’s agricultural heritage. The Missouri statue depicts Ceres holding a bundle of grain.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Two small airlines are protesting the price tag involved in funding the new single terminal project at Kansas City International Airport.

Executives at Spirit and Allegiant airlines outlined their concerns in letters to the Kansas City Council Airport Committee, citing the $1.6 billion project price and cost-sharing issues.

The airline executives were not at Thursday’s committee meeting.

Mayor Sly James says the dispute includes how to pay for a $20 million baggage claim system. But James says the city will “push forward” with the project.

Voters approved the project last year, but the cost is supposed to be borne by airlines that use the airport. The project will create a single terminal to replace the three horseshoe-style buildings at Kansas City’s main airport.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri man pleaded not guilty plea in a crash that killed a 10-year-old outside an elementary school.

Police say Lonnie Yeager had a seizure when he hit and killed Riddick Tudor in September 2017 outside Campbell Elementary School. Four other people were injured.

KYTV reports Yeager didn’t have a valid Missouri driver’s license at the time of the crash. He faces misdemeanor charges of operating a vehicle without a license and two counts of lying on a state form when applying for a license.

Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson says he didn’t file a manslaughter charge because there was no evidence Yeager had been driving after recent seizures.

Yeager is scheduled to return to court in December.

RANDOLPH COUNTY — One person died in an accident just before 6p.m. Thursday in Randolph County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Nissan Altima driven by Erin L. Stapleton, 34, Moberly, was southbound on U.S. 63 two miles south of Moberly. The vehicle struck John C. Redelfs, 39, Moberly, who was in the driving lane.

Redelfs was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Million-Taylor Funeral Home.

Stapleton was not injured.  Authorities released no addition details.

LABETTE COUNTY. – A Kansas man who was growing marijuana on an island in the Neosho River was sentenced Thursday to 65 months in federal prison, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Scott Joseph Skibo, 55, Chetopa, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful possession of a firearm following a felony conviction. In his plea, he admitted he was tending his marijuana garden on an island in the Neosho River in Chetopa, Kan., when investigators had him under surveillance.

When law enforcement officers moved in to arrest him, Skibo got in his boat and fled. Officers in their own boat pursued him about half a mile before catching him. They seized about 50 marijuana plants, as well as a backpack containing a loaded .40 caliber Glock handgun, spare ammunition, marijuana, scissors, green twine, a water bottle and rain gear.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A suburban Kansas City massage therapist faces sentencing Jan. 3 after admitting that he secretly recorded video of a woman while she undressed.

32-year-old Daniel Gorski pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony count of breach of privacy. He previously worked as a massage therapist at a chiropractic clinic in Gardner, Kansas.

An investigation began in 2016 after Gorski’s girlfriend reported finding a computer flash drive containing images of women undressing or nude. Prosecutors eventually charged Gorski with crimes involving several women, but the additional charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement on Thursday.

Gorski also pleaded guilty earlier this year in Jefferson County, Kan., to possession of child pornography.

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A white county commissioner in northeast Kansas said he belongs to “the master race” as he critiqued a land-use proposal by a black city planner at a board meeting.

Leavenworth County Commissioner Louis Klemp cited the Nazi ideology of Aryan supremacy Tuesday in response to the presentation by Triveece Penelton on road development options in Tonganoxie, just west of Kansas City.

Klemp told Penelton : “I don’t want you to think I’m picking on you because we’re part of the master race.”

Commissioner Robert Holland said he was shocked by the comments and that he wants Klemp to resign before his term ends Jan. 15.

Klemp told KSHB-TV off camera that his comment was a joke.

Klemp, who once ran for governor, has come under criticism in the past for making racist comments.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A Kansas City nurse decided to donate a kidney to a patient, triggering a series of events that led to three people getting new organs in the first kidney donation chain collaboration between Children’s Mercy and University of Kansas hospitals.

Children’s Mercy nurse Christa Jordan wanted to donate to her patient and friend Victoria “Dayshanae” Hosman, but better matches were found and a kidney donation chain began.

Donation chains start when a donor wants to give to a person but they aren’t a good match. The donors can then give to someone they match with but don’t know.

Jordan and Hosman met the other donors and recipients at Children’s Mercy Wednesday following the six surgeries conducted on Oct. 29 and Oct. 30.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ attorney general contends that Secretary of State Kris Kobach shouldn’t be held personally liable for exposing sensitive personal information about hundreds of voters and that the voters have no constitutional right to their data being kept private.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office has in recent weeks filed documents outlining the state’s defense of Kobach in a lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union. The sensitive information exposed by Kobach’s office for 945 Kansas voters included partial Social Security numbers.

The ACLU’s lawsuit alleges “reckless maintenance” by Kobach of the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, which compares voter registration lists among participating states to look for duplicates. The program, which Kobach administers, is aimed at cleaning voter records and preventing voter fraud but has drawn criticism for its high error rate and lax security.

Kobach, a conservative Republican, lost this year’s race for governor and served as vice chairman of President Donald Trump’s short-lived commission on voter fraud. He has called the lawsuit baseless.

Schmidt’s office argues that the U.S. Supreme Court “has never held that there is a constitutional right to prevent government disclosure of private information” and that Kobach is legally immune from a lawsuit. The ACLU is suing Kobach as an individual and in his official capacity as the state’s top elections official.

Lauren Bonds, the legal director for the ACLU of Kansas, said even if sensitive information isn’t constitutionally protected from disclosure, its release “was still reckless and extremely harmful to the voters who have had their information exposed.”

The lawsuit contends that it isn’t known how many voters had their information exposed, but that in a single communication in 2017, Florida election officials released the names, dates of birth, addresses and partial Social Security numbers of 945 Kansas voters in responding to an open records request.

Crosscheck compares registration lists and analyzes voters’ first names, surnames and dates of birth to determine whether a person is registered in multiple states. The lawsuit contends that most of the hits are false matches.

Kobach has encouraged states to provide voters’ partial Social Security numbers and other confidential information to narrow the list. The lawsuit alleges that Kobach regularly sent voter signatures as well as the Crosscheck computer server’s address and passwords by unencrypted email.

The program was started in 2005 and had only four participants when Kobach took office in 2011. By 2017, 30 states were participating and more than 100 million voter records were added to the database, according to the lawsuit.

Eight states — Florida, Alaska, Kentucky, Washington, Oregon, New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts — have left the program over security and data reliability concerns since Kobach began managing it.

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