KANSAS CITY, Mo (Reuters) – A priest accused of producing child pornography was welcomed into a young victim’s home and included in numerous children’s activities because a bishop kept evidence related to the priest a secret, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday.

The suit is one in a string of lawsuits and legal actions against Father Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Robert Finn, the leader of the 134,000-member Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, alleging that Ratigan took advantage of his position as a priest to create pornographic photos of children in his parish.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – The top Roman Catholic official for the Kansas City Diocese agreed on Tuesday to have his actions monitored by prosecutors in order to avoid criminal charges for failing to turn in a priest suspected of creating child pornography.

Bishop Robert Finn, the leader of the 134,000-member diocese, is the highest-ranking Catholic official ever to face U.S. criminal charges in a child sexual abuse case.

KANSAS CITY/CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. farmland prices in the third quarter saw their biggest surge in over three decades in an accelerating agricultural boom that has so far defied fears of a bubble about to burst.

Prices hit record highs in the U.S. Plains, where wheat and cattle dominate production, and jumped 25 percent in the Midwest Corn Belt where bumper grain crops and recovering livestock markets put more money in farmers’ wallets and enticed investors to bid up for the fertile ground, according to two Federal Reserve bank surveys issued on Tuesday.

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – Drought kept a tight grip on Texas and parts of the U.S. South, though rainfall in Oklahoma and portions of the Midwest helped farmers and ranchers in those states find relief.

A storm system brought several inches of rain to areas through Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, recharging spent soils on farm fields and refilling dried-out ponds and lakes, according to the Drought Monitor report issued by a team of federal and academic climatologists on Thursday.

Nov 4 (Reuters) – Trucking company YRC Worldwide Inc’s revenue rose 12 percent, but its losses nearly doubled
for the third quarter, as the company worked through a broad
restructuring.

YRC posted a third-quarter loss of $120 million, or 51
cents a share, compared with a loss of $62.4 million, or $1.33
a share, for the same period a year ago.

KANSAS CITY, Mo (Reuters) – A Missouri man lodged a sexual molestation lawsuit against Catholic leaders in Kansas City on Thursday, adding to a long list of allegations that high-ranking clerics in the area have covered up child abuse by priests.

The petition filed on Thursday in Jackson County Circuit Court said that 48-year-old Gilbert Padilla, a former altar boy, was molested repeatedly by two priests in the 1970s when he was a student at a Kansas City-area Catholic school.

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – Environmental and food safety groups filed suit on Wednesday against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, demanding it end the cultivation of genetically modified crops on Midwestern wildlife refuges.

The groups claim the federal agency broke the law by entering agreements with farmers that allowed planting of biotech crops on refuge land in eight U.S. states without environmental reviews required by U.S. law.

Oct 27 (Reuters) – Opponents of Monsanto’s new
genetically modified sweet corn are petitioning national food
retailers and processors to ban the biotech corn, which is not
labeled as being genetically altered from conventional corn.

A coalition of health, food safety and environmental
organizations said they have collected more than 264,000
petition signatures from consumers who do not want to buy the
corn.

Oct 27 (Reuters) – Opponents of Monsanto’s new
genetically modified sweet corn are petitioning national food
retailers and processors to ban the biotech corn, which is not
labeled as being genetically altered from conventional corn.

A coalition of health, food safety and environmental
organizations said they have collected more than 264,000
petition signatures from consumers who do not want to buy the
corn.

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – U.S. ethanol production rose slightly last week as corn harvest produced fresh supplies of the key ingredient for the fuel on good blender demand.

The Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday that U.S. ethanol production totaled 909,000 barrels per day in the seven days to October 21, up 1,000 barrels per day from the previous week.