A new forecast from the Department of Agriculture predicts net farm income will increase ten percent in 2019. The forecast from the USDA Economic Research Service predicts net farm income will increase $6.3 billion in 2019 to $69.4 billion, following a 16 percent decline in 2018.
Meanwhile, net cash farm income is forecast to increase $4.3 billion, or 4.7 percent, to $95.7 billion. In inflation-adjusted 2019 dollars, net farm income is forecast to increase $5.2 billion, and net cash farm income is forecast to increase $2.7 billion. Overall, farm cash receipts are forecast to increase $8.6 billion to $381.5 billion in 2019. Crop cash receipts are forecast to be $201.7 billion in 2019, an increase of $4.0 billion.
Total animal and animal product receipts are expected to increase $4.6 billion. Receipts for milk, cattle/calves, corn, and fruits/nuts are forecast to increase largely due to expected higher prices for those commodities.
MANHATTAN — A Kansas State University architectural engineering student from St. Joseph has been awarded ASHRAE national scholarships for 2019-2020, and two others received Kansas City ASHRAE chapter scholarships. All of the scholarships were announced at the society’s Kansas City chapter meeting March 4.
On the chapter level, Eric Ashlock, junior, St. Joseph, Missouri, received the $3,000 KC ASHRAE Past President Scholarship; and Julianna Price, senior, Burden, received the $1,000 KC ASHRAE Local Chapter Scholarship.
Ethan Engle, junior, Richmond, has received the $10,000 Reuben Trane Scholarship; and Sydney Bellows, senior, Garden City, has received the $5,000 Lynn G. Bellenger Engineering Scholarship.
The awards were presented by current ASHRAE President Sheila Hayter, a 1990 graduate of Kansas State University in mechanical engineering.
“This was another great showing by our students in qualifying for and receiving these top scholarships at both levels of ASHRAE recognition,” said Julia Keen, professor and Bob and Betty Tointon engineering chair of architectural engineering and construction science at Kansas State University, as well as current ASHRAE vice president. “We offer a well-rounded education through our programs in the GE Johnson Department of Architectural Engineering and Construction Science as evidenced by this outcome of competing for and winning these academic awards.”
ASHRAE is a global society advancing human well-being through sustainable technology for the built environment. The society and its more than 56,000 members worldwide focus on building systems, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, refrigeration and sustainability.
WASHINGTON —As the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether the Trump administration can ask people if they are citizens on the 2020 Census, the Census Bureau is quietly seeking comprehensive information about the legal status of millions of immigrants.
Photo courtesy US Census Bureau
Under a proposed plan, the Department of Homeland Security would provide the Census Bureau with a broad swath of personal data about noncitizens, including their immigration status, The Associated Press has learned. A pending agreement between the agencies has been in the works since at least January, the same month a federal judge in New York blocked the administration from adding the citizenship question to the 10-year survey.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in California also declared that adding the citizenship question to the Census was unconstitutional, saying the move “threatens the very foundation of our democratic system.”
The data that Homeland Security would share with Census officials would include noncitizens’ full names and addresses, birth dates and places, as well as Social Security numbers and highly sensitive alien registration numbers, according to a document signed by the Census Bureau and obtained by AP.
Such a data dump would be apparently unprecedented and give the Census Bureau a view of immigrants’ citizenship status that is even more precise than what can be gathered in door-to-door canvassing, according to bureau research.
Six former Census and DHS officials said they were not aware that individuals’ citizenship status had ever before been shared with the Census. “Generally, the information kept in a system of records is presumed to be private and can’t be released unless it fits with a certain set of defined exceptions,” said Leon Rodriguez, who led the DHS agency responsible for citizenship under the Obama administration.
The move raises questions as to what the Trump administration seeks to do with the data and concerns among privacy and civil rights activists that it could be misused.
Census spokesman Michael Cook said the agreement was awaiting signatures at DHS, but that Census expected it would be finalized “as soon as possible.”
“The U.S. Census Bureau routinely enters into agreements to receive administrative records from many agencies, including our pending agreement with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, to assist us in our mission to provide quality statistics to the American public,” Cook said in a statement. “By law, the Census Bureau does not return any records to the Department of Homeland Security or any of its components, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
Jessica Collins, a spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, said no agreement has been finalized. She said the purpose of such agreements is to help improve the reliability of population estimates for the next Census.
“The information is protected and safeguarded under applicable laws and will not be used for adjudicative or law enforcement purposes,” Collins said.
Civil rights groups accuse the White House of pursuing a citizenship question because it would discourage noncitizens from participating in the Census and lead to less federal money and representation in Congress for states with large immigrant populations. Census researchers say including the question could yield significant underreporting for immigrants and communities of color.
Under the pending three-year information-sharing agreement, the Census Bureau would use the DHS data to better determine who is a citizen and eligible to vote by “linking citizenship information from administrative records to Census microdata.”
“All uses of the data are solely for statistical purposes, which by definition means that uses will not directly affect benefits or enforcement actions for any individual,” according to the 13-page document signed by a Census official.
Amy O’Hara, who until 2017 directed Census Bureau efforts to expand data-sharing with other agencies, said she was surprised a plan was in the works for sharing alien numbers, which are assigned to immigrants seeking citizenship or involved in law enforcement action.
“I wish that we were not on this path,” she said. “If the citizenship question hadn’t been added to the Census, this agreement never would have been sought.”
In previous administrations, government lawyers advised Census researchers to use a minimal amount of identifying data to get their jobs done, said O’Hara, now co-director of Georgetown University’s census research center. During her tenure, the bureau never obtained anything as sensitive as alien numbers, which O’Hara called “more radioactive than fingerprints.”
Some privacy groups worry the pending agreement is an end-run around the courts.
“What’s going on here is they are trying to circumvent the need for a citizenship question by using data collected by another agency for a different purpose,” Jeramie Scott, an attorney at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “It’s a violation of people’s privacy.”
The agreement would bar the bureau from sharing the data with outside agencies. But confidentiality provisions have been circumvented in the past.
During World War II Congress suspended those protections, and the bureau shared data about Japanese-Americans that was used to help send 120,000 people to internment camps. Most were U.S. citizens. From 2002-2003, the Census Bureau provided DHS with population statistics on Arab-Americans that activists complained was a breach of public trust, even if the sharing was legal.
The quiet manner in which the agencies pursued sharing records could stoke concerns that the Trump administration may be seeking to create a registry of noncitizens, said Kenneth Prewitt, who was Census director from 1998-2001 and is now a Columbia University professor.
Census scholars say that could not happen without new legislation, which is not likely under the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.
In mid-April, the Supreme Court will hear arguments as to whether the 2020 Census can include a citizenship question, with a decision expected weeks later.
Next week, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose department oversees the census, is set to testify before Congress on his role in the controversy.
California Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez, who sits on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, said he was concerned to learn of the data-sharing proposal and that Ross would face related questions.
“The news of this proposed plan will surely send shockwaves through immigrant communities across the country,” Gomez said Wednesday. “This new development raises even more questions about the motivations behind this untested citizenship question and Secretary Ross better be ready to answer them.”
About 44 million immigrants live in the United States — nearly 11 million of them illegally. The 10-year headcount is based on the total resident population, both citizens and noncitizens.
The Census figures hugely in how political power and money are distributed in the U.S., and underreporting by noncitizens would have an outsized impact in states with larger immigrant populations. Political clout and federal dollars are both at stake because 10-year survey results are used to distribute electoral college votes and congressional district seats, and allocate more than $880 billion a year for services including roads, schools and Medicare.
The push to get a clearer picture of the number of noncitizens in the U.S. comes from an administration that has implemented hard-line policies to restrict immigration in numerous agencies.
Against advice of career officials at the Census Bureau, Ross decided last year to add the citizenship question to the 10-year headcount, saying the Justice Department requested the question to improve enforcement of the federal Voting Rights Act.
Some prominent GOP lawmakers endorsed the citizenship question, saying it would lead to more accurate data, and a joint fundraising committee for Trump’s re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee used it as a fundraising tool. Immigrants’ rights groups and multiple Democratic-led states, cities and counties filed suit, arguing that the question sought to discourage the Census participation of minorities.
A citizenship question has not appeared on the once-in-a-decade headcount since 1950, though it has been on the American Community Survey, for which the Census Bureau annually polls 3.5 million households.
Documents and testimony in a New York trial showed that Ross began pressing for a citizenship question soon after he became secretary in 2017, and that he consulted Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, and then-Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a vocal advocate of tough immigration laws who also has advised the president. Emails showed that Ross himself had invited the Justice Department request to add the citizenship question.
A March 2018 memo to Ross from the Census Bureau’s chief scientist says the DHS data on noncitizens could be used to help create a “comprehensive statistical reference list of current U.S. citizens.” The memo discusses how to create ‘baseline citizenship statistics’ by drawing on administrative records from DHS, the Social Security Administration, State Department and the Internal Revenue Service, in addition to including the citizenship question in the census.
In January, New York federal judge Jesse Furman ruled that Ross was “arbitrary and capricious” in proposing the question.
The new data comes from Citizenship and Immigration Services, a DHS agency that has taken on a larger role in enforcing immigration restrictions under Trump.
After Francis Cissna took over as director in October 2017, the agency initiated a “denaturalization task force” aimed at investigating whether immigrants obtaining their citizenship fraudulently. The agency also has slashed the refugee program to historic lows and proposed reinterpreting immigration law to screen whether legal immigrants are likely to draw on the public welfare system.
Cissna also rewrote the agency’s mission statement: “Securing America’s promise as a nation of immigrants” became “Securing the homeland and honoring our values.”
—————-SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Trump administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census “threatens the very foundation of our democratic system” because it would cause a significant undercount of immigrants and Latinos that could distort the distribution of congressional seats, a U.S. judge said Wednesday.Judge Richard Seeborg said the commerce secretary’s decision to add the question was arbitrary and capricious and would violate a constitutional requirement that the census count everyone in the country.”The record in this case has clearly established that including the citizenship question on the 2020 census is fundamentally counterproductive to the goal of obtaining accurate citizenship data about the public,” Seeborg said.Seeborg became the second judge to declare the move illegal, so the effect of his decision is limited. A federal judge in New York had previously blocked the administration from adding the question to the population count that occurs every 10 years, and the U.S. Supreme Court last month agreed to review that decision.The ruling in California, however, differed from the January decision by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in a significant way. Furman also found the question violated administrative requirements, but he rejected an argument that it violated the Constitution.
Seeborg found a constitutional violation, which could present another issue for the U.S. Supreme Court to consider if federal officials appeal his decision.
An email to the U.S. Department of Justice seeking comment on the ruling was not immediately returned.
Seeborg’s decision came in lawsuits by California and several cities in the state that asserted the citizenship question was politically motivated and should be kept off the census.
“Justice has prevailed for each and every Californian who should raise their hands to be counted in the 2020 census without being discouraged by a citizenship question,” state Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement.
California argued that the question would cost it a substantial amount of money and at least one congressional seat by reducing the percentage of Latinos and immigrants who respond to the survey. It said that would lead to an undercount in the state with a substantial number of people from both groups.
Census numbers are used to determine states’ distribution of congressional seats and billions of dollars in federal funding.
The Justice Department had argued that census officials take steps such as making in-person follow-up visits to get an accurate count. Households that skip the citizenship question but otherwise fill out a substantial portion of the questionnaire would still be counted, Justice Department attorneys said in court documents.
The Commerce Department announced the addition of a citizenship question a year ago, saying the Justice Department asked for it and it would improve enforcement of a 1965 law meant to protect minority voting rights.
The move sparked an outcry from Democrats, who said it would disproportionately affect states favoring their party. People were last asked whether they were U.S. citizens in the 1950 census.
Seeborg rejected the claim that the citizenship question stemmed from a request by the Justice Department, calling that a “pretext” for the real reason to add it.
He cited an email from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to a Commerce Department official nearly a year before the question was announced, in which Ross said he was “mystified” why nothing had been done in response to his “months old request that we include the citizenship question.”
“What ensued was a cynical search to find some reason, any reason, or an agency request to justify that preordained result,” the judge said.
Snow will continue today across far northern Missouri, resulting in a swath of 1-2 inches with locally higher amounts possible. In contrast to today’s wintry weather, a few strong storms are possible on Saturday especially south of Highway 36. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Today: A slight chance of drizzle after 2 p.m. Cloudy, with a high near 37. East wind 14 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.
Tonight: A slight chance of drizzle before 9 p.m., then a slight chance of freezing drizzle between 9 p.m. and midnight. Cloudy, with a low around 26. East wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.
Friday: Patchy fog before 7 a.m. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 41. East wind 5 to 7 mph.
Friday Night: Showers after midnight. Low around 35. East southeast wind 6 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Saturday: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm before noon, then a chance of showers. High near 51. Breezy, with a southeast wind 13 to 21 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 37 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 26. Breezy.
Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 40.
Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 22.
Monday: Sunny, with a high near 42.
Monday Night: A chance of snow showers after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 31. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Tuesday: Rain and snow showers. High near 44. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
Tuesday Night: Rain and snow showers. Low around 36. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
Wednesday: A chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 51. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the debate in Kansas over increasing funding for public schools (all times local):
photo courtesy office of Kansas Governor
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s plan for increasing public education funding has cleared its first hurdle in the Legislature despite unexpected resistance from some local school districts.
A Senate committee on school funding approved Kelly’s proposed increase of roughly $90 million a year on a voice vote Wednesday. The support for the Democratic governor’s bill came from the committee’s Republican majority and sent it to the full Senate for debate.
Kelly views her proposal as a simple way to comply with a Kansas Supreme Court mandate to boost education funding.
But fellow Democrats on the committee didn’t support her plan after a coalition of 48 school districts withdrew its support. Those districts said a second look convinced them that the plan would not provide enough money to satisfy the court.
————–
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ new Democratic governor is meeting unexpected resistance to her plan for boosting public education funding from local school districts that believe her proposal wouldn’t supply enough new money.
Gov. Laura Kelly touts her proposed increase of roughly $90 million a year as a simple way to comply with a Kansas Supreme Court mandate for an increase in education funding. She initially won over Schools for Fair Funding, a coalition of 48 school districts backing an ongoing lawsuit against the state, including the four districts that sued in 2010.
But the group withdrew its support ahead of a Senate committee hearing Wednesday. One of its attorneys said a further review of Kelly’s proposal showed it would fall tens of millions of dollars short each year of satisfying the Supreme Court.
The change of heart is complicating Kelly’s efforts to push a funding increase through the Republican-controlled Legislature and could prolong the lawsuit just when an end seemed in sight. It also threatens to divide supporters of more funding in the face of many Republicans’ misgivings about higher spending and their frustrations with what they see as an activist court.
“This kind of moves us away from, ‘Well, there’s one clear, simple answer that everyone agrees on,'” said Mark Tallman, a longtime Kansas Association of School Boards lobbyist.
The Supreme Court has issued six rulings in the past five years mandating increases in education funding, citing a duty under the state constitution for lawmakers to provide a suitable education for every child.
A 2018 law phased in a $548 million increase in the state’s $4 billion in annual funding by the 2022-23 school year. The court said it was inadequate because it did not account for inflation, and the state must tell the court by April 15 how it addressed the problem.
John Robb, an attorney for Schools for Fair Funding and the districts suing the state, said lawmakers face “an arithmetic problem.”
He contends the arithmetic requires phasing in another $364 million increase in education funding by the 2022-23 school year. The state’s spending would then be more than $900 million higher than it was from 2017-18.
That’s not how Kelly sees the math.
She argues the state can meet the court’s mandate by increasing its annual spending by roughly $90 million a year — or $364 million spread over four years. Under her plan, the state’s spending for 2022-23 would be about $640 million higher than it was in 2017-18.
That’s roughly $270 million short of Schools for Fair Funding’s mark.
But the governor has said she is relying on recommendations from the independently elected and GOP-led State Board of Education last year.
“The goal of this bill is to address inflation, end the litigation and meet the needs of our students and schools,” said Kelly spokeswoman Ashley All.
Schools for Fair Funding endorsed Kelly’s plan during a Feb. 6 hearing . Lobbyist Bill Brady sent an email the next day to the Senate committee’s members saying, “I do not know how to make our position any more clear.”
Then, Brady sent a follow-up email Feb. 26, saying that Schools for Fair Funding had “examined the numbers” and concluded Kelly’s plan was not sufficient.
The committee’s chairwoman, Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a conservative Republican from eastern Kansas, called it “a flip-flop.”
“For them to take such an about-face — there is no explanation for it,” she said.
Robb said Schools for Fair Funding initially believed Kelly’s plan was in line with its stance. He said the group later saw that the State Department of Education simply made mistakes in calculating how to adjust the state’s formula for distributing dollars to local school districts and passed those mistakes on to Kelly.
Longtime Deputy Education Commissioner Dale Dennis, in charge of the calculations, rejected Robb’s explanation: “There’s no error involved.”
The disagreement is an unwelcome development for supporters of higher education funding as they deal with a Legislature that grew more conservative after last year’s elections. GOP conservatives have long wanted to check the Supreme Court and argue that schools are not accountable enough.
And some Republicans doubt the state could sustain even Kelly’s smaller plan without raising taxes within a few years. She pledged during last year’s campaign not to pursue tax hikes, with GOP lawmakers already adamantly opposed.
“It will never happen,” said Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, a conservative Kansas City-area Republican.
Kelly and her allies face having a plan that can win lawmakers’ approval being challenged before the Supreme Court as insufficient — repeating a pattern under her GOP predecessors that she promised to break.
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, is siding with Schools for Fair Funding, arguing that lawmakers should approve its proposed increases for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years.
“It’s important now that we try to get everybody on the same page,” he said.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The chairman of the Missouri House Budget Committee pitched a plan Wednesday to put another $100 million toward road and bridge repairs while avoiding an estimated $100 million in interest that the state would face under GOP Gov. Mike Parson’s competing infrastructure proposal.
During a committee hearing, Republican Chairman Cody Smith recommended using existing funds to pay for road and bridge work, rather than borrowing the $350 million that Parson requested. Under Parson’s plan, the state would pay $30 million in debt payments each year for 15 years.
The latest spending proposal for the fiscal year beginning in July instead includes $100 million in general tax revenue for road maintenance, and Smith said he wants to continue pitching in $100 million for the next several years.
Smith said the move would save the state interest while still addressing infrastructure needs.
“This is an attempt to prioritize transportation infrastructure within the existing budget that we have,” Smith said. “This would not raise taxes. This would not take us further into debt.”
Smith said most of the $100 million that would go to roads comes from cutting $50 million that Parson requested for a cost-share program to help local communities pay for infrastructure maintenance. The $30-million debt payment on Parson’s proposed plan also was removed from next fiscal year’s budget and instead put directly into the road fund.
Parson in January proposed using the proceeds from bonding to fix 250 bridges across the state , but the plan met bipartisan pushback. Critics have complained about the cost of interest through borrowing, and some lawmakers from the St. Louis- and Kansas City-areas slammed Parson’s plan for not prioritizing enough bridges in their areas.
Parson spokesman Steele Shippy in a Wednesday statement said the governor will continue meeting with lawmakers “to reach an end result that moves Missouri forward.”
“The House budget proposal maintains a number of the Governor’s priorities, which is very promising, but they have also proposed a different route to our shared priority of infrastructure,” Shippy said. “With plenty of time left in this year’s session, we are confident a final agreement is possible.”
Smith’s proposal has not yet been voted out of committee.
The House budget proposal is one of several alternative road funding plans under consideration in the Legislature.
Republican Sen. Bill Eigel, a member of the newly formed Senate Conservative Caucus, proposed legislation last month that would avoid interest and divvy up some additional road funding evenly between congressional districts.
PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. (AP) — About 1,000 people have signed a petition after a Catholic grade school in suburban Kansas City denied admission to a same-sex couple’s child.
The Rev. Craig Maxim told families in a letter last month that he sought guidance from the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas when the same-sex couple asked to enroll their child in kindergarten at St. Ann Catholic School in Prairie Village, Kansas. He said the archdiocese advised against accepting the child because the parents could not “model behaviors and attitudes consistent with the Church’s teachings.”
About half of the people who signed the petition to Archbishop Joseph Naumann and the archdiocesan schools superintendent are St. Ann members. Catholic schools nationwide are divided over whether to admit same-sex couples’ children.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Missouri Western (14-15) put together one of its best defensive performances of the season in the first round of the MIAA Championships Wednesday as they beat Nebraska-Kearney 55-47 inside Municipal Auditorium.
NOTABLES
After Nebraska-Kearney jumped out to an early 4-2 lead, the Griffons rolled to a 14-0 run and held a 16-6 lead going into the second quarter.
Missouri Western continued its aggressive defensive play in the second, holding the Lopers to just 10 points in the quarter.
The Griffons allowed just 16 points in the first half, as the Lopers were held to 25 percent shooting.
Melia Richardson paced the Missouri Western offense in the first half with 10 points.
After Nebraska-Kearney pulled within seven with under three minutes left in the final quarter, Katrina Roenfeldt drilled a three-pointer to extend the Missouri Western lead back to double-digits.
Nebraska-Kearney’s Elisa Backes made a three-pointer of her own with just 21 seconds remaining, cutting the Griffon lead to just four at 51-47.
Missouri Western made all of its final six free-throw attempts to earn the 55-47 first-round win.
The 47 points allowed by the Griffons is the team’s second-best mark of the season.
Nebraska-Kearney had a significant rebounding advantage on Wednesday, outrebounding the Griffons 46-29.
Missouri Western forced 18 Nebraska-Kearney turnovers, while the Griffons finished with only 8.
The Griffons’ 30 points scored off turnovers accounted for over half of their offense.
LEADERS
Richardson led all scorers with 15 points. The MIAA All-Defensive Team selection also recorded a career-high six steals in the win and played all 40 minutes.
Brittany Atkins led the Griffons with eight rebounds while also scoring 12 points.
Roenfeldt added 11 points, five boards, and four steals.
UP NEXT
Missouri Western will take on top-seeded Fort Hays State (27-1) in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
The Tigers topped the Griffons 67-50 in the teams’ only meeting this season.
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Missouri finally generated momentum in the Southeastern Conference with back-to-back wins near the end of its mostly disappointing season.
Georgia’s search for its first back-to-back SEC wins ended with an ugly loss described by its top scorer as a dud.
Jordan Geist scored 18 points and Torrence Watson had 17 to lead Missouri to a 64-39 win over Georgia on Wednesday night in a matchup of two of the SEC’s bottom three teams.
“It was one of those things I said to our guys it’s never too late,” said Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin after the Tigers (14-15, 5-12 Southeastern Conference) won their second straight game.
Watson made each of his five 3-pointers in the second half. Neither team made a 3 in a low-scoring first half.
Nicolas Claxon had nine points and 10 rebounds to lead Georgia, which was held to its fewest points in 15 years. It was a disappointing game for first-year coach Tom Crean in Georgia’s final home game of the season.
Georgia’s second-leading scorer and rebounder, Rayshaun Hammonds, was held out with an injured right foot. Crean said he doesn’t expect Hammonds to return this season.
The Bulldogs missed Hammonds. Missouri took a lopsided 50-28 advantage in rebounds.
“Tonight was a dud, offense, defense and rebounding, all across the board,” Claxton said.
Missouri and Georgia (11-19, 2-15) lead only Vanderbilt in the SEC standings.
Missouri ranks last in the conference with its average of 67 points per game, while Georgia is last in defense, allowing an average of 74.6 points.
The teams played up to their dismal rankings, especially in a low-scoring first half when the Tigers and Bulldogs were a combined 0 for 22 on 3-point attempts.
“We both set basketball back to start the game,” Crean said.
The drought on long-range shots stretched to 28 misses — 14 straight for each team — before Watson finally sank a 3 almost five minutes into the second half.
Without Hammonds, Missouri didn’t have to respect Georgia’s inside game. Jeremiah Tilmon had eight points and eight rebounds. Mitchell Smith had 11 rebounds.
Martin said Tilmon “had one of his better games, playing without fouling, being aggressive, posting and reading the defense.”
Each team was coming off a rare win.
Georgia snapped losing streaks of nine straight games overall and 13 straight SEC games by beating Florida 61-55 on Saturday. Missouri had lost four straight before beating South Carolina 78-63 on Saturday.
Missouri led 38-16 midway through the second half when JoJo Toppin sank a 3-pointer as Georgia snapped its 0-for-15 start on 3s.
BIG PICTURE
Missouri: Geist had little help in the first half, when he led the Tigers with 12 points and no other scorer had more than four. Missouri enjoyed more scoring balance after halftime, especially on 3-pointers. The Tigers had 17 assists, including six by Geist.
Georgia: The Bulldogs’ previous scoring low this season was 49 points in losses to Top 25 teams, then-No. 16 Clemson and Kentucky. .. Georgia’s six seniors were recognized before their final home game. … The Bulldogs made only 13 of 51 shots (25.5 percent) and 3 of 20 3-pointers.
HAMMONDS STILL HURTING
Hammonds wore a warm-up suit as he sat on the bench. He was held out for the second time in the last three games. He also missed Georgia’s loss to Auburn on Feb. 27 before playing five minutes in Saturday’s win at Florida. Crean did not say if Hammonds aggravated the injury against Florida. The sophomore forward averages 12.1 points and 6.1 rebounds.
OFFENSE MISSING
Georgia had not been held below 40 points since a 61-39 loss to Vanderbilt in 2004. The Bulldogs also set season lows with 14 first-half points, five assists and 25.5 percent shooting from the field.
UP NEXT
Missouri: Closes its regular season on Saturday at home against Mississippi.
Georgia: Plays at South Carolina on Saturday in its final regular-season game.
A new forecast from the Department of Agriculture predicts net farm income will increase ten percent in 2019. The forecast from the USDA Economic Research Service predicts net farm income will increase $6.3 billion in 2019 to $69.4 billion, following a 16 percent decline in 2018.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Missouri Western (14-15) put together one of its best defensive performances of the season in the first round of the MIAA Championships Wednesday as they beat Nebraska-Kearney 55-47 inside Municipal Auditorium.
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Missouri finally generated momentum in the Southeastern Conference with back-to-back wins near the end of its mostly disappointing season.