KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri is appealing a federal court’s decision that requires the state to break one of its most-guarded secrets and reveal the name of any supplier of its lethal injection drug.
Calling the matter “a question of exceptional importance,” the state asked the full 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to urgently upend a ruling last week by a three-judge panel of that court in a case brought by two death-row inmates in Mississippi.
The court rejected Missouri’s claim that disclosing its source of pentobarbital could compromise its ability to obtain the drug for executions.
The inmates question why Mississippi doesn’t adopt a one-drug execution method as Missouri has done. They’ve subpoenaed Missouri for details about pentobarbital to meet their legal burden of showing there’s a known, available alternative.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Kansas City Public Schools on behalf of a young child whose hands were cuffed behind his back two years ago when he was a 7-year-old second-grader.
The lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City claims the boy was “crying and hollering” after a teacher asked him to change seats on April 30, 2014.
The suit says a school resource officer came and led the boy away, at times holding tightly onto the child’s arm after he ignored the officer’s instructions.
Eventually the officer put the boy in handcuffs and took him to the principal’s office.
The lawsuit says the child suffered emotional and physical pain and was removed from the school by his mother.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 26-year-old Kansas City man could face up to five years in prison for aiming a laser pointer at a Kansas City Police Department helicopter. U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson says Jordon Clarence Rogers pleaded guilty Thursday to one felony count for an Oct. 8, 2013, incident in which one of the helicopter pilots was hit twice in the eye.
Prosecutors say the pilot sustained eye strain that lasted for hours. A sentencing date has not been set.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Support from fellow conservatives is helping a Nebraska state senator hold onto his job after admitting that he had cybersex on a state laptop computer with a woman who later tried to blackmail him.
Republican Bill Kintner is refusing to resign despite pressure to do so, including from his own party’s governor.
It’s the kind of scandal that has toppled lawmakers in other states. And Kintner’s past comments on immigration, gay rights and fellow legislators have made even supporters cringe. Conservative groups worried about losing one of their strongest allies are rallying behind Kintner, even as they condemn his behavior as disgraceful.
Sen. Ernie Chambers, a left-leaning independent who frequently clashes with Kintner, blasted his rival for having “no sense of shame” and “no common decency.” But Kintner says Chambers went too far by mentioning his wife in an open letter that ridicules Kintner.
Kintner called the letter “absolutely inappropriate” in a statement released Thursday. Chambers has written a series of missives on state letterhead, making fun of Kintner in an attempt to pressure him to resign. Kintner’s wife, Lauren Kintner, is a policy adviser to Gov. Pete Ricketts and has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
A letter Chambers distributed Tuesday does not mention her by name, but insinuates the senator had cybersex with a woman he met online because he was seeking things his wife lacked.
Chambers has said Kintner’s refusal to resign and shield his wife from embarrassment speaks to his character.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man who admits he passed himself off as a Navy veteran and fraudulently received more than $234,000 in benefits has been sentenced to four years and three months in federal prison.
Sixty-three-year-old Eric D. Smith of Independence also was ordered Thursday in federal court in Kansas City, Missouri, to repay $234,461.
That restitution includes payments to additional agencies victimized by Smith when he engaged in similar fraud in Maryland, Georgia and Florida.
Smith pleaded guilty in February in Missouri to one count each of violating the False Claims Act and of student loan fraud.
He admitted that he assumed the identity of a Navy veteran from October 2012 through April 2014, along the way fraudulently obtaining a Veterans Affairs identification card and VA health care benefits.
(AP)BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Hundreds of people have gathered in three states in a show of solidarity with protesters trying to halt the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline that will move oil from North Dakota to Illinois.
The Omaha World-Herald reports members of four Nebraska Native American tribes participated in a demonstration in downtown Omaha against the pipeline Thursday evening.
That happened outside the offices of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which granted permits for the project.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, hundreds gathered for an evening of speeches, dancing and chants of, “Water is life,” according to the Tulsa World. Several hundred marchers also rallied in Denver.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has sued to try to stop the $3.8 billion project, and the fight has drawn thousands of protesters to a construction site in North Dakota in recent weeks.
A federal judge is set to rule Friday on the tribe’s request to temporarily stop construction near its reservation. The tribe has some legal advantages in a courtroom, particularly their status as a sovereign nation with long ties to the land in question.
But stopping a project like the Dakota Access pipeline after construction has begun is difficult. And even if the Standing Rock Sioux win in federal court, the result might simply be an altered route.
A judge is expected to rule Friday on whether to block construction of the pipeline, which is supposed to pass close to the tribal reservation near the North Dakota-South Dakota border.
No matter what the court decides, opponents seem prepared for a long fight, following many of the same tactics used to defeat the Canada-to-Nebraska segment of the Keystone XL pipeline.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice has found that federal agents lacked proper guidance and experience when they conducted undercover sting operations in several cities since 2010 that were aimed at disrupting illegal gun sales.
The Justice Department’s inspector general’s office released a report Thursday.
The report examines shortcomings with U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ storefront sting operations in Milwaukee; Pensacola, Florida; St. Louis; Wichita, Kansas; and Boston.
The report found that agents who worked the operations lacked policies, experience and supervision. It also noted the operations have to do a better job defining the problem they’re trying to solve.
Problems with the ATF’s storefront operations surfaced in 2013 after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an investigation detailing multiple problems with the operation in that city.
ALPINE, Texas (AP) — A sheriff says a student has died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after shooting and injuring another student at a West Texas high school.
Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson tells a radio station (KVLF) that a female student shot another female student inside Alpine High School today.
The injured student was taken to a hospital with injuries that weren’t considered life threatening.
The sheriff says a federal law enforcement officer responding to the shooting was shot in the leg when another officer’s gun accidentally went off.
Sheriff Ronny Dodson said the Thursday morning shooting at Alpine High School was part of a chaotic series of events that included a bomb threat at nearby Sul Ross State University. The sheriff said the threat was later deemed a hoax, but that it required officers to rush to the university from the high school.
Dodson says, “That’s ridiculous for someone to call in something like this when we’ve got this situation going on.” The university says the campus was being cleared by law enforcement.
Darren SealsRIVERVIEW, Mo. (AP) — A 29-year-old man who police say was fatally shot before his body was found in a burning vehicle near St. Louis was a highly visible activist during protests over the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
St. Louis County police say Daren Seals’ body was found early Tuesday in Riverview near Ferguson. His death is being investigated as a homicide. Authorities spelled his name as Daren, but other records show it as Darren.
Eighteen-year-old Brown, who was black and unarmed, was shot and killed in August 2014 by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. The death and a grand jury’s decision not to indict Wilson led to sometimes-violent protests.
Viral video shows Seals comforting Brown’s sobbing mother atop a car the night the grand jury’s decision was announced.
Other activists during the Ferguson protests mourned Seals on social media Wednesday.
Rep. Penny HubbardJEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander is sending findings from an investigation of a state House race to state and federal prosecutors to determine if charges are warranted. A report from Kander’s office Wednesday also said it “strongly encourages” the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office to review every absentee ballot cast in a contested Democratic primary for a St. Louis-area House seat.
At issue is incumbent Rep. Penny Hubbard’s 90-vote win over political newcomer Bruce Franks.
Franks won 53 percent of votes cast on primary day, but Hubbard won 78.5 percent of absentee votes.
St. Louis Circuit Judge Rex Burlison last week said election irregularities with absentee ballots impacted the outcome of the race, and that the city election board violated state law.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri is appealing a federal court’s decision that requires the state to break one of its most-guarded secrets and reveal the name of any supplier of its lethal injection drug.
