RAYTOWN, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say about 45 bronze memorial vases have been stolen from a Raytown cemetery.
The Raytown Police Department says that officers responded to the Mount Olivet Cemetery around 9:45 a.m. Tuesday. Police say the officers were told that about 45 vases had been stolen from the cemetery between May 8 and May 14.
An investigation is ongoing.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A civil liberties organization has sent a letter to 30 youth group homes in Nebraska after it said it received complaints that some children have been turned away from homes for being gay.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska said it has recently fielded complaints from probation officers and legal representatives who have had children rejected for placement solely based on the child’s sexual orientation.
The letter, addressed to group home directors and CEOs, urges them to provide clear guidelines to front-office staff to treat all children equally and not turn away gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender youth.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services said it has informed group homes of its policy not to discriminate based on race, color national origin or disability, but did not answer questions about whether its nondiscrimination policy includes sexual orientation.
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, whose state is the nation’s top ethanol producer followed by Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota and Indiana, says the levels announced Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency for the Renewable Fuel Standard program “falls far short.”
Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa says it’s below the levels sought by Congress when it passed legislation in 2007.
The EPA says the proposed increases for 2017 on all types of biofuels would boost production and provide for “ambitious yet achievable growth.”
The agency will hold a public hearing on the issue in June. It will make a final decision later this year.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An attorney argued before the Missouri Court of Appeals that taxpayers should have legal standing to challenge the state’s procedures for obtaining drugs for lethal injections.
Justin Gelfand, representing two former state lawmakers and two other citizens, argued an appeal Wednesday in a lawsuit alleging the state violates federal and state law by using an illegal prescription to obtain pentobarbital from a compounding pharmacy for the executions. The lawsuit does not challenge the death penalty, only practices used to obtain the drugs.
A Cole County judge dismissed the lawsuit in July 2015, ruling in part that taxpayers do not have standing to challenge Department of Corrections operations and the Missouri Supreme Court has jurisdiction in death penalty-related lawsuits.
It wasn’t clear when the appeals court would issue a ruling.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Colleagues of a slain Kansas police detective say the late officer’s handcuffs will be used on the man charged in the killing when the suspect is released from the hospital.
Kansas City, Kansas, Police Chief Terry Zeigler described the plan in a tweet that says “words cannot express what this means to our department.”
The Kansas City Star reports that it’s not yet clear when 28-year-old Curtis Ayers will be released from the hospital.
Ayers is accused of fatally shooting Kansas City, Kansas, police Detective Brad Lancaster. Ayers has been hospitalized since being shot by police hours later in Kansas City, Missouri, during his May 9 arrest.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More pay could become a reality for millions of U.S. workers who now toil long hours without overtime under a new rule issued Wednesday by the Obama administration.
The rule seeks to bolster overtime protections that have been eroded in recent decades by inflation. A diminishing proportion of workers have benefited from overtime regulations, which date to the 1930s and require employers to pay 1½ times a worker’s hourly wage for work that exceeds 40 hours a week.
Under the new rules, released in draft form last summer, the annual salary threshold at which companies can deny overtime pay will be doubled from $23,660 to nearly $47,500. That would make 4.2 million more salaried workers eligible for overtime pay. Hourly workers would continue to be mostly guaranteed overtime.
Business groups argue that the changes will increase paperwork and scheduling burdens for small companies and force many businesses to convert salaried workers to hourly ones. They say many employees will see that as a step down.
KCUR reports Self earns a taxable salary of $230,000 a year.
But he also gets at least $2.75 million annually from the entity that runs the school’s intercollegiate sports, and that money goes to Self’s BCLT II limited liability company.
That’s among the nearly 334,000 Kansas businesses that owe no state income taxes under Gov. Sam Brownback administration’s 2012 tax cuts. Self’s tax break comes out to more than $125,000 a year.
Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka says he likes Self. But he argues that while the cuts were meant to create jobs, Self doesn’t do that.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A judge says Kansas can’t require people to show proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote for federal elections at motor vehicle offices.
U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday in a lawsuit over Kansas’ proof-of-citizenship requirements. She put it on hold until May 31 so the state can appeal.
Robinson said that more than 18,000 eligible voters would be disenfranchised in the November federal election under the Kansas law.
The judge says Kansas’ requirements likely violate a provision in the National Voter Registration Act requiring only minimal information to determine voter eligibility.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says he plans to appeal.
The American Civil Liberties Union says the ruling sends a signal to other states that may be considering similar registration requirements.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska judge has dismissed a charge against a Minnesota man who admitted his intention to buy marijuana in Colorado.
Court records say Judge Susan Strong said in a filing Monday that she had no jurisdiction because Erik Felsheim, of Waseca, Minnesota, committed no crime in Nebraska.
In October 2014 Felsheim and another man were arrested after a traffic stop in Lancaster County. The records say Felsheim told a sheriff’s deputy that $65,000 found in their car was earmarked to buy pot that he intended to sell in Minnesota. Felsheim was charged with possession of money intended for a drug violation and aiding the delivery of a controlled substance.
His attorney argued it is not a violation of Nebraska law to conspire to break the law of another state.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A former doctor from Tulsa, Oklahoma, accused of using a Missouri minor to produce child pornography has been sentenced to more than 15 years in federal prison.
Thirty-nine-year-old Shelby Coleman was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years and 8 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty in January.
Prosecutors say Coleman, a former partner of the Tulsa Women’s Health Center, was arrested in September 2013 after he traveled to Springfield to meet a 16-year-old boy for sex. Prosecutors say Coleman and the boy exchanged sexually explicit images before his Springfield trip.
The boy’s father contacted the Missouri State Highway Patrol after finding text messages between Coleman and his son. Authorities say a state trooper then impersonated the minor as Coleman tried to arrange the Springfield meeting.
