A man in a Kansas prison for the 1984 murder of a Sedgwick County man now faces another murder charge in the Missouri death of a teen who disappeared more than 30 years ago.
The Wichita Eagle reports that 57-year-old Martin Priest has been charged with capital murder in Missouri. Court documents say Priest killed the teen, identified as “T.R.,” by strangling her in May 1984 in Eldon, Missouri.
(Click the mugshot image for more information on the killing) Priest could face life in prison if convicted.
Priest has been in prison since being convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of 25-year-old William Mayhugh on Christmas 1984. He could be released on that charge as early as August.
Kansas Department of Corrections spokesman Adam Pfannenstiel says Priest could be transferred to Missouri to face the charge.
Gov. Jay NixonJEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon says he believes small increases in fuel taxes are the best way to raise money for roads and bridges.
At a Jefferson City news conference Tuesday, Nixon said he favors a bill from Poplar Bluff Republican Sen. Doug Libla.
That proposal would raise the gasoline tax by 1.5 cents per gallon and the diesel tax by 3.5 cents. A similar bill didn’t make it out of the Senate last session.
The Missouri Department of Transportation is searching for funding after voters rejected a sales tax in 2014. Other proposed methods for funding road and bridge repairs include raising taxes on tobacco or moving the Missouri Highway Patrol out of the Transportation Department budget.
Nixon says those proposals aren’t realistic long-term fixes.
EMINENCE, Mo. (AP) — The reward is growing for information in the death of a bull elk that was found mutilated in southeastern Missouri.
The Conservation Federation of Missouri matched a $1,000 reward offered by Operation Game Thief and then began receiving more donations from businesses and individuals.
The federation’s executive director Brandon Butler says the reward hit the $4,340 mark earlier this week. Butler told the Springfield News-Leader that people are “outraged.” The elk was discovered Dec. 29 in Shannon County with its skull plate and antlers removed with a chain saw.
Missouri elk were wiped out by hunters and habitat loss in the late 1800s. The mutilated animal was among about 130 elk that are a part of the state Conservation Department’s efforts to restore the population.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — An audit finds the superintendent running schools in Ferguson, Missouri, misspent federal education funds and failed to provide a reason or receipts for $94,000 in travel, meals and merchandise while he headed a North Carolina district.
North Carolina Auditor Beth Wood’s office released a report Tuesday alleging improper spending at the Washington County school district formerly headed by Joseph Davis.
Davis left North Carolina last year to become superintendent of the Ferguson-Florissant School District, which educates most students living in the city that erupted in protests after the police shooting of teenager Michael Brown. Davis said he had no reservations about anything he spent.
State auditors said Davis misspent nearly $16,000 in federal education funds on entertainment. The audit says Davis disregarded employees who warned against using the federal funds.
NEBRASKA CITY, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say keys were stolen one night and then four brand-new vehicles were stolen the next night from a dealership in southeast Nebraska.
Nebraska City police say the keys were stolen after someone broke into Larson Motors late Saturday night or early Sunday. No one noticed they were missing.
The four vehicles were stolen late Sunday evening or early Monday morning. Missing are a $65,000 sport utility vehicle and three pickups valued at between $49,000 and $63,000. Police Capt. Lonnie Neeman says attempts to steal four more vehicles failed.
He suspects at least five people were involved: One thief to drive four thieves to the dealership so they could use the stolen keys to start and drive away the four vehicles.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The wife of a Topeka councilman is seeking to enter into a diversion agreement on charges that she aided her husband in a child abuse case.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that 32-year-old Allison Schumm and her husband, 34-year-old Jonathan Schumm, face charges in Shawnee County District Court. She applied this week for diversion, which would keep a conviction off her record.
Defense attorney Carol J. Cline declined to comment.
The Schumms have 17 children, including one born in December, and four other biological children. The couple also has two children who are in foster care and 10 who are adopted.
Court records show that Jonathan Schumm is accused of choking a child and threatening to “kill him” the next time. Efforts are underway to remove him from office.
Sen. Jamilah NasheedST. LOUIS (AP) — A state senator from St. Louis who was active in Ferguson protests is proposing legislation that seeks to reduce policing bias against blacks.
Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, a Democrat, and Republican Rep. Shamed Dogan are sponsoring the Fair and Impartial Policing Act. Details were announced Tuesday in St. Louis. Both sponsoring lawmakers are black.
The Missouri attorney general’s office annually releases data on vehicle stops showing that black drivers are far more likely to be pulled over, searched and arrested, compared to white drivers.
Nasheed says the proposed bill would expand police reporting requirements to include pedestrian stops as well as vehicle stops.
She says it will provide for additional training in an effort to reduce violence and enact measures holding policing agencies and officers accountable when bias is determined.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest on President Barack Obama’s executive actions to tighten gun control in the United States (all times EST):
2:10 p.m.:
The National Rifle Association says President Barack Obama’s executive actions on gun control are “ripe for abuse” and lack seriousness.
The nation’s largest gun group is accusing Obama of political exploitation for announcing the steps in the last year of his presidency. Chris Cox, who runs the NRA’s lobbying arm, says the actions wouldn’t have prevented any of the mass shootings that Obama mentioned when he announced the steps at the White House.
Cox says Obama is trying to distract from his lack of a strategy to prevent terrorist attacks in the U.S. He says Americans don’t need any more “emotional, condescending lectures that are completely devoid of facts.”
The NRA isn’t detailing what steps, if any, it will take to oppose or try to thwart Obama’s plan. But Cox says the NRA won’t allow “law-abiding gun owners to become scapegoats for President Obama’s failed policies.”
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2 p.m.:
Vice President Joe Biden will push the president’s executive actions on guns in interviews with media outlets in communities that have been hit by recent gun violence.
Biden led the Obama administration’s initial search for executive steps on gun control after the 2012 shooting Newtown, Connecticut. He will participate in an interview with WVIT in Hartford, Connecticut.
Biden will also speak to WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia. The same station employed TV reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward, who died in an on-air shooting in August at the hands of a former station employee.
The vice president will also conduct interviews with stations in Columbus, Ohio; Charleston, South Carolina; and Philadelphia.
Biden’s interviews will air Wednesday evening. He’s also taping an interview with NowThis, which makes videos distributed to social media outlets such as Facebook.
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12:50 p.m.:
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz says President Barack Obama’s new actions to more tightly regulate gun sales aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.
During a campaign stop in Onawa, Iowa, the Republican presidential candidate repeated his promise to repeal all of Obama’s executive actions, including the latest ones on guns.
Cruz says that “when you live by the pen, you die by the pen.” And he added that his own pen “has an eraser on it.”
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12:45 p.m.:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is criticizing President Barack Obama as a weak commander-in-chief who is more focused on undercutting Americans’ rights to bear arms than combatting terrorism.
In a statement, the Kentucky Republican on Tuesday dismissed Obama’s actions to more tightly regulate gun sales. He says Congress will track the actions closely to ensure they follow the Constitution and federal law.
McConnell says that the American people are seeking a leader to counter terrorist threats from Islamic State militants and al-Qaida, but instead Obama is giving them “lectures, distractions, and attempts to undermine their fundamental Second Amendment rights.”
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12:35 p.m.:
Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton is offering her positive reviews of the president’s actions on gun regulation in a tweet.
Clinton tweeted her thanks to the president. She called his executive actions “a crucial step forward on gun violence.”
And she added that the next president “has to build on that progress_not rip it away.”
Clinton’s Democratic opponent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, also praised the president’s actions.
Sanders says he’d continue Obama’s actions if elected president.
Sanders accused Republicans of placing the interests of the National Rifle Association ahead of children and innocent Americans.
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12:25 p.m.:
President Barack Obama was moved to tears in an unusually emotional display during his announcement of new executive actions on guns.
Obama said “it gets me mad” every time he thinks about the 20 first-graders who were killed in the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school in December 2012.
But his emotions had already begun to overtake him by the time he said that.
Obama spoke at the White House on Tuesday about rights that had been denied victims of other mass shootings. He mentioned freedom of religion taken from parishioners killed at a South Carolina church and freedom of assembly taken from movie-goers killed at cinemas in Colorado and Louisiana. He also mentioned the violence in his Chicago hometown.
Obama paused and wiped a tear from the corner of his left eye. Tears flowed freely down both cheeks.
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12:20 p.m.:
House Speaker Paul Ryan says no matter what unilateral action President Barack Obama takes on gun control, “his word does not trump the Second Amendment.”
The Wisconsin Republican says in a statement that the president’s steps to expand background checks to cover more firearms are certain to be challenged in the courts. Ryan also is stressing that whatever the president does can be overturned if a Republican is elected president in November.
Ryan said Obama has never respected the right to safe and legal gun ownership that the country has valued since its inception.
He says Obama “knows full well that the law already says that people who make their living selling firearms must be licensed, regardless of venue. Still, rather than focus on criminals and terrorists, he goes after the most law-abiding of citizens.”
Ryan said Obama’s words and actions “amount to a form of intimidation that undermines liberty.”
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12:15 p.m.:
President Barack Obama says that contrary to the claims of some GOP presidential candidates, he’s not plotting to take away everyone’s guns.
Speaking in the East Room at the White House, Obama is defending his executive actions to tighten criminal background checks.
The president said Tuesday his actions are consistent with the constitutional right to right to bear arms. The president noted that he taught constitutional law, and added: “I know a little about this.”
Obama says some constraints on freedom are necessary to protect innocent people. He notes that the right to free speech also comes with the limitation that you can’t yell “fire” in a theater.
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12 p.m.:
President Barack Obama is opening his announcement on new gun actions by remembering former Rep. Gabby Giffords.
Giffords was a member of Congress when she was gravely wounded five years ago this week in a shooting at a supermarket in Tucson, Arizona. More than a dozen others also were shot.
Obama later spoke at a memorial service in Tucson for those who didn’t survive. He says that wasn’t the first time he had to talk to the nation following a mass shooting, nor would it be the last.
The president went on to name cities around the country that have mourned the loss of life in other mass shootings. They include Fort Hood, Texas; Aurora, Colorado; Oak Creek, Wisconsin; Newtown, Connecticut and, most recently, San Bernardino, California.
Obama punctuated his list by saying “Too many.” The audience gathered in the White House East Room followed him by softly echoing “too many.”
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11:50 a.m.:
The White House usually does the tweeting when President Barack Obama speaks.
But the president of a leading gun violence prevention group joined the action Tuesday for Obama’s announcement of new executive actions on guns.
Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign, live tweeted as Obama spoke from the White House East Room.
An early tweet quoted the president as saying “Need to do something not to debate the last shooting but to prevent the next one!”
Gross became involved in gun violence prevention after his brother was shot on the observation deck of the Empire State Building in 1997.
Before arriving at the White House, Gross tweeted that he was “gonna tell Prez Jim & Sarah give huge thumbs up!”
Gross was referring to Jim Brady and his wife, Sarah, the organization’s founders. Jim Brady, who was press secretary to President Ronald Reagan, was shot in the head during the assassination attempt on Reagan in 1981. Jim Brady died in 2014. Sarah Brady died last year.
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11:45 a.m.:
The father of a first-grader killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School is introducing President Barack Obama’s speech on gun regulation.
Mark Barden’s son, Daniel, was one of 20 students killed at the school three years ago.
Barden now helps lead a program called Sandy Hook Promise. The group seeks to prevent gun-related deaths through the enactment of what it calls “sensible gun violence prevention laws, policy and regulations.” Several other parents of Sandy Hook children also participate in the group.
In the three years since the Sandy Hook shootings, Barden says, far too many lives have been lost to gun tragedies. He says that “as a nation, we have to do better.”
Barden’s group is particularly appreciative of Obama’s focus on getting people more access to mental health care.
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11:30 a.m.
More GOP candidates are chiming in with criticism of President Barack Obama’s executive actions to tighten gun regulation in the U.S.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio says Obama is “obsessed” with undermining the Second Amendment.
During a town hall-style meeting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Rubio told reporters Tuesday that the president’s new executive actions on guns undermine Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms.
Rubio says he opposes gun violence but that the president’s plans won’t help prevent it. The GOP presidential candidate says he’ll work to overturn the executive actions.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, for his part, is labeling Obama’s actions “a blatant, belligerent abuse of power.”
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11 a.m.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says President Barack Obama is acting unlawfully and showing disregard for the Second Amendment with his actions on gun control.
Bush is panning Obama’s set of measures in an op-ed in Iowa’s Cedar Rapids Gazette. He’s comparing the gun actions to Obama’s executive action on immigration and says Obama is flouting the proper constitutional process for lawmaking.
Bush says it’s even more important to defend gun rights because of Islamic State-linked attacks and mass shootings in Paris and California.
Obama is unveiling the new actions at the White House on Tuesday. He’s aiming to expand background checks to cover more firearms by requiring more people to register as federally licensed gun dealers.
Bush and his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination have said they’ll undo Obama’s actions if elected.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is reporting that it collected $27 million less in taxes than anticipated in December with both individual income and sales taxes falling short of expectations.
The shortfall in tax collections reported Monday complicates the state’s budget picture as legislators prepare to open their annual session next week.
The state Department of Revenue said the state collected $599 million in taxes last month instead of the $626 million projected in a fiscal forecast issued in November. The shortfall is 4.4 percent.
Since the current fiscal year began in July, the state has collected $2.84 billion in tax revenues. That’s $19 million less than anticipated.
Kansas has struggled to balance its budget since personal income taxes were dramatically cut in 2012 and 2013 to stimulate the economy.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Republican-led Missouri legislative panel says the Senate should launch contempt proceedings against the leader of a St. Louis-region Planned Parenthood. The report comes after Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri didn’t comply with a subpoena sent to President and CEO Mary Kogut.
The Senate Interim Committee on the Sanctity of Life was formed after anti-abortion activists released videos they said showed Planned Parenthood personnel negotiating the sale of fetal organs.
Some committee members wanted records of incidents that required an ambulance and written protocols for performing abortions.
The St. Louis Planned Parenthood is the only Missouri clinic that provides abortions. Officials didn’t immediately comment Monday.
Creve Coeur Sen. Jill Schupp and another Democrat didn’t sign the report. Schupp says it was politically motivated.
