BUFFALO, Mo. (AP) – Authorities are investigating the death of a 2-year-old girl in southwest Missouri as suspicious.
The Springfield News-Leader reports that Dallas County Coroner Chuck Nimmo said he received a call from a hospital emergency room Sunday afternoon notifying him of the death of Kinzlea Kilgore. Nimmo says the child was transported from a home in Buffalo and was dead on arrival at Cox Medical Center South in Springfield. An autopsy is planned.
He says police are investigating.
Industrial hemp is coming to Kansas, but first the Department of Agriculture has to figure out how to regulate it.
To get started, the department is holding public meetings to get input from potential growers.
“Please don’t be frustrated if our answer is, ‘We don’t know yet,’ because that’s part of why we’ve asked you to come so we can figure out what we need to figure out,” Chad Bontrager, Kansas Agribusiness Service director, said before beginning his presentation at a recent meeting in Manhattan.
The meeting consisted of an overview of the recently passed law opening up the pilot project, as well as presentations from two people involved in the operation of industrial hemp programs in Kentucky and Colorado.
Dozens of people participated in the meeting, including Christina Hett. She’s a farmer in Marion County who’s interested in hemp as an alternative to the wheat, soy beans and corn she already grows.
“The farming markets are terrible, and it’s just to the point that we have to find something else,” she said.
But even after the meeting, she still had lots of questions and concerns, especially about how much a license to grow would cost.
“It’s almost like they’re not thinking about this from the producer’s perspective,” she said.
The state Department of Agriculture’s goal is to have draft regulations completed by July 1 and to begin issuing licenses to grow by the beginning of 2019.
Brian Grimmett reports on the environment and energy for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @briangrimmett.
Isolated to scattered showers and thunder early this morning will give way to a mostly dry period through the late morning before scattered thunderstorms develop through the afternoon, primarily across portions of central Missouri. A few storms may be capable of strong wind gusts. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Today: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly between noon and 1 p.m. Partly sunny, with a high near 78. Northwest wind 6 to 9 mph becoming north northeast in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 61. Northeast wind 5 to 8 mph.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. Northeast wind around 6 mph.
Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 60. East wind 3 to 6 mph.
Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 85. East southeast wind 3 to 7 mph.
Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 63.
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 87.
Friday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 67. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Saturday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 85. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Saturday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 61. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Sunday: Partly sunny, with a high near 75.
Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 57.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 80.
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) — A 49-year-old Missouri man who served nearly 20 years in prison for first-degree murder has been freed after a judge criticized how the homicide investigation was handled and the state’s top prosecutor recommended that charges be dismissed.
David Robinson was greeted with hugs as he emerged around 10 p.m. Monday from the Jefferson City Correctional Center.
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley reviewed a judge’s ruling in February that found a police detective was “lacking in candor or competence, or both.” That detective’s investigation helped send Robinson to prison for life in the fatal shooting of Sheila Box in Sikeston in 2001. The detective has resigned.
Hawley also evaluated the evidence available for a retrial. Since Robinson’s sentencing, another man has confessed to killing Box and two witnesses have recanted.
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CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) – Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley is recommending that charges be dismissed against a man who has served nearly 20 years in prison for the death of a southeast Missouri woman.
Hawley announced Monday that his office is recommending David Robinson of Sikeston be released from prison. Robinson has been behind bars since 2001 for the killing of Sheila Box, who was shot to death after leaving a Sikeston bar.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled May 2 that Robinson’s constitutional rights had been violated during the investigation into Box’s death and during his trial.
Prosecutors presented no physical evidence tying Robinson to the crime and two key witnesses recanted statements that Robinson was the killer. Another man confessed to the murder in 2004 but the confession was never introduced as evidence.
It was not immediately clear when Robinson will be released from prison.
HOWARD COUNTY — One person died in an accident just before 6p.m. Monday in Howard County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 1999 Ford F250 driven by Skyler M. Head, 22, Higbe, was eastbound on Route O just west of Route BB. The pickup traveled off the right side of the road and the driver overcorrected. It traveled off the left side of the road and overturned.
EMS transported passengers Ronnetta M. Head, 51, and Isaiha T. Gibson, 17, both of Higbe, to University Hospital where she died.
A private vehicle transported the driver to University Hospital.
Ronnetta Head was not wearing a seat belt, according to the MSHP.
DE SOTO, Kan. (AP) — Authorities have found the body of a man who was swept away in the Kansas River while trying to rescue a young child.
Johnson County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Paul Nonnast says 40-year-old Rogelio Paredes-Nino apparently drowned. His body was found around 9:45 a.m. Monday.
Nonnast says Paredes-Nino and another man tried to help after the child began to struggle around 5 p.m. Sunday at a boat ramp at Roverfest Park in De Soto. The city is about 25 miles (40.23 kilometers) west of Kansas City, Missouri.
Nonnast says one of the men was rescued a short time later and is hospitalized in stable condition. He says the child made it safely to shore. Crews searched for Paredes-Nino until darkness fell and resumed their efforts when it was light again.
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DE SOTO, Kan. (AP) — Authorities have rescued one man from the Kansas River and are searching for another.
Just after 5p.m. Sunday, crews were called to a boat ramp at Roverfest Park in De Soto, which is about 25 miles west of Kansas City.
Police say two men were swimming with family along a sand bar. One of the men was found downstream and was able to be rescued. He is now in stable condition.
Todd Maxton, the interim chief of with Johnson County’s Northwest Consolidated Fire District, says the search for the other man was suspended as darkness fell. Several departments had helped with the search, including a Kansas Highway Patrol helicopter crew.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Missouri House has voted to allow landlords to keep security deposits in their business bank accounts instead of in separate trust accounts.
The bill, approved Monday in a 101-43 vote, would let security deposits be mixed in with other funds. Currently, landlords must keep deposits in a separate trust account.
Proponents say this will make it easier for landlords to get tenants their money, and will save landowners time and money.
Opponents say this puts tenants’ money at risk, because it will make it easier for landlords to spend the security deposits.
The bill now heads back to the Senate, which already approved an earlier version
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Nearly 90 people have been arrested in Missouri’s capital as part of a nonviolent protest against poverty, racism and other issues.
Several dozen demonstrators sat in a downtown Jefferson City street and refused to leave Monday as part of Poor People’s Campaign protests across the country, including in neighboring Kansas.
Jefferson City police Capt. Robert Clark says 88 people were issued summonses for obstructing a lawful police order to move. He said that’s a misdemeanor charge.
Clark said a summons is technically an arrest, but no one was taken to the police station or jail. Police issued summonses to protesters on a nearby street corner.
Nearly 50 demonstrators were cited by police for protesting in the middle of the street during another Poor People’s Campaign rally in North Carolina.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is loosening up its laws on brews and booze by authorizing self-serve beer taps, allowing longer hours for bars and taverns and legalizing candy laced with alcohol.
Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer signed a bill Monday that makes the changes. He said during a ceremony on a downtown Topeka sidewalk that the legislation shows Kansas is forward-thinking and willing to help entrepreneurs.
The new law takes effect later this month and ends the state’s status as one of the few that don’t allow self-serve beer taps. The provision was inspired by plans for a new downtown Topeka restaurant near the Statehouse.
The new law will also allow bars, taverns and restaurants to begin serving alcohol at 6 a.m. rather than 9 a.m. and permits liquor stores to sell alcohol-laced candy.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens declared victory Monday as prosecutors abruptly dropped a felony invasion-of-privacy charge alleging he had taken a revealing photo of a woman with whom he has acknowledged having an affair.
The St. Louis circuit attorney’s office said it hopes still to pursue the case, either through a special prosecutor or an appointed assistant. But Greitens’ attorneys said the case was crumbling under a lack of evidence and doubted any charge would ever be refiled.
The first-term Republican governor still faces plenty of other problems. The Legislature is to convene Friday in a monthlong special session to consider whether to impeach Greitens in an attempt to remove him from office. And Greitens still faces a second felony charge for allegedly disclosing a donor list from a St. Louis-based veterans’ charity he founded for use in his political campaign.
Greitens, who has long denied any criminal wrongdoing, emerged from the courthouse Monday with at least a momentary vindication.
“Today the prosecutor has dropped the false charges against me. This is a great victory and it has been a long time coming,” Greitens told reporters outside the St. Louis circuit courthouse. “This experience has been humbling and I have emerged from it a changed man.”
The prosecutor’s surprise move, announced after the third day of jury selection, came after the judge granted a request by Greitens’ lawyers to call St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner as a witness. Greitens’ defense team has repeatedly criticized Gardner’s handling of the case, particularly her hiring of private investigator William Tisaby, whom Greitens’ lawyers have accused of perjury.
“The court’s order places the Circuit Attorney in the impossible position of being a witness, subject to cross-examination,” including by her own subordinates, Gardner spokeswoman Susan Ryan said in a statement.
It “leaves the Circuit Attorney no adequate means of proceeding with this trial,” Ryan said. “Therefore, the court has left the Circuit Attorney with no other legal option than to dismiss and refile this matter.”
She said a decision will be made later to either seek a special prosecutor or appoint one of Gardner’s assistants to proceed.
Greitens, 44, was charged with felony invasion of privacy for allegedly taking and transmitting a photo of an at least partially nude woman without her permission in 2015. If convicted, Greitens could have faced up to four years in prison. Greitens has denied criminal wrongdoing but has declined to directly answer questions about whether he took the photo.
Earlier Monday, Greitens’ attorneys said in court that prosecutors had stopped searching for evidence of the photo after failing to find it on Greitens’ cellphone or in cloud storage.
“The case was going nowhere. There was no evidence to support any of the elements,” Greitens’ attorney Jim Bennett told reporters after the charge was dropped.
Defense attorneys have cited a litany of concerns about Gardner’s handling of the case. Among other things, they accused Tisaby, a former FBI agent, of lying when he said he did not take notes when he and Gardner on Jan. 29 interviewed the woman involved in the affair. A video of the interview belatedly provided to defense lawyers appears to show Tisaby taking notes.
Greitens has rejected calls to resign from both Republicans and Democrats since he first admitted in January that he had an affair before he was elected governor in 2016.
The woman, who has been identified only as K.S. in court filings, has testified that Greitens bound her hands to exercise equipment in March 2015 in the basement of his St. Louis home, blindfolded her and removed her clothes before she saw a flash and heard what sounded like the click of a cellphone camera. She has said Greitens threatened to disseminate the photo if she spoke of their encounter but later told her he had deleted it.
Greitens’ indictment in February prompted the Missouri House to launch its own investigation. It released a report in April containing more testimony from the woman that Greitens had restrained, slapped, shoved, threatened and belittled her during a series of sexual encounters that at times left her crying and afraid.
The committee released a second report May 2 with testimony about how Greitens’ gubernatorial campaign had used a donor list from The Mission Continues without the charity’s permission. A trial date has not yet been set for the charge he faces in St. Louis for allegedly disclosing the donor list to his political fundraiser.
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5 p.m.
Prosecutors have dropped an invasion-of-privacy charge against Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, but say they plan to re-file the case with a special prosecutor.
Assistant St. Louis Circuit Attorney Ronald Sullivan made the surprise announcement Monday in court after the third day of jury selection in Greitens’ trial.
Sullivan cited the fact that Greitens’ defense attorneys planned to call the St. Louis circuit attorney, whose handling of the case has been under constant criticism by Greitens attorneys.
Greitens’ defense team has particularly focused on the prosecutor’s hiring of a private investigator, William Tisaby, whom Greitens’ lawyers have accused of perjury.
The Republican governor was accused of taking and transmitting a nonconsensual photo of an at least partially nude woman with whom he had an affair in 2015.
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3 p.m.
Jury selection has been moving slowly and methodically in the criminal trial of Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens.
More than half of the prospective jurors are being dismissed, either because of time constraints or potential biases. The selection process now is expected to go into Tuesday.
Legal experts say it’s not usual for jury selection to move slowly in high-profile cases. Jurors aren’t required to know nothing about the allegations against Greitens. But his attorneys have been trying to exclude those who may have difficulty setting aside their opinions.
Greitens is charged with felony invasion of privacy for allegedly taking and transmitting a photo of an at least partially nude woman without her consent in 2015.
The Republican governor has acknowledged having an affair but denied criminal wrongdoing.
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10:15 a.m.
A lawyer for Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens says prosecutors have stopped looking for the photo in connection with his felony invasion of privacy trial, a contention a prosecutor did not dispute in court.
The charge against Greitens stems from his allegedly taking and transmitting a photo of a partially nude woman during a sexual encounter in 2015. Prosecutors have acknowledged that they did not have the photo but left open the possibility that they would obtain it.
Defense lawyer Jim Martin said Monday that the circuit attorney’s office told Greitens’ team Friday that they had obtained information from the cloud but did not have a photo. Martin said prosecutors said they had stopped pursuing a photo.
Judge Rex Burlison asked prosecutor Ronald Sullivan if he had a response to the defense’s contention, and he said he did not.
Jury selection continues Monday.
