ST. LOUIS (AP) — A new Missouri state rule aimed at protecting wildlife from lead poisoning means that hunters will no longer be allowed to use lead shot in additional conservation areas across the state.
Unlike bullets, shotgun shells are filled with small pellets that are often made of lead. St. Louis Public Radio reports that the Missouri Department of Conservation added 16 conservation areas where hunters must use nontoxic shot, bringing the total number to 37. The new regulations went into effect in March.
The goal is to protect birds like ducks and geese that may mistake pellets for small stones, which they eat to help grind their food. Lead exposure can be fatal for some birds.
Eagles and other bird species may also scavenge animal remains and accidentally ingest lead shot.
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas felon wanted on a felony warrant for burglary who escaped a traffic stop.
Just after 3a.m. Sunday, deputies conducted a traffic stop in the 4500 block of SE Oak Bend Drive in Shawnee County, according to Sgt. Todd Stallbaumer.
Thompson -photo Shawnee Co.
The driver Tanner James Thompson, 24, was taken into custody for a felony warrant for Burglary as well as traffic related charges.
During the course of deputies investigating Thompson’s vehicle and circumstances of the incident, Thompson escaped custody. An extensive search continued early Sunday afternoon with a heavy law enforcement presence in the SE part of Shawnee County looking for Thompson.
He is described as 6-foot tall, 175 pounds and was last seen wearing a blue shirt and black pants. He has previous convictions for aggravated battery and burglary, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A long-standing debate over when the school year should begin is back before Missouri lawmakers, who are considering a bill that would restrict public schools from beginning the academic year until late August.
Rep. Jeff Knight
The bill, which would prohibit schools from starting earlier than 14 days before the first Monday in September, pass the House by only four votes and now heads to the Senate.
Supporters include tourism officials and groups representing tourism-related businesses such as amusement park operators, hotel and campground owners and river outfitters, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported .
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jeff Knight, a Republican from Lebanon, said earlier school years are hurting tourism because families are ending summer vacations in early August. Later start times would give businesses more time to make money, said Knight, who represents a district south of Lake of the Ozarks.
“Tourism is very significant in this state,” Knight told members of the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday.
Darin Keim of Big Surf Waterpark at the Lake of the Ozarks said the summer season for his business has dropped from 105 operating days to 85 because of earlier school times. Lobbyist Jason Zamkus said Silver Dollar City, an amusement park near Branson, has had 100,000 fewer visitors in the past decade. And 47 canoe operations have gone out of business in recent years, said Michelle Lambeth of the Missouri Canoe & Floaters Association.
Opponents of the change include the Missouri National Education Association, the Missouri State Teachers Association and the School Administrators Coalition.
Mike Reid, of the Missouri School Boards’ Association, said locally elected public school boards should decide when school years start in their community.
“What happens in Poplar Bluff is going to be different than in Kansas City,” Reid said.
Education representatives said the earlier start times allow districts to give final exam before winter break and allows more time before standardized tests are given in the spring. They also said the earlier start prevents holding classes in June to make up for snow days.
The issue of when school years should start has been debated for decades. In 1983, lawmakers held a similar debate about prohibiting schools from opening until after Labor Day because of tourism concerns. The law was last changed in 2006, when lawmakers gave school districts the power to set their calendars, if they hold a public hearing. That came after the Legislature passed a law in 1992 allowing urban and suburban districts to open before Labor Day. Previously, only rural districts could start before the holiday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Hembert Figueroa just wanted a taco.
So he was surprised to learn the dollar bills in his pocket were no good at Dos Toros Taqueria in Manhattan, one of a small but growing number of establishments across the U.S. where customers can only pay by card or smartphone.
Cash-free stores are generating a backlash among some activists and liberal-leaning policymakers who say the practice discriminates against people like Figueroa, who either lack bank accounts or rely on cash for many transactions.
Figueroa, an ironworker, had to stand to the side, holding his taco, until a sympathetic cashier helped him find another customer willing to pay for his meal with a card in exchange for cash.
“I had money and I couldn’t pay,” he said.
The issue got some high-profile attention this week when retail giant Amazon bowed to pressure from activists and agreed to accept cash at more than 30 cashless stores, including its Amazon Go convenience stores, which have no cashiers, and its book shops. Amazon declined to say when the change would happen.
There is no federal law that requires stores to accept cash, so lawmakers are working on the issue at the state and city level.
Earlier this year, Philadelphia became the first city to ban cashless stores, despite efforts by Amazon to dissuade it. New Jersey passed a statewide ban soon after, and a similar ban is working its way through the New York City Council. Before this year there was only one jurisdiction that required businesses to accept cash: Massachusetts, which passed a law nearly 40 years ago.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas legislator is suggesting that the state treasurer should drop his bid for the U.S. Senate because he “needs to be at home, helping to raise his young children.”
State Treasurer Jake LaTurner responded Friday that state Sen. Gene Suellentrop’s comments were “cowardly.”
Jake LaTurner was sworn in April 2017 as the 40th Kansas State Treasurer-Photo office of Kansas Governor
LaTurner is a Republican running for the seat held by four-term GOP U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, who is not seeking re-election in 2020. LaTurner is the only candidate to have filed so far, but at least seven other Republicans are considering the race.
The 31-year-old LaTurner has four young children.
Suellentrop is a 67-year-old Wichita Republican and made his comments about LaTurner in a tweet responding to a news report about the race.
LaTurner replied that Suellentrop should “be a man” and talk to him personally.
Ray Alvarez remembers the summer he couldn’t make ends meet driving children to school.
“I did qualify for food stamps,” the Olathe school bus driver said. “And yes, I accepted them. My income was so low.”
Alvarez has driven buses off and on for a decade. The financial crisis back then upended his livelihood as a mortgage broker, he says.
He and other drivers urged a panel of state senators recently to consider letting them apply for unemployment during the 70 or so days each year when schools are closed for the summer. The bill stalled in committee.
When Kansas school districts contract with private companies for janitors, food service workers, bus monitors and more, those employees can seek unemployment benefits if they can’t find work during the offseason.
Bus drivers can’t. That’s because of a decades-old carve-out in state law that state officials couldn’t explain. The Kansas Department of Labor checked on 10 nearby states and found eight let privately employed school bus drivers apply for unemployment. Two don’t.
Advocates of dropping the state’s carve-out argue it isn’t fair — nor helpful at a time when bus drivers are in short supply here and nationally, and jobless rates remain exceptionally low.
Mimi Horn has driven for the Lawrence school district for five years and says new employees — who earn less and are less likely to snag a coveted summer school route — struggle especially.
Even during the school year, many drivers can count on only a few hours of work each day, making it hard to cover rent, utilities or other bills.
“Two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon.” Drivers, Horn said, “have to not pay something in order to pay the other. Rob Peter to pay Paul.”
Could unemployment benefits help?
Starting pay for Lawrence bus drivers is $15 an hour. Pay at Horn’s level of experience is closer to $16. Raises top out after 13 years at $18.
‘I’ve seen some of them, in the summertimes they go to the food banks. They have to rely on food stamps.’
A Teamsters union representative said the company that Lawrence Public Schools contracts with, First Student, has repeatedly raised pay to entice more applicants.
The question is whether letting drivers apply for unemployment during the summer might help companies hire and retain them in Kansas. (The proposed change wouldn’t affect drivers employed directly by public school districts, who still wouldn’t qualify for reasons related to a federal law.)
Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, a Wichita Democrat, urged her fellow senators to think again if they imagine retirees who don’t want a full-time gig will do the driving.
“More and more individuals who are bus drivers transporting our most precious cargo to and from schools — that is their main livelihood,” she said at a legislative hearing. “I’ve seen some of them, in the summertimes, they go to the food banks. They have to rely on food stamps.”
First Student, which lobbied for the bill, says turnover is higher among its drivers in Kansas than in states where its drivers can seek summertime unemployment benefits.
The company brought more than 20 drivers from Minnesota to pick up routes in Wichita that lacked drivers at the start of this school year in August. It raised starting pay to $16 in September.
That helped, a spokeswoman for the company said by email, but “we do believe the bill would further help.” Right now, drivers who quit when school ends often mention the need for summer work.
The unemployment change faces opposition from the Kansas Chamber, the state’s influential business lobby. Taxes paid by businesses fuel the state unemployment fund.
“How do we ensure parity and fairness with the rest of the business community?” Lobbyist Kristi Brown asked senators at a hearing. “When you’re asking a certain group that you anticipate will be a seasonal position to be able to withdraw from that fund, I think there needs to be an expectation for the company that employs them to be paying in appropriately.”
Brown warned against drawing from a once ailing fund that the state fought to make healthy.
Lawmakers sympathetic to the drivers’ plight argued the state would take that into account.
Companies contribute more or less into the state’s unemployment system based on factors such as the size of their payrolls and how often their employees end up on the benefits.
And when a person seeks benefits, the Kansas Department of Labor considers how they became unemployed, how long they worked, whether they’re actively looking for work or turning down jobs, and other details, before paying out.
What about paying drivers year-round?
A representative for First Student told senators the company spends $3,000 to train each new employee, and more just to find them. For every 10 applicants, only two get hired. Hurdles include earning a specialized license and passing a background check for criminal and traffic violations.
Some senators wondered whether the company should explore other options, such as keeping more drivers on its summer payroll to save on recruiting and training.
‘Have you done the cost analysis, if you just simply paid them for 72 days?’
“Have you done the cost analysis,” Topeka Republican Eric Rucker asked, “if you just simply paid them for 72 days?”
First Student says letting employees apply for unemployment would be cheaper, even given that the company would need to pay higher taxes into the state’s unemployment fund.
Moreover, First Student, said if it compensated drivers year-round, that would show up in the price it charges districts.
Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ.
DEKALB COUNTY — Four people were injured in an accident just before 2:30p.m. Saturday in Dekalb County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2007 Ford Edge driven by Shirley M. Kelly, 32, Maysville, was westbound on U.S. 36 two miles west of Stewartsville.
The Ford rear-ended a John Deere tractor driven by Mark C. Deshon, 57, Clarksdale. The impact pushed the tractor off the north side of the road where it overturned.
Dekalb County ambulance transported Kelly, passengers in the Ford Gunnar Kelly, 5, Maysville; Joshua E. Coleman, 25, Maysville, and Deshon to Mosaic Life Care. The occupants of the Ford were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP.
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal shooting and have arrested a suspect.
Just after 8:30 a.m. Friday, police responded to a shooting call at a home in the 800 block of south Emporia in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.
Upon arrival, officers located 21-year-old Justin Lane of Grain Valley, Missouri, deceased with a single gunshot wound to the head. Lane was pronounced dead on the scene.
KANSAS CITY—A Kansas City man has been charged with seven counts of distributing crack cocaine, two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking and one count of distributing 28 grams or more of crack cocaine.
Simpson photo Wyandotte Co.
Lionel Simpson, 21, Kansas City, Kansas, allegedly committed the crimes in February, March and April 2019 in Wyandotte County, according to the United States Attorney. Upon conviction, the charges carry the following penalties:
Distributing crack cocaine (counts 1-5, 7 and 8): Up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $1 million.
Possession of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking (counts 6 and 10): Not less than five years consecutive to any other sentence imposed and a fine up to $250,000.
Distributing 28 grams or more of crack cocaine (count 9): Not less than five years and up to life imprisonment and a fine up to $5 million.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Catani is prosecuting.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Kansas finally abandoned a Prohibition-era rule that restricted certain stores to only sell beer with up to 3.2% alcohol content, but the stronger beer that’s now allowed doesn’t contain much more alcohol.
Kansas this month ended its law dating back to the 1930s, allowing groceries and convenience stores to stock beer with up to 6% alcohol by volume. Beer drinkers are unlikely to notice a big difference because the outdated law measured alcohol by weight but alcohol is now measured by volume.
Chantel Fletchall, who handles brand registration for the Kansas Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, said that a 3.2% beer measured by weight contains as much alcohol as a 4% beer measured by volume.
Popular light beers, such as Miller, Coors and Bud Light, are between 4.1% and 4.2% alcohol by volume. For a 12-ounce can of light beer that wouldn’t have been permitted under the old law, it might contain just seven to 14 more drops of alcohol than the 3.2 variety.
Regular beers from the same brands have 5% alcohol by volume, which is roughly three-quarters of a teaspoon more alcohol per 12-ounce can than the 3.2% varieties.
But the change still helps brewers, according to Michael Uhrich, chief economist for the national industry group Beer Institute.
“When you operate a beer business across several states, it’s always easier if you can produce the same products for sale in every state,” he said. “Raising the limit to 6% alcohol by volume won’t mean that every beer will be available in grocery stores, but popular brands will be there, and the brands that will be available will no longer have to be brewed exclusively for Kansas.”
The law change that went into effect this month also allows liquor stores to sell more non-alcoholic products, such as shot glasses, mixers, lottery tickets and tobacco products.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A barred owl caught a lucky break when a snorkeler banded with wildlife officials to rescue the bird from a fishing line tangled in trees above the James River.
Bill Hulsebus was visiting the Springfield Conservation Nature Center last week when he came across the injured owl. Hulsebus tells the Springfield News-Leader that firefighters attempted to release the owl’s wing from the line, but their equipment couldn’t reach.
He says conservation officials had fastened a tree trimmer to a long pole when a snorkeler nearby realized he could help. The man waded into the cold river and used the pole to cut the line, freeing the owl.
Volunteers took the owl to a rehabilitation center, where it was given a feather transplant to repair its damaged wing.
