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McCaskill, Blunt pitch Missouri cities for Amazon HQ2

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri’s U.S. senators are pitching the Kansas City and St. Louis metropolitan areas as potential sites for Amazon’s second headquarters.

Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill and Republican Sen. Roy Blunt touted the state’s infrastructure, central location and hiking trails as big pluses in a copy of a letter to Amazon provided by McCaskill’s office Monday.

McCaskill and Blunt say Missouri has a “rich history of fostering technology companies.” They also touted public transportation, professional sports teams and the state’s colleges and universities.

Amazon in September opened the search for a second headquarters and promised to spend more than $5 billion on the site. The Seattle-based company says it would bring up to 50,000 jobs.

Kansas City and St. Louis are among many North American cities vying to become Amazon’s second home.

Police: 2 Mo. inmates escape jail through air duct

Joseph P. Latamondeer-photo Pemiscot Co.

CARUTHERSVILLE, Mo. (AP) – Authorities are searching for two inmates who escaped Sunday from the Pemiscot County jail.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports Monday that 27-year-old William J. Carter is charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of his estranged wife and a man.

The other escaped inmate is 41-year-old Joseph P. Latamondeer. He is charged in connection to a domestic assault and kidnapping case.

Carter-photo Pemiscot Co.

Police say the men should be considered dangerous.

They reportedly escaped through an air duct and then jumped a fence at the Pemiscot County Justice Center in Caruthersville.

Kobach gets help from Pres. Trump’s son in Kan. governor’s race

Donald Trump, Jr. -courtesy photo

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s run for the Republican nomination for Kansas governor is getting a boost from President Donald Trump’s son.

Kobach announced Monday that Donald Trump Jr. will be in Kansas on Nov. 28 for a campaign fundraiser. Kobach is vice chairman of the President’s commission on election fraud.

So far 18 candidates — 11 Republicans, six Democrats and an independent — have appointed treasurers or committees for a campaign for governor next year, a requirement to raise money.

Kobach says in a news release it is an honor that Trump Jr. will join his campaign “at this important time.”

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback is term-limited and is expected to step down this fall to become U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

K-State apologizes after stadium breast pump confusion

Katie Doyle -courtesy photo

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas State University has apologized to a concession worker who complained on Facebook about being told she would have to put her breast pump in a clear plastic bag before entering the football stadium.

Katie Doyle, of Holton, said she was humiliated by the experience Saturday. The mother of a 5-month-old son says she decided against putting the pump in a clear bag because she didn’t think anybody wanted to look at the milk-covered pump parts.

She also told the Post, “Kansas State contacted me to apologize. I feel the issue has been handled.”

Kansas State began requiring clear bags for ticketed athletic events last school year, although breast pumps are exempted as medically necessary. Kansas State senior associate athletic director for communications, Kenny Lannou, says there will be more staff training.

Doyle said that a security official was “very apologetic.”

Panel to review complaint against Mo. lawmaker over Confederate monument comment

Rep. Love – courtesy photo

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri House Ethics Committee is reviewing a complaint against a lawmaker who called for the vandal of a Confederate monument to be hanged.

It will hold a hearing Monday at the Capitol on the complaint against Republican Rep. Warren Love.

Love expressed hope in a Facebook post that whoever vandalized the monument in Springfield, Missouri, would be “hung from a tall tree with a long rope.”

Love has said he was using old cowboy jargon, but Democrats calling for his resignation have said his words evoke images of lynchings of black people.

Senators voted in September to formally discipline a black, Democratic colleague who posted on social media that she hoped for President Donald Trump’s assassination.

The differing responses to the lawmakers

St. Joseph police ask for help to locate man for parole violation

CHRISTIAN J BANKS

The St. Joseph Police Department is asking the public for help locating a man wanted for a parole violation.

Christian Jordan Banks, 24 of St. Joseph is being sought by authorities. Capt. Jeff Wilson said officers believe Banks is in the St. Joseph area.  Little other information was provided.

Anyone with information as to Banks’ whereabouts is asked to contact police or call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 238-TIPS.

MSHP: 3 Mo. teens killed, 1 hospitalized after vehicle hits a tree

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. (AP) – Authorities say three teenagers have been killed and another injured in a southeast Missouri crash.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol identified those killed as 14-year-old Cody Logan, 16-year-old Camille McCain and 16-year-old Linda Schulz. The crash happened Saturday night when the car Schulz was driving crossed the center of a Butler County road, went off the left side and struck a tree north of Poplar Bluff.

Schulz and McCain died at the scene. Logan was pronounced dead at a hospital early Sunday.

A 14-year-old who survived the crash was flown to a Memphis, Tennessee, hospital with serious injuries.

Operation Safe Driver Week underway in Missouri

(Photo courtesy Missourinet)

Law enforcement agencies through the nation including Missouri are taking part in heightened traffic safety enforcement and education outreach this week to urge motorists to drive safely in and around commercial vehicles

According to a news release, Oct. 15-21 is the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliances’s Safe Driver week. The Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety, said throughout the week, enforcement personnel will identify and issue warnings and/or citations to commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers and passenger-vehicle drivers exhibiting unsafe driving behaviors on roadways.

Speeding, distracted driving, texting, failure to use a safety belt, traveling too closely, improper lane change, failure to obey traffic control devices and other issues are things the coalition said law enforcement personnel will be tracking throughout the week.

The coalition said, 132 people were killed and 4,034 injured in Missouri traffic crashes involving a CMV in 2016. The agency offers some safety tips to help keep everyone safe when sharing the road with large commercial vehicles:

  • Don’t cut off large trucks or buses when passing. Make sure you can see the top of the truck or bus in your rearview mirror before moving back into your original lane.
  • Stay out of the “No Zone.” Big trucks have large blind spots on either side and up to 200 feet behind a vehicle. Pass only on the left side.
  • Watch your following distance. Keep a 20-25 car length distance around trucks. Can you see the driver in the truck’s side mirrors? If not, the driver cannot see you.

For more information on the Operation Safe Driver Campaign CLICK HERE.

(Photo with story corrected)

The Latest: Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl pleads guilty to desertion

Bergdahl

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on the court-martial of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked off his post in Afghanistan (all times local):

10:20 a.m.

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl told a military judge he’s pleading guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.

His lawyer says the prosecution and defense have not agreed to a stipulation of facts in the case, which is an indication that they did not reach a deal to limit his punishment.

Bergdahl is charged with endangering his comrades by walking away from a remote post in Afghanistan in 2009.

He told the judge that he now understands that what he did caused others to search for him.

___

3 a.m.

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is expected to plead guilty Monday to charges that he endangered comrades by walking away from a remote post in Afghanistan in 2009.

The U.S. Army said Bergdahl asked to enter his plea before the military judge at Fort Bragg. The Associated Press previously reported that he’s expected to plead guilty to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.

It’s not clear if Bergdahl, 31, has a deal with prosecutors to limit his punishment, or if he’s simply pleading guilty in hopes of leniency from the judge, Army Col. Jeffery R. Nance. The misbehavior charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, while the desertion charge is punishable by up to five years.

Guilty pleas would bring the highly politicized saga closer to an end eight years after Bergdahl’s disappearance in Afghanistan set off search missions by scores of his fellow service members. President Barack Obama was criticized by Republicans for the 2014 Taliban prisoner swap that brought Bergdahl home, while President Donald Trump harshly criticized Bergdahl on the campaign trail.

Meanwhile, serious wounds to service members who searched for Bergdahl are expected to play a role in his sentencing. While guilty pleas would allow him to avoid a trial, he’d still face a sentencing hearing in late October. Bergdahl’s five years of captivity by the Taliban and its allies also will likely play a role in what punishment he receives.

Bergdahl’s lawyers are expected to reveal in court Monday whether there’s a plea agreement in place to cap his punishment, or if he’s pleading guilty without such a deal in what’s known colloquially as a “naked plea.” In either scenario, his punishment won’t be known until after the judge holds the sentencing hearing that’s expected to start on Oct. 23. Bergdahl, who’s from Hailey, Idaho, previously chose to have his case heard by a judge alone, rather than a jury.

Legal scholars have said that several pretrial rulings against the defense have given prosecutors leverage to pursue stiff punishment against Bergdahl. Perhaps most significant was the judge’s decision in June to allow evidence of serious wounds to service members who searched for Bergdahl at the sentencing phase. The judge ruled that a Navy SEAL and an Army National Guard sergeant wouldn’t have wound up in separate firefights that left them wounded if they hadn’t been searching for Bergdahl.

The defense also was rebuffed in an effort to prove President Donald Trump had unfairly swayed the case with scathing criticism of Bergdahl, including suggestions of harsh punishment. The judge wrote in a February ruling that Trump’s campaign-trail comments were “disturbing and disappointing” but did not constitute unlawful command influence by the soon-to-be commander in chief.

Defense attorneys have acknowledged that Bergdahl walked off his base without authorization. Bergdahl himself told a general during a preliminary investigation that he left intending to cause alarm and draw attention to what he saw as problems with his unit. He was soon captured.

But the defense team has argued that Bergdahl can’t be held responsible for a long chain of events that included many decisions by others on how to conduct the searches.

The military probe of Bergdahl began soon after he was freed from captivity on May 31, 2014, in exchange for five Taliban prisoners. Facing Republican criticism, Obama noted that the U.S. doesn’t leave its service members behind.

Bergdahl has been assigned to desk duty at a Texas Army base while his case unfolds.

Boil order issued in Holt County

A boil order was issued Monday morning for Holt County Rural Water, the City of Craig and the Village of Big Lake.

Officials said they are currently investigating an issue. Samples have been sent off for testing. A boil order is in place until further notice.

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