DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Federal inspectors have repeatedly ordered a southeast Iowa fur farm to improve the living conditions for ferrets, foxes, raccoons and skunks it sells to government laboratories and pet stores.
U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection reports say animals lived in sweltering heat or maggot-infested filth, sometimes with decomposing corpses in their cages at Ruby Fur Farm, located 65 miles (105 kilometers) southeast of Des Moines.
Owner Randy Ruby declined to discuss the reports. But a spokeswoman at an animal business advocacy group says some of the inspectors’ claims were exaggerated and when there were problems Ruby addressed them.
No enforcement action has been taken, but animal rights groups want the farm’s animal dealer license revoked and animals removed.
A USDA spokesman has declined to say whether enforcement action is under consideration.
Brisk temperatures today will transition to increasing temperatures this weekend and into next week. Light rain showers are possible Saturday, though rain totals should generally remain below a tenth of an inch. Additional rain chances will return as early as Tuesday and well into the mid-week. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Today: Partly sunny, with a high near 40. East southeast wind 7 to 9 mph.
Tonight: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 35. Southeast wind around 9 mph.
Veterans Day: Patchy drizzle before noon, then areas of drizzle with a chance of rain after noon. Cloudy, with a high near 47. South wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Saturday Night: Areas of drizzle with a chance of rain before midnight. Cloudy, with a low around 39. Calm wind becoming north northwest around 6 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Sunday: Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 52. North wind 5 to 7 mph.
Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 30.
Monday: Sunny, with a high near 56.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 47.
Tuesday: A chance of showers after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 61. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Tuesday Night: A chance of showers before midnight, then a chance of rain after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 43. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 58.
Wednesday Night: A chance of rain. Partly cloudy, with a low around 41. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Thursday: A chance of rain. Partly sunny, with a high near 60. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
MCDONALD COUNTY — A Missouri man died in an accident just after 9p.m. Thursday in McDonald County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2011 Chevy Equinox driven by Eh B. Htoo, 23, Noel, was traveling on Missouri Highway 93 three miles east of Southwest City. The vehicle crossed the center line and hit a 2005 Chevy Colorado driven by Robert Rosillo, 36, Southwest City, head-on.
Rosillo was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Ozark Funeral Home in Anderson.
Two passengers Robert Rosillo, 10, and Israel Serrano,12, both of Southwest City were transported to Mercy Hospital in Springfield in serious condition.
Passengers Damian Rosillo, 8, and Maria Serrano, 31, both of Southwest City, were transported to a hospital in Joplin. Htoo was not injured.
Robert Rosillo was not wearing a seat belt, according to the MSHP.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to life in prison in a fatal shooting during a botched robbery outside a Kansas City, Kansas, bar.
The Kansas City Star reports that 20-year-old Filiberto Espinoza Jr. won’t be eligible for parole for 25 years under the sentence ordered Thursday for first-degree felony murder.
Prosecutors allege that Espinoza and co-defendant Efrain Gonzalez confronted 29-year-old Louis Scherzer in November 2016 and that Scherzer was shot in the back when he turned to get away.
Scherzer was a union steward who worked for the Board of Public Utilities in Wyandotte County. His fiancee, Ellie Long, was among the family and friends gathered inside the bar at the time of the shooting. She said the crime “stole my future.”
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a pair of parking lot armed robberies and search for a suspect.
At approximately 7:45pm, a woman told police she was unloading her car in the 1400 Block of SW Tyler in Topeka when an older black compact passenger car pulled up next to her. One of the passengers, described as a white male, 20’s, with no facial hair, wearing a dark colored hoodie, pointed a black handgun at her and demanded her purse.
The suspect and vehicle then fled the area. This suspect description matches that given in the robbery at 1801 SW Wanamaker. In that instance, the suspect robbed a woman of her purse as she was walking in the parking lot at 1801 SW Wanamaker.
The suspect then got into a vehicle described as a dark passenger car and fled the area. The victim was not injured.
Anyone with information about these robberies is encouraged to call the Topeka Police.
ST. LOUIS (AP) – Gov. Eric Greitens has appointed a fifth person to the Missouri Board of Education.
Greitens appointed Marvin Jungmeyer of Russellville to the board on Thursday. Jungmeyer is a political independent from Jefferson City. He would replace Joe Driskill, who resigned this week, citing work obligations.
Grietens has now appointed five of the eight current board members.
The Missouri Senate must approve the appointments.
The governor has indicated he wants to oust current Missouri Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven and would need five board members’ votes to do so.
The state school board appoints the commissioner, accredits school districts, approves and renews charter schools, and sets state academic and testing standards.
Three previous Greitens appointments to the board have withdrawn from consideration.
LAKE OZARK, Mo. (AP) – A man has been charged with killing two people at a central Missouri campground after he was evicted.
Fifty-eight-year-old Gary Sweet, of Rolla, was charged Wednesday with two counts of first-degree murder and other charges. He’s jailed without bond. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.
Authorities began investigating after gunfire was reported early Wednesday at the Riverview RV Park and Campgrounds along the Osage Beach River in Lake Ozark. Court records say two people were found dead from apparent gunshot wounds in a bed in the living quarters of the park’s office.
A married couple also reported that shots also were fired into their RV around midnight and that the man was wounded. Court records say a man matching Sweet’s appearance was seen on surveillance video.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court is divided over whether a law requiring criminal offenders to register with local authorities after prison represents extra punishment.
A 4-3 majority has concluded that registration for sex, drug and violent offenders is not extra punishment. Its latest decision came Thursday in the appeal of Djuan Richardson.
He was convicted of selling cocaine in Sedgwick County in 2003 and pleaded guilty to violating the offender registration law in 2011. He later sought unsuccessfully to withdraw that plea.
Registration for drug offenders was mandated after Richardson’s first conviction. He argued it was unconstitutional to apply the requirement to him.
But in a series of rulings starting last year, the court’s majority has said offender registration is not punishment but a regulatory scheme that can be applied retroactively.
FAUCETT, Mo. – The Route DD Bridge over I-29 is open as of Thursday evening.
Emery Sapp and Sons of Columbia, working with the Missouri Department of Transportation, closed the bridge to all traffic Aug. 25, for a bridge replacement project.
While the bridge over the interstate will open, there is still work to do. The contractor has tentatively scheduled ramp work for Monday, Nov. 13. They plan to close one ramp at a time for paving. The plan is to close the southbound off ramp first at approximately 7:30 a.m., followed in order by the southbound on ramp, northbound off ramp and finally the northbound on ramp. As with all planned work, schedules are subject to change.
There may be other work both on and off the roadway around the bridge and the ramps as the contractor completes the project. MoDOT encourages all motorists to slow down, buckle up, eliminate distractions and drive safely to ensure motorists and workers alike are able to Arrive Alive.
For more information about this and other MoDOT projects, call 1-888-ASK-MODOT (888-275-6636) or visit modot.org/northwest and view the online Traveler Information Map. In addition, MoDOT provides updated information on Twitter @MoDOTNorthwest and Facebook at www.facebook.com/MoDOTNWDistrict.
Kansas Sec. of State Kobach at meeting of President Donald Trump’s commission on election fraud
WASHINGTON —A member of President Donald Trump’s commission on voter fraud sued in federal court on Thursday, alleging that the commission is violating federal law by excluding him and others from participating and refusing to provide documents available to other members.
The lawsuit, filed by Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap in Washington, D.C., claims violations of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. It asks the court to compel the commission to hand over all documents he’s requested, share all future documents, to include him in all communications and to prevent the release of any final report until he has had a chance to review it.
“My goal in filing this lawsuit is to bring the commission into full compliance with FACA, which would allow me and all of my fellow commissioners to fulfill our roles as full, participating members and provide a meaningful report to the President upon concluding our work,” Dunlap said in a statement.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican who serves as the commission’s vice chair, blasted the lawsuit as “baseless and paranoid.” He said he hasn’t received any communications either, and said the commission’s work has been stalled by eight lawsuits, the unrelated arrest of a staff member and the death of a fellow commissioner.
“Ironically, Dunlap’s lawsuit is only going to increase the workload faced by Commission staff and Department of Justice Attorneys,” Kobach said in a statement.
Emails seeking comment from the office of Vice President Mike Pence, who chairs the commission, and Andrew Kossack, the commission’s executive director, were not immediately returned. All three are named defendants, along with the Executive Office of the President, which is staffing the commission and maintaining its records. The lawsuit was filed on Dunlap’s behalf by American Oversight, a watchdog group.
The commission has spurred controversy from the moment it was established in May. Its first significant action was to request a wide range of information about all registered voters in every state, including partial Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses and voting history.
Critics say Trump is using the commission to find support for his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud that cost him the popular vote during the 2016 election. Democrat Hillary Clinton received 2.8 million more votes nationwide than Trump.
After facing strong criticism from both Republican and Democratic state officials, the commission scaled back the request but questions remain over how useful the information will be since 15 states have refused to participate, according to a survey by the Associated Press.
Dunlap’s lawsuit said Trump, Pence and Kobach included the four Democrats serving on the 11-member panel “to provide a veneer of legitimacy by making the commission’s membership bipartisan.” Instead, the lawsuit said, “the Commission and its staff have compromised the legitimacy of any findings that may emerge from this process.”
While there have been isolated cases of voter fraud in the U.S., there is no evidence of it being a widespread problem.
Critics have said the commission is stacked with people who favor voting restrictions, rather than expanding access, and has a predetermined agenda that will result in recommendations making it more difficult for people to register to vote, remain registered and cast ballots.
Last month, the Government Accountability Office agreed with a group of U.S. senators to investigate their concerns of a lack of transparency. Democratic senators have filed at least five separate requests for information with the commission since June, and a Sept. 12 follow-up letter noted that none had received a response.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law also is suing, alleges the commission is violating federal open meetings and disclosure laws. Kristen Clarke, the group’s president, said Dunlap’s lawsuit shows how chaotic and dysfunctional the commission has been.
“That its own members are in the dark about the way that the Commission operates and deliberates makes clear that this Commission is no more than a tool to advance this administration’s voter suppression agenda,” Clarke said in a statement.
Brisk temperatures today will transition to increasing temperatures this weekend and into next week. Light rain showers are possible Saturday, though rain totals should generally remain below a tenth of an inch. Additional rain chances will return as early as Tuesday and well into the mid-week. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
AUCETT, Mo. – The Route DD Bridge over I-29 is open as of Thursday evening.
