WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today pledged to continue her push to better protect America’s embassies and diplomatic personnel after a State Department Inspector General’s (IG) report detailed significant lapses in oversight of the local embassy guard vetting process that put U.S. embassies and personnel at risk.

“At a time when our high-risk embassies and diplomatic personnel must be more vigilant than ever, I’m very troubled by the Inspector General’s findings that these facilities were put at risk by poor vetting and inadequate oversight,” said McCaskill, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial & Contracting Oversight. “These lapses are unacceptable, and it’s my hope that this report forces the State Department to take a very hard look at who we should be allowing to protect these facilities and the men and women who work there-and whether that job can’t be done more safely and effectively by diplomatic security or the U.S. military.”

The IG’s report found that none of the security contracts it reviewed fully followed the vetting requirements for local embassy guards-and that this inadequate oversight placed embassies and personnel at risk. Security contractors charged with vetting local guards did not maintain complete personnel files for those guards. The IG also found three of the six contracts it reviewed did not complete the vetting process for local guards prior to placing them on duty at embassies, and that one security contractor at an embassy had not been paying the local guards in accordance with the contract terms.

McCaskill previously held a hearing on security contracts at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, which revealed that the State Department had found deficiencies by its contractor that put the embassy’s security in jeopardy. Following that hearing, McCaskill introduced the Enhancing Oversight and Security at United States Missions Act, that would require the Departments of State and Defense to create concrete plans to increase oversight of private security contractors, as well as to improve training standards and to set a more appropriate ratio of United States government security personnel to private security contractors.

 

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A conservative Kansas House member is accusing Koch Industries of trying to punish him politically for questioning the company’s lobbying against the state’s renewable energy standards for utilities.

Olathe  Republican Scott Schwab contends the Kansas Chamber of Commerce isn’t endorsing him in the Aug. 5 Republican primary because of a confrontation he had with Koch lobbyists last year.

The chamber and Koch Industries oppose a law requiring utilities to have renewable resources such as wind account for 20 percent of their total capacity for generating electricity by 2020. Schwab says he told Koch lobbyists to testify publicly against the law rather than remain behind the scenes. He’s since voted to preserve the law.

Koch Industries declined comment. Kansas Chamber CEO Mike O’Neal said Monday that Schwab’s allegation is without merit.

 

LAWRENCE — The National Alliance on Mental Illness-Kansas has announced some of the details for its eighth annual summit for police, emergency medical workers and others to learn more about crisis intervention teams.

The event is set from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sept. 18 at the Mustard Seed Church in Lawrence.

It is co-sponsored by the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center, Kansas Law Enforcement CIT Council, Kansas Sheriff’s Association and Kansas Department of Corrections.

Crisis intervention teams generally are the result of local initiatives aimed at improving the way police and others respond to people who are experiencing a mental health crisis.

There are teams in place in more than 600 communities nationwide including Topeka, Hutchinson, Emporia, Wichita and Johnson County.

The September summit will include an update on the new Law Enforcement Behavioral Health Advisory Council, which wasannounced last month by Gov. Sam Brownback as part of an initiative aimed at strengthening the delivery of mental health services across the state.

For more information about the summit click here.

More than 20 percent of Kansans reported experiencing some form of mental illness in the previous 12 months, according to a recent federal survey. Less than half of those reported receiving treatment.

IRONTON, Mo. (AP) — An Amtrak passenger who climbed out or fell from a moving train was found in a wooded area of southeast Missouri with a broken leg.
Iron County Sheriff Roger Medley says the unidentified woman was reported missing Saturday night on the Texas Eagle train from Chicago to San Antonio. Some local youths found her sitting on the tracks Sunday morning near Annapolis, Missouri.

The woman, whom Medley said was likely in her 80s and appeared disoriented, was flown by helicopter to a St. Louis area hospital.
Medley said the train was traveling at least 50 miles per hour in the area where the woman is believed to have disembarked. He said Amtrak workers realized she was missing when they found an open window on an emergency exit door.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The winter wheat harvest is getting off to a soggy start in Kansas.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that about 2 percent of the crop has been cut. That is better than last year, but well behind the 19 percent average for mid-June.

Statewide, about 28 percent the wheat is mature. Seventy-one percent is ripe in south-central Kansas, where growers have begun cutting between rainfall.

Steve Inslee, manager at OK Co-op Grain elevator in Kiowa, says there is so little wheat that nobody is excited about getting it out of the fields.

Inslee says yields have been ranging from 8 to 20 bushels an acre, with averages of about 12 bushels. Early test weights of 58 pounds a bushel have been falling with each rainfall.

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is recalling 3.2 million more cars in the U.S. because of ignition switch problems.

The company says it will change or replace the keys on the cars from the 2000 to 2014 model years.

GM says the switches can unexpectedly move out of the “run” position if the cars are jarred, such as by going over railroad tracks or a pothole. That can shut off the engines and disable power steering.

The recall is part of a GM review of ignition switches after the company recalled 2.6 million older small cars earlier this year for a similar problem.

GM also is recalling 166,000 other cars for a series of problems.

And the company raised its expected second-quarter charge for recall expenses to $700 million.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Columbia man has pleaded guilty in a traffic accident that killed a woman from Camdenton.
Dennis Leporin pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder, driving while intoxicated and other charges filed after the March 2013 collision that killed 19-year-old Chelsea Fredrickson.

Investigators say Leporin was driving the wrong way on Highway 54 south of Jefferson City when his truck collided with Fredrickson’s car. A passenger in Frederickson’s car was seriously injured.

The Lake Sun Leader reports Leporin had a DWI conviction in 2011 in Camden County and a history of other traffic-related charges.
He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 13.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The state of Missouri has denied a request to supervise the probation of a white supremacist who unsuccessfully tried to take control of a small North Dakota town.
Craig Cobb, 62, was sentenced to four years of probation in April for terrorizing residents of Leith (leeth), where he’d tried to establish an all-white enclave.

The Missouri native said during his sentencing that he wanted to return to that state to care for his elderly mother.
North Dakota Corrections Department spokesman Tim Tausend says Missouri denied Cobb’s request because “he has had little or no contact with his mother for the past 40 years.”

Authorities say Cobb has been living in Bismarck since his release from jail, where he spent nearly half a year before reaching a probation deal with prosecutors.
North Dakota authorities will continue to supervise Cobb’s probation. Tausend says he doesn’t know if Cobb has requested transfer to another state that could accept him through an interstate compact that regulates the supervision of adult offenders.

AUGUSTA, Kan. (AP) — Police have identified two brothers found dead at their southeast Kansas home, but it’s still not known how they died.

The Butler County Times Gazette reports the two were identified Monday as 53-year-old Jeffrey Neal Jones and 50-year-old Brett Alan Jones.

The brothers shared a home in Augusta, where police responded to a call Friday afternoon about a man who collapsed outside the house. Police Chief Tyler Brewer says officers realized that man was deceased, then went inside and found the other man dead.

Brewer says the deaths were not suspicious. The bodies were taken to the Wichita Forensics Center to determine the cause of death. The investigation continued Monday.

A joint graveside service is scheduled Thursday afternoon at Augusta’s Elmwood Cemetery.