(Missourinet) – The University of Missouri has launched a plan that aims to save students money on the cost of their textbooks.

System President Mun Choi launched a system-wide plan to use Open Educational Resources (OER), or class materials that are free for students, and AutoAccess, which is a program that makes textbooks and class materials available online at a lower cost than traditional learning resources.

A working group of faculty, staff and students will be formed this summer to develop a system-wide strategy to increase awareness of affordable and open resources and incentivize the transition to those resources.

“Some students don’t purchase required textbooks because it’s too expensive; it ends up hurting their academic success,” said Nathan Willett, president of the Missouri Students Association. “Any time we can make textbooks or course materials more affordable, it’s a win for students, and the university is still able to provide the same high-quality education.”

Currently, some campuses are already using online resources to reduce the costs of textbooks for students. The working group will review that progress and see how the resources can be shared throughout the system.

“The issue of textbook prices is part of a larger national conversation that is happening in universities throughout the country,” said Scott Curtis, learning and research librarian at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Libraries. “As a library at a major research institution, we provide thousands of educational resources to our students, faculty and staff every day, which enhances the educational opportunities available to students. This affordable and open educational resources initiative is a collaborative effort among our faculty, staff, students and librarians across every University of Missouri campus.”

The average textbook savings for university students varies. Choi said the initiative will help offset an estimated $200 tuition increase per student during the coming academic year.

(Missourinet) – Three State Representatives are questioning the motivation of University of Missouri System president Mun Choi’s push to rescind Bill Cosby’s honorary degree from the Columbia campus.

Choi made his request at the Board of Curators meeting this week in Columbia.

Cosby is facing multiple lawsuits from women accusing him of sexual assault. The St. Louis Post Dispatch quoted Choi as saying Cosby’s actions are “incongruent with our values of respect, of treating people with respect. It is for that reason I will be making a recommendation to the board of curators to revoke his degree.”

The Representatives, fronted by Democrat Courtney Curtis of Ferguson, suspect Choi could be trying to divert attention from a recent case of rape on the University of Missouri’s Kansas City campus.

The lawmakers recently expressed concern that the university system plans to enforce a policy requiring all freshman to live on campus when, they say, it hasn’t successfully dealt with the rape culture. Curtis said he thinks Choi’s Cosby announcement could very well be an effort to deflect attention from the issue.

“It seems to be,” Curtis said.  “Or it’s something that could make him look as though he’s a proactive leader, and he wants to set the tone. But you can’t do that when you haven’t done the basic things.”

Missourinet obtained a copy of an email dated Tuesday from Rep. Curtis to Choi stating certain requests, and asking Choi to be present at an upcoming committee hearing.

One of the requests is for a comprehensive review of what caused a security breakdown at the Kansas City campus that ultimately led to a student being raped on campus in February.

In that instance, surveillance video showed a male student carrying a female student who appeared to be passed out into a building late at night. The path would have taken them directly by a security desk, which is supposed to be manned 24/7.

The email asks for the review of the breakdown to be presented to the House panel all three sit on, the Urban Issues Committee. It also requests the university system adopt an exemption to the mandatory policy that freshman students live on campus if they don’t feel safe.

The email further requests that all students be informed of the new policy, and that security be provided 24/7 in the campus dorms.

The correspondence also asks for Choi’s presence in front of the House Urban Issues Committee to discuss, on record, matters they’ve previously discussed.

The email leaves open the time and date of the hearing until it’s determined what will happen with special legislative sessions being called by Governor Greitens.

The move to require freshman stay in dorms has been billed by the university system as a way to generate revenue after a funding reduction and falling enrollment. Curtis said he is critical of the move, given the recent history of sexual assault on campus.

“I guess they want to call it a budget crisis or whatever,” Curtis said. “They’re going to force the freshman strictly to live on campus. As someone who fights for people to be protected in every environment, it doesn’t make me feel good.”

Curtis is joined in his requests of UM System President Choi by Representative Clem Smith, D-Velda Village Hills, and Representative Brandon Ellington, D-Kansas City.

(Missourinet) – A state audit finds that Missouri’s tax credit programs have cost $5.4 billion over the past decade and will cost the state $3 billion more for at least the next 15 years.

Tax credits are authorized by the state legislature to give businesses or individuals a break on taxes owed to the state of Missouri. State Auditor Nicole Galloway said her office’s report also shows a $50 million understatement of outstanding tax credits reported in fiscal year 2016.

According to the audit, the current process makes it difficult for policymakers to get access to information about the cost of the tax credits because of incomplete or inaccurate information provided by the Department of Economic Development and other state agencies. Additionally, Galloway said legislators do not have a clear picture of the amount of tax credits allowed under the law because funding limits are unclear for some programs and non-existent for others.

“Policymakers need accurate and realistic data on tax credits in order to weigh the social and economic benefits against the impact on the state’s finances,” Galloway said. “The General Assembly must demand more from the agencies that are charged with administering these programs.”

Tax credits are not considered state expenditures and may be redeemed years after issuance. Galloway said the impact on the state’s budget can be volatile. She said even if the number or amount of tax credits were reduced immediately, the state’s financial obligation would continue well into the future.

“Tax credit programs serve a purpose, but each one must be regularly analyzed for efficiency, effectiveness and to ensure they meet desired purposes,” Galloway said. “Budgets are about priorities and the impact tax credits have on the budget has to be considered.”

Galloway, a Democrat, said tax credits have been redeemed at a 20% increase in Missouri over the past 10 years.

During Republican Governor Eric Greitens’ state of the state address this year, he said “insiders are gaming this system.” According to Greitens, nearly $2 billion has been promised to special interests since 2010.

A complete copy of Galloway’s report is available online here.

MARION COUNTY – The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) is investigating an officer involved shooting which occurred Tuesday night in Marion County.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office contacted the KBI just before 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 20 to request assistance following an officer involved shooting. KBI agents and the Crime Scene Response Team responded to conduct the investigation.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call reporting an escalating argument and domestic incident involving a male relative who had access to firearms. Law enforcement officers responded to 408 E. Maria in Lehigh, Kansas at approximately 6:20 p.m.

The preliminary information indicates that shortly after arriving, they observed an armed male subject moving from the residence to a large outbuilding, which was located to the north of the house. At that time, responding officers from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, the Marion Police Department, and the Hillsboro Police Department surrounded the outbuilding. Approximately 15 minutes later, the subject emerged from the building with his firearm. He was given commands by authorities to drop his gun, and did not comply. Shots were fired by an officer at the scene.

EMS was then called to the location and pronounced the male subject deceased. He has since been identified as 50-year-old Robb Stewart. Stewart lived at the residence.

No law enforcement officers were injured during this incident, however, an officer was transported to the hospital as a precautionary measure. The officer has since been released.

The KBI will complete a thorough and independent investigation into this matter. Once completed, the findings will be turned over to the Marion County Attorney for review.

This investigation is ongoing. No further information will be released at this time.

(Missourinet) – An attorney representing convicted child molester William Hopkins argued for the Missouri Supreme Court to toss out the state’s Sexually Violent Predator law.

Lawyer Chelsea Mitchell told the judges they should scrap the law because it doesn’t allow for those who are declared Sexually Violent Predators to ever be unconditionally released.

“The statute on its face is punitive because it would never allow discharge,” Mitchell said.

In court documents filed by Mitchell, she contends the Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) Act is punitive, and in violation of the constitution because it doesn’t provide protections such as the Double Jeopardy clause (where a person can’t be prosecuted for the same crime twice).

The state counters that those protections only apply if the act is criminal in nature, and notes the Missouri high court has already held the Sexually Violent Predator Act to be civil, not criminal, in nature.

In 2015, a federal court in St. Louis held that Missouri’s SVP Act was not unconstitutional on its face, but in violation as applied. The federal bench has not determined what remedies will be applied in that case.

The Hopkins case currently before the state high court could be consequential in determining the legality of the act, or if there are remedies to bring it in compliance with the law.

Prisoners found guilty of a sexually violent crime are declared SVPs when there is probable cause to believe that they are likely to engage in sexually violent predatory criminal behavior upon their release.

William Hopkins was serving his term for first degree child molestation when he completed the state’s offender treatment program. Before his release from prison, the state alleged he was an SVP and filed to have him committed to the state.

After a series of court hearings in which Hopkins tried to have the motion dismissed, a jury found him to be an SVP and a circuit court committed him to the custody of the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

Once committed as an SVP, incarcerated inmates become patients and are sent to the state psychiatric hospital, either in Farmington or Fulton, where they are entered into the Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services, or SORTS, program.

Once there, they can only be “conditionally” released, meaning they will always be under state supervision after being let out into the public. Patients can advance through various stages of incarceration based on their success in treatment.

Very few patients have been released since the SVP law was enacted. The are currently 146 patients at the Farmington facility, the largest of the two hospitals offering the SORTS program.

In court documents, Hopkins’ attorney Mitchell argued that the passage of time and experience demonstrates that being committed under the Sexually Violent Predator Act “is punitive, lifetime confinement.”

She argued that such conditions are punitive, and therefore unconstitutional, even if the state Supreme Court had already determined the Sexually Violent Predator Act to be a civil, not criminal, act.

Before the state Supreme Court, Mitchell said that under the law as it now stands, Hopkins would be unjustly committed for life.

“This is the ultimate confinement. Mr. Hopkins’ custody will never end,” Mitchell said. “He will never be out of government control now that he has been committed as an SVP. It’s statutorily impossible under the current version of our law.”

Mitchell asked the court to declare the law unconstitutional.

“If we want to commit someone in Missouri, let’s do it with integrity,” Mitchell said. “Let’s send it back to the legislature and say, ‘You must comply with constitutional standards,’ and this version of the law doesn’t.”

Hopkins was convicted of child molestation in 2007 at age 18 in northeast Missouri’s Marion County.

As is its custom, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments last Wednesday, and will deliver an opinion sometime in the future.

(Missourinet) – Studies say reductions in bee populations endanger 75% of farm crops and the pollination of flowers on more than 85% of flowering plants worldwide.

According to biological science professor Candace Galen, University of Missouri researchers have created an inexpensive way to eavesdrop on bees to try and boost food production.

For more than 100 years, scientists have used sound to monitor birds, bats, frogs and insects. The university has expanded that same concept to observe pollinating insects.

Microphones are attached to storage containers that collect sounds and gather information on the close bee population.

“If you’re a parent and you are trying to figure out how your kid is doing, the number one thing you first need to do, if you have a teenager like I do, is you need to figure out where they are and who they are with,” Galen said. “That’s the same for our bees.”

Using the data, researchers have developed algorithms that identify and quantify the number of bee buzzes in each location and compare that information to visual surveys the team make in the field. In almost every instance, the acoustic surveys have picked up more buzzing bees.

Using the algorithms developed in this study, the team is developing a smartphone app that could record buzz activity as well as photograph the bees. Galen said future studies could determine whether bees detect competitors by sound and whether flowers have chemical responses to bee buzzes.

Missouri has nearly 300 different kinds of native bees, according to Galen.

“Some of them are doing pretty well and some of them are doing not so well,” Galen said. “Here in Missouri, some of my favorite crops, like apples, berries, squash and tomatoes require bee pollination.”

The study, published in PLOS ONE, shows how farmers could use the technology.

(Missourinet) – The state treasurer has launched an effort to return unclaimed property to Missourians.

According to State Treasurer Eric Schmitt (R), more than $988 million in unclaimed property is waiting to be returned.

“I mean almost $1 billion of money that we’re the custodians of, and we want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to financially empower people by getting their money back to them so they can use it how they see fit,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt’s office is publishing the names of 145,000 unclaimed property owners in more than 100 newspapers across Missouri this week.

The average unclaimed property return is about $300.

“We had a family actually in St. Charles reach out to us recently, they got $3,000 in unclaimed property and it really changed their lives,” Schmitt said. “They were able to pay some bills, get back on their feet.”

Schmitt encourages individuals to check showmemoney.com to see if they have unclaimed property.

Schmitt, who was elected in November, said one in ten Missourians have unclaimed property.

Missouri law requires the notices to be published in newspapers annually, in order to list names of people whose unclaimed property valued at $50 or more has been turned over to the State Treasurer’s office during the past year.

Schmitt has returned more than $13 million to about 50,000 account holders, since taking office in January.

Schmitt, who is Missouri’s 46th State Treasurer, served two terms in the Missouri Senate. The Glendale Republican served in the Senate from 2009-2016.

(Missourinet) – With the Missouri legislature engaged in a second special session and Governor Greitens indicating there could be more coming, lawmakers are expressing frustration with the grinding process.

Senators and Representatives elected to spend roughly four months conducting the public’s business in Jefferson City don’t know when, or even if, they’ll stop returning to the Capitol to address more legislation.

Greitens told Missourinet in late May that he was considering additional sessions this year to get some of his priorities passed. He also said the state constitution only allows him to call one issue per special session, an interpretation that’s been roundly disputed by Democratic lawmakers.

The exact wording in the state constitution states, “On extraordinary occasions he may convene the general assembly by proclamation, wherein he shall state specifically each matter on which action is deemed necessary.”

There’s also been criticism over what qualifies as an “extraordinary occasion.”

Senator Ryan Silvey, a Republican as is Greitens, said he and the governor have vastly different interpretations of what extraordinary is.

“If he calls us back again, unless it’s for some emergency, disaster, something extraordinary, I probably will not be supportive of that special session either,” Silvey said.

Members of Missouri’s citizen legislature started showing signs of strain over the unpredictable schedule during the first special session.  At the time, House Republican Rocky Miller of Osage Beach expressed frustration over being pulled away from his job.

“This is a part-time job,” Miller said. “I do run an engineering company, so anytime they’ve got me up here working on this, I’m not working for my family or producing in my home town and it makes it hard on us.”

Miller also acknowledged he knew special sessions were possible when he took the job as a lawmaker.

During the run up to his first call for extra legislating, Greitens accused the General Assembly of under-performing.

“Some career politicians failed to do their jobs and then went home,” Greitens said. “That’s wrong. We’re cancelling their summer vacations and calling a special session to get this done.”

Blatant displeasure with the governor’s words and actions has has been on display over the past week.

Standing by their guns, Governor Greitens’ office responded to criticism from lawmakers over the extra time at the Capitol.

“They’re angry that the Governor is shaking up Jefferson City and won’t accept their excuses for failure any longer,” Greitens’ spokesperson Parker Briden said in a statement. “Temper tantrums from career politicians don’t bother us. It’s just more evidence that Governor Greitens is an outsider who is doing what he said he would do: taking on politicians in both parties to get results.”