(Missourinet) – A Missouri lawmaker wants to modify the state’s judicial nominating process just as a high court position has opened up.

The death of Judge Richard Teitelman leaves the Supreme Court short one seat. The Appellate Judicial Committee will now interview applicants from which it will choose three finalists to place before the governor for appointment.

State Senator Dan Hegeman (R-Crosby) is sponsoring a proposal which would expand the selection process by requiring the committee to place all applicants it deems qualified before the governor. He says some worthy candidates don’t even apply because they don’t think they’ll have a chance.

“I think that, in visiting with local attorneys, judges, prosecutors and such, I think some of them do feel stifled about the process and don’t even apply, because they’re from rural northwest Missouri,” said Hegeman.  “They’re from rural Missouri.  They’re not in the loop on some of these things.  And even though they may very well be extremely qualified for the position, the process and the selection of only three applicants, really stifles their belief that they have an opportunity to be considered.”

Teitelman was considered a liberal voice on the court, having spent nearly a quarter century at a St. Louis firm which represents low income people, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri.

Even though Teitelman’s seat is now open, Hegeman, a Republican, contends his proposal has no political implications and is not motivated by rulings in which Teitelman could have been a deciding vote.

“(The proposal) doesn’t deal with the rulings of the state Supreme Court.  It really deals with the process of selecting judges, and wanting to open up that process, and allowing more individuals the opportunity to be considered.”

The state’s method for selecting appellate and Supreme Court judges is widely known as the Missouri Plan.   It emerged in 1940 after citizens became skeptical of urban political party bosses who were thought to be manipulating partisan elections of judges.

The plan has been praised for being nonpartisan, and has been adopted in some form by numerous other states.  Hegeman notes his plan doesn’t dismantle that system.

“The purpose of the bill is to make a tweak to it, so it’s evident that I would like to see some changes to it. Therefore, the resolution to open up the process.”

Hegeman introduced the same legislation last session, but it failed to move beyond the committee level.  If lawmakers approve it in 2017, the proposal will still go to a public vote because it makes a change to the state constitution.

(Missourinet) – A state lawmaker who helped develop Missouri’s budget during the last recession wants to be the state Senate’s next budget leader.

Sen. Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City) currently serves as the Appropriations Committee’s vice chair. He hopes to replace outgoing Budget Committee Chair and Columbia Republican Senator Kurt Schaefer.

“We’re staring down another deficit. There’s been a lot of turnover in government,” Silvey said. “With term limits, with the new administration coming in, believe it or not I’m the only person in state government who’s actually written a state budget before. All the others have term limited out.”

He blames increasing costs of entitlement programs, particularly Medicaid, for Missouri’s budget deficit. According to Silvey, the programs have outgrown budget estimates by several hundreds of millions of dollars in the middle of the fiscal year.

“Getting a handle on those programs is going to be key or we’re always going to be underwater moving forward,” Silvey said.

He says the state budget process has been his focus. Silvey has chaired or vice chaired an appropriations-related committee during 10 of his 12 years in the legislature.

“When I was budget chairman in the House, it was during the two deepest years of the last recession. In one year, I think we cut close to a billion dollars out. The deficit we’re looking at I think is a fraction of that,” Silvey said. “But having gone through that experience and balance the budget during the worst part of the recession, I certainly think that I would have the perspective to be able to handle this one as well.”

The Senate President Pro Tem must appoint a chair, which will likely happen in early January.

(Missourinet) – Remains of a 1952 military plane crash victim have been identified as those of a man with family in Missouri.

Army Private Robert Dale Card, originally of Kansas, was among 52 service members killed when their C-124 Globemaster crashed into Mount Gannett in Alaska. The Past Conflict Repatriations Branch has confirmed to Missourinet that the remains have been identified as Card’s. The organization is under the Army Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operation Center (CMAOC) at the Army Human Resources Command (HRC) in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

The plane’s debris was hidden with snow and vanished soon after the 1952 accident, but was rediscovered in 2012. It had been carried some 16 kilometers from the crash site by the Colony Glacier.

Card has family in Springfield, including his niece Tonya Card.

“I think they all deserve to be brought home, whatever can be found. It’s nice for the families to have something to bury,” says Card. “It’s nice for the relatives that continue living to know a little bit about their family tree. My kids have enjoyed hearing about it and I have pieces of the plane in pictures. They’ve gotten to take those to school and take about it to their friends. Preservation is important.”

She says her father, Norman, was 17 when his brother died. Card says he has shared more memories about Robert since the rediscovery of the plane’s wreckage.

He describes Robert as being a very quiet and hard-working guy with a good sense of humor.

“Dad has often said that he (Robert) and I look alike. We kind of have the same eyes and mouth. Every now and then he’ll comment that we have a similar expression,” says Card.

Norman Card, who is a Korean War veteran, joined the Marines a year after his brother’s death.

Card says a funeral service will take place early next year, after other remains from the wreckage still being identified are released.

Efforts to recover remains continue each year with a goal of finding remains from all 52 men aboard that plane on November 22, 1952.

(Missourinet) – The Missouri Transportation Department calls pedestrian fatalities a growing problem in the state.

It contends people are using their feet more and more as a mode of transportation due to concerns over money, health and the environment.

The agency reports 83 pedestrian deaths so far this year, which MoDOT’s Kelly Jackson says, will only rise over the rest of December.

“There were 98 at this time last year,” said Kelly. “Although we’re a few behind, as the rate is going, we will be well above the 104 that we finished with last year.”

The agency says lifestyle choices and economic conditions are leading more people to travel by foot. Some citizens don’t have access to a vehicle, aren’t physically capable of driving, or delay or decide not to get a license.

Jackson says the increasing use of transit raises the risk of pedestrian involved accidents.

“Anyone using the transit system first begins their commute with a walk to the bus stop,” said Jackson. “When they get back, they’ll walk from the bus stop. So it’s important to remember that, even though they are using the transit system, they’re still beginning and ending their commute with a walk.”

Failure to yield is the leading contributor to driver caused fatalities, while walking on the roadway is the top pedestrian action leading to death.  Jackson notes there’s significant danger when driver’s inadvertently become pedestrians.

“After an accident or after your vehicle is disabled, if you pull over on the side of the road, we have had some fatalities where people were exiting their vehicles on the driver’s side and stepped out into traffic.”

MoDOT says 10 percent of all Missouri traffic fatalities are from pedestrians being struck. Among those attributed to pedestrian actions, 13 were the result of people standing, sitting or lying in the road and 12 were caused by people walking or running in traffic. With driver caused incidents, use of mobile devices has increasingly become a contributing factor with distracted driving.

MoDOT provided Missourinet with tips for avoiding vehicle-pedestrian collisions from The Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety:

• Always stay inside a disabled vehicle if it is safe to do so, so the vehicle can protect you.  The vehicle is much more visible to oncoming traffic than a pedestrian standing in the roadway.
• Never walk distracted by texting, talking or using headphones.
• Make yourself visible to motorists by wearing light colored clothing, and always make eye contact with drivers when possible.
• Always use designated crosswalks and obey crosswalk signals when available.

(Missourinet) – A lawmaker’s proposed legislation to eliminate a panel which is now considering whether to award tax credits for a St. Louis soccer stadium.

Republican state Senator Rob Schaaf has filed a bill to strip the Missouri Development Finance Board, or MDFB, of its power to grant loans or issue bonds or tax credits. He contends the board has already wasted millions of dollars in a failed attempt to build a second football stadium for the now departed Rams.

Schaaf doesn’t mince words over what the board’s currently discussing.

“So now if MDFB is going to get $40 million to build a soccer stadium, then I think they just need to go away.”

The city of St. Louis has applied to the Development Finance Board for $40 million of state tax credits to help finance a stadium for a future Major League Soccer team. The board is expected to announce its decision on December 20th. St. Louis is also poised to ask city taxpayers to approve $80 million to go toward the stadium in an April election.

Schaaf is highly critical of outgoing Democratic Governor Jay Nixon’s recent moves to restrict Medicaid spending by almost $41 million, while calling for the NDFB to meet and consider the $40 million tax credit request from St. Louis city for the stadium.

He says Nixon attempted to steer hundreds of millions of tax payer dollars toward building a second St. Louis football stadium in an effort to keep the NFL Rams from moving. Schaaf contends that, at the same time, the MDFB was draining taxpayer money for the same purpose.

“They’ve cost us many millions of dollars that we’ll never get back that they spent trying to build the second St. Louis football stadium, which didn’t pan out,” said Schaaf. “We’re out all those millions of dollars.”

The Rams moved to California this year after plans for a $1 billion stadium fell through.  The Development Finance Board had pledged $50 million in state tax credits to assist in building the structure. Schaaf noted the state is still spending $12 million a year on the first football stadium built for the Rams, which they moved into in 1995.

He’s filed another measure which more broadly addresses the use of tax dollars for sports complexes. Senate Joint Resolution 2 would block the state from entering into an agreement with any sports complex authority which would require the state to pay back any newly issued bonds without legislative or voter approval.

Schaaf says it would put an end to the use of state taxpayer money for stadiums. The resolution, if passed by the legislature, would be required to go to a public vote because it would make changes to the state constitution.

Schaaf thinks it will be warmly received.

“I think the people of Missouri would vote for it overwhelmingly.”

(Missourinet) – The U.S. Labor Department has driven a Missouri businessman to pay a price for cheating employees.

Gary Walker of Lee’s Summit is the former owner of Magic Touch Cleaning.  He recently reached a plea agreement in federal court for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.  As a result, he reimbursing employees double the amount he underpaid them.

Scott Allen of the Labor Department says Walker showed a flagrant disregard for the law.

“Someone being told that you and your spouse would have to split a paycheck for 80 hours of work, despite the fact that each of you worked 80 hours. It seems ridiculous, but this is what the case was with Magic Touch Cleaning.”

Allen continued to run down a list of infractions the company committed under Walker.

“Specifically, Magic Touch was paying multiple employees with one check, made payable to just one of the workers, and expecting them to share the wages,” said Allen.  “They were also paying for overtime at straight time on checks made out to other employees as well.”

According to Allen, the Labor Department will often catch an employer mistakenly shortchanging employees.  He notes the employer will usually correct the problem quickly.

But he says Walker showed continuous blatant disregard for labor laws.

“There’s a big difference between making an honest mistake, and trying to, if you will, rob these people of their rightful wages.”

Under his plea agreement, Walker will repay the employees double what he underpaid them, and do five years’ probation.  From 2010 to 2013, he was found to have underpaid his employees $98,242 in regular and overtime wages. The court ordered he repay $196,484 in $50,000 increments each year until the full amount is paid off.  Other violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act his company committed include:

• Falsifying employee’s names, timesheets and other payroll records.

• Failing to pay workers for time spent traveling between work sites.

• Failing to accurately record daily and weekly work hours and earnings paid.

• Failing to provide final paychecks to at least four workers.

(Missourinet) – A gun control advocacy group contends Missouri is headed in the wrong direction in protecting the lives of law enforcement personnel.

The organization Everytown for Gun Safety recently released a report showing 200 officers have been wounded or killed in shootings this year. Its data reveals Missouri has the third highest rate of those incidents in the country.

Sarah Tofte with Everytown for Gun Safety says law enforcement personnel have become especially vulnerable since the state repealed background checks.

“A significant amount of research is out there shows that background checks work,” said Tofte.  “And in particular, it shows that background checks make law enforcement officers safer.  The past work we’ve done shows that in states with background checks on all handgun sales, you see 48 percent fewer law enforcement officers killed with hand guns.”

State Representative Marsha Haefner (R-Oakville) doesn’t think background check laws would provide officers with more safety.

“I would like to see some data before anyone connects those dots, so see if the shootings on these police officers were done with people who legally possessed the fire arm,” said Haefner.  “My guess is that’s not the case.”

Haefner doubts anyone who would be willing to commit a crime against a police officer would make an effort to obey gun laws.

She introduced legislation to make certain offenses, including shootings against law enforcement and first responders, hate crimes.  Haefner notes she filed the same measure last year, and is not responding to any recent surge in gun violence against law enforcement personnel.

A similar measure was introduced last Thursday by an incoming state representative from the St. Louis area.  The Springfield News-Leader reported Nick Schroer (R-O’Fallon) said protecting law enforcement and first responders is a pressing concern, and that he hopes hate crime status would work to deter future attacks.

Two officers, one each in St. Louis and suburban Kansas City, were shot on the same day – November 29^th – just over two weeks ago.

As far as Missouri having the third highest rate of gun violence against law enforcement personnel, Tofte, with Everytown for Gun Safety says much of the problem can be attributed to the state’s repeal of its background check law in 2007.

“There’s been quite a bit of research on the impact that repeal has had on communities in Missouri,” said Tofte.  “Essentially what you see is gun homicide rates have gone up significantly.  There’s been about a 25 percent increase in gun homicides in Missouri since the background check law was repealed.”

Everytown for Gun Safety strongly opposed a new statute this year which allows Missourians to carry concealed weapons without permits or training.  The group notes the state police union – Missouri Fraternal Order of Police – also attempted to discourage lawmakers from passing the measure.

Tofte says Everytown for Gun Safety will campaign against efforts to eliminate more gun restrictions in the upcoming legislative session which starts January 4th.

“I know there will be a fight in this session around campus carry, around allowing guns on campus.  We will be there for that because those kind of laws make communities less safe.”

The group’s recent report placed Missouri behind only Alaska and New Mexico for gun violence against law enforcement personnel

(Missourinet) – Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has helped decorate the Capitol Christmas tree in Jefferson City, saying the holidays are a time to reflect on what Missourians are thankful for.

First-grade students from Immaculate Conception School in Jefferson City have helped the Governor decorate the Christmas tree outside of the Governor’s Capitol office.

“For many Missouri families, a Christmas tree is a timeless tradition. Last Friday, the First Lady and I turned on the lights at the trees of the Governor’s Mansion, and hundreds of people came through to see the decorations and be welcomed to those great sounds of Missouri choirs,” Nixon says.

Nixon says Missourians are thankful for their families, friends, faith and traditions.

Governor Nixon has signed a proclamation, declaring December 2016 as Christmas tree month in Missouri.

“Whereas the Missouri Christmas Tree Association strives to provide high-quality Christmas trees to consumers, and to promote the benefits of the Christmas tree industry to our state’s economy and environment,” says Nixon.

Nixon says Missouri has a long history of having some of the best Christmas tree farms in the country.

Jackson-based Meier Horse Shoe Pines donated the Capitol Christmas tree, and the Christmas wreath has been donated by Eileen Meert of Meert Tree Farm in Festus. Jackson and Festus are both located in southeast Missouri.

Meier and Meert are part of the 36-member Missouri Christmas Tree Association.