(Missourinet) – State Representative Diane Franklin (R-Camdenton) filed a proposal this year to separate the water and state patrols but she says she’ll hold off on filing similar legislation for next session.

Governor Jay Nixon (D) and the GOP-controlled legislature approved in 2010 merging the patrols.

“We have the opportunity now, with the end of the Nixon administration and the new administration and there will be a new public safety director, I’m sure, to make the changes that are necessary,” says Franklin.

She says just filing the measure this year helped to motivate the water patrol to improve training measures and increase the number of officers on the water.

“We’ve made a step in the right direction but we really need to go beyond that, whether it be a special division that really has dedicated troopers or marine officers in it,” says Franklin.

A committee chaired by Franklin to investigate the merger of the water and highway patrols will reconvene next year. The committee’s recommendations included additional training and certification of marine and command officers.

“I don’t think we will ever go back to the previous water patrol but we really need to examine what is in place now. There were nine recommendations that we made from the committee and I think we need to follow through on those and we need to improve on those,” says Franklin.

Her committee was formed in the months after an Iowa man drowned in the Lake of the Ozarks while in state patrol custody. Missouri will pay a $9 million settlement to Brandon Ellingson’s family. The Iowa college student drowned in handcuffs while in the custody of a state trooper in 2014.

The legislative session starts January 4.

(Missourinet) – State Representative T.J. Berry (R-Kearney) has pre-filed a measure that would replace marriage licenses with contracts of domestic union.

Berry tells Missourinet a controversial Senate resolution that died this year in a state House committee prompted him to file the legislation. The resolution would have protected churches and businesses from penalties for denying goods and services for gay weddings. Berry calls his proposal a compromise that would diffuse some of the controversy in that resolution.

“There are many, many, many churches out there right now that will perform any kind of marriage and that’s great. That’s fine but when you take and define it and argue it as a government when it was originally religious, then you start having this other discussion that isn’t appropriate to begin with,” says Berry.

He says he is indifferent about the Senate resolution, which is commonly referred to as SJR39. The measure was sponsored this year by Senator Bob Onder (R-Lake St. Louis).

“We’ve gotten confused between government benefits and religious ceremonies and marriage has gotten caught up in that and it’s created tremendous controversy for lots of different groups,” says Berry.

He says his legislation would still allow the government benefits that apply to all married couples.

“I think what you would see is we would get back to government being in its role and religion being in its role,” says Berry. “Marriage has been, through history going back thousands of years, a religious ceremony not a governmental ceremony. So, that’s what this does and it applies to straight people, gay people, everyone exactly the same way.”

Whether or not SJR39 returns in 2017 is unknown but lawmakers expect it to come up eventually. Some conservatives are not expected to embrace Berry’s proposal, likely saying it doesn’t go far enough.

“Next year is going to be different. It’s the first year of a new governor. It’s the first year of a new legislature. So, will it be the burning issue that it was last year? I don’t believe so. I hope not. I’m hoping that this provides an alternative if SJR39 should come around again that this is a more thoughtful and logical way to deal with a problem that effects lots of people and does it in a way that everyone gets treated the same way. It’s about fairness. This takes it and makes fairer for everybody,” says Berry.

Pre-filing has opened for legislative bills that members of the General Assembly want to sponsor in the 2017 session.

Berry represents Clay County in the Missouri House. He’s also the co-chair of the Kansas City caucus, which is made up of both Republicans and Democrats.

(Missourinet) – The University of Missouri is holding events this week to raise awareness of the role men can play in curbing gender violence.

The school’s Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center (RSVP) is hosting meetings to promote anti-violence activism.

MU’s RSVP coordinator, Chris Walters, says the gatherings are focused on getting men actively involved in preventing “power based personal violence”.

“How can we all make this an issue in which we are bringing this issue to light, creating awareness around this issue that we are preventing violence from happening,” said Walters. “And so, how can we be engaged in this conversation, if we maybe don’t have a connection.”

Walters says “power based personal violence” is identified as sexual assault and harassment, intimate partner dating violence, sexual exploitation and stalking.  He says it’s an issue that plagues college campuses across the country.

Walters says the RSVP center has a “bystander intervention” program to encourage personal involvement.

“If they see something happening potentially problematic, how as a bystander can they directly step in, or get someone to help them in the situation to diffuse that tension of what’s happening.”

The events are intended to provide men with the knowledge and skills to help limit incidents such as sexual assault and harassment.  Walters says the goal is to get men to think of gender violence as an issue in their daily lives.

“In our society, when we say sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating and domestic violence, it’s seen as a women’s issue, that only women are hurt and only women are responsible for that,” said Walters. “We know that’s not the case, that men can play a huge role in that conversation as well.”

The events are being held in the same week that a Mizzou football player has been suspended indefinitely after being arrested for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend.  Keyon Dilosa reportedly hit the woman in the face after the two got into an argument Tuesday night.

The keynote speaker Wednesday during the week of anti-violence gatherings was Jackson Katz, an internationally recognized activist on issues of gender and violence.

Katz is also a major figure in the growing global movement of men working to promote gender equality and prevent gender violence.  He co-founded Mentors in Violence Prevention, the first major program of its kind in sports culture and the military.

(Missourinet) – Governor-elect Eric Greitens will likely appoint a replacement for recently deceased Missouri Supreme Court Judge Richard B. Teitelman.

The process to select candidates for the high bench begins with the state’s Appellate Judicial Commission, which is chaired by Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Breckenridge.

The commission will officially announce a vacancy and set a deadline for interested parties to apply for the position, which is usually a month or longer.

The commission will then review all the applications and set up interviews with the candidates it chooses.  Either the same or following day from when the interviews are completed, it’ll send three nominations to the governor.

The governor will then have 60 days to select the next Supreme Court judge.  The Missouri Bar Association says, given the number of steps in the process, it’s unlikely Governor Nixon will be able appoint a candidate before he leaves office January 9^th.

In order to qualify for the high court, applicants must be at least 30 years old and be licensed to practice law in Missouri.  Among other things, they also must have been a resident of the state for nine years and a U.S. citizen for 15 years.

Although Judge Teitelman was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2002 by Democratic Governor Bob Holden, and was retained by a large majority of voters for his second 12 year term in this month’s election, the 69 year-old only would have served several months into 2017.  That’s because Missouri law requires all judges to retire at age 70.

Supreme Court and Appellate Court judges are appointed under the state’s Non-Partisan Court Plan, which dates back to 1940.  At that time, support for a merit, or qualification based selection system grew out of a perception that urban political bosses were corrupt.

Missouri voters adopted the system through a ballot initiative in November 1940 after several contentious judicial elections.  Missouri was the first state to use the “merit selection process”, which has been adopted since in some form by 30 other states and several countries.

Most judges at the circuit court level in the state are still selected through partisan elections.  However, voters in Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in the Kansas City area as well the City of St. Louis, St Louis County and Greene County (Springfield area) have opted to have their circuit judges selected through the state’s Non-Partisan Court Plan.

(Missourinet) – Planned Parenthood has filed a federal lawsuit that is meant to end some of Missouri’s abortion requirements and restore abortion services in Columbia, Kansas City, Joplin and Springfield.

Planned Parenthood affiliates in North Carolina and Alaska filed similar lawsuits Wednesday. Great Plains President and CEO Laura McQuade says the organization is challenging Missouri’s requirements for its doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and abortion clinics to follow requirements for surgical centers.

Planned Parenthood is suing Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services director Peter Lyskowski, Attorney General Chris Koster, and prosecutors in Boone, Jackson, Greene and Jasper counties. The defendants have 21 days to respond to the lawsuit.

McQuade is confident the organization will win its legal battle.

“Admitting privileges and ambulatory surgical center restrictions are two of the most common categories of restrictions and actually provide some of the highest barriers to care across the country,” says McQuade.

St. Louis President and CEO Mary Kogut says a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June struck down similar laws in Texas.

“On the surface, the legal issues seem to be simple in that they mirror Texas laws but the factual information is very complicated and very complex. We’ve got two affiliates. We’ve got multiple centers and there are multiple restrictions. So we wanted to ensure we were absolutely factual and accurate in our approach,” says Kogut.

McQuade and Kogut say abortion providers are available and ready to begin services immediately, if they win their court challenge.

Kogut says due to medically unnecessary and politically motivated state restrictions, the St. Louis Planned Parenthood facility is the only abortion clinic in Missouri. She says the clinic serves more than 40,000 people annually, with one of the core services being abortion.

Abortion opponents, including Susan Klein with Missouri Right to Life, say Texas’ laws are different from Missouri’s laws. She’s confident the current requirements will stand.

“There was an agreement made between Planned Parenthood and the state in 2010 that they would actually follow the ambulatory surgical center regulations but as far as widening the doors at the clinics and things like that, some clinics that actually had licenses at that time would be exempt,” says Klein. “We have not had any difficulties. Women are getting better health care because of those two laws. I just find it very surprising that a supposed health care center would not want the physician to have hospital privileges in the same town.”

Klein says before these laws were enacted in 2005, some physicians had hospital admitting privileges out of the U.S.

“Wherever they open an abortion clinic, they need to have hospital privileges and they need to have good clean quality medical equipment, updated drugs and qualified medical personnel. Those are just common sense healthcare provisions that we require on other services and we should require the same things for an abortion facility,” says Klein.

She tells Missourinet that her organization will focus on legislation for the 2017 session that includes inspections for abortion clinics.

State Representative Diane Franklin (R-Camdenton) tells Missourinet that she plans to pre-file legislation for next session that would track fetal remains from abortions. She offered a similar measure during this year’s session.

(Missourinet) – A groundbreaking ceremony has taken place for a hall at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, which will bear the name of Governor Jay Nixon (D).

Nixon Hall is scheduled to be completed in time for classes for the fall of 2018. It will feature classrooms and offices that will be primarily used for STEM-field programs, which are science, technology, engineering and math.

Governor Nixon signed bipartisan budget bills in June that provide some renovations to colleges and universities across the state. The Governor’s $200 million Building Affordability Initiative addresses deferred maintenance projects at higher education institutions.

The renovations at the new Nixon Hall at Missouri Southern State will include new labs with state-of-the-art equipment and expanded academic space.

“I deeply appreciate this tremendous honor. Missouri Southern State University is a strong anchor of academic excellence for this region and a source of strength for a community that has inspired me, and the world,” Nixon says. “This project is a shining example of our state’s commitment to preparing students for success in a rapidly changing global economy, and I want to thank Dr. Alan Marble, Senator Ron Richard and the many dedicated public servants on both sides of the aisle who worked together to make this investment possible.”

Dr. Marble is president of Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.

Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard (R-Joplin) participated in Tuesday’s ceremony with the Democratic Governor.

(Missourinet) – The Missouri Supreme Court announced the death of Judge Richard B. Teitelman Tuesday morning.

Teitelman began serving on the high court in 2002 after being appointed to the post by Governor Bob Holden. He won reelection to a 12-year term in 2004, and earlier this month was retained by a large majority of Missouri voters for another 12 year-year term. Teitelman served as the court’s chief justice from July 2011 through June 2013.

A spokesperson did not mention the cause of death, but Teitelman had reportedly been suffering from bad health for several years. He was 69.

The court cancelled arguments for its scheduled five cases Tuesday. The spokesperson said arrangements are pending.

Governor Jay Nixon tweeted a brief message Tuesday morning, saying “Missouri has lost a judicial leader who was a dedicated public servant, both to our state and to our legal system.”

In a statement, State Attorney General Chris Koster said “I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of Missouri Supreme Court Judge Richard Teitelman. Judge Teitelman has given our state a lifetime of public service, including two decades at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri representing the most vulnerable of our citizens. We will miss his wisdom, humor, and friendship.”

Dana Tippin Cutler, 2016-17 Missouri Bar President said “On behalf of the officers and members of The Missouri Bar, we offer our most sincere condolences to the family and friends of Supreme Court of Missouri Judge Richard Teitelman. We join with the Court in recognizing his 18 years of service to the people of Missouri as an appellate judge and his career-long dedication to making sure all Missourians, regardless of their income, have equal access to justice in Missouri.”

(Missourinet) – Ten public safety officers who risked their lives to save others have received Missouri’s Medal of Valor.

The recipients have been given the state’s highest public safety award for saving others from gunmen, flood waters, burning cars and homes.

Governor Jay Nixon (D) says the first responders bravely risked their own lives in heroic efforts to save others and protect the public during 2015.

“Each of these officers ignored extraordinary dangers to themselves, and instead thought only of the lives of others – people they had never met but who they have a solemn duty to protect,” says Nixon. “The Medal of Valor recipients carry out brave, decisive and selfless acts to protect the lives of others and make our communities safer. We should all be grateful for our outstanding public safety officers and the sacrifices they make to protect us.”

Family members and the officers’ colleagues were on hand Monday for the presentation ceremony in the Governor’s office at the Missouri Capitol. Nixon was joined by Department of Public Safety Director Lane Roberts.

The Medal of Valor was first awarded in 2008 and is bestowed annually based on recommendations submitted by the Medal of Valor Review Board. The nominating form states the Medal of Valor is awarded “to a public safety officer who has exhibited exceptional courage, extraordinary decisiveness and presence of mind, and unusual swiftness of action, regardless of his or her own personal safety, in the attempt to save or protect human life.”

The newest Medal of Valor recipients are:

Jason Jameson, Boone County Sheriff’s Department – During a snow storm on the night of Feb. 28, 2015, Boone County Sheriff’s deputies and the Missouri State Highway Patrol responded to a homicide east of Columbia where two victims lay deceased and a third was in critical condition. Witnesses reported the killer, armed with a handgun, was escaping in a white car.

Jameson and a Highway Patrol sergeant positioned their vehicles in an attempt to stop the fleeing car. A tire deflation device disabled the car, which hit a guardrail. The gunman exited the vehicle and immediately pointed his weapon toward Jameson as he fled on foot. Jameson fired his patrol rifle, striking the gunman twice. The wounded gunman was arrested.

David Marshak and Bryan Taylor, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department – On Sept. 10, 2015, Cpt. Marshak and Cpl. Taylor were in a patrol vehicle traveling northbound on Highway 141 when they observed a burning van on the highway shoulder. The vehicle had extensive damage due to a multi-vehicle collision and flames were shooting out of the car. Thick smoke made it impossible to see if anyone was inside the passenger compartment.

Marshak used his baton to break the passenger window. He discharged a fire extinguisher, but it didn’t help. The driver did not respond to Taylor’s calls and the driver door would not open. Fighting the thick smoke, Taylor entered the cab through the passenger door and tried to remove the driver. However, his seat belt would not release and the smoke forced Taylor to leave the vehicle. Marshak then entered the van and continued the effort to remove the driver. Now conscious but disoriented, the 85-year-old man began resisting efforts to get him out. Fighting through the smoke, Marshak, assisted by a motorist, was able to free the driver and pull him out of the burning vehicle.

Both Cpt. Marshak and Cpl. Taylor were treated for smoke inhalation, and Marshak was also received additional medical treatment for abrasions.

Jordan Selsor, Meramec Ambulance District – On Dec. 29, 2015, Paramedic Selsor was part of an EMS team responding to a call from a motorist caught in floodwater between Catawissa and Pacific in eastern Missouri. No other responders or a rescue boat was on scene. Selsor put on a life-vest and grabbed a pry axe. He then climbed into the bucket of a farmer’s front-end loader and had the farmer drive him to the flooded car. With the bucket extended from the tractor, Selsor jumped onto the trunk of the car, which was floating. He smashed out the rear windshield, which flooded more water into the vehicle but could not reach the victim in the front seat. Selsor then climbed onto the roof of the car and smashed out the sunroof. Unable to see in the muddy water, he felt around for the victim and began pulling her out by her hair. Eventually, he got a better hold of the victim and managed to extract her through the sunroof. Selsor stood on the car roof knee high in water with the patient until a Pacific Fire Protection District launched a boat and transported him and the victim to shore.

The hypothermic patient was treated en route to the emergency room. Selsor was treated for numerous superficial cuts and abrasions from the rescue.

Charles Gerhart, Missouri Capitol Police – On July 30, 2015, Officer Gerhart was off-duty and traveling with his family westbound on I-70 to Kansas City. Near Blue Springs, Gerhart observed a pickup truck in the eastbound lanes traveling at a high rate of speed crash into a vehicle that was stopped in construction traffic. The pickup then burst into flames. Gerhart stopped on the shoulder, left his family in his vehicle, ran across westbound traffic, jumped the median barriers, and quickly reached the burning vehicle. The driver had a broken pelvis, broken hip, multiple broken ribs and vertebrae and was trapped in the cab.

Gerhart forced open the driver door and pulled the driver out of the burning vehicle. With the assistance of a motorist, he moved the driver away from the burning pickup.

Gerhart’s commanding officer learned of his heroic actions three months later, when the driver’s son contacted Missouri Capitol Police to inform them, saying he should be recognized.

Jason Hurt, Missouri State Highway Patrol – On Nov. 21, 2015, Trooper Hurt was off-duty and traveling in his personal vehicle in Monroe County. It was cold and had recently snowed, but Trooper Hurt noticed a barefoot woman on the side of the road. Hurt stopped and the woman stated her intoxicated boyfriend was attempting suicide in a nearby cabin and a neighbor was with him.

Hurt responded to the cabin and found two men struggling over a rifle. He drew his handgun, entered the cabin, identified himself as a trooper and told the men to put down the rifle. The men continued to fight over the gun. With one man’s finger on the trigger and the rifle pointed toward the ceiling, Hurt holstered his weapon and attempted to seize the gun. A shot was fired into the ceiling but Hurt gained full control of the weapon, and ended the disturbance.

The suicidal man was transported for a psychiatric evaluation.

Trooper Hurt has since been promoted to the position of Corporal.

David Brown and Robert Garrett, Missouri State Highway Patrol – In the middle of the night of Dec. 27, 2015, Missouri was experiencing record rainfall and flooding. Marine Operations Corporal Brown and Trooper Garrett responded to a call for a man clinging to a tree in the flooded Pomme De Terre River. The man had attempted to cross a bridge in Polk County on foot and was swept away. With no sign of the flood victim and his cries for help as their only guide, a jet boat was launched, operated by Garrett with Brown using a spotlight to search a tree line for the victim.

Eventually locating the victim in a tree about 10 feet above the swift-moving flood water, Corporal Garrett maneuvered the boat through the turbulent water to the tree. Wet and hypothermic, the man slipped as he started to climb down. Unable to see him, Brown took hold of the man’s arm and hair. Brown got the exhausted victim into the boat and Garrett maneuvered the vessel back to the shore.

Jeffrey Haislip, St. Charles Police Department – On the night of Feb. 4, 2015, Officer Haislip was first on the scene to a structure fire. Haislip noticed the flames from a vacant commercial building was spreading to a nearby home. Officer Haislip broke the glass on the storm door and kicked open the wood door, even as flames were racing up the side of the house and across the roof. During his search, Haislip found a frightened and disoriented 86-year-old woman who was unable to move. He picked up the woman and carried her outside to a nearby ambulance.

Michael Kuss, Springfield Fire Department – The night of May 29, 2015 followed a major storm and flash flooding. The Springfield Fire Department Water Rescue Team responded to a mutual aid call from the Logan-Rogersville Fire Protection District. A vehicle had been swept off a bridge over the James River east of Springfield. In the pitch dark, two parents and their three children were desperately fighting for their lives against the swift floodwater by clinging to trees.

When the Springfield Fire team arrived, the victims had been holding on for 30 minutes and were yelling that they could not last much longer. A boat rescue attempt was immediately launched, piloted by Rescue Specialist Marc Becker. The boat did not have room for all of the victims and the adults were losing the strength to hold on and remain afloat. Firefighter Kuss volunteered to stay behind in the water with the adults as the three children were placed in life vests, pulled into the boat, and moved to the shore. With their resistance fading, Firefighter Kuss’s calm support and instructions for the adults helped save the parents until the rescue boat could return and reunite them with their children on the shore.

(Missourinet) – State senator Doug Libla (R-Poplar Bluff) will pre-file legislation on December 1 that aims to boost penalties against those who are convicted of attacking first responders, including law enforcement officers. His measure involves those found guilty of first and second degree homicide, first and second degree voluntary and involuntary manslaughter and first, second and third degree assault. He’s deciding what the increase in penalties would be.

“I’m very dismayed with what’s happening with the total lack of regard and disrespect. Not everybody. I still think the big majority of citizens in this country and this state appreciate the work that our law enforcement officers do each and every day. But there is a small percent that don’t,” says Libla. “It’s been done way too much. It’s a trend that’s sweeping across our country. There’s police officers being executed while sitting in their cars, while eating lunch, while eating dinner, for the reason of just the fact that they’re police officers.”

Under current law, Missouri statute outlines the penalties for crimes, and allows for enhanced penalties on special victims, which includes first responders.

“If I’m successful at getting it through the Senate, successful at getting it through the House, successful at getting the governor’s signature on it, it’s going to send a message to people when you are in the state of Missouri and you assault one of our police officers, it’s going to be a very serious crime,” says Libla.

Libla is the Chairman of Senate Transportation, Infrastructure, and Public Safety Committee. He serves the counties of Butler, Carter, Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Shannon and Stoddard.

Libla won re-election to a second term in the general election, beating former southeast Missouri Congressman Bill Burlison.