Jefferson City, MO- Gov. Jay Nixon today signed an executive order activating the Missouri National Guard to support law enforcement during any period of unrest that might occur following the grand jury’s decision concerning the investigation into the death of Michael Brown. The Governor said the Guard will provide support for law enforcement’s objectives of maintaining safety and protecting constitutional rights.

“As part of our ongoing efforts to plan and be prepared for any contingency, it is necessary to have these resources in place in advance of any announcement of the grand jury’s decision,” Gov. Nixon said. “These additional resources will support law enforcement’s efforts to maintain peace and protect those exercising their right to free speech. The National Guard is well-suited to provide security at command posts, fire stations and other locations as well as perform other functions that will free up law enforcement officers to remain focused on community policing and protecting constitutional rights.”

Gov. Nixon’s executive order also establishes that the Missouri State Highway Patrol, St. Louis County Police Department and St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department will operate as a unified command to keep members of the public safe and protect property, while allowing citizens to exercise their constitutional rights. Under the executive order, the St. Louis County Police Department will have command and operational control over security in the City of Ferguson in areas of protests and acts of civil disobedience, should such activities occur.

“All people in the St. Louis region deserve to feel safe in their communities and to make their voices heard without fear of violence or intimidation,” said Gov. Nixon. “Public safety demands that we are fully prepared for any contingency, regardless of what the St. Louis County grand jury or the U.S. Department of Justice decides.”

The St. Louis County prosecutor has said publicly that an announcement of the grand jury’s decision will be made later this month. The United States Department of Justice, which is conducting both civil and criminal investigations of the death of Michael Brown, has not announced when its investigations will be concluded.

“Our department, like other police departments in the region, has a full time job keeping our neighborhoods safe. We are used to working with other agencies in times of necessity,” said St. Louis Metropolitan Police Chief Sam Dotson. “Having the support of the National Guard available will enable local officers to continue to respond promptly to calls for service.”

“We have taken tremendous strides over the past three months, as our officers have undergone thousands of hours of additional training and reached out to build strong relationships across the community,” said St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar. “These additional resources will enhance our ability to achieve our key responsibilities: keeping the public safe, protecting property and enabling people to exercise their constitutional rights.”

Requests from local law enforcement for duties to be performed by the Guard will be handled through the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

“These past three months have been challenging for our community but we have come together in many measurable ways,” said Captain Ron Johnson, commander of Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop C. “The power of communication within the community has allowed us to take steps toward peaceful change that demonstrate the true character of North County. The availability of the National Guard will ensure that law enforcement has the resources to protect three things vital to our community: public safety, property and the constitutional rights of all.”

The Missouri National Guard has been deployed a total of 32 times since 2001 to assist local communities with emergency preparedness and response, from shoring up levees during floods to providing security following the Joplin tornado. The Guard will be commanded by Brigadier General Gregory Mason, a retired 30-year veteran of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — More farmers are filing lawsuits against agrochemicals giant Syngenta in a legal battle tied to the sale of a genetically modified corn seed.

Agrisure Viptera is genetically altered to kill corn-eating bugs and is approved by the United States. It was marketed to farmers in 2011.

But China, a major corn market that refuses to buy genetically modified crops it hasn’t tested, had not agreed to import it. It began rejecting U.S. corn last year when Viptera was detected.

More than 50 lawsuits have been filed and hundreds more are being prepared. The lawsuits say losing China as a buyer has cost corn farmers more than $1 billion.

Syngenta says the lawsuits are without merit and upholds the right of farmers to use approved new technologies.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri had the largest enrollment decline in the country for a federal program that helps working parents pay for child care, according to a report.
The October report by the Center for Law and Social Policy, or CLASP, said the number of Missouri children receiving a federal child care subsidy fell by 12,300 from 2012 through 2013. Thirty other states also saw net losses in the program.

Some officials think a recovering economy is the cause for the decrease, with families earning too much to qualify for the child care discounts.
But some Missouri child advocates say otherwise. They think the state’s reorganization of its Family Support Division offices in the Department of Social Services is preventing parents from signing up. They also cite declines in state enrollment in other programs, such as Medicaid and food stamps

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration says more than 1 million consumers visited HealthCare.gov this weekend as the second sign-up season under the president’s health overhaul got underway without the widespread technical problems experienced last year.

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Monday that more than 200,000 people dialed the federal call center. About 20,000 of those calls were to Spanish-speaking representatives.

The administration says about 100,000 people submitted applications for 2015 coverage, as of Saturday, the first day of open enrollment. That includes new and returning customers.

Also, there were more than 500,000 successful logins to consumer accounts the first day. The same customer could have logged in more than once. That figure includes new and returning customers.

HealthCare.gov serves 37 states. One state-run website — Washington’s— had initial problems.

ANNE FLAHERTY

WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Federal Communications Commission wants to increase Americans’ phone fees slightly as a way to bring a high-speed Internet connection to nearly every classroom.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told reporters Monday that he wants to increase the amount of money the FCC can spend on school Internet connections, from $2.4 billion to $3.9 billion a year. He’d do that by tacking on modest monthly fees to consumers’ phone bills. Wheeler says the average consumer or business would pay an extra $1.90 a year per phone line.

Wheeler’s proposal has to be voted on first by the FCC’s five-member commission, on Dec. 11. The agency’s two Republican commissioners have opposed previous efforts to overhaul the FCC’s E-Rate program, which aims to wire schools and libraries with broadband connections.

MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Government scientists say initial tests of shallow groundwater in the Northern Plains oil patch found no evidence of contamination from an energy boom that’s already seen more than 8,500 wells drilled.

But the scientists caution that the results were unlikely to pick up contamination from surface spills or leaking well casings because the water they tested was from aquifers that predate oil and gas drilling.

The U.S. Geological Survey study released Monday looked at 30 domestic water wells in North Dakota and Montana.

Researchers found no evidence of contamination by methane, saltwater brine or other drilling byproducts.

USGS hydrologist Rod Caldwell says more research is needed to assess the continuing impacts of energy development. As many as 60,000 more wells could be drilled in coming decades.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court is deliberating whether to allow same-sex marriage licenses even as the federal courts have ruled same-sex marriages are allowed in the state.

Kansas justices met privately Monday to review a petition from Attorney General Derek Schmidt to block the licenses until a final judicial ruling on the constitutionality of the state’s gay marriage ban.

Schmidt filed the petition last month after Johnson County’s chief district court judge authorized marriage licenses for same-sex couples. In Kansas, licenses are issued by district court clerks.

The Kansas Supreme Court blocked further licenses, but the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit for lesbian couples denied licenses in Douglas and Sedgwick counties.

The U.S. Supreme Court last week blocked enforcement of the gay-marriage ban while the federal lawsuit proceeds.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is trying a new software program that’s led to better health for Missouri residents with mental illnesses.

The Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas received a $40,000 grant to begin using the software program with Medicaid-eligible patients who receive mental health care. Eight community mental health centers are participating in the pilot.

The Missouri Coalition for Community Behavioral Healthcare says most people with mental illnesses don’t die by suicide, but from conditions like diabetes or heart disease. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the group has worked with Care Management Technologies for almost three years now, using their software for a systemwide view of how well health care workers are serving clients and determining which patients need help managing chronic conditions.

The University of Kansas

LAWRENCE – Water use – and abuse – has emerged in recent years as a major challenge in Kansas, affecting all aspects of life in the state. It is a focus for multidisciplinary research at the University of Kansas and is the subject of a statewide policy initiative, the 50-Year Vision for the Future of Water in Kansas. Water is also a concern beyond the borders of the state. A distinguished group of researchers from all Big 12 universities will meet Tuesday, Nov. 18, in Lawrence to share their findings and discuss opportunities for future intercampus collaborations concerning water. The workshop will be preceded Monday, Nov. 17, by a panel discussion on “Confronting the Continuing Depletion of the High Plains Aquifer in Western Kansas.” It will take place at 5 p.m. at The Oread, 1200 Oread Ave. Rex Buchanan, interim director of the Kansas Geological Survey, will serve as moderator. Panelists will be Jay Garetson, a farmer who irrigates in southwest Kansas; Stan Townsend, a farmer who irrigates in northwest Kansas; and Mark Rude, executive director of Groundwater Management District 3 in Garden City. The program is free and open to the public, and a reception will follow. Tuesday’s workshop will include participants from KU, Kansas State University, Iowa State University, Oklahoma State University, the University of Oklahoma, Texas Tech University, Baylor University, Texas Christian University, the University of Texas at Austin and West Virginia University. Jeff Vitter, KU provost and executive vice chancellor, will open the workshop at 8 a.m., and the program continues through noon at the Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union. It is also free and open to the public.

George M. Hornberger, Distinguished University Professor at Vanderbilt University, will give keynote remarks at the workshop. He will speak on “Challenges and Opportunities in Water Resources Research and Education.” Hornberger is director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and the Environment and chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

“Research and education in water resources will be different in the future than today, primarily because humans have become such a dominant part of the water cycle,” Hornberger said. “In addition to important work in the many disciplinary areas that are part of water resources science and engineering, there is a need for interdisciplinary research that takes advantage of cutting-edge technologies to grapple with the complex water-related challenges of today and tomorrow.”

Six overview talks will be presented Tuesday morning. They will lay out key problems, the state of the science and possible paths forward:

• “Can We Eat, Drink AND Turn on the Lights?,” Danny Reible, Donovan Maddox Engineering Chair, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Texas Tech University
• “Shale Gas Development in the Appalachian Basin: Water Requirements, Management, and Quality Implications,” Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute, West Virginia University
• “Desalination: Prospective Technology for Mitigating Water Scarcity,” Jadwiga (Jad) Ziolkowska, assistant professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, University of Oklahoma
• “Reservoir Sedimentation: A Focus on Upstream Sources,” Garey Fox, interim director, Oklahoma Water Resources Center, professor and Orville L. and Helen L. Buchanan Chair of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Oklahoma State University
• “Nutrients in Agriculture and the Environment,” Nathan Nelson, associate professor, soil fertility and nutrient management, Kansas State University
• “Assessing the Major Drivers of Water-Level Declines: New Insights into the Future of the High Plains Aquifer,” Jim Butler, geohydrology section chief, Kansas Geological Survey, KU.

Tuesday afternoon, more than 40 invited researchers from Big 12 universities will convene in breakout sessions to discuss further opportunities for regional collaborations related to water research.

More information about the Big 12 Universities Water Workshop is available online.