SPRINGFIELD (AP) – A jury will be brought in from outside Greene County to hear the trial of a man accused of kidnapping and killing a 10-year-old Springfield girl.

The trial date for 46-year-old Craig Michael Wood was not set during a hearing Tuesday but attorneys agreed to import a jury. They will now negotiate to choose which county will be used.

Wood is charged with murder, kidnapping, rape, sodomy and armed criminal action in the death of fourth-grader Hailey Owens in February. She was found dead in Wood’s basement after witnesses said he forced her into his pickup truck as she walked home. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

COLUMBIA (AP) – The owner of a Rhode Island-based powerboat company has died after a high-speed boat crash at Lake of the Ozarks last weekend.

44-year-old Michael Fiori of Bristol, Rhode Island, died Tuesday evening at University Hospital in Columbia, according to Frank Sciacca, general counsel for Fiore’s company, Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats. Sciacca said in a statement that Fiori died from complications from surgery after the accident.

Police said Fiore was aboard a racing boat that flipped over on Lake of the Ozarks at more than 150 mph Saturday morning. Authorities said wind played a role in the crash.

Sciacca says Fiori was married with three young children, and his family and friends are devastated by his death. Funeral arrangements are pending.

United States Attorney’s Office- Western District of Missouri

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a Kansas City, Mo., man has been charged in federal court for his role in a conspiracy to commit armed robberies against victims who were contacted via craigslist.

Debvon Buckner, 23, of Kansas City, was charged in a three-count criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., on Aug. 20, 2014. Buckner had his initial court appearance today.

The federal criminal complaint alleges that Buckner participated in a conspiracy with others to commit robberies of several individuals by posting false advertisements on craigslist between June 30 and July 17, 2014. In addition to the conspiracy, Buckner is charged with one count of armed robbery, which he allegedly committed by falsely posting a motor vehicle for sale on craigslist in order to arrange a meeting with three victims on July 16, 2014. Buckner is also charged with one count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence (the armed robbery on July 16, 2014).

According to an affidavit filed in support of the federal criminal complaint, Buckner was involved in five robberies in which craigslist ads were used to lure victims, who were robbed at gunpoint by Buckner’s co-conspirators, who have not been charged and are not identified in the court documents.

July 16, 2014, Armed Robberies

On the evening of July 16, 2014, the affidavit says, three victims met Buckner at 5500 E. 84th Terrace, Kansas City, Mo., to look at a Hyundai Sonata that was listed for sale in a craigslist advertisement. Two of the victims took a test drive in the vehicle with Buckner, the affidavit says, and one of them made a purchase offer. Buckner allegedly agreed, but stated he needed to call his wife about the purchase and walked away. As he walked away, the affidavit says, two other men with handguns approached the two victims and asked for money. The victims tried to return to their car when the two men shot them. The men took one victim’s purse, which contained $500. They jumped into the Sonata with Buckner and fled the area. One of the victims was transported to a local hospital for life-threatening injuries from multiple gunshot wounds.

According to the affidavit, the telephone number used to contact the victims was the same number used to contact a separate victim in another armed robbery earlier the same day.

On the afternoon of July 16, 2014, this victim (identified as Victim#4 in the affidavit) told police that he had listed an XBOX One for sale on craigslist. He arranged to meet a prospective buyer at Ridge Pointe Apartments in Kansas City, Mo. When he arrived, the affidavit said, Buckner approached him and asked to see the XBOX. The victim handed the XBOX to Buckner. Two other men then came up behind Buckner, the affidavit says. One of those men lifted his shirt, pulled out a black semi-automatic handgun and stated, “Give me the connections.” The other approaching male also had a gun. Victim #4 then gave the men the XBOX accessory cords, two remote controllers, and two video games. The three men then fled the area on foot.

The next day, Kansas City Police detectives saw another craigslist advertisement for a car for sale that used the same telephone number. In the background of the photograph was a residence, which the detectives later identified as Buckner’s residence. They obtained location data for the cell phone and set up surveillance in the area of East US 40 Highway and Sterling. When Buckner boarded a metro bus, police officers took him into custody.

In addition to the two robberies on July 16, 2014, victims from three earlier robberies also identified Buckner.

June 30, 2014, Armed Robbery

One victim met Buckner on June 30, 2014, to purchase a cell phone that was advertised on craigslist, the affidavit says. She decided not to purchase the phone and began to walk away, according to the affidavit, when two other men approached her, pointed guns at her and told her to give them money. She gave the men $100. They then demanded her car keys, cellphone and purse. She pressed the panic button on her car keys and the alarm sounded, the affidavit says, and all three of the men ran.

June 30, 2014, Armed Robbery #2

Another victim met Buckner later that night on the same date, according to the affidavit. She told police officers that she had been contacted about purchasing an XBOX One that she had posted for sale on craigslist. When she arrived at Ridge Pointe Apartments, Buckner showed her that he had cash to make the purchase. As soon as she took out the XBOX, he allegedly took it and ran. Two other men, armed with handguns, then approached her and pointed the guns at her and a passenger in her vehicle. The men took their purses, along with video games and controllers for the XBOX. The passenger asked for her purse back, and one of the men said, “Get back in the car or I’ll shoot you” and racked the slide on his gun.

July 3, 2014, Armed Robbery

On July 3, 2014, another victim told police that he had been robbed while trying to buy an XBOX from a craigslist advertisement. The victim met Buckner at Ridge Pointe Apartments, the affidavit says, after he had agreed to give him $160 and a Samsung Galaxy watch to buy the XBOX. Buckner refused to do the deal, the affidavit says, and the victim began walking back to his car when he was approached by another man pointing a gun at him. While this man pointed the gun at him, another man he had been talking to came over and frisked the victim. The two men took the watch and the cash, and then fled.

Dickinson cautioned that the charges contained in this complaint are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew P. Wolesky and Jess E. Michaelsen. It was investigated by the FBI and the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A grassroots group called Women for Kansas is planning a public rally to open its “Taking Back Kansas” convention.

The group aims to unite women to defeat Gov. Sam Brownback and Secretary of State Kris Kobach in November. The rally takes place at 5:30 p.m. Friday on the west side of Century II in Wichita.

Speakers will include a first-time voter, a Lawrence educator and a representative from Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

The convention runs through Saturday evening, with sessions on Medicaid expansion, taxes and voting rights. Also scheduled are a session dubbed the “Kansas judiciary under attack” and a discussion of the economic contributions of immigrants.

Convention speakers will include Democrat gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis and Greg Orman, the independent running for U.S. Senate.

INDEPENDENCE (AP) – Police say a natural gas leak sparked an explosion that leveled an Independence home.

Authorities announced the cause of the blast Tuesday night. They haven’t determined the source of the leak.

Firefighters were called to the single-story home Tuesday afternoon. All of the walls caved in and only the fireplace was left standing. The three people who occupied the home were away during the explosion. No family members or neighbors were injured.

The family had lived in the house since 1971.

Several pets were in the home at the time. A pug and a border collie were thrown into a neighbor’s yard. They are being treated at the Great Plains SPCA animal shelter. Three other pets are presumed dead.

SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — A burglar who’s been breaking into Great Clips hair salons in the Kansas City metro area appears to have struck again.

The break-ins on both sides of the Missouri-Kansas line began in June and now number at least 13. Police say only small amounts of cash are taken each time.

Police in the Johnson County, Kansas, community of Shawnee responded at 6 a.m. Tuesday to an alarm from a Great Clips, where the front door had been broken out. Officers found a similar burglary at another Great Clips in Shawnee a short time later.

Investigators believe all of the burglaries are related. There’s no description of the suspect from the latest cases, but he’s been described in earlier break-ins as a heavyset white male, about 5-feet-10 to 5-feet-11 inches tall.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A former Springfield police officer charged with a misdemeanor for shooting an unarmed man in the back has offered to plead guilty.
Greene County prosecutors announced the deal with 35-year-old Jason Shuck on Tuesday. He resigned earlier this month and faces up to a year in jail for a third-degree assault charge.
Shuck says he accidentally used his gun instead of his Taser to shoot a panhandler near Wal-Mart in May. The man underwent surgery and is expected to fully recover.

The proposed agreement requires Shuck to surrender his peace officer license and to never carry a firearm for work. He wouldn’t have a criminal record after completing two years of unsupervised probation.
The judge hasn’t approved the deal and says he needs to review the case further.

By Julie Rovner
Kaiser Health News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Those who favor women being guaranteed no-cost birth control coverage under their health insurance say the new rules for nonprofit religious organizations issued by the Obama administration simply put into force what the Supreme Court suggested last month.

“We interpret what (the administration) did to be putting into effect that order,” said Judy Waxman, vice president for health and reproductive rights at the National Women’s Law Center. She’s referring to the controversial Supreme Court order in a lower court case involving Wheaton College, a Christian school in Illinois.

The unsigned order agreed to by six of the nine justices said Wheaton College need not fill out and send to its insurance company a form opting out of offering the coverage. Instead, it could merely inform the government of its objections.

The new rules unveiled Friday require those with religious objections to providing some or all FDA-approved contraceptives to do exactly that: notify the government rather than their insurance carriers that they cannot provide the coverage. Many religious organizations had complained that filing the form to their insurance companies, which would then provide the coverage using other funds, would make them “complicit” in providing the benefit. Under the new regulations, the government would subsequently be responsible for notifying insurers, which would then arrange contraceptive coverage.

Religious groups and their attorneys have reacted mostly negatively to the new rules.

“We note with disappointment that the regulations would not broaden the ‘religious employer’ exemption to encompass all employers with sincerely held religious objections to the mandate,” said a statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Instead, the regulations would only modify the ‘accommodation,’ under which the mandate still applies and still requires provision of the objectionable coverage,” the statement said.

Lori Windham, senior counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing many of the religious organizations suing over the rules, said it’s not yet clear how those organizations will respond to the new option.

“They have no objection to telling the government they are opposed to providing the coverage,” she said in an interview. “The question is what happens next.” Under the new rules, the government “still does use their administrators and their health care plans” to make coverage available, she said.

But that is exactly what the Supreme Court suggested should happen, said Waxman of the women’s law center.

“The order said nothing will prevent women from getting (benefits) and that’s what HHS did,” she said. “They said based on the order there’s an alternative route for nonprofits.”

Indeed, while the court said that Wheaton College could send its letter of objection to the government rather than its insurer, the order went on to say: “Nothing in this order precludes the Government from relying on this notice, to the extent it considers necessary, to facilitate the provision of full contraceptive coverage under the [Affordable Care] Act.”

Some experts had worried about the government’s ability to facilitate the coverage due to the intricacies of ERISA, the federal law that governs pension and health benefits. But the interim rules explicitly give the government the ability to make benefit changes in the absence of the objecting religious organizations.

The rules also address the Court’s ruling in the case involving Hobby Lobby, a for-profit company whose owners objected to providing some forms of contraception.

As suggested by the five-justice majority in that case, the rules allow “closely held” companies to also opt out of offering coverage, using the same workaround available to nonprofits. But the rules specifically solicit public comment on what exactly constitutes a “closely held corporation,” because there are varying definitions.

Kansas Chamber

TOPEKA — The Kansas City Metro area will play host to the 2014 Leadership Kansas class on August 27 to 29.

During this session, the 39 members of the 2014 Leadership Kansas Program will participate in discussions related to economic development, the border war debate, urban health care, the rebirth of Kansas City, and Kansas as an economic engine. The class will also visit the Command Staff General College in Fort Leavenworth, the Sporting KC stadium, and the General Motors manufacturing facility during their visit to northeast Kansas.

Throughout the course of the six-month regional meetings, the class will continue to engage in discussions with top experts on the key issues facing Kansas. The Kansas City Metro area is the fourth of six communities to host the 2014 Leadership Kansas class. Other locations include: Garden City, Manhattan/Junction City, Hays, Wichita, Topeka, and an optional session in Pittsburg.

Leadership Kansas is one of the oldest and most prestigious statewide leadership programs in the country. Established by the Kansas Chamber in 1979, the program is celebrating its 36th year of educating and motivating Kansas leaders from all four corners of the state. The Leadership Kansas program remains committed to its original mission to inspire persons to maintain involvement in the social, business and political fabric of our Kansas communities.

Leadership Kansas is accepting nominations for applicants for next year’s program which will begin in April of 2015 at www.leadershipkansas.org.