KANSAS CITY (AP) – Jackson County prosecutors have charged an Independence man in the shooting death of a man in October.

Forty-two-year-old Melvin M. McCaslin is charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action and unlawful possession of a firearm. He’s accused of fatally shooting 39-year-old Samuel A. Hewitt III on Oct. 24 in Kansas City.

Court documents state the men got into a fight before McCaslin allegedly shot Hewitt in the head while he was “unresponsive” on the ground.

The Kansas City Star reports McCaslin was on probation in a drug possession case from Cooper County at the time. A judge revoked his probation in December and ordered him into a state treatment facility in Fulton.

It wasn’t immediately known if McCaslin has an attorney.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri Supreme Court judges say the state Department of Revenue went too far to tax a fitness club.

The high court on Tuesday ruled that a Joplin Powerhouse Gym was unfairly asked to pay sales taxes for leasing space for personal training.

The Supreme Court says renting space and not providing other services, such as a gym membership for those personal trainers, was not enough reason to tax the gym.

The ruling comes as lawmakers have criticized the Department of Revenue for efforts to collect taxes from health clubs and other facilities.

Legislation introduced this session would require the Department of Revenue to notify businesses of some changes in sales taxes, an effort to protect companies who might not realize they’re suddenly expected to pay those taxes.

By DAN MARGOLIES
More than 389,000 Kansans and nearly 2 million Missourians were affected by last month’s massive cyberattack on Anthem Inc., the nation’s second largest health insurer, figures released by the company show.

“This data breach is so far-reaching that it impacts nearly one-third of our state’s population,” Missouri Department of Insurance Director John M. Huff said in a statement Monday.

In Missouri, 1.5 million current and former Blue Cross and Blue Shield members over the last 10 years may have had their records hacked, according to Deb Wiethop, a spokeswoman for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri. She said another 330,000 members of Anthem-associated health plans in Missouri were also affected.

In Kansas, current and former Medicaid and CHIP recipients, as well as members of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas and other Blue organizations, were affected, according to the Kansas Insurance Department.

Separately, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said on Monday that nearly 165,000 state Medicaid and CHIP recipients were among those whose personal information may have been compromised.

Anthem is the parent company of Amerigroup, one of three private managed care companies that administers KanCare, Kansas’ privatized version of Medicaid, as well as Unicare, a former CHIP contractor.

CHIP is the state Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides federal matching funds for health insurance covering families with children.

KDHE spokeswoman Sara Belfry said personal information compromised in the cyberattack included names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, health care identification numbers, home addresses, email addresses, employment information and income data.

“Anthem has done its due diligence to make sure that everyone has been contacted in a timely manner and that any credit or identity monitoring services are being offered to members,” Belfry said.

The services are being offered free. Missourians and Kansans affected by the breach can visit an Anthem website, https://www.anthemfacts.com/, which provides additional information on how to sign up for two years of credit monitoring and identity theft repair services.

Formerly known as Wellpoint, Anthem reported earlier this month that cyber attackers had breached a company database containing as many as 80 million records of current and former customers and employees.

The company said it did not believe credit card or medical information had been compromised.

The FBI is investigating the attacks. In addition, the Missouri Department of Insurance and insurance departments in California, Indiana, Main and New Hampshire are conducting a multistate examination of Anthem companies.

 

Dan Margolies is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS says budget cuts forced the agency to reduce the number of tax audits last year to the lowest level in a decade.

In 2014, fewer than 1 percent of individual tax returns were audited, the lowest rate since 2004. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen says the number of audits is likely to decline again this year.

In a speech on Tuesday, Koskinen said there are fewer audits because the tax agency has fewer agents. He said the IRS is down more than 2,200 revenue agents since 2010.

Congress has cut the agency’s budget by more than $1.3 billion since 2010.

Koskinen’s speech comes in the middle of tax season, just as millions of Americans are filing their annual returns.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s local governments and school districts are closer to getting federal funds for storm shelters and disaster repairs.

The Missouri House Tuesday gave first-round approval to a budget bill for this fiscal year to release federal money for local projects in declared disaster areas.
Already-completed local projects totaling about $30 million are awaiting federal funds.

The bill, which needs final approval in the House before going to the Senate, approves the transfer of that money.
The bill also authorizes $8.5 million in general revenue for emergencies— $5.1 million to match federal grants and $3.4 million is for future emergencies such as tornadoes, floods or ice storms.
Missouri has already used much of its previously approved emergency funding, partly because of the response in Ferguson.

ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — An attorney for the parents of Trayvon Martin says they are too distraught to talk to reporters after the Justice Department said the man who fatally shot their son won’t face federal charges.

Attorney Ben Crump said Tuesday that the agency’s decision was “a bitter pill to swallow” for Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin.

Crump says Justice Department officials told Martin’s parents that they didn’t have enough evidence to bring civil rights charges, especially since it was impossible to know Martin’s version of events.

Zimmerman has said he acted in self-defense when he shot the 17-year-old Martin during a confrontation three years ago inside a gated community in Sanf

LIBERTY (AP) – An eighth-grader with autism has returned to a Kansas City, Missouri, hospital after suffering complications from a severe beating he took in the lunchroom from another student.

The boy’s mother says her 12-year-old son sustained a cracked skull, a fractured jaw and damage to his ear last week at Liberty Middle School in suburban Kansas City.

Blake Kitchen was in the hospital for three days after the fight and returned Tuesday.

FOX4 News reports Blake, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, likes to sit at the same spot daily. His mother says when Blake asked a boy to move from his spot, another boy beat him until he blacked out.

Blake’s parents say they sent a letter to the school about previous bullying, but nothing was done.

Liberty officials are investigating.

JOSH LEDERMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has vetoed a Republican bill forcing construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The White House sent notice of the veto to the Senate on Tuesday, shortly after the bill was received at the White House. It’s the third veto of Obama’s presidency.

The move puts a freeze on a top GOP priority, at least for now. It also reasserts Obama’s authority over a project that’s become a flashpoint in the national debate about climate change.

Congressional Republicans may try to override Obama’s veto, but have yet to show they can muster the two-thirds majority in both chambers that they would need. Sen. John Hoeven, the bill’s chief GOP sponsor, says Republicans are about four votes short in the Senate and need about 11 more in the House.