KANSAS CITY (AP) – A Kansas City woman faces sentencing Aug. 7 for trying to poison her infant twin daughters by putting rubbing alcohol in their milk.

Twenty-three-year-old Gloria Jones was convicted Tuesday of two counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

Clay County prosecutors say Jones put the alcohol in the girls’ milk in October 2012, nearly killing one of them. The Kansas City Star reports Jones said caring for the twins was overwhelming and she thought the rubbing alcohol would calm them down. She said she gave them the alcohol only once.

One of the twins had to be put on a ventilator. The girls, who are now nearly 3, had no permanent effect from the alcohol. They are being cared for by relatives.

KANSAS CITY- A Missouri woman was injured in a Wyandotte County accident just before 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1998 Chrysler PC driven by Tanya M. Company, 38, Independence, MO., was eastbound on Kansas 32 just east of 88th St in Kansas City.

For an unknown reason, the vehicle left the right side of the roadway. It struck a tree and overturned in the ravine.

Company was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center. The KHP reported she was properly restrained at the time of the accident.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The British newspaper that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of secret U.S. government surveillance is among this year’s recipients of the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism.

The University of Missouri School of Journalism presents the medal annually in recognition of superior or lifetime achievement.

Also being honored is Ukraine’s Kyiv Post, an English-language weekly, for its work chronicling the political turmoil that swept the country’s president from power.

The other medalists are former Wall Street Journal editor and New York Times ombudsman Byron Calame; National Public Radio host Audie Cornish; retired MU journalism professor Steve Kopcha; documentary filmmaker Eugene Richards; and Wired magazine.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri law enforcement officers are urging people to use caution in the water amid 10 reported drowning deaths so far in June.

The state Highway Patrol oversees the state’s water patrol division. It says that swimming in rivers and lakes can be dangerous even for adults and children who have good swimming skills.

The patrol says currents, drop-offs and floating debris all can pose dangers in water. It says everyone should use a life jacket and should get into the water only when others are present.

WASHINGTON – Convening stakeholders from across the country, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill has hosted the last in a series of public roundtable discussions aimed at curbing sexual assaults on college campuses-in which participants heard about current obstacles in protecting and empowering survivors, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of survivors pursuing the criminal justice system versus administrative processes to hold perpetrators accountable.

“As a former prosecutor, having been on the frontlines of the fight against sexual assault, I want to do everything possible to ensure that these crimes are prosecuted and that the perpetrators of crimes are punished to the fullest extent of the law,” McCaskill said. “But as a former prosecutor, and as a lawmaker, I know that our criminal justice system isn’t always perfect, and hasn’t always been willing or able to handle sexual assault cases-particularly cases involving survivors who were acquainted with the perpetrator and may have been intoxicated, which is the fact pattern we often see in college sexual assault cases.”

Click HERE to view photos from today’s roundtable.

“Educational institutions have a role to play here too,” McCaskill added. “They have a commitment to their students and to their community, and when incidents of sexual violence happen they have an obligation to investigate what happened, support the survivor, ensure a safe campus for all students, and, if the facts bear it out, punish the offender for violating the school’s code of conduct. The problem is colleges and universities haven’t always done that. They may have ignored the problem, swept it under the rug and hoped the survivor would give up and go away.”

Obstacles discussed at today’s roundtable potentially hindering the effort to hold perpetrators accountable include:

the challenge of an effective forensic interview conducted with a survivor as quickly as possible,
problems stemming from multiple overlapping jurisdictions,
lack of written protocols or memorandums of understanding,
problematic state statutes around definitions of consent,
questions of whether students should or should not serve on schools’ administrative boards,
difficulties with requirements for timely warnings of assaults to campus communities,
lack of necessary funding resources,
and the proliferation of alcohol on campuses.

Katharina Booth, Chief Trial Deputy of the Sexual Assault & Domestic Violence Unit at the Boulder, Colorado County District Attorney’s Office, acknowledged the challenge of multiple authorities “stepping on each other’s’ feet … when there are multiple levels … we have different charges … and sometimes those are at odds.”

Kathy Zoner, Chief of Police at Cornell University Police agreed and discussed efforts to ensure victims “get to the right place off the bat,” to maximize the potential for a timely process.

The comparative strengths and weaknesses in the criminal and administrative processes were discussed at length at today’s roundtable.

“Some people want public vindication through the courts,” explained Yale University law student Alexandra Brodsky. “Some people just want an extension on their English paper, or to not have to see their rapist in their dorm the following day.”

“What’s right for one survivor is not what’s right for another,” added Carrie Hull, Detective at the Ashland Police Department, Ashland, Oregon.

“These cases are hard cases,” McCaskill said. “[But] they are makeable if victims have the right interview, if we have the right evidence, if it’s as close as possible to the event. A lot of this is about corroborating the victim … when you have a ‘he said, she said’… how do we have a system that is multi-jurisdictional … but that, at its center, is making sure that the victim gets as much information as possible as quickly as possible …?”

Jennifer Gaffney, Deputy Chief of the Special Victim’s Bureau, New York County District Attorney’s Office, explained that student survivors may be consistently told of the negative consequences of pursuing criminal charges, without being told of the positives, “[such as] more evidence gathered more quickly-and that it’s a more permanent result,” with Brodsky adding that she was told explicitly not to go to the police, but that she “never would have come forward if [she] had been forced into that option.”

Other participants at today’s roundtable discussion included: Nancy Chi Cantalupo-Research Fellow at the Victim Rights Law Center and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center; Paul Denton-Chief of Police, Ohio State University Police; Jennifer Gaffney-Deputy Chief of the Special Victim’s Bureau, New York County District Attorney’s Office; Carrie Hull-Detective at the Ashland Police Department, Ashland, Ore.; Rebecca O’Connor-Vice President for Public Policy at RAINN; and Kathy Zoner-Chief of Police, Cornell University Police.

McCaskill is surveying colleges and universities to learn exactly how schools handle rapes and sexual assaults on campuses-specifically focusing on how such crimes are reported and investigated and how students are notified about available services. The survey will gauge the effectiveness of federal oversight and enforcement under Title IX and the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act, commonly known as the Clery Act. Click HERE to view a sample survey.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for a Kansas City Royals fan injured by a hot dog tossed by the team mascot.

The unanimous opinion Tuesday from the state’s highest court centered on a legal standard called the baseball rule. That rule says fans cannot sue teams over injuries caused by events on the field, court or rink. The court said it does not apply to a mascot tossing hot dogs.

The court said the risk of being injured by a tossed hot dog isn’t inherent to baseball. It sent the case back for a new trial.

John Coomer of Overland Park, Kansas, says he was injured at a 2009 game when team mascot Sluggerrr threw a hot dog into the stands, striking Coomer in the eye.

GARDNER, Kan. (AP) — Police in northeast Kansas say the death of tree trimmer who fell about 60 feet from a limb has been ruled accidental.

The man was identified Tuesday as 47-year-old Larry Dean Webb, of Olathe.

Gardner police say Webb was an independent contractor who had been hired by a homeowner in the Johnson County community. He was cutting a tree on the property when he fell Friday.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) released the following statement today in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling restricting greenhouse gas regulations, which theAssociated Press noted “placed limits on the sole Obama administration program already in place to deal with power plant and factory emissions of gases blamed for global warming.” Blunt previously signed an amicus brief led by U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe (Okla.) in December 2013.

“The Obama Administration’s continued attempts to wage a war on American consumers will hurt low and middle-income families in states like Missouri the most. The Supreme Court’s move to limit the EPA’s overreach is a step in the right direction. I’ll keep fighting to protect Missourians from the Obama Administration’s job-destroying energy policies, which are especially harmful for the families who are struggling to make ends meet.”

Missouri relies on coal for more than 80 percent of the state’s electricity needs, and Blunt has long-fought against the Obama Administration’s burdensome energy policies. He recently co-sponsoredthe “Coal Country Protection Act,” which U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) introduced to block President Barack Obama’s proposed regulation on existing power plants unless appropriate agencies can prove it will not eliminate jobs, cost our economy, increase electricity prices, or reduce electricity reliability.

Blunt also introduced an amendment to protect families from skyrocketing energy costs that would result from a carbon tax. Blunt introduced similar amendments to prevent a carbon tax in April 2014to the unemployment insurance bill, and in March 2013 to the FY14 budget.