KANSAS CITY (AP) – A lawsuit filed in Arkansas against Monsanto over the May 2013 discovery of an isolated field of genetically engineered wheat in Oregon has now landed in federal court in Kansas.
The assignment Thursday of the Arkansas case to U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil marks the latest transfer of litigation since a federal judicial panel centralized several lawsuits against St. Louis-based Monsanto. The consolidated pretrial proceedings are all in Kansas.
The panel first transferred four civil actions last October, and it has since transferred nine others.
Lawsuits were initially filed in Kansas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana, Oregon, Texas, Mississippi, Washington, Arkansas and Idaho.
Monsanto has contended no legal liability exists given the care undertaken, and it has vowed to present a vigorous defense to the lawsuits.
ATCHISON- One person was injured an accident just after 7p.m. on Thursday in Atchison County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported three vehicles were traveling southwest on U.S. 59 seven miles southwest of Atchison.
A1994 GMC pickup driven by Melissa Lynn Pospisil, 28, Atchison, tried to turn south on McPherson Road and a 2000 Kenworth semi-truck attempted to pass the GMC and a 2009 Coachman motor home in a no passing zone.
The semi-truck collided with the pickup causing it to crash into the motorhome.
Pospisil was transported to the Atchison hospital. No other injuries were reported.
The KHP said all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.
FULTON (AP) – Westminster College in Fulton is bringing Irish rock musician and humanitarian Bob Geldof to campus for events in mid-September.
Geldof is scheduled to take part in a two-day arts symposium and deliver Westminster’s annual Green Lecture.
Geldof staged the Live Aid fundraising concerts in London and Philadelphia in 1985, which featured 60 top musicians and bands. Proceeds were used to help hunger victims in Africa.
Before his career as a political activist and advocate for global hunger relief, Geldof was lead singer of The Boomtown Rats. The band’s songs include “I Don’t Like Mondays.”
Previous Green Lecture speakers have included former presidents Harry Truman and Gerald Ford and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The lecture was also the forum for Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech in 1946.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The driver of a sport utility vehicle has been killed in a head-on collision with a school bus in central Missouri.
Authorities said the SUV crossed the center line of a Boone County road and struck a Columbia school district bus shortly before 3 p.m. Thursday. The bus was taking about two dozen children home from summer school classes at an elementary school.
A spokeswoman for University of Missouri Health Care said the bus driver and one child were treated and released from University Hospital. Three other children were evaluated at Women’s and Children’s Hospital for what were described as minor injuries.
KANSAS CITY (AP) – A 37-year-old suburban Kansas City man has been sentenced to three years for his role in the theft of a 6-foot bronze statute from outside an Independence museum.
Jeremy Ratliff of Independence pleaded guilty last month to felony stealing in the June 2013 theft of the Pioneer Woman statue from the National Frontier Trails Museum.
He was one of three men accused of stealing the 1,000-pound statue that cost $35,000 when it was dedicated in March 1990. A scrap dealer estimated the metal was worth less than $600.
Randy Perez was sentenced in March to seven years for the theft, while a third defendant is scheduled to be sentenced Monday.
Police say the men were charged after trying to sell remnants of the statue to a Kansas City recycling company.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.), who serves as a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee and Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, issued the following statement today regarding the security situation in Iraq:
“Earlier today, Senators were informed of the instant collapse of four of the 17 Iraqi military divisions – without any apparent effort to push back. This is a desperate situation. It’s moving quickly. It appears to me that the chickens are coming home to roost for the president’s policy of not leaving anybody there to be a stabilizing force. Some Iraqi troops have gone to work with their uniforms on with civilian clothes under their uniforms. That’s a bad sign. In the short term, the U.S. must do everything we can to support the Kurdistan Regional Government’s requests for assistance to respond to the growing humanitarian crisis along Kurdistan’s border.”
CHICAGO (AP) — The American Medical Association is putting its weight behind designating cheerleading as a sport.
The nation’s largest doctors’ group adopted that as policy Monday at its annual meeting in Chicago. AMA members say cheerleading is as rigorous as many other activities that high schools and the NCAA consider sports. Adding it to the list would mean more safety measures for cheerleaders and proper training for their coaches.
The policy echoes one adopted by the American Academy of Pediatrics two years ago.
In other action Monday, the AMA said transgender people should be able to switch the sex designation on their birth certificates without having sex-change surgery.
Most states make the operations a prerequisite. But the new AMA policy acknowledges that gender identity doesn’t always match a person’s birth anatomy.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri company is recalling possibly tainted beef products distributed to restaurants and a grocery chain.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a release Wednesday that Jackson-based Fruitland American Meat is recalling about 4,012 pounds of beef because it could contain parts of the nervous system that can carry properties related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.
BSE is fatal to cows and can cause a fatal human brain disease in people who eat tainted beef.
The USDA says there’s no indication that the slaughtered cattle showed signs of BSE.
The department says the products were produced between September 2013 and April 2014 and were distributed to a restaurant in New York, New York, another in Kansas City, Missouri, and a Whole Foods distribution center in Connecticut.
KANSAS CITY (AP) – A school bus carrying two adults and two students rolled over Thursday morning, causing minor injuries.
The accident happened near the Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City.
The Grandview School District told KSHB-TV that the small bus had picked the students up from their homes and was headed to the Nova Center School, a school for students with special needs.
The children were not transported to the hospital for injuries. Police said the adults were taken to the hospital as a precaution.
Police says it’s unclear how the accident occurred.
Northwest Missouri State University has announced Dr. Timothy Mottet will serve as its next provost after the University’s Board of Regents approved the hire Monday. He will join Northwest Friday, Aug. 1.
“Tim is a proven leader that has produced positive results through his strong teaching, research, service and fundraising skills,” Northwest President Dr. John Jasinski said. “His student-centeredness, classroom experience, academic planning and knowledge of academe’s pending environmental changes complement his ongoing use of metrics and willingness to be bold and work collaboratively to achieve ever-increasing expectations. Our search committee is to be commended and the feedback received from constituents has been unanimously supportive of Tim as our next provost.”
Mottet returns to Northwest, where he completed some of his undergraduate work, from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, where he has served as dean of fine arts and communication since 2011. He has more than 15 years of experience in higher education that also includes teaching and extensive scholarship and research activities.
“I’m truly honored to be given this wonderful opportunity to return to Northwest,” Mottet said. “I look forward to partnering with faculty and staff in academic affairs and across the other units of the University to align and elevate academic programs and services to meet the needs of students, employers, and communities.”
He added, “Higher education is going through a transformation, and it’s important to me that faculty and staff play a role in how higher education evolves. I’m committed to facilitating this process and creating new opportunities for faculty, staff, and students.”
Previously, Mottet worked for the University of Texas-Pan America in Edinburg, Texas, from 2007 to 2011, serving as a professor, endowed chair in communication, and assistant chair and chair of the Department of Communication. Between 1999 and 2007, Mottet held assistant professor and associate professor roles in the Department of Communication Studies at Texas State University.
Prior to working in higher education, Mottet worked for Northwest Airlines from 1986 to 1993 as the director of inflight service operations.
Mottet began his undergraduate education at Northwest and completed two years before completing his bachelor’s degree in communication at William Jewell College in Liberty. Mottet also has a master’s degree in mass communication from Boston University in Boston, Mass., and his education doctorate in communication and learning/higher education from West Virginia University in Morgantown, W.V.
Mottet succeeds Dr. Doug Dunham who recently became vice president for academic affairs at Rockhurst University in Kansas City. The provost serves as the University’s chief academic officer.
KANSAS CITY (AP) – A lawsuit filed in Arkansas against Monsanto over the May 2013 discovery of an isolated field of genetically engineered wheat in Oregon has now landed in federal court in Kansas.
