JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri appears increasingly likely to finish its budget year with less revenue than had been expected.
The state budget office said Tuesday that Missouri’s net general revenues are up just 0.2 percent through the first 11 months of its 2014 fiscal year.
The Legislature had projected 2 percent growth, and Gov. Jay Nixon had forecast 2.8 percent growth for the year.
State sales tax revenues actually have increased by 2 percent over the previous year. But Missouri’s individual income tax collections – which are the state’s primary revenue source – are down 0.7 percent.
The 2014 fiscal year runs through June 30.
The sluggish revenues have led Department of Revenue to slow down the pace of issuing income tax refunds to thousands of Missouri taxpayers.
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A proposed constitutional amendment creating a “right to farm” in Missouri is getting support from Republican members of Congress who are publicizing their support at events throughout the state.
U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer said Tuesday in Jefferson City that agriculture has a target on its back and needs to be promoted and protected. He says the proposal pushes back against those trying to over-regulate agriculture or make the industry unable to produce enough food.
The August ballot proposal asks voters whether the right “to engage in farming and ranching” should be “forever guaranteed” in the Missouri Constitution.
Other members of Congress have events elsewhere in Missouri this week. The measure was referred to the ballot by the Republican-led Legislature and is endorsed by the Republican State Committee.
COLUMBIA (AP) – A 22-year-old Columbia man was sentenced to seven years in prison for a drunken driving accident that killed a woman and left a man in a coma.
Boone County Circuit Judge Christine Carpenter on Monday rejected a request that Spencer Gordon be allowed to enter a 120-day substance abuse treatment program. Instead, she sentenced Gordon to seven years for first-degree involuntary manslaughter and two counts of second-degree assault.
The December 2012 accident killed 24-year-old Michelle Morrow and put 25-year-old Michael Tufts into a coma.
Investigators say Gordon crossed into another lane on a Columbia street and hit a truck driven by Tufts.
The Columbia Daily Tribune reports the victims’ families have sued the club where Gordon was drinking the night of the accident. The lawsuits are pending.
JOPLIN (AP) – Newton County authorities say a 3-year-old southwest Missouri girl died after she was shot in the head at her home.
Sheriff Ken Copeland says the shooting on Monday morning is considered accidental. No names have been released.
Copeland said emergency responders went to the Bykota Mobile Home Park in rural Joplin after receiving a report that a child was not breathing. She was taken to a Joplin hospital and died from the gunshot wound.
A 6-year-old boy who lived at the home was taken into state protective custody. The children’s mother was home at the time of the shooting.
The Joplin Globe reports Copeland said the children were in a bedroom where they had access to a loaded handgun but he could not say what happened.
KANSAS CITY (AP) – Two inmates at a federal facility in Springfield have been sentenced to death for killing another inmate.
Wesley Paul Coonce Jr. and Charles Michael Hall, inmates at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, were convicted in May of first-degree murder in the 2010 death of 51-year-old Victor Castro-Rodriguez in his cell. Coonce was also convicted of murder by an inmate serving a life sentence.
The Justice Department says in a release that Coonce and Hall were sentenced to death Monday.
Coonce is serving a life sentence out of Texas for a 2002 kidnapping conviction. Hall’s serving 16 years for a 2000 conviction in Maine for threatening federal officials. Court documents show he told investigators he wanted to be sentenced to death for killing Castro-Rodriguez.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City animal shelter is asking for help after it was asked to house up to 150 cats seized from a Kansas City woman.
Kansas City police say the animals were taken Monday from apartments in north Kansas City owned by one woman. Many of the cats are ill and will require medical treatment.
The Kansas City Star reports KC Pet Project spokeswoman Tori Fugate says the shelter had already taken in 80 cats in the last week. She says it will take some time before they cats seized Monday are ready for adoption, and the shelter could use donations of crates, cat litter and money to care for the animals.
Police say animal control officials found the cats after receiving a tip from a concerned citizen.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A new report finds that about 16 percent of teachers in some of the country’s largest public school districts are considered chronically absent and out of the classroom 18 days or more for illness, personal time or professional training.
But the findings from the National Council on Teacher Quality say that even teachers in line with the average of 11 days out may be hurting students’ progress.
The Washington-based group’s look at 40 districts found that, on average, teachers were present 94 percent of the 2012-13 school year, missing nearly 11 days.
Seventy-one percent of absences were for illness or personal leave, with the rest school business.
The National Education Association says districts are looking for ways to give teachers necessary time out to collaborate and improve while discouraging illegitimate absences.
The report also found no relationship between teacher absence and the poverty levels of a school’s students, nor any difference in absentee rates among districts with policies meant to encourage attendance, such as paying teachers for unused sick time, and districts without those incentives.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill is joining a bipartisan group of colleagues to urge the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to review nutrition labeling regulations to ensure that any measures adopted will allow flexibility for restaurants and avoid unnecessarily burdening food retail establishments where nutrition information is already prevalent.
The Affordable Care Act requires restaurants and “similar retail food establishments” that are part of a chain with 20 or more locations to provide calorie and other nutrition information for standard menu items. While the law provides general requirements for restaurant menu nutrition labeling, it required the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to create regulations defining what entities would be covered by the “similar retail food establishment” clause. The Senators’ letter to OMB Administrator Howard Shelanski called for immediate review of the FDA’s proposed rules.
“Since FDA published its proposed rule to implement nutrition labeling of standard menu items at chain restaurants, many concerns have been raised about the regulations expanding to non-restaurants, such as grocery and convenience stores, where the vast majority of food products are already labeled with nutritional information. The proposed rule also could affect restaurants with highly variable items or different foodservice formats, such as pizza delivery operations. As a result, the proposed rule will harm both those non-restaurants that were not intended to be captured by the menu labeling law, as well as those restaurants that have variability in the foods they offer.”
The letter goes on to include a set of alternatives that would allow the food service industry to maintain their commitment to customers while at the same time increase their ability to comply with federal law.
“Alternatives include: limiting the scope of the menu labeling regulations to establishments where foodservice is the primary source of revenue; allowing delivery operations to provide nutritional information online; allowing multiple approaches for made-to-order or variably sized items; allowing restaurants with drive-throughs to display required nutritional information on a poster or pamphlet; and not penalizing reasonable margins of inadvertent human error.”
In 2011, McCaskill joined a bipartisan group of colleagues in urging the FDA to limit menu labeling requirements to establishments that have 50 percent or more of their floor spaced devoted to “restaurant or restaurant-type food,” which would largely exempt grocery and convenience stores.
NEW YORK (AP) — Panera says it will remove artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives from its food by 2016, a reflection of the growing distaste people are showing for such ingredients.
The chain of bakery cafes, which has about 1,800 U.S. locations, is making the pledge as part of a “Food Policy” it is unveiling Tuesday that outlines its commitment to “clean” and “simple” ingredients.
The announcement comes at a time when Panera Bread Co. is facing slowing sales growth and working to jumpstart its business.
It also underscores how positioning foods as natural has become a marketing advantage, regardless of whether it brings any nutritional benefits.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Judy Foreman, a nationally recognized expert on chronic pain and its effect on the nation’s health care system, will speak at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Community Christian Church, 4601 Main St., Kansas City, Mo.
Foreman, a Boston-based science writer and a nationally syndicated health columnist, is the author of the book “A Nation in Pain,” an in-depth look at how pain is perceived – and misperceived – and treated in the United States.
“Judy Foreman is a brilliant writer,” said Myra Christopher, Kathleen M. Foley Chair in Pain & Palliative Care at the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City. “And ‘A Nation in Pain’ is the definitive piece on this issue.”
The Center for Practical Bioethics is co-sponsoring Foreman’s appearance with Saint Luke’s Health System and Community Christian Church.
Foreman also is scheduled to appear on the KCUR 89.3 FM news program “Up to Date” at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Her appearance coincides with the formal launching of a regional initiative, Relieving Pain in Kansas City, which is affiliated with the Pain Action Alliance to Implement a National Strategy (PAINS).
“At least 100 million Americans are known to be living with chronic pain,” Christopher said. “I say ‘at least’ because we did not have access to data on veterans, people in living in nursing homes and children. But, still, 100 million people – that’s one third of the population. It’s more than the number of people who are living with cancer, diabetes or heart disease.”
Chronic pain, she said, also is the No. 1 reason that people seek medical care.
“And yet the average physician in the U.S. has had eight hours of coursework on chronic pain,” Christopher said. “Meanwhile, the average veterinarian receives 87 hours of training.”
For those attending the forum, hardback copies of “A Nation in Pain,” priced at $30 retail, will be available for $10.
