BUTLER, Mo. (AP) — A nearly 13-acre solar energy farm capable of converting sunlight into enough energy to power about 415 homes is being dedicated in western Missouri after operating nearly two months.

The Butler Solar Energy Farm is the largest solar power plant in Missouri and the first utility-scale solar generating project operating in the state.

More than 10,000 solar panels will generate over 3 megawatts of power to be purchased by the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission, which is part of the alliance. The energy will be used by the 35 member cities of the Missouri Public Energy Pool.

Three people were fortunate to escape serious injury from a Thursday afternoon rollover crash in Holt County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported the accident occurred as a 2007 Jeep Liberty driven by Jeffry L. Behrens, 56, Council Bluffs was southbound on I-29 two miles north of Mound City.

The vehicle ran off the west side of the road and struck the end of a guardrail. The vehicle returned to the road and overturned one time and then ran off the right side of the road, struck another guardrail and traveled down an embankment.

Behrens and two passengers in the vehicle, Brennen R. Behrens, 16, Council Bluffs and Rhema N. Ranaya, 12, Omaha were treated at the scene.
The MSHP reported all were wearing seat belts.

So, what part of the First Amendment, or the law around it, would you want to change?

For most of us, the answer is an academic exercise at best. For a few legislators, lawyers and litigants, the response is proposed legislation or lengthy briefs and pointed legal arguments.

But when the words involve justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, it is cause for special attention.

Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a recent public appearance, and retired justice John Paul Stevens in a new book, opine on subjects ranging from a landmark 50-year old libel law decision to the current hot-button topic of campaign finance laws.

Scalia and Ginsburg appeared together April 17 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., for a discussion about First Amendment freedoms. Scalia would repeal the Supreme Court’s 1964 decision in New York Times v. Sullivan which set out the principle that public officials — later expanded to public figures — have to prove “actual malice” to win a libel lawsuit.

The 9-0 ruling in 1964 involved a lawsuit brought by Montgomery, Ala., police commissioner L.B. Sullivan against the newspaper and a group of civil rights advocates over a full-page advertisement critical of local police actions. The ad contained factual errors.

To allow for the widest possible debate on matters of public interest, the Court held that the First Amendment protects even erroneous statements about the conduct of public officials, except when made with knowledge that the statements are false, or with reckless disregard of the truth.

Scalia maintained that libel law historically was set at the state level, outside the purview of the U.S. Constitution, and the court was wrong to change that circumstance. “It was nine lawyers who decided that is what the Constitution ought to mean, even though it had never meant that,” he said.

He also said, “I think George Washington, I think Thomas Jefferson, I think the Framers would have been appalled at the notion that they could be libeled with impunity.” Scalia said that “If you are a public figure, you cannot sue somebody for libel unless you can prove, effectively, that the person knew it was a lie. So long as he heard from somebody, you know, it makes it very difficult for a public figure to win a libel suit.”

For her part, Ginsburg noted that the situation facing the court did not exist in colonial times, where libel law could have been used “as a way of squelching the people who were asserting their freedoms.” She said the Times decision empowered the press to report fully on the civil rights movement, and that the ruling “is now well accepted.” She added, “I suspect if the Founding Fathers were around to see what life was like in the 1960s, they would have agreed with that” decision.

Televising the Supreme Court’s proceedings, currently banned by court rule rather than law, found no support from either Ginsburg or Scalia. Both said they have reservations about allowing cameras in their courtroom.

“If the American people watched our proceedings from gavel to gavel, they would be educated,” Scalia said. The justices said their fear is that by watching only portions of arguments before the court, or “man-bites-dog” clips used in brief news reports, the public would be misinformed rather than better-educated about what they do.

Retired Justice Stevens, in a new book published April 22, “Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution,” calls for a return to spending limits by corporations in political campaigns. Stevens dissented in the landmark 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision that eliminated a ban on corporate and union campaign spending.

In his latest book, the 94-year-old jurist argues for “reasonable limits” on campaign spending, to be set by Congress or the states. In a New York Times interview published April 21, Stevens said Citizens United and later decisions — likely including the recent removal of caps on the total amount corporations and individuals can spend in federal elections — are “really wrong.” The result, he said, is that “the voter is less important than the man who provides money to the candidate.”

Justices Ginsburg and Scalia declined to comment on whether reporters involved in recent disclosures of National Security Agency surveillance programs merited their recent Pulitzer Prize.

But Ginsburg, in speaking about the news media’s historical role, said, “The press has played a tremendously important role as watchdog over what the government is doing. That keeps the government from getting too far out of line. Yes, there are excesses in the press, but we have to put up with that.”

And of that view, I suspect, Washington, Jefferson and the Founders would be proud.

Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Washington-based Newseum Institute and senior vice president of the Institute’s First Amendment Center. gpolicinski@newseum.org

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A northwest Missouri husband and wife are going to prison for an embezzlement scheme and tax fraud that financed a lavish lifestyle.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says 55-year-old Laura Dejong and 56-year-old Craig Dejong, of Liberty, were sentenced Thursday in federal court in Kansas City. Laura Dejong received 10 years without parole, and her husband two years and six months.

Prosecutors said the couple gambled heavily, mostly on slot machines. They also spent money for vehicles, a house, sporting events and travel.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – The Missouri House has approved legislation that would allow use of a cannabis extract by people whose epilepsy is not relieved by other types of treatments.

The bill would allow use of “hemp extract” containing little of the substance that makes marijuana users feel high and greater amounts of a chemical called cannabidiol, or CBD. Patients would qualify if they have epilepsy that a neurologist has determined is not responding to at least three treatment options.

Thursday’s 139-13 House vote sends the bill to the Senate. The legislation would take effect immediately after it is signed into law.

Other states have moved to allow used of CBD oil for treating epilepsy.

RIVERSIDE, Mo. (AP) — A subsidiary of a Canadian automotive supplier is building a new manufacturing plant in the Kansas City area.

Martinrea Riverside LLC held a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for an automotive parts facility near Interstate 635 in the community of Riverside.

About 290 people are expected to be employed at the plant. They will make engine cradles and automotive assemblies for General Motors’ Fairfax assembly plant in nearby Kansas City, Kan.

The Missouri Department of Economic Development has offered the company more than $3.2 million of incentives through a tax credit and job training program.

The company is a subsidiary of Martinrea International Inc., based in Ontario, Canada. Matrinrea employs more than 12,000 people at 38 facilities in eight countries. This is its first plant in Missouri.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – A southwest Missouri youth football coach accused of kidnapping, raping and killing a 10-year-old girl has pleaded not guilty.

Forty-six-year-old Craig Michael Wood appeared Thursday in Greene County Circuit Court in Springfield. A preliminary hearing scheduled for Thursday was delayed until May 22.

Wood is accused of abducted Hailey Owens while she walked home from her best friend’s house, just two blocks from her own home. Shocked neighbors reported watching the abduction and unsuccessfully giving chase as Hailey was pulled into a pickup truck that sped away. She was found dead hours later in the basement of Wood’s home.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that the judge granted a request made by prosecutors earlier this week to add rape and sodomy charges in response to recently released autopsy results.

CHARLES D. WILSON, Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The National Rifle Association’s annual meeting is bringing a renewed push for a law requiring all 50 states to recognize concealed carry gun permits from other states.

The issue of reciprocity is a top priority as 70,000 NRA members convene in Indianapolis this week.

The convention also will focus on politics as the organization maps out its strategy for this year’s mid-term elections and 2016.

A leadership forum Friday will feature Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. All have been mentioned as possible GOP contenders for the White House in 2016.

This is the first year the organization has met in Indianapolis.

NEW YORK (AP) — Postal workers are protesting the opening of postal counters in Staples stores that are staffed with retail employees.

Thursday’s protests are planned at 50 locations in 27 states, including rallies in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

In Washington, more than 200 people gathered at a Staples, drumming on buckets and holding signs that read: “Stop Staples. The US Mail is Not for Sale.”

Last year, Framingham, Mass.-based Staples Inc. began offering postal services under a pilot program that now includes some 80 stores. The American Postal Workers Union objects, because they say well-paid union workers have been replaced by low-wage nonunion workers.

The union says that could lead to layoffs and post office closings.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe says the program is a response to customer demands for convenience.