SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Members of three religious denominations say they are setting aside their differences to work together.
About 250 people from 37 Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Bahá’í congregations met Thursday to discuss issues they plan to address with the Missouri Legislature, such as early voting, Medicaid expansion, poverty and living wages.
Springfield Faith Voices is a chapter of Missouri Faith Voices, which connects more than 500 state congregations in the state that work to improve their communities and push for justice and equality.
The Springfield News-Leader reports small groups will later fan out across Springfield to gather signatures to put an early voting initiative on the ballot. Church members also will be asked to push their legislators to pass Medicaid expansion.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — San Francisco 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith has been arrested at Los Angeles International Airport after authorities said he became belligerent during a security screening and threatened that he had a bomb.
LAPD Sgt. Michael Fox said Smith was booked Sunday afternoon.
Airport police Sgt. Karla Ortiz said the 24-year-old player was randomly selected for a secondary screening at Terminal 1. Ortiz said Smith became uncooperative with the process and told a TSA agent that he had a bomb before walking to the gate. When airport police officers caught up with him, Ortiz said Smith became uncooperative and was taken into custody.
A video on TMZ.com shows Smith exchanging words with an officer as he was being handcuffed.
The 49ers said in a statement that the team was disappointed to learn about the incident.
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – The quest by House Speaker Tim Jones to pass new limitations on unions has focused attention on 11 of the 108 Republicans in the Missouri House.
That’s the number of Republicans who didn’t vote last week when the chamber gave initial approval to a proposed ballot measure that would ask voters to prohibit union fees from being a condition of employment.
Some Republicans intentionally skipped the vote. But they could get another chance.
Last’s Wednesday’s 78-68 vote was just the first step. To advance to the Senate, the measure must pass a second House roll call with at least 82 “yes” votes.
House member T.J. Berry, of Kearney, is among those who didn’t vote. Berry is taking a poll of constituents to help make his decision.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A space station supply shipment is on for Monday.
NASA decided Sunday to stick with the planned launch of the SpaceX cargo ship, despite a critical computer outage at the space station.
The computer, located on the outside of the orbiting lab, stopped working Friday. NASA debated whether to delay the SpaceX mission, but on Sunday determined the station can accept the visiting craft.
Liftoff is scheduled for 4:58 p.m. Monday from Cape Canaveral.
A spacewalk will be required, meanwhile, to replace the bad computer. Engineers don’t know why it failed.
NASA station program manager Mike Suffredini says the spacewalk will be conducted April 22. That gives SpaceX two shots to get its Dragon capsule flying.
The unmanned Dragon holds more than 2 tons of supplies and science experiments.
NEW YORK (AP) — Hospitals have staff meetings to examine why patients died. Airplane pilots have a system for voluntarily submitting information on safety concerns. Yet criminal justice often operates without a similar mechanism for scrutinizing its most feared failure: wrongful convictions.
Some legal thinkers say it’s time for a criminal-justice version of quality control: routine scrutiny of cases gone wrong to identify potential weaknesses in the justice system and prevent errors from happening again.
District attorneys, defense lawyers, police officials and law professors traded thoughts with doctors, transportation safety officials and a research-lab safety expert last week at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Some prosecutors and defense lawyers have adopted such strategies as checklists from other fields. And a few cities are testing out problem-solving reviews of cases gone wrong.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says the administration’s own predictions that the new health care law’s online sign-up system would be ready by Oct. 1 were “just flat out wrong.”
Sebelius told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview airing Sunday the health care website’s launch was “terribly flawed and terribly difficult.” She says that eight-week period was her low point of her tenure.
Sebelius last week announced her resignation. She says she wanted to give President Barack Obama enough time to bring in a new health chief.
Sebelius’ resignation comes just a week after sign-ups for insurance coverage ended, enrolling 7.1 million people and exceeding initial expectations. Enrollment has since increased to 7.5 million as people were given extra time to complete applications.
KANSAS CITY-A woman was injured in a Johnson County rollover crash Saturday evening.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2007 Nissan Murano driven by Brianna R. Pryor, 27, Kansas City, MO was exiting eastbound Shawnee Mission Parkway onto Southbound I-435 Saturday night. For an unknown reason the driver crossed four lanes of traffic and rolled her vehicle.
Pryor was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center.
GALLATIN–A woman was injured in a 4-wheeler crash on Saturday evening in Daviess County..
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reports a 2003 Honda 300 EX 4-Wheeler driven by Elysia N. Stone, 26, Gallatin was southbound on 230th four miles north of Gallatin when the vehicle struck a 2005 Chevy pickup in the side. Stone was ejected after impact.
She was transported to Cameron Regional Medical Center.
The truck driver Barney R. Esbeck, 51, Gallatin received minor injuries.
by Ed Cross, president of the Kansas Independent Oil and Gas Association.
The American oil and natural gas industry has been a bright spot in our economy, with benefits felt across the nation and here in Kansas.
Ed Cross, KIOGA
Innovations spurred by small businesses and entrepreneurs have generated a domestic energy revolution. American oil and natural gas production is up because the small businesses that make up the independent oil and natural gas industry are committed to investment and job creation in the U.S. and are using technology and innovation to access more and more oil and natural gas reserves.
Our nation’s energy supply is now American and abundant and that is good for national security. This revolution in turn has sparked new life into domestic manufacturing, is supporting 2.1 million jobs and has raised the average household’s disposable income by $1,200 last year, according to a recent study by HIS Global Insight.
According to recent census data, there are over 46,000 small businesses supporting the production of oil and natural gas in the U.S. A 2013 analysis revealed that over 75 different companies could be involved in the exploration and development of one Kansas oil well.
The analysis indicated 100 people are employed by varying small businesses in the drilling and completion of one oil well in Ness County. Small businesses are the backbone of the Kansas oil and natural gas industry. The Kansas oil and natural gas industry supports over 67,000 jobs and $3 billion in family income.
Every day small businesses provide a vital aspect to the generation of America’s energy. Each of them makes a difference every day for our nation’s energy security and economic well-being. Without the tasks each one of these small businesses complete each day, people would not have the fuel to drive to the grocery store or the heat to warm their homes in the winter. The small businesses that make up the independent oil and natural gas industry are drivers of the American energy revolution and are an important part of people’s everyday lives.
Of course, finding and producing oil and natural gas has always been and will continue to be a risky, time consuming, and expensive process. Industry operators must spend significant time and money before generating a return on their investments. Therefore, the ability to generate and preserve cash flow is vitally important to the industry.
The current federal tax code allows exploration and production companies to recover costs quickly so that investment is maintained. The percentage depletion cost recovery tax provision allows taxpayers to recover their lease investment in a mineral interest through a percentage of gross income from a well. Ordinary business costs which have no salvage value associated with wages, fuel and maintenance involved in drilling a well, referred to as intangible drilling costs, can be deducted when incurred.
The resulting improvement in cash flows from these two cost recovery methods means operators have more capital to invest and can perform more exploration and drilling, produce more energy, and create more jobs. All of that helps to grow our economy, which creates a larger tax base that can generate more revenue for the government without actually raising taxes.
Over the last several months, we have received more insight into Congress’s framework for business tax reform. U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and U.S. House Ways & Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) have both released tax reform discussion drafts. Both of these misguided tax reform discussion drafts focus on eliminating tax provisions for specific industries.
The American oil and natural gas industry continues to be a target. Rarely is any focus given to the positive benefits of existing tax laws.
Changes to cost recovery mechanisms like percentage depletion and IDCs could force the small businesses that make up the independent oil and natural gas industry to shut down older, domestic oil and natural gas wells and cut back on drilling new ones. Accordingly, the result would be reduced domestic oil and natural gas production and fewer U.S. jobs. The economic ripple would adversely impact the job growth and revenues of small businesses in the domestic supply chain and those that depend upon a secure energy supply.
In short, changes in the federal tax code to percentage depletion and IDC cost recovery mechanisms could unintentionally hit the brakes on America’s energy and manufacturing revolution and have a devastating effect on jobs, the economy, and revenue to the government.
The U.S. is one of the very few countries with improving energy security. American oil and natural gas productivity has resulted in the U.S. having the lowest long-term natural resource prices of any industrialized nation. The competitive advantage will have far-reaching and positive implications for various domestic industries.
Percentage depletion and IDC cost recovery tax provisions support an oil and natural gas industry that is a significant piece of our state and national economy. The American oil and natural gas industry supports 9.8 million jobs in the U.S. Manufacturing jobs are coming back to the U.S. thanks to the abundance of affordable energy our industry provides.
Current tax reform discussion drafts in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House threaten long-standing cost recovery tax provisions, the health of the American oil and natural gas industry, and the national economy as a whole. Energy is working in America. We just need the federal government to let us do what we do best.
Michael Korenblit, author and activist, will speak at Missouri Western State University at 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 16 in the Hearnes Center Little Theater, room 102. The presentation is free and open to the public.
Michael Korenblit is co-author of “Until We Meet Again,” the true story of his parents’ love and survival in the Holocaust. In 1942 in a small town in Poland, 17 year-old sweethearts Manya and Meyer go into hiding with Meyer’s family. For three long years, they endure the loss of parents and siblings, separation from each other and the horrors of concentration camps, but are helped at key points by courageous Polish Catholics and are constantly sustained by their faith and their love for each other.
Korenblit tells his parents’ compelling story while encouraging his audience to take a stand against racism today so something like the Holocaust never happens again.
For more information, contact the Missouri Western Center for Multicultural Education at 816-271-4150 or cme@missouriwestern.edu.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Members of three religious denominations say they are setting aside their differences to work together.
