SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Former U.S. attorney Catherine Hanaway is stepping down from the Republican National Committee to focus on her 2016 campaign for Missouri governor.
Hanaway publicly announced her resignation Saturday at a meeting of Missouri Republican State Committee. She declared her candidacy for governor earlier this month.
There is no rule against candidates serving as national party officials, but Hanaway said it seemed appropriate to focus on just one task.
Her resignation will become effective in May. Republicans are expected to choose a new national committeewoman during a June 7 meeting in Columbia.
Republican Party Executive Director Shane Schoeller (SHOH’-ler) also is stepping down. He’s doing so to run for Greene County clerk.
(AP) — The Missouri Republican Party has endorsed a ballot measure seeking to create a constitutional right to farm.
A proposed amendment scheduled to appear on the November ballot would ask voters whether the right “to engage in farming and ranching” should be “forever guaranteed” in the Missouri Constitution.
The Republican State Committee endorsed the measure by a voice vote Saturday. That will allow the party to promote the measure in its get-out-the-vote efforts for this year’s elections.
The proposal was referred to the ballot by the Republican-led state Legislature. But at least some Republicans expressed opposition Saturday. One GOP committee member questioned whether someone could use the amendment to assert a right to grow marijuana.
The amendment is backed by a coalition of agricultural groups called Missouri Farmers Care.
(AP) – The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St Joseph has settled two lawsuits involving a pedophile priest for a total of $1.8 million.
Jackson County Circuit Judge Jack Grate approved a $1.275 million settlement Friday in a lawsuit filed by two parents on behalf of their minor daughter against the diocese, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Robert Finn.
The Kansas City Star reports two days earlier, Circuit Judge Jim Kanatzar approved a $525,000 settlement in a lawsuit filed last year by two parents and their minor daughter.
The two judges each also entered a $500,000 default judgment against Ratigan, who failed to respond to both lawsuits.
Ratigan pleaded guilty in state and federal court to child porn charges was sentenced last year to 50 years in federal prison.
The research division of the Missouri Department of Economic Development says Medicaid expansion in Missouri would create nearly 24,000 jobs, $9.9-billion in new wages and $14.6-billion in new Gross State Product between 2015 and 2022.
The report from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC) says expanding Medicaid eligibility for adults who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level would also generate $402-million in new state general revenue over that period.
Republican leadership in the legislature has not been supportive of expanding Medicaid but at least some Republicans favor reforming the program, or a combination of expansion and reform.
A proposal was filed by Representative Noel Torpey (R-Independence) this week that would extend Medicaid coverage to adults with incomes below the federal poverty level and, Torpey says, would help people making between the poverty level and 138 percent of the poverty level buy private insurance on the federal exchange.
That proposal would also require working-age adult Medicaid recipients to have or be pursuing a job or be pursuing an education.
(AP) A firefighter who was killed while helping evacuate a University of Missouri-run apartment complex after a walkway collapsed has been identified as a 23-year veteran of the Columbia Fire Department.
The department says Lt. Bruce Britt was taken to a local hospital Saturday, where he was pronounced dead.
Firefighters were called to University Village Apartments in the central Missouri town just after 4 a.m. Saturday. No residents were injured, but student Ghazwan Alway says he saw the firefighter fall while walking on a part of the balcony that was hanging down.
The apartment complex was built in 1956.
During the evacuation, some second-floor residents had to climb down a ladder out of their windows. They were told it could be hours or even days before they could retrieve their belongings.
The exterior walkway at University Village apartment complex collapsed about 4 a.m. Saturday, but school officials said no apartment residents were hurt.
University Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin issued a statement Saturday expressing his condolences to the family of the firefighter.
Rashid Junaid (left), violence prevention manager for Aim4Peace, introduced Frank Perez, national director of Cure Violence, at a community forum in Kansas City, Mo., Thursday evening.- Photo by Mike Sherry
By Mike Sherry
KHI News Service
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Doctors can help reduce the shootings and killings that plague Kansas City, according to the leader of an international violence-prevention group who visited here this week.
Dr. Gary Slutkin is an epidemiologist who argues that violence is a public health concern and similar to infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, AIDS and the plagues of medieval Europe in that violence tends to beget more violence. His organization Cure Violence is based in Chicago.
Slutkin said doctors need to step up as “credible messengers” to persuade policymakers to adopt more effective responses to violence. The Cure Violence approach to the problems relies on prevention, mediation and close interaction with the likely “carriers” of violence in a specific neighborhood. In short, it mimics the public health approach to preventing and containing infections.
The group’s results have earned it accolades in Chicago and elsewhere.
“Not advocating means really allowing the continuation of what is going on right now,” Slutkin said, “which is lack of success, a lot of punishment, a lot of imprisonment, a lot of ineffective and really outdated solutions.”
Slutkin talked about the group’s methods Wednesday evening at the offices of the Metropolitan Medical Society of Greater Kansas City on the Country Club Plaza. The audience of about 30 people included local medical students.
The next night, Frank Perez, national director of Cure Violence, spoke to a crowd of about 60 people at a community forum at the offices of the Kansas City, Mo., Health Department at 2400 Troost Ave.
Slutkin founded the organization nearly two decades ago. Cure Violence now has partner groups in 15 U.S. cities and in several countries, including England, Iraq and South Africa. Its partner in Kansas City, Mo., is Aim4Peace, a health department program that was started in 2008.
Dr. Lancer Gates, president of the medical society, said its members likely would heed Slutkin’s call to action.
He said the society has a history of taking up community causes, such as helping start the Community Blood Center of Greater Kansas City.
Doctors, he said, could spread the word to public officials and police. And, Gates said, they could take the message to their patients.
“Knowing something like this, having this information,” he said, “we have time with patients and families to talk about these things.”
Programs such as Cure the Violence and Aim4Peace use trained violence “interrupters” to help defuse tensions in a neighborhood and discourage violent retaliations.
Aim4Peace covers a swath of the city stretching from the Missouri River on the north to southeast areas near Independence and Lee’s Summit, but generally east of Wabash Avenue.
According to crime statistics, the area worked by the Kansas City Police Department’s East Patrol Division accounted for about 40 percent of the city’s 106 homicides last year. Homicide totals in the so-called East Patrol area have been the highest among the police department’s six patrol zones for each of the past five years. East Patrol stretches from the Missouri River on the north to southeast areas near Independence and Lee’s Summit, but generally lies east of Wabash Avenue.
Aim4Peace has focused on one of the four sectors in the East Patrol, according to Tracie McClendon-Cole, Aim4Peace director. There, she said, the seven homicides tallied last year were about half as many as in previous years.
Thanks to a new $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, the program will expand into two more sectors.
Aim4Peace covers only about a third of the most violent part of the city. If the program could beef up its coverage to perhaps 80 percent of that section, McClendon-Cole said, it could cut the city’s homicides by nearly half.
Aim4Peace takes into consideration a neighborhood’s overall circumstances. Its efforts include a life-skills program that works to prevent school delinquency and dropouts. The group also teaches job readiness and anger management.
It has a Hospital Prevention Program in conjunction with Truman Medical Centers, where workers respond to gunshot and violence-related traumas. By working with emergency department staff, Aim4Peace workers are able to contact residents thought to be most at risk of being involved in future shootings.
The crowd at Perez’s Thursday night talk explaining the Cure Violence approach included neighborhood leaders, clergy and health care workers.
He implored the church leaders to become more involved in stopping gun violence.
“It’s fantastic you are saving souls,” he said, “but I need you to help me save some lives. I need you to come out of those temples, those churches, those synagogues … and work in your own communities. Don’t be afraid of these young people – get them involved.”
The Rev. Wallace Hartsfield, pastor emeritus of Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church, 2310 E. Linwood Blvd., said he agreed that clergy could do more.
“We can’t wait for someone else to come in,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kansas City, Kan., resident LaVita Gassoway said she hoped Aim4Peace could expand to her side of the state line.
“We really need this program in Wyandotte County,” she said, “because we have a bad problem with retaliation murders.”
Jena Sosnowchik, sporting a purple tutu and cape, jumps into Colden Pond Friday afternoon during Northwest’s annual Colden Pond Plunge.-Photo courtesy NWMSU
Five Northwest Missouri State University students brushed aside winter’s hold on the campus Friday afternoon and jumped into Colden Pond during Up ‘til Dawn’s annual event to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Students raised more than $2,400 for St. Jude during this year’s campaign to benefit pediatric cancer research. Jena Sosnowchik, a senior elementary major from Omaha, was the leading fundraiser, drawing $415.05 in donations.
“I definitely was hoping I would at least get to jump in, but I didn’t think I was going to be the top person by far,” Sosnowchik said as she tried to warm herself in a blanket after the jump.”I’m very excited about it, and I’m very grateful to everyone who donated for me.”
Sosnowchik joined Zach Corbett, a senior business management and marketing major from Omaha, Neb.; Courtney Clemens, a senior fashion merchandising major from Kansas City; Emily Barnes, a senior majoring in elementary education and special education from Papillion, Neb.; and Caleb Watson, a senior elementary education major from Cameron; as the lucky five students who raised the most donations for the right to jump into the campus pond.
Prior to Friday’s event, a University crew cut a large square opening in the pond for the students to jump into. Then, with a sunny sky and the temperature in the low 40s, each participant walked a series of wood planks on the iced-over pond and proceeded to jump. A contingent of St. Jude members were waiting on dry land to cover each jumper with blankets when they climbed from the water.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Watson said after jumping. “It’s a lot warmer outside of the water than in it, but it was such a great experience to do this for St. Jude.”
Barnes added, “When you first get in the water, you don’t think you’re going to be able to get out so you kind of start to panic. But it was for a god cause, and it was good fun.”
As is a customary part of the event, each of the jumpers sported a unique outfit and struck a pose as they entered the water. Sosnowchik, who also wore a purple cape and tutu, said one of her instructors gave her the idea for the outfit but she doesn’t recommend it for future plungers.
“Do not wear a tutu and do not wear a cape because when you try to swim it totally drags you back,” she said.
The plunge again drew a large crowd of spectators who clicked pictures and captured videos from the bank of the pond. Campus radio station KZLX broadcast live from the pond’s pavilion area and members of the University Police Department served up free hot chocolate.
The Colden Pond Plunge campaign, which began in January, invited the Northwest community to donate funds toward any one of 17 students who volunteered to participate.
The Colden Pond Plunge is one of several events organized throughout the academic year by Up ‘Til Dawn to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Since opening in 1962, research at St. Jude has increased the pediatric cancer survivor rate from 20 percent to 80 percent. The hospital costs nearly $1.8 million a day to operate and runs strictly off donations. Every child admitted into the hospital is treated, regardless of their inability to pay.
U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill is calling on Missouri veterans to continue participating in the successful “secret shopper” program aimed at providing oversight and accountability for area veteran health care facilities.
Veterans seeking to participate in the Veterans Customer Satisfaction Program can visit McCaskill’s website, www.McCaskill.senate.gov/VCSP, and complete the confidential survey.
In 2010, amid reports of problems with medical care at John Cochran VA medical facility in St. Louis, McCaskill toured the hospital and met with administrators to discuss the urgent need for the VA to make improvements. Following the tour, McCaskill launched the Veterans Customer Satisfaction Program (VCSP) with the aim to empower veterans to be “secret shoppers” within the region’s VA health care facilities so they can provide confidential feedback that will help improve care and customer service at such facilities, and enable VA officials to subsequently seek solutions where problems are identified.
One year later, the VA’s Inspector General released a report showing that the problems documented at John Cochran had largely been corrected.
“Our efforts at John Cochran delivered a win for veterans,” said McCaskill, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and daughter of a World War II veteran. “I am asking all veterans to help us to keep Missouri’s VA health care providers informed on both what they are doing well and where they need to continue to improve. Those who have risked everything to protect our freedoms have earned the best health care system we can provide.”
McCaskill has been a champion for military veterans since coming to the Senate in 2006 and was a founding member of the Senate Veterans Jobs Caucus. McCaskill was a leading advocate for the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, helped pass the 21st Century GI Bill to open up educational opportunities for veterans, and has repeatedly rallied support for additional care for veterans returning from combat duty.
Veterans seeking to participate in the Veterans Customer Satisfaction Program can visit McCaskill’s website, McCaskill.senate.gov/VCSP, and complete the confidential survey. Responses can be submitted after each health care visit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says hardworking Americans deserve a vote in Congress on a minimum raise hike.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says six states have already raised their minimum wage and more are considering it. Obama says he’s taken action, too, by raising wages for federal contractors.
He says now it’s up to Congress to finish the job by passing legislation raising the federal minimum to $10.10 per hour.
Obama is praising retailer The Gap for deciding to pay its employees higher wages. He says the move will benefit about 65,000 workers and help the economy.
In the Republican address, Rep. Tom Cotton of Arkansas says Obama’s policies spend too much and concentrate power in Washington. He says Republicans want to repair the damage Obama has inflicted.
A St. Joseph woman was hospitalized from injuries in a rear end crash early Saturday.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reports the accident occurred as a 1999 Ford Expedition driven by 25-year-old Evan D. Woodruff of Savannah southbound on I-29, just south of Mo 6, struck the rear end of a 2011 Dodge Nitro driven by 34-year-old Brie A. Phillips of St. Joseph.
The Expedition traveled off the west side of the road, overturned coming to rest on its wheels off the west side of the road. The Nitro traveled off the east side of the road, struck a cable barrier and came to rest on its wheels in the media.
Phillips was transported to Heartland Regional Medical Center
