(AP) — A Missouri judge has rejected a lawsuit seeking to compel Gov. Jay Nixon to set special legislative elections.
The one-sentence ruling Tuesday from Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green provides no reasoning. An attorney for the plaintiffs said they now plan to ask an appeals court to order April special elections for four vacant legislative seats.
After the lawsuit was filed in January, Nixon set August special elections for three vacant House seats. But he still has not called an election to fill a eat vacated when Nixon appointed Sen. Ryan McKenna as state labor department director.
The lawsuit contends Missouri voters are missing out on representation by delaying elections until after the May conclusion of the annual legislative session
(AP) — The parents of a newborn boy found encased in concrete at a western Missouri home have been charged with second-degree murder.
The Kansas City Star reports the Cass County prosecutor on Tuesday also charged 28-year-old Matthew Scroggs and 29-year-old Krystal Scroggs with abandoning a corpse and endangering the welfare of the newborn and four other children.
Authorities were looking for the couple Tuesday.
Police found the baby’s body in a concrete-filled bucket in a garage at the Pleasant Hill home in November while investigating other alleged crimes. Investigators said Matthew Scroggs told them the baby was stillborn at home, and he disposed of the body in the bucket.
Prosecutors say an autopsy showed the baby died of methamphetamine intoxication caused by his mother’s use of meth.
(AP) – The Missouri House has given initial approval to a proposed constitutional amendment granting lawmakers a say in the governor’s budget-cutting decisions.
The measure endorsed by voice vote Tuesday grew out of legislators’ frustration with Gov. Jay Nixon’s decision to block expenditures for some items included by lawmakers in the state budget.
The Missouri Constitution gives the governor power to cut spending. But some lawmakers contend Nixon has pushed the limits of that power by restricting spending even when state revenues are running ahead of projections.
The new proposal would let lawmakers override gubernatorial spending cuts by a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate.
The measure needs a second House vote to go to the Senate. It would appear on the ballot later this year.
(AP) – Attorneys for Missouri death row inmate Michael Taylor have asked a federal court for a stay of execution, citing concerns about the drugs Missouri plans to use.
Taylor is scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Feb. 26 for raping and killing a 15-year-old Kansas City girl in 1989. But on Monday, the compounding pharmacy in Oklahoma that provided the pentobarbital used in Missouri executions said it would no longer do so.
Gov. Jay Nixon said Tuesday that Missouri is proceeding with the execution. The state won’t discuss details, but it may be using a backup plan that combines the drugs midazolam and hydromorphone.
Concerns about that combination were raised in Ohio in January when it took 26 minutes to execute Dennis McGuire, who made repeated snorting sounds during the process.
(AP) – Missouri senators have given first-round approval to legislation that would reward the state’s four-year institutions for good performance with more funding.
Under the measure endorsed Tuesday, public universities would establish performance criteria. The criteria would be used to determine how much extra money the institutions get during years the state can afford to increase college funding.
Universities would work with the Department of Higher Education to establish five performance goals. A university’s goals must include graduation and retention rates, as well as job placement statistics. The formula would expire in 2016.
Missouri is currently using a similar mechanism to fund the universities but the measure would put the change into law.
The bill needs another vote before moving to the House.
(AP) — Laws that once banned retail sales on Sundays are largely gone in many states. Yet it remains illegal in Missouri to sell cars, trucks and motorcycles on Sundays.
Now there is effort in the Missouri Legislature to lift the ban for motorcycles.
A House committee heard testimony Tuesday from a Kansas City area Harley-Davidson dealer who is one of the main backers of the legislation. Rick Worth says it’s hard for him to compete when a dealer in nearby Kansas can sell motorcycles on Sundays.
Missouri House member Mike Cierpiot of Lee’s Summit describes his legislation as an “economic development tool.”
Some committee members questioned whether it would lead to an increase in motorcycle sales statewide or just change the times when people buy them.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Kansas House officials say Rep. Mike Peterson, one of the Kansas Legislature’s longest-serving members, has died after a lengthy illness at the age of 72.
The office of House Minority Leader Paul Davis confirmed Peterson, a Democrat from Kansas City, died early Tuesday at a Kansas City-area hospital.
Peterson, an attorney, served in the 32nd House district from 1979 to 1990 and was re-elected in 2005. He served on the House Federal and State Committee and the Redistricting Committee.
After news of his death spread at the Capitol, Davis led the House in a moment of silence. He called Peterson a “great friend and colleague.”
House Speaker Ray Merrick, a Stillwell Republican, said funeral services had not been scheduled.
Sohail Jouya and members of the MWSU Debate team (Photo courtesy MWSU)
A parliamentary debate team from Missouri Western State University finished second in the novice division of the 2014 Missouri Association of Forensics Activities State Championship Tournament at the University of Central Missouri Feb. 15. Freshmen Graham Deckard of Kansas City, Mo., and Eli Dodge of Smithville, Mo., were undefeated until they fell to Truman State University in the championship round.
“We’re so proud of all of our speech and debate students for dedicating themselves to a rigorous activity and excelling in only the first year of the program’s development,” said Sohail Jouya, who coaches the Missouri Western team with Abi Richardson.
Deckard and Dodge weren’t the only successful Missouri Western team in the novice parliamentary debate division. Freshmen Brad Stanton of Savannah, Mo., and Haden McDonald of Rosendale, Mo., also advanced to the semifinals and finished third.
“Due to the way the elimination rankings were decided we comprised two of the four teams in the semifinals but, unfortunately, we were pitted against ourselves,” Jouya said. “The team of Deckard and Dodge was the only undefeated team in the division and we decided to allow them to ‘walk over’ the team of McDonald and Stanton into the finals.”
The debaters also won individual Speaker Awards, based on the total of points in the preliminary rounds. Dodge was 4th Overall Speaker, Deckard 5th, McDonald 6th and Stanton 7th.
Two other freshmen competed in speech at the tournament: Kasey Maag of Cosby, Mo., in informative speaking and Cierra Edwards of Savannah, Mo., in prose.
The State Championship Tournament featured teams from 15 universities and colleges. It is an “open” state tournament, so teams from other states competed as well, including Illinois State, the University of Illinois and others. It was the last scheduled competition of the year for the speech and debate team, revived at Missouri Western this year after an absence of more than 10 years.
(AP) — President Barack Obama is ordering a new round of fuel efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles by March of 2016. He is highlighting improvements already undertaken by companies such as Safeway to cut back on gasoline costs for their fleet of trucks.
Obama also said companies that want to join an existing public-private partnership focused on energy-efficient vehicles will get specialized resources and the technical expertise from the Department of Energy.
Flanked by two trucks at a Washington-area distribution center for Safeway grocery stores on Tuesday, Obama said that fuel savings by truck fleets would result in savings to consumers.
The attention to fuel efficiency, Obama said, has resulted in lower costs, improved air quality and created jobs in the auto industry.
(AP) – Gov. Jay Nixon says Missouri is still prepared to carry out an execution next week – even though an Oklahoma pharmacy won’t be supplying the drug for the lethal injection.
Nixon declined to say Tuesday whether Missouri would use a different drug than pentobarbital, which was used in the state’s past three executions.
The Apothecary Shoppe in Tulsa, Okla., filed court documents late Monday saying it had agreed not to provide any drug for Missouri’s scheduled Feb. 26 execution of inmate Michael Taylor.
In a deposition last month, a Missouri Department of Corrections official said the agency has a backup supply of the sedative midazolam and painkiller hydromorphone for executions.
Nixon said Missouri could carry out Taylor’s execution without having to make any significant changes to its execution protocol.
(AP) — A Missouri judge has rejected a lawsuit seeking to compel Gov. Jay Nixon to set special legislative elections.
