COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri athletic director Mike Alden is stepping down after a 17-year tenure marked by several high-profile coaching hires and the school’s move from the Big 12 Conference to the SEC.
Alden plans to leave in August but will remain at Mizzou as an instructor in its education school and an administrator in a new global service-learning program. The school announced the move on Thursday and plans a Friday news conference.
The Illinois native hired little-known Toledo football coach Gary Pinkel in 2000. Pinkel has since become the school’s winningest football coach and led Missouri to two consecutive East Division titles in the Southeastern Conference.
He had less success with men’s basketball, hiring four head coaches since Norm Stewart’s contentious retirement early in Alden’s tenure.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission has settled a case against a man accused of operating a “revenge porn” website, which posted nude pictures of women without their consent.
The FTC says Craig Brittain of Colorado Springs, Colo., ran the website isanybodydown.com, which is no longer operational. The site included the woman’s full name, age, home town, phone number and link to her Facebook profile. The FTC says Brittain advertised a separate legal service that claimed to be able to take down the photos for a fee of up to $500.
Under the settlement, Brittain is required to delete all of the images and other personal information he received while operating the site.
The case signals an increased interest by regulators in revenge sites, which have proliferated in recent years.
CDC photo-skin of a patient after 3 days of measles infection
FREMONT, Neb. (AP) — Health officials have confirmed a second case of measles in a child residing in eastern Nebraska.
The Three Rivers Health Department, along with the Douglas County Health Department, issued a news release Thursday announcing the case. The confirmation comes after officials last week announced a woman who spent time in Omaha and Blair had been diagnosed with measles.
Officials say the child visited a childcare center and a restaurant in Blair when he or she could have infected others.
Measles is a highly contagious viral illness that spreads through the air through breathing, coughing or sneezing. Officials say any person exposed to it who has not been vaccinated is likely to contract the disease.
Officials have urged anyone who may have been in the patient’s vicinity to check vaccine records.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) today introduced the Federal Permitting Improvement Act of 2015, bipartisan legislation designed to streamline and improve the federal permitting process, which is currently laden with uncertainty and unpredictability that hinders investment, economic growth, and job creation. The Federal Permitting Improvement Act is modeled on the commonsense, bipartisan permit-streamlining reforms of the 2006 and 2012 transportation bills and recommendations from the President’s Jobs Council, as well as other studies. U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) are original cosponsors.
“We’ve made a lot of progress expanding job opportunities and getting folks back to work, but we shouldn’t let up now,” McCaskill said. “Infrastructure projects create good-paying jobs, and employers can’t afford lengthy, unnecessary delays because of an uncoordinated bureaucracy. We need a streamlined process that allows businesses and communities working on large projects the freedom and independence to get them off the ground.”
“Under the current U.S. system, many major job-creating projects get bogged down in a lengthy approval process and never see the light of day,” Portman stated. “By streamlining the federal permitting process, our bill will help promote expansion, economic growth, and the hiring of American workers right here at home.”
“Our federal permitting system is plagued by too many layers of bureaucracy and poorly coordinated processes. Although well intended, the resulting lack of coordination severely delays – if not completely derails – the ability to move forward with important infrastructure projects,” King said. “Maine suffered from a similar problem when I was Governor, which is why we created a sensible system of ‘one-stop regulatory shopping,’ which vested the responsibility of coordinating and issuing a final permit within one lead agency. This bill would follow Maine’s lead by creating a similar system at the federal level for major capital projects, helping to ensure that the permitting process doesn’t become a barrier to improving American infrastructure. Our country is in desperate need of the work and the jobs that these projects can create. The government should be a partner in helping to provide them, not an obstacle.”
“Because of the current dysfunctional permitting process marked by never-ending delays, valuable infrastructure and other construction projects are stalled or cancelled entirely,” said U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President of Environment, Technology, & Regulatory Affairs Bill Kovacs. “And when those projects go away, so do the jobs associated with them. The Chamber recognizes and appreciates the tireless efforts of Senators McCaskill and Portman to address this problem through the introduction of the bipartisan ‘Federal Permitting Improvement Act.’ By streamlining the environmental review and permitting process, this legislation would get projects back on track, and allow for job creation and economic growth. This bill – a commonsense approach that builds on successful provisions for environmental review management found in previous transportation legislation – is a critical component to improving and reforming this country’s regulatory process. By cutting the “red tape” that has hindered development and maintaining meaningful environmental reviews, S. 280 will allow for the advancement of important projects that could also provide jobs for millions of Americans.”
“If there was ever an issue that could be considered a no-brainer for Congress, The Federal Permitting Improvement Act is it,” said North America’s Building Trades Unions President Sean McGarvey. “Streamlining the process through which important infrastructure projects gain approval is critical for the overall economic health of the American economy, as well as the individual economic interests of the skilled craft construction professionals I represent. Any way you slice it, this is a jobs bill.”
“Manufacturers rely on our nation’s vast interconnected infrastructure to support and supply every sector of the economy,” said Rosario Palmieri, vice president for infrastructure, legal and regulatory policy at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). “The Federal Permitting Improvement Act would greatly improve the permitting process by removing many bureaucratic delays that slow important construction projects. Currently, a myriad of overlapping and duplicative processes leads to extensive delays, uncertainty and higher costs for both privately-funded and government-funded projects. The result is structural decay, lost jobs and an inefficient use of resources. Infrastructure is not keeping up with the demands of a growing economy and manufacturers in the United States are placed at a competitive disadvantage when the infrastructure is not there or in decline. Manufacturers appreciate the leadership of Senators Portman and McCaskill on this issue. To maintain our global competitiveness, we must do better than the status quo. Permitting reform will ensure that infrastructure is performing at a pace to keep up with the needs of business.”
The United States ranks 41st in the world in “Dealing with Construction Permits,” a key World Bank metric measuring how easy it is to actually build something.
Businesses seeking to undertake major capital projects often must run the gauntlet of a dozen separate agency approvals and reviews. That process is plagued by a lack of coordination, few deadlines, insufficient transparency, and litigation exposure as long as 6 years after securing all required approvals. State and local government authorities face the same obstacles when they seek federal permits for infrastructure projects. The resulting uncertainty surrounding major capital projects makes new construction and investments less attractive and hinders job creation. Several recent reports have highlighted the need for modernization of the permitting process, including the 2011 Year-End Report of the President’s Jobs Council, the Business Roundtable’s Permitting Jobs and Business Investment, and the Chamber of Commerce’s Project/No Project report.
The Federal Permitting Improvement Act would improve the permitting process for major capital projects in three ways: better coordination and deadline-setting for permitting decisions; enhanced transparency; and reduced litigation delays. The bill is limited to economically significant capital projects, defined based on the size of the initial investment (more than $25 million). The bill covers major capital projects across all sectors, including renewable or conventional energy production, electricity transmission, surface transportation, aviation, ports and waterways, water resource projects, broadband, pipelines, and manufacturing.
This bill also builds on and makes permanent the new permit streamlining project launched by the Obama Administration in 2012 under Executive Order 13,604, and available at permits.performance.gov. It would not alter substantive standards or safeguards, but rather seeks to create a smarter, more transparent, better-managed process for government review and approval of major capital projects.
Key Reforms:
1. Better Coordination and Deadline-Setting
Creates an interagency council, led by OMB, to identify best practices and deadlines for required reviews and approvals of various types of infrastructure projects.
Establishes a formal role for a single “lead agency” to set a permitting timetable for each major capital project, in consultation with participating agencies and based on OMB guidance.
Encourages greater cooperation with state and local permitting authorities.
Encourages agencies to conduct environmental reviews by the most efficient process available.
2. Greater Transparency and Early Public Participation
Creates a public, on-line “dashboard” to track agency progress on required approvals and reviews of major capital projects and to provide access to relevant documents.
Requires agencies to reach out to accept comments from stakeholders early in the approval and review process, with the aim of identifying and addressing important public concerns early.
3. Litigation Reforms
Reduces the current (default) statute of limitations on NEPA suits from 6 years to 150 days — as in the bipartisan 2012 transportation bill, MAP-21.
Permits courts to consider potential job loss in weighing equitable considerations for injunctive relief.
13-year-old Billy Sticklin undergoes rehab at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., for a neurological condition. Credit Mike Sherry / Heartland Health Monitor
By Mike Sherry
Children’s Mercy Hospital has a medical mystery on its hands.
Doctors there are trying to figure out what caused a severe neurologic condition between mid-September and early October in three patients, including a 13-year-old from Joplin, Mo.
And like other researchers around the country, they’re trying to figure out if the condition – which the medical community has termed acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) – is related to the recent nationwide outbreak of a polio-like virus called enterovirus D68, or EV-D68.
“I think we are still very, very much in the investigation phase,” Dr. Mary Anne Jackson, director of the hospital’s infectious disease division, said at a news conference Wednesday.
Jackson emphasized that no causal link has been established between EV-D68 and the myelitis cases.
“In fact, it’s a medical mystery right now,” she said.
In mid-August, Children’s Mercy was one of the first hospitals in the country to notice early signs of an outbreak of EV-D68, an unusually severe respiratory disease. One out of five cases required care in the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit.
Similar cases started popping up all over the United States.
“It was the largest outbreak of this type ever recorded in the world,” Jackson said.
Children’s Mercy recorded more than 300 cases of EV-D68. Nationwide through Jan. 15, health authorities confirmed a total of 1,153 cases of EV-D68 in 49 states and the District of Columbia, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
EV-D68 is a cousin to polio, a crippling and potentially deadly infectious disease. The virus spreads from person to person and can invade an infected person’s brain and spinal cord, causing paralysis. The United States has been polio-free since 1979 thanks to an effective vaccine, according to the CDC.
Even though EV-D68 has abated around the country, Jackson said, the CDC is still getting reports of AFM, the neurologic syndrome.
The CDC has identified 107 children in 34 states who developed AFM, which causes a sudden onset of weakness in one or more arms or legs. MRI scans of the patients show inflammation of the nerve cells in the spinal cord.
Most AFM patients develop a fever or respiratory illness or both before the onset of their neurologic symptoms.
None of the three AFM patients at Children’s Mercy were among its 300-plus EV-D68 patients, Jackson said.
About two-thirds of the children with AFM the have reported some improvement in symptoms. Only one has completely recovered.
“We are nowhere near understanding the neurologic piece of this,” Jackson said. “This is just the beginning of the story.”
Jackson said her hunch is that researchers will determine that many viruses cause the neurologic syndrome.
Researchers at Children’s Mercy and elsewhere are looking at MRIs dating to 2012 for clues about AFM. The hospital is also looking at blood samples they collected previously as part of a study on polio, Jackson said.
“How unique is this? Is 100 cases across the country strikingly unusual?” Jackson asked.
Billy Sticklen’s ordeal began on Sept. 24. The 13-year-old Joplin resident woke up that morning and told his parents he couldn’t move his arms.
Doctors sent him to the emergency room. Doctors there referred him to Children’s Mercy, where he spent two months. Jackson said Sticklen’s was the most severe of the three AFM cases treated at the hospital.
At one point he had movement only in his hands and feet, Sticklen told reporters Wednesday. Since Sept. 24, he has lost 30 pounds.
The middle schooler, an avid golfer, was in a wheelchair for three months but has progressed to the point where he’s now walking with a cane.
Sticklen is now finishing up rehabilitation in Kansas City and will continue rehab in Joplin.
“I think it’s kind of cool. No parent wants their kid to be a statistic, but it will make a great story one day,” he told reporters.
His mother, Dawn Sticklen, said she worries about the possibility of a relapse.
“It will probably always be in the back of our minds,” she said. “But if you keep worrying day to day, you’ll make yourself crazy.”
She said she was encouraged by her son’s progress and is confident that if he predicts he’ll be back out on the golf course someday, even on the professional circuit, he will be.
“You betcha,” she said. “He’ll be out there.”
Mike Sherry is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R –Kan.) issued the following statement in response to the Senate passage of legislation approving construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline:
“Passing a bill to approve construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline is the first victory of the new Republican Senate Majority. Republicans have been pushing this project for years, and within weeks of obtaining a majority, the more than six year battle to move Keystone to the President’s desk is over.”
“The 42,000 jobs created by this project now rest on the President’s shoulders. I am disappointed President Obama will veto this bill, despite the American people’s overwhelming support for construction of the pipeline. It is my sincere hope the President will rise to the occasion, put commonsense above ideology, American jobs over a liberal agenda, sign this bill, and make the long overdue Keystone Pipeline a reality.”
Jefferson City, Mo. – Attorney General Chris Koster announced in a media release his office has reached a settlement with Fawe Enterprise, LLC, which conducted business in the Rolla area as Air Essentials, for violating Missouri’s no-call law. The Attorney General’s Office began an investigation into Air Essentials after receiving a dozen complaints from consumers about unwanted telemarketing calls from the company soliciting air purification systems.
Under the terms of the agreement filed in Phelps County Circuit Court, Air Essentials must pay $5,000 in fines and is prohibited from placing any telemarketing calls to numbers on the no-call list without the consumer’s express consent.
“My office will continue to pursue businesses both in the state and throughout the country that bother Missouri consumers with unwanted solicitation calls,” Koster said.
Koster reminds Missourians they can sign up for the no-call list on his website at ago.mo.gov or by calling 866-662-2551. He encourages consumers who receive harassing solicitation calls to file a complaint at 866-buzzoff (866-289-9633). Missourians can register their land and cell phone numbers with Missouri’s no-call list.
SPRINGFIELD – The man charged with shooting and seriously wounding a Springfield police officer pleaded not guilty during his first court appearance.
During a hearing Thursday, a Greene County judge ordered 32-year-old Joshua Hagood be held without bond on charges of felony assault on an officer, armed criminal action, felon in possession of a firearm, and receiving stolen property.
Hagood is accused of shooting Officer Aaron Pearson in the head Monday morning while Pearson and two other officers were checking suspicious activity. Hagood was arrested several hours later in a used car lot about 200 yards from the shooting scene.
Chief Paul Williams said in a statement Wednesday that Pearson’s injuries are “career-ending” and will require long-term rehabilitation and care.
A public defender will be appointed for Hagood.
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri lawmakers and state elected officials will not receive a raise.
State senators on Thursday voted 31-3 to block a pay increase for themselves that was recommended by a state commission.
The commission in November recommended $4,000 more for legislators and 8 percent more for the governor and other state officials in fiscal years 2016 and 2017.
Opponents say lawmakers should not receive a raise, especially when state employees are not expected to get one next fiscal year.
The House voted 133-15 against the pay raises last week.
Efforts to prevent the raise stalled Wednesday after a filibuster by some Senate Democrats, who say the current $35,915 a year isn’t enough to compensate lawmakers for their work. But they backed down Thursday, allowing a vote.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sunbeam is recalling about 34,000 Holmes-branded space heaters because they can spray hot oil and possibly cause household damage or injuries.
The plug-in heater is filled with oil. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Sunbeam received about 40 reports of hot oil spraying out and causing property damage. There were no reports of injuries.
The heaters were sold at Target stores and small department stores around the country between August and November for about $50. They are black or white and about 23 inches tall. They have model numbers HOH3000 or HOH3000B printed on a label on the bottom and a code ranging from G192 through G298 on the plug.
The CPSC says owners of the faulty heaters should unplug them and contact Sunbeam for a full refund.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri athletic director Mike Alden is stepping down after a 17-year tenure marked by several high-profile coaching hires and the school’s move from the Big 12 Conference to the SEC.
