(AP) — A Kansas lawmaker says her proposed rules governing the appearance of legislative interns is the result of complaints she has received
House Speaker Pro Tem Peggy Mast’s suggested guidelines have gotten mixed reviews, including a suggestion that they raise First Amendment issues.
Under the Emporia Republican’s plan, female interns would be allowed to wear one earring in each ear, while male interns would not be allowed to wear earrings at all. Tennis shoes and strapless tops also would be forbidden. Anyone who violates the rules could be dismissed from the internship program.
Mast’s proposal also bans interns from posting unflattering photographs on social media sites or saying anything derogatory about people with whom they come into contact.
(AP) — One man is dead after a house fire on Kansas City’s northeast side.
Firefighters were called to a house fire around 7 a.m. Saturday and encountered large amounts of smoke coming from the residence when they arrived. They found the unresponsive man in a bedroom in the back of the home. He was taken to an area hospital where he later died.
Firefighters say there were no smoking detectors in the home.
Missouri county prosecutors are working together to improve their crime-fighting efforts by sharing best practices for obtaining convictions while also protecting people’s rights.
The Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys recently created committees to discuss several areas of criminal investigations.
“Contrary to what is seen on television, county prosecutors aren’t about getting convictions at all costs,” said Platte County Eric Zahnd, who is the group’s immediate past president. “We care deeply about not only convicting the guilty but protecting the rights of everyone, including the criminal defendants.”
The various subcommittees will look at such issues as how county prosecutors can better handle forensic evidence, eyewitness testimony, the use of jailhouse informants, recorded interrogations and how to pursue death penalty cases. Other subcommittees will offer recommendations on cases involving children, the elderly, drunken driving, child-support collection, domestic abuse and sex crimes.
The effort was prompted in part by two recent criminal cases, Zahnd said.
In November, the Missouri attorney general’s office decided not to retry 29-year-old Ryan Ferguson, who was released after serving nearly eight years in prison for the slaying of a Columbia newspaper sports editor. And in October, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker was appointed special prosecutor to review sexual assault allegations in Maryville, after a public uproar occurred when Nodaway County prosecutors dismissed charges.
Zahnd also cited the case of Ali. M. Mahamud, who was convicted four years ago of second-degree murder after he stabbed and cut his victim 54 times and then dumped the body in a creek. The foreman later told Zahnd the jury might have returned a first-degree verdict if jurors had seen the defendant’s entire police interrogation. Police videotaped only a portion of their interview with Mahamud.
That and other criminal cases prompted prosecutors to lobby state lawmakers to adopt a law that would require investigators to record entire interviews of suspects in dangerous crimes.
The practice of drawing blood from suspected drunken drivers and the use of DWI courts are examples of how prosecutors should share ideas to tackle certain crimes, said Cass County Prosecutor Teresa Hensley, who leads the association’s DWI and traffic-safety practices committee.
“If someone is doing something completely different that is better than what we are doing, then I am open to that,” Hensley said. “That is our goal, and it ought to be the goal of all prosecutors across the state.”
(AP) A southwest Missouri sheriff’s department is offering two viewing days next week for burglary victims to claim their stolen items.
The Jasper County Sheriff’s office has recovered a large amount of stolen goods from thefts of storage units and vehicles in the Carthage, Joplin, Webb City and Carl Junction areas. The thefts occurred between June and December 2013.
Victims can look at the items on two different days to see if any of them were stolen from them. The first will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, with a second chance on Thursday. Both will be at the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office.
Crime victims must bring a copy of their police report listing the items stolen from them.
(AP) — A Nebraska waitress received far more than just a tip when she served two inquisitive customers last week.
Abigail Sailors was given a $5,000 college tuition check and $1,000 for personal use, on top of a $100 tip that she split with another server.
The men walked into a Lincoln Cracker Barrel restaurant on Thursday and asked the 18-year-old about her life. Sailors told them about her mother’s brain injury, her youth spent in foster homes and her efforts to put herself through Trinity Bible College in North Dakota. But she says she still felt blessed.
When the men were finished eating, one of them opened his checkbook. Sailors says she thanked the men, and they replied: “Thank God.”
WICHITA (AP) — The subzero cold being predicted for the Plains next week threatens to damage winter wheat across Nebraska and Kansas in places with little snow cover to protect crops.
Low temperatures of minus 5 to minus 15 are forecast for the region by Monday.
The Maryland-based commodity risk firm MDA Weather Services said some freeze damage is likely to hit about 15 to 20 percent of the Plains wheat belt. The crop is especially vulnerable in much of Nebraska and north-central Kansas where there is little snow on the ground.
Generally, a couple of inches of snow are sufficient to protect winter wheat when temperatures dip as low as minus 4 degrees. But wheat needs at least 4 inches of snow cover to protect it when temperatures get much lower.
(AP) — A northeast Kansas woman who spent the year after her 40th birthday performing 40 acts of goodness to honor people who made a mark in her life is inspiring others.
Tami Greenberg of Prairie Village called her project “A Year of Being 40 and Grateful.”
The story about her moved Danny O’Neill to tears. The founder of the Roasterie, a Kansas City coffee roaster, announced a similar goal and encouraged others to do the same in his annual Christmas letter, sent to nearly 14,000 people.
Others also were inspired. A work colleague sent a letter of thanks to an old teacher/coach from high school. Another woman started her own project for her 40th birthday.
Two northeast Kansas have been convicted in a $28 million drug trafficking conspiracy.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Marvin Lee Ellis, 36, of Kansas City, Kansas, was convicted Friday on one count of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine, three counts of distributing crack cocaine, one count of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, one count of maintaining a residence in furtherance of drug trafficking one count of unlawful possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm after a felony conviction.
Vernon Brown, 36, also of Kansas City, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine.
Robert Vasquez of Socorro, Texas, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of money laundering. A fourth defendant was acquitted.
During trial, prosecutors presented evidence that the defendants were part of a drug trafficking organization that in October 2010 became the target of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The investigation yielded the seizure and forfeiture of more than $2 million in cash, 194 firearms, 29 vehicles, 26 kilograms of cocaine and three kilograms of crack.
Prosecutors presented evidence that the traffickers employed a group of couriers who would transport cocaine and marijuana from Mexico to Kansas City, and U.S. currency from the Kansas City area south to be smuggled into Mexico. Robert Vazquez was one of those couriers.
On Jan. 13, 2012, investigators were watching when Vasquez met other conspirators at the Swift commercial trucking center in Edwardsville, Kan., and placed a bag inside his semitrailer truck. Investigators followed him to the area of Pratt, where troopers stopped him and seized a black duffel bag containing about $550,000 in cash.
During trial, prosecutors also presented evidence that members of the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department’s narcotics unit working undercover were able to buy crack cocaine several times in February and March 2012 from Marvin Ellis at 921 Haskell and at other locations in Kansas City.
Ellis, Vasquez and Brown will be set for sentencing at a later date.
(AP) Gov. Jay Nixon says the incentive package Missouri offered Boeing showed the state is “ready to compete” in the global economy.
His statement came early Saturday morning, just after Boeing announced its new 777X airplane will be built in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. Boeing production workers agreed to concede some benefits in order for that to happen.
Nixon thanked the General Assembly, community colleges and local business and labor partners for the “nationally-recognized proposal,” which had authorized up to $1.7 billion in tax incentives over two decades.
He also said that Boeing’s decision last month to shift some research positions to Missouri is “proof positive” that the state is a “top destination for high-tech jobs and investment.”
Approximate location of the Saturday morning crash
Two teenagers were injured in a Saturday morning crash in Gentry County.
According to the Missouri Highway Patrol seventeen year old Riley D. Jones of Grant City was driving a 2008 Chevy Pickup north on 558th Road six miles north of Albany.
The truck was approaching a 90-degree turn and began sliding on the snow-covered road and went over the side of a bridge, down an embankment, and hit the ground. The truck came to rest on its wheels facing south at the bottom of a ravine.
Jones and a passenger in the truck, Jacob M. Caddenhead of Grand City, were transported to the hospital in Albany. They were not wearing seat belts.
