(AP) — Two longtime leaders of the Missouri Soybean Association are out of their jobs as part of an organizational shakeup following an audit of how the prominent agricultural group managed millions of dollars of merchandising fees paid by farmers.
Board members of the soybean organization declined to release the audit and, in interviews with The Associated Press this week, provided no specific reason for the staffing changes. But the ousted executives blamed their departure on an internal political squabble involving state and national leaders in the soybean industry.
Gone are Dale Ludwig, who served as executive director of the soybean association for more than 20 years, and the organization’s field services manager, J.P. Dunn. Both resigned under pressure Dec. 19.
Their departures are notable because soybeans are a multi-billion-dollar business in Missouri, which ranked seventh nationally last year in soybean production. Missouri’s soybean organization has been a national leader in developing soy-based fuel used in diesel vehicles. It’s also a significant political player, making endorsements of state officials and contributions through a political action committee.
Ludwig said he was placed on paid administrative leave for about a month before his departure as an audit was underway at the behest of the United Soybean Board. The national board, created by a 1990 U.S. law, oversees about $180 million annually of “check-off” fees paid on all U.S. soybean sales to help promote the industry. Half of that money goes to the national group and half stays with state organizations.
Ludwig blamed his departure on pressure from national soybean leaders.
“This whole thing has some politics involved,” he said.
Dunn, who also cited “internal politics,” said he was asked to resign by the state soybean board.
“I did ask for an explanation and wasn’t given one,” Dunn said, adding that there was “no wrongdoing, no scandal or anything like that.”
Both Dunn and Ludwig said they never were shown the audit. But Ludwig said concerns were raised during the auditing process about how the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council used its share of the farmers’ check-off fees. Among other things, he said there was criticism for providing research money to private companies and for buying university laboratory equipment. The United Soybean Board’s compliance manual states that it “strongly discourages the funding of equipment.”
(AP) — A 43-year-old Kansas City man has admitted that he beat, stabbed and drowned his ex-girlfriend in front of their children.
Ja A. Ray pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder in the November 2012 killing of 21-year-old Essence Willoughby. He was then sentenced to 25 years in prison, with another seven years for possession of PCP.
The couple’s 3-year-old son helped lead authorities to his mother’s body in a wooded area near where they had attended church the day before her death.
Court documents indicated the 3-year-old boy told investigators that he had seen his mother bleeding and that his father cut his mom in the stomach while he and his younger brother sat nearby and cried.
(AP) Business leaders in Iowa and Nebraska are joining forces to promote economic development in the Omaha-Council Bluffs area.
Govs. Terry Branstad and Dave Heineman signed an agreement Friday to add Advance Southwest Iowa Corp., a new public-private partnership, to the Greater Omaha Economic Development Partnership. The group includes business leaders from Douglas, Cass, Washington, Dodge and Sarpy counties in Nebraska.
David Brown, president of the Great Omaha Chamber of Commerce, says the partnership will work to market the area for new business investment and expansion.
Pete Tulipana, president and CEO of the Iowa West Foundation, says about 18,000 Council Bluffs residents cross the Missouri River each day to work in Omaha, and roughly 6,000 employees travel from Omaha to work in Council Bluffs.
Kansas City (AP) — R. Crosby Kemper Jr., a banker, philanthropist and civic booster in Kansas City, has died at the age of 86. The family said on a website that he died Thursday night in Indian Wells, Calif. A cause of death was not announced.
Kemper was chairman emeritus of Kansas City-based UMB Financial Corporation. His banking career spanned more than five decades before he retired from UMB in 2004.
In 1990, he gave $6 million to build the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Design. His many contributions to Kansas City included support for the Agriculture Future of America, the Kansas City Symphony, the Metropolitan Performing Arts Fund, the American Royal and Kemper Arena, named in honor of his father, R. Crosby Kemper Sr.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is opening the door to commercial sales of genetically engineered corn and soybean seeds that are resistant to a weed killer best known as an ingredient in the Vietnam War-era herbicide Agent Orange.
The weed killer is called 2,4-D. It’s legal and commonly used in the U.S. by gardeners, and scientists don’t believe it was responsible for the health problems linked to Agent Orange.
The USDA, which has oversight over the seeds and not the herbicide, released an environmental impact statement Friday. It says the biggest risk from the seeds is that greater use of the herbicide could hasten the development of herbicide-resistant weeds.
But the agency also says resistance is inevitable because the herbicide is already the third most-used weed killer in the U.S.
(AP) – A man who was a fugitive for almost 30 years pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the 1984 death of a Joplin woman.
Sixty-five-year-old Paul A. Moses entered the plea Thursday during a video arraignment in Jasper County Circuit Court. He is charged with killing 62-year-old Frances Ramsey in a duplex near her home.
Moses was captured in August in San Diego, where he was found after he applied for Social Security benefits.
After his extradition in December, Jasper County prosecutors filed a new count of forcible rape against Moses. He pleaded not guilty to that charge Monday.
Investigators say Moses was seen leaving a bar with Ramsey the night before her death but police could not find him for questioning.
George Mayer, a retired software developer, helps a caller recently as a volunteer health-reform “navigator” at a Shepherd’s Center office in Kansas City, Mo. A federal lawsuit has been filed challenging Missouri’s licensing requirements for navigators.-Photo by Mike Sherry
Led by the former top insurance regulator in the state, a local physician and several others are seeking to void a Missouri law that regulates workers helping to implement the Affordable Care Act.
Dr. Wayne Letizia of Independence is among the plaintiffs who filed a federal lawsuit last month in Jefferson City. They are challenging Missouri’s licensing requirements for those who assist consumers with the new health insurance marketplaces.
They argue the law violates the U.S. Constitution and that it conflicts with federal authority included in the Affordable Care Act, which established positions known as “navigators” and “certified application counselors,” or CACs.
The state Attorney General’s Office filed a response to the suit Dec. 20, arguing that lawmakers narrowly tailored the statute to apply only to those seeking to provide navigator services for compensation. The aim, according to the law’s defenders, is to prevent unscrupulous individuals from acting as unlicensed insurance agents.
Washington, D.C., attorney Jay Angoff filed the suit. He served as Missouri insurance commissioner in the 1990s, and before recently returning to private practice served in Kansas City, Mo., as regional director [http://hcfgkc.org/news/hhs-senior-advisor-clarifies-affordable-care-act-regulations] for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Leading edge
Known as the Health Insurance Marketplace Innovation Act, the contested measure was signed into law in July by Gov. Jay Nixon.
One report has called the Missouri case the first of its kind in the nation.
Several other states are regulating navigators and CACs.
The mixing of health care law and constitutional law makes for a complicated case, said Ann Marie Marciarille, an associate professor that specializes in health care law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.
Intertwined in the case, she said, is a decades old law that gives states the right to regulate insurance along with the First Amendment right of free speech.
More specifically, though, she said the suit revolves around how much latitude Congress gave states to operate between the minimum standards the federal government set for health insurance navigators and the presumption that state licensing standards could not be so arduous that nobody could earn certification.
“So there is kind of a window of opportunity,” Marciarille said, “and the question is: ‘What is Missouri doing inside that space?’ It’s really interesting to see.”
According to the state, there are 561 individual navigators licensed in Missouri along with 88 licensed navigator organizations.
Arguments
On one level, the disagreement hinges on the words “for compensation” included in Missouri’s definition of a navigator (“a person that, for compensation, provides information or services in connection with eligibility, enrollment, or program specifications of any health benefit exchange operating in this state …”)
The plaintiffs argue that language is in “direct conflict” with the ACA because the federal law already prevents navigators or CACs from presenting “biased information, charging for their services and being insurance agents.”
The state, however, contended that “for compensation” limits the scope of the regulation to people who provide navigator services for pay.
In its answer, the state said, the only activity “the Missouri Act prevents is someone – who is compensated – who may not understand a complex issue from giving bad advice.”
Plus, the state said, the Missouri law governs “advice” while the Affordable Care Act regulates the provision of “information.”
“A person can provide information and facilitate enrollment without giving advice,” according to a response filed by the state with the court.
The plaintiffs also argue that the Missouri regulation stifles the First Amendment guarantee of free speech, alleging the language could require anyone, including health care professionals, to become a licensed navigator before talking to someone about health insurance.
“There has been some reticence to talk to patients about insurance,” Letizia said, “because we are not supposed to.”
He also said the state law could affect a practice’s bottom line by limiting a physician’s ability to suggest payment options.
The state countered that the law does not violate the First Amendment because it’s regulating economic activity.
Lawyers for the state also pointed out that the Missouri statute expressly exempts health care providers and nonprofits that disseminate public health information to a general audience.
In an affidavit accompanying the suit, Letizia said the exemption is too narrow because health care providers “are still prohibited from discussing the terms, benefits and features of health plans.”
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — University of Kansas School of Business Dean Neeli Bendapudi will be one of the featured speakers at the Kansas Small Business Forum, scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at Sporting Park in Kansas City.
The forum will include remarks by Gov. Sam Brownback and other state leaders and a panel discussion of business leaders highlighting how the Kansas business environment can help small businesses succeed, Kansas’ tax policy for small businesses and an update on the Kansas economy.
The forum also will include:
• Stan Ahlerich, executive director of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors
• Gary Allerheiligen, former president of the Kansas Society of Certified Public Accountants
• Commerce Secretary Pat George and Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan
• Ed Condon, senior portfolio manager, Sterneck Capital Management
• Sen. Jim Denning, vice president of business development, Discover Vision Centers, Leawood
• Mike Valentine, CEO, Netsmart Technologies, Overland Park
• Fred Willich, owner, Hi-Tech Interiors Inc., Manhattan
• Albert Balloqui, owner, Labor Max Staffing, Roeland Park
(AP) – A group seeking to require voter approval for any new terminal at Kansas City International Airport has gathered enough signatures to place the proposal on a ballot.
The Kansas City Star reports City Clerk Marilyn Sanders confirmed Thursday that the Friends of KCI had gathered more than the necessary 3,573 signatures on petitions.
The petitioners want to place a question on the April ballot barring the city from advancing any plan to demolish or replace any terminal at KCI without voter approval.
The City Council has 60 days to decide whether to adopt the ballot language on its own or place the question before voters. If the council waits the full 60 days, it would be past the deadline to get items on April’s municipal ballot.
(AP) Ten Missouri residents filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to compel Gov. Jay Nixon to call special elections to fill four vacant legislative seats, including one that already has been empty for more than a half a year.
The lawsuit claims Nixon is shirking his duties by not setting special elections and that residents in the districts will be deprived of representation during the 2014 legislative session if the governor does not act soon.
Nixon spokesman Scott Holste declined to comment Thursday about the lawsuit, which was filed in the capital’s home of Cole County.
The lead plaintiff is Pamela Grow, the chairwoman of the 120th Legislative District Republican Committee, who visited the Capitol in November to deliver a letter pleading with the Democratic governor to set a special election.
The 120th House District has been vacant since June, when Republican Rep. Jason Smith, of Salem, won a special election to Congress. The other three seats became vacant in December, when:
_ Democratic Rep. Steve Webb, of Florissant, resigned from the 67th House District while facing criminal charges.
_ Republican Rep. Dennis Fowler, of Advance, resigned from the 151st House District after being appointed by Nixon to the state parole board.
_ Democratic Sen. Ryan McKenna, of Crystal City, resigned from the 22nd Senate District after being appointed by Nixon as the state labor department director.
As a result of the vacancies, House Republicans will hold a 108-52 majority over Democrats when the legislative session starts next Wednesday. That will leave Republicans one seat shy of the two-thirds majority needed to override gubernatorial vetoes. Senate Republicans will have a 24-9 majority over Democrats with one vacancy.
The Missouri Constitution gives the governor the power to set special elections to fill vacant legislative seats.
The lawsuit cites a state law that says the governor “shall, without delay, issue a writ of election” to fill vacant legislative seats.
Nixon has not said whether he intends to set special elections or allow the vacancies to continue through the November general election.
The lawsuit suggests Nixon could set special elections to coincide with April 8 municipal elections, which could save costs. To meet candidate filing deadlines, Nixon would have to issue election proclamations by Jan. 17, the lawsuit says. An April election would allow the winners to take office for the final weeks of the legislative session that ends May 16.
“As long as a legislative seat remains vacant, the people living in that legislative district are deprived of a representative voice in that house of the legislature,” said the lawsuit signed by attorney David Roland, of Lacey, Wash.
Like Grow, each of the nine other people bringing the lawsuit say they live in one of the Missouri districts that is without representation.
(AP) — Two longtime leaders of the Missouri Soybean Association are out of their jobs as part of an organizational shakeup following an audit of how the prominent agricultural group managed millions of dollars of merchandising fees paid by farmers.
