(AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court is taking up an appeal of a minimum 50-year sentence imposed on a man convicted of premeditated first-degree murder.

The case of Matthew Astorga on Monday’s docket is the second appeal of a so-called “Hard 50” sentence since legislators rewrote the law this fall in response to a June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kansas previously allowed judges to sentence people convicted of premeditated first-degree murder to 50 years before they can seek parole. But the nation’s highest court ruled that juries should have the final say on the facts triggering mandatory minimum sentences.

Astorga was sentenced for a 2008 shooting death in Leavenworth County. His lawyers argue the changes made by the Legislature amount to creating a new crime and punishment and are unconstitutional.

(AP) – Newly released emails detail hidden plan for the Kansas City school district and raise questions about how a contract was awarded to a private education reform group tasked with recommending ways of improving the school system.

The interfaith social justice organization MORE2 obtained the emails through a Sunshine Law request and shared them with the Kansas City Star. The emails show Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro’s wish for a statewide district that would operate some of the state’s lowest-performing schools, many of them likely in unaccredited Kansas City.

The emails also show that Indianapolis-based CEE-Trust was hired as a consultant even though another agency had offered its services for a third of the price. Nicastro says the state is after “new ideas.”

(AP) — After a New York commuter train derailment killed four people, two federal lawmakers want trains to be outfitted with cameras pointed at engineers and at the tracks.

Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut held a news conference Sunday at Grand Central Terminal, one week after the derailment in the Bronx. The Democratic lawmakers are urging the Federal Railroad Administration to implement the cameras.

The National Transportation Safety Board has suggested it.

The railroad administration hasn’t immediately responded to messages seeking comment on the idea. There’s also no immediate comment from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It runs Metro-North, the railroad involved in the crash.

A lawyer and union leader for the derailed train’s engineer have said he briefly nodded or experienced a daze at the controls.

More than 60 people were injured.

 

(AP) – A fresh round of snow and drizzle has slickened roads across parts of Kansas and Missouri.

The wintry precipitation began falling Saturday and continued into Sunday. In Missouri, 1 inch fell at Kansas City International Airport and 3 to 4 inches in the northwest part of the state. North-central and northeast Missouri had received about half an inch by around noon.

There was just a light dusting in parts of southern Missouri already digging out from 6 to 12 inches of snow.

The hardest-hit part of Kansas was the north-central section of the state, where 6-inch accumulations were recorded. Two inches fell in the northwest and 2 to 4 inches in the state’s far northeast section. Light snow and freezing drizzle were reported in south-central, southeast and central Kansas.

(AP) — Insurance brokers are finding frustration as they try to help customers navigate the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces while earning the commissions they’ve long built their businesses around.

Their complaints range from difficulties adding their name to a customer’s application to incomplete and inaccurate enrollment information generated from the website.

The back-end problems could mean that consumers who think they’ve signed up for a health plan may find themselves unable to access their coverage come January.

Some agents are calling on President Barack Obama’s administration to allow them to bypass the troubled healthcare.gov website.

Federal health officials are asking insurers and insurance agents in Florida, Ohio and Texas to test out recent website fixes they say will allow more agents to directly sign-up clients for health insurance in the federal marketplace.

 

(AP) – Last year’s decision to close Jackson County’s only secure residential center for juveniles has brought changes to another juvenile center in the county.

Officials at the Hilltop Residential Center say they are seeing older juveniles with substance abuse and mental health problems since the county closed McCune Residential Center late last year.

Some nonviolent youths who went to McCune are being sent to Hilltop but most juveniles once sent to McCune are now going into the state juvenile corrections system.

Most kids assigned to Hilltop have committed lesser property crimes, failed in one of a juvenile diversion or probation program, or not done well with home counseling or electronic monitoring. Hilltop administrators say they will not take violent offenders.

(AP) — Supporters of a Missouri woman who has spent the last 27 years behind bars for the death of her husband are again asking Gov. Jay Nixon to set her free.

Patty Prewitt was a 35-year-old mother of five in 1984 when someone shot her husband, Bill, as he slept in their Holden home. Prewitt says a stranger broke into the house, but authorities focused on her as the primary suspect.

Prewitt’s trial attorney says prosecutors failed to tell the defense that a neighbor reported seeing a suspicious car in the area on the night of the killing.

The 64-year-old Prewitt was convicted of murder in 1985 and has no chance of parole until 2036. But her supporters say they are optimistic that Nixon will grant clemency and set her free.

Faced with inadequate action by the telecom industry, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill is drafting legislation that would provide regulators with additional tools to help protect consumers from robocall scams.

Earlier this year, McCaskill chaired a Senate hearing to examine how fraudulent robocalls are harming consumers, and called on U.S. telephone providers to explore implementing technological solutions to reduce robocalls received by American consumers. Following the hearing, McCaskill sent a letter to top telecom associations asking them to evaluate the feasibility of implementing technological solutions that would combat these types of scams. Industry leaders responded to the letter, but McCaskill noted disappointment in the companies’ lack of interest in exploring innovative solutions to reduce the number of robocalls received by consumers.

“While some legitimate questions still exist around the technologies that would help prevent these scams, it’s clear that the industry does not intend to pursue such technologies or other solutions to quickly address the issue of fraudulent robocalls-a problem that has plagued consumers for years,” said McCaskill, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection. “In the face of their inadequate approach, I will start drafting legislation to provide regulators with a robust set of tools to fight these fraudsters and start gaining back ground for American consumers against robocallers.”

McCaskill, a tech leader in the Senate, highlighted at her Senate hearing that technologies to curb fraudulent robocalls are already being developed and at least one phone company in Canada already offers such a service free to its customers.

McCaskill acknowledged that both the United States Telecom Association and CTIA-The Wireless Association indicated in their responses that the industry is working on technologies to prevent caller ID spoofing, a practice that has helped fraudulent robocalls proliferate, but expressed concerns that such technologies remain unproven and are still years from universal implementation. She has urged both trade associations to continue talking with their member companies about tools that can be made available to consumers today to help reduce the fraud and annoyance associated with unwanted robocalls.

Although the popular Do Not Call Registry was established ten years ago, robocalls still rank as a top consumer complaint received by government agencies, comprising the largest volume of complaints to the Missouri Attorney General’s office, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FTC alone receives over 200,000 complaints about robocalls per month, constituting the single largest type of complaint in terms of raw numbers. The FCC, meanwhile, has seen complaints about robocalls double between 2010 and 2012.

The Justice Department has estimated that consumers lose over $40 billion a year to fraudulent telemarketers.

(AP) A second defendant in a Joplin homicide case has agreed to a plea deal that will require him to testify against the alleged shooter.
Twenty-two year-old Cody E. Stephens pleaded guilty Friday in Jasper County Circuit Court to second-degree murder and first-degree burglary in the in the July 2012 death of 23-year-old Jacob Wages.
Circuit Judge David Mouton has delayed formal acceptance of the plea bargain.
Under the deal, the Jasper County prosecutor agreed to limit Stephens’ sentence to 15 years. Stephens wouldn’t be sentenced until after next month’s trial of alleged shooter Daniel Hartman on charges of first-degree murder and burglary.
Prosecutors say the suspects broke into Wages’ home because they believed he had $5,000 and a pound of Ecstasy pills.