(AP) Two people are dead after a speeding vehicle crashed into a tree in west-central Missouri.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says the 22-year-old driver, Saul E. Solis of Kansas City, and an 18-year-old passenger, Joe E. Parks of Champaign, Ill., were pronounced dead at the scene of Saturday’s crash. Another passenger was flown to a Kansas City hospital in serious condition.

(AP) — A medical board has revoked the license of a doctor at an already short-staffed Topeka veteran’s hospital.

The Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision cited incompetence in pulling the plug on Kelly Humpherys license on Nov. 7.

Humpherys had been licensed and practiced medicine in Oklahoma before starting work in March at the Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center.

VA Eastern Kansas Medical system spokesman Jim Gleisberg said in an email that Humpherys was no longer working at the Topeka facility. Humpherys doesn’t have a listed number in Topeka, and Gleisberg said he thought she had left Kansas.

While working at Jane Phillips Medical Center in Bartlesville, Okla., her obstetrics privileges were suspended. Administrators deemed her “an immediate threat to health and safety.”

U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) release the following statement today in reaction to President Barack Obama’s announcement that a six-month international deal has been reached in regard to Iran’s nuclear program:

“Iran’s track record of deception and refusal to abide by past international demands make me gravely concerned about this deal. Now is not the time to ease up on the pressure and turn the other way, allowing Iran to make further progress in achieving its goal.

“Congress should pass additional sanctions so that if Iran breaks the agreement, President Obama can not only reverse the sanctions relief granted by this deal but immediately impose more sanctions. We must do everything we can to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.”

(AP)  The U.S. was in the throes of the Great Depression when Missouri legislators decided to impose a 4 percent tax on personal income over $9,000 as a means of funding state government.
That decision has stood for decades, even as it has become increasingly outdated.

Although Missouri raised its top tax rate to 6 percent in the early 1970s, the top tax bracket has remained fixed at its original Depression-era threshold.
Yet a dollar today _ or $9,000 _ doesn’t carry anywhere near the same buying power that it did when the tax brackets were set in 1931. In fact, Missouri’s heftiest income tax rates _ once reserved for the well-to-do _ now hit people living in poverty.

“In a word, I would describe them as archaic,” said state Rep. Paul Curtman, R-Pacific, who wants to index the tax brackets to the annual inflation rate.
The quest to change Missouri’s tax brackets has support from both conservative and liberal groups but has remained difficult to accomplish because of the eye-popping cost of catching up with history.
Had Missouri’s tax brackets kept pace with inflation, today’s top tax rate wouldn’t kick in until individuals earned more than $138,283 annually.

Curtman sponsored legislation earlier this year that would have applied the top tax bracket to incomes over $135,900. The bill never made it to the House floor for debate. The reason: it was estimated to reduce taxes by nearly $2.5 billion annually _ eliminating about 30 percent of the state’s general revenues.
In 2014, Curtman said he plans a more palatable measure that won’t attempt to make up for 80 years of inflation in one swoop. His new legislation would keep the $9,000 top tax bracket but start adjusting it annually for inflation.

Almost half the states already adjust their tax brackets for inflation, according to the Tax Foundation, a Washington-based nonprofit group.
But only Alabama, Georgia and Oklahoma set their top tax brackets lower than Missouri. Alabama has the lowest threshold _ imposing a 5 percent tax on income over $3,000. Seven other states have flat income taxes, meaning all people pay the same rate regardless of income.
Missouri’s tax bracket is particularly complex. A 1.5 percent tax is applied to income of less than $1,000. Then there are eight more incrementally increasing tax rates for incomes between $1,000 and $9,000.
Relatively few people may have earned more than $9,000 in 1931. But most Missourians now surpass that, even when accounting for deductions and other offsets allowed on tax forms. Of the 4.14 million taxpayers who filed returns for 2011, 2.29 million paid the top tax rate on income over $9,000, according to figures from the Missouri Department of Revenue.
“We think the thresholds, in general, should be raised,” said Jay Hardenbrook, the public policy director for the Missouri Budget Project, a St. Louis-based nonprofit group that analyzes fiscal issues with a special emphasis on how they affect the poor.
But Hardenbrook added: “While we support increasing the brackets, we don’t support basically undercutting the entire state budget.”

The Missouri Budget Project wants to offset the revenues lost from a tax-bracket adjustment by generating additional revenues elsewhere, such as by eliminating a state income tax deduction for the amount of federal taxes people pay.
Grow Missouri, a political action committee financed by retired investment firm executive Rex Sinquefield, has filed a proposed initiative for the 2014 ballot that would simplify and shift up the tax brackets while reducing the tax rate.
Under its proposed constitutional amendment, a 3 percent tax would be levied on income below $15,000 for individuals or $30,000 for couples. A tax of 4.9 percent would be levied on all income above those thresholds.

“Missouri has a very outdated, convoluted tax table currently,” said Grow Missouri treasurer Aaron Willard. “Going to two instead of 10 (brackets) is just more simplified. It’s much easier for people to look at and understand.”
Willard estimates that the proposed income tax cut could range from several hundred million dollars to more than $1 billion annually.
The proposal would allow legislators to raise the state sales tax to compensate for the lost income tax revenues. But if lawmakers don’t do so, the result could be less revenue available for public schools, prisons and other state services.

Missouri is among 13 states where employers will pay increased FUTA taxes in January 2014 as a result of continuing Title XII UI debts, according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Treasury. The increase will take Missouri’s unemployment insurance surcharge from $42 per employee to $63 per employee.

“This surcharge is over and above unemployment insurance rates employers pay. It has been called a ‘catch up tax’ because it is designed to force states to pay off outstanding federal UI debt,” said Dan Mehan, Missouri Chamber president and CEO.

Missouri began borrowing funds from the federal government in 2008 to pay unemployment insurance benefits that the state trust fund was unable to cover. After two consecutive years of outstanding debt, the states’ employers lose FUTA tax credits, essentially raising the tax they are assessed for unemployment insurance. This surcharge increases with each year until the debt is repaid.

Following the economic downturn, many states borrowed money from the federal government. The list of indebted states is decreased from 2012 because a number of states have taken steps to reduce or eliminate outstanding debt. Unfortunately for Missouri employers, our state remains on the indebted list.

Efforts to reduce Missouri’s unemployment insurance burden by limiting fraud in the system was strongly supported by Missouri’s General Assembly in 2013 and was passed in Senate Bill 611, but was vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon. The Missouri House of Representatives was two votes short of overturning that veto during the 2013 Veto Session.

“Now Missouri employers will pay the price of Gov. Nixon’s inaction,” said Mehan. “Rather than tighten up the system to root out individuals who can claim unemployment benefits after being fired for stealing from their employers and doing drugs on the job, Missouri has chosen to allow employers to pay higher taxes.”

Missouri currently owes $308 million to the federal government for federal unemployment insurance debt.

(AP) — A 19th-century steam engine has been delivered to a Kansas City tourist attraction.

Crews eased the approximately 5,000-pound engine into the Arabia Steamboat Museum on Friday. It was fabricated in 1819 and powered the Missouri Packet until the steamboat sank in the Missouri River in 1820, one year before Missouri became a state.

David Hawley, whose family operates the museum, says he believes the artifact represents the oldest maritime steam engine known to exist in the United States.

The engine was retrieved in 1987 from a field near Arrow Rock, but there wasn’t much of the Packet’s cargo left. A subsequent excavation of the Arabia from a Kansas farm field yielded a well-preserved cargo that draws thousands to the museum each year.

(AP) The Missouri National Guard is processing requests from same-sex partners for military ID cards that are the gateway to accessing benefits.

A Pentagon policy taking effect in early September makes same-sex spouses of gay military members eligible for health care and other benefits that also are available to opposite-sex partners. It followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act and does not apply to unmarried gay partners.

“We are issuing ID cards to anyone who is legally married and that would happen to include same-sex couples,” she said. “If you are legally married, you are eligible to get an ID card at the Missouri National Guard.”

Gov. Jay Nixon earlier this month directed the state Department of Revenue to accept joint tax filings from same-sex couples who get legally married in another state. Missouri’s tax code is tied to that of the federal government, and Nixon said married couples who file joint federal tax returns are required also to file state taxes jointly. Federal tax officials determined legally married same-sex couples would be treated as married regardless of where they live.

The Missouri Constitution does not allow for same-sex marriage. Voters in 2004 overwhelmingly approved a measure stating marriages must be between a man and a woman to be valid and recognized in Missouri. It was the first state constitutional amendment restricting gay marriage to come after the Massachusetts Supreme Court permitted it there.

Gay marriage has been legalized in 16 states, including Illinois where it will be allowed starting next summer and in Iowa where the state’s high court legalized it. On Missouri’s southwestern border, the Oklahoma governor said all marriage benefits would be processed by federal employees at four federally owned National Guard facilities and at the state’s five military bases. The governor said that would allow the guard to obey state law without violating federal rules or policies.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in a speech last month criticized states that have not issued ID cards at National Guard facilities. He said it has created a hardship by forcing couples to travel to federal military bases and has caused division among the military ranks.

(AP) — Federal officials used a guilty plea last week by a former Jackson County Circuit Court administrator as a springboard to announce a new telephone hotline people can call to report public corruption.

Former administrator Teresa York pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of mail fraud, admitting that she used credit cards issued by the court for nearly $78,000 in unauthorized purchases. Her corruption case is one of several in Missouri and Kansas in recent months, and FBI special agent in charge Michael Kaste says they show why the public’s help is needed to weed out official misdeeds.

Kaste, U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson of Missouri and U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom in Kansas held a joint news conference Thursday to announce the hotline. The number is 1-855-KCPCTIP — or 1-855-527-2847.