Following passage of the Keep Your Health Plan Act (H.R. 3350) by the House of Representatives, Congressman Sam Graves (MO-06) issued the following statement:

“President Obama proposed an unworkable administrative fix that simply won’t be able to maintain his promise to the American people.  That’s why the House has acted.  A vote in favor of the Keep Your Health Plan Act says, if you like your healthcare plan and it has been canceled, you really can keep it.  It says to millions of Americans, if you don’t want to participate in Obamacare, you don’t have to.  I ultimately believe no one should have to participate in Obamacare, and am fully committed to repealing the law.  But with this bill, we’re able to provide relief from Obamacare for those individuals who were let down by the president’s failed promise.”

(AP) – Sen. Claire McCaskill says she’ll introduce legislation requiring U.S. defense officials to address mismanagement in a military-led unit responsible for finding service members missing in action.

McCaskill’s remarks come several months after an Associated Press story revealed an internal Pentagon report harshly critical of the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command, which searches for missing soldiers’remains. The Pentagon report included accusations of misconduct among those responsible for overseas missions to investigate prospects for recovering remains.

McCaskill, a Democrat, said Friday at a news conference in Kansas City that she’s preparing an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill. The amendment would give the Defense Department one year to submit a plan for reorganizing the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command and improving its accountability.

(AP)  Brushing aside a White House veto threat, the Republican-controlled House voted Friday to let insurance companies sell individual health coverage to all comers, even if it falls short of the required standards in “Obamacare.”

In all, 39 Democrats broke ranks and supported the legislation, a total that underscored the political importance of a controversial issue likely to be front and center in next year’s elections for control of Congress.

Friday’s vote came as Obama arranged a meeting later in the day at the White House with insurance company CEOs, and as the industry and state insurance commissioners began adjusting to an abrupt change in policy he announced a day earlier.

Under the shift, Obama said insurers should be permitted to continue to sell to existing customers individual coverage plans that would be deemed substandard under the health care law. Without the change, many existing plans would have been banned beginning next year, and the president’s announcement was an attempt to quell a public and political furor triggered by millions of cancellation notices.

The House measure went one step further. It would give insurance firms the ability to sell individual plans to new as well as existing customers, even if the coverage falls short of the law’s requirements.

(AP) – No one knows how many atrocities Joseph Paul Franklin committed as he crossed the country more than three decades ago, fueled by hatred of blacks and Jews. Along the way he bombed a synagogue, robbed banks, shot and wounded a porn icon – and killed, by his own account, nearly two dozen people.

Even among the hard-core criminals on Missouri’s death row, Franklin is perhaps the most notorious, killing and maiming victims while shooting from a vacant building, a grassy field and a highway overpass.

Franklin is scheduled to be put to death early Wednesday at a Missouri prison. His attorney says he is a paranoid schizophrenic who was abused as a child. She’s asked federal and state courts and Gov. Jay Nixon to halt the execution. All have declined.

(AP) – The head of the NAACP Salt Lake City branch is asking Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to commute a death sentence for a serial killer who killed two Salt Lake City joggers in 1980.

Joseph Paul Franklin is scheduled to be executed next week for the 1977 murder of a Missouri man outside a synagogue. He was also convicted in the 1980s killings of 20-year-old Ted Fields and 18-year-old David Martin, both black men.

Jeanetta Williams, president of the NAACP’s Salt Lake Branch, says in a letter to Nixon that the execution costs more than keeping Franklin in prison for life.

Franklin has claimed responsibility for nearly two dozen other killings and many other crimes. He admitted shooting Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt in 1978 but was never charged.

Friday 11/15 9 a.m.  (AP) – A court hearing has been rescheduled for a request to vacate, correct or set aside the guilty plea of a Missouri teen for killing her 9-year-old neighbor.

Alyssa Bustamante pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the October 2009 killing of Elizabeth Olten. Bustamante now is 19 years old and was 15 at the time. They lived in St. Martins, just west of Jefferson City.

Online court records show a hearing scheduled for Friday has been moved to Jan. 30.

Bustamante was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole and ordered to serve a consecutive 30-year term for armed criminal action. She was initially charged with first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of life without parole.

(AP) – A Missouri teen who pleaded guilty to killing her 9-year-old neighbor wants the pleas to be vacated corrected or set aside.

Alyssa Bustamante pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action for the October 2009 killing of nine-year-old Elizabeth Olten in St. Martins, just west of Jefferson City. Bustamante was 15 at the time.

Bustamante’s attorney contends the teen’s due process rights were violated and that she faced cruel and unusual punishment. The lawyer also asserts Bustamante’s public defenders were not effective. A hearing was scheduled Friday in Jefferson City.

In what was described as a thrill kill, Bustamante stabbed Olten, strangled her, slit her throat and left her in a grave covered with leaves.

Bustamante was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole and ordered to serve a consecutive 30-year term for armed criminal action.

Initially, she was charged with first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of life without parole.

(AP) — The husband of a Springfield elementary school teacher has been sentenced to three years of probation for promoting prostitution, in a case in which his wife is also charged.

43-year-old Mark Fiedler was sentenced Thursday in Greene County Circuit Court. He pleaded guilty to the charge in September.

Mark and Laura Fiedler were accused of arranging meetings between people seeking sex and alleged prostitutes in a downtown office they leased. The charges followed a police sting operation.

Laura Fiedler remains on unpaid administrative leave from her Springfield teaching job. She’s awaiting trial on a lesser charge of promoting prostitution, but her husband denied Thursday that she was involved in the scheme.

Friday 7 a.m. (AP) — A group of atheist volunteers from Kansas City have found a new place to volunteer after a Christian mission declined their offer to help deliver Thanksgiving meals to the needy.

The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/1hKVpx5 ) reports that the Independence Boulevard Christian Church invited the Kansas City Atheist Coalition to assist with a holiday meal before Thanksgiving.

The offer came after the Kansas City Rescue Mission told the atheists they wouldn’t be a good fit to help this year. The atheists had helped the mission the past two year, but decided to include religious messages with its charity this year.

The pastor of the Independence Boulevard Christian Church says it has never turned away volunteers. The atheist group says in its website that members are excited to help the less fortunate.

A Christian charity organization in Kansas City has rejected an atheist group’s offer to help distribute Thanksgiving meals to the poor and elderly this year.
An official with the Kansas City Rescue Mission said the group wants to share its Christian message with people who receive the meals, and it does not believe the

 would support that effort.
“We are an unapologetically Christian organization, and we always have been,” said Julie Larocco, development officer for the Kansas City Rescue Mission. “We want to share the message with the people we serve that `God loves you, and you are not alone.’ It seemed to us that this (atheist) group probably would not want to deliver those meals.”

The Kansas City Rescue Mission began delivering holiday meals two years ago and decided to include a religious message with every food box and single-serving meal this year, Larocco said.

The Atheist Coalition has helped deliver the meals for two years but was told this year the coalition “would not be a good fit” for the charitable work, coalition president Josh Hyde posted Saturday on the group’s website.
Larocco said the Rescue Mission will have plenty of volunteers to provide about 2,400 Thanksgiving meals.
“Christmas and Thanksgiving are prime times for volunteers,” she said. “We get hundreds of people wanting to volunteer, and we have to say no. They (the atheists) have volunteered for two years in a row, for which we are so grateful, and we really like them and welcome them to come back to volunteer anytime they would like on other projects.”