(AP) – The St. Louis Cardinals may have come up short, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t memorabilia declaring them 2013 World Series champions.

Now, that gear is destined for shipment to needy people in other countries.

Hats, mugs, T-shirts and many more items were printed honoring what would have been. The Cardinals lost 6-1 in Boston on Wednesday, making the Red Sox baseball’s champions.

The website sportslogos.net says the phantom Cardinals championship items will be sent overseas.

(AP) – A federal judge has ordered no bail for a southwest Missouri man suspected of setting fires at a Planned Parenthood facility and a mosque.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James England on Monday ordered 30-year-old Jedediah Stout to remain in custody without bail.

Stout is charged with attempted arson at a commercial facility for setting fires to the Planned Parenthood clinic in Joplin. That clinic doesn’t provide abortions.

Prosecutors say Stout confessed to twice trying to burn down the Planned Parenthood clinic and setting a fire that destroyed the Islamic Society of Joplin’s building in August. The allegations are contained in a motion filed Monday seeking to have Stout remain in federal custody without bond.

Stout’s federal public defender declined comment Thursday.

9 a.m. Thursday (AP) – A state audit criticized the operation of the Callaway County Circuit courts and found money missing because of lax oversight and accounting.
The audit released Wednesday documented $355 missing but said thousands more could be missing.
A former Callaway County circuit clerk supervisor was fired in October 2012. The clerk’s name has not been released.
The Columbia Daily Tribune reports an earlier review by the Office State Court Administrator found 60 questionable transactions in 2012 totaling $8,845, all of which could be missing.
That prompted a county judge to ask State Auditor Thomas Schweich to conduct an audit for all of 2011 and 2012. That audit found another $2,802 that could be missing, totaling $11,647.
Circuit Clerk Judy Groner says changes have been made to address the problems.

3 p.m. Wednesday (AP) – The state auditor says authorities are investigating missing funds at the office of a central Missouri judicial circuit clerk.

Auditor Tom Schweich released a report Wednesday on his audit of the Callaway County clerk of the two-county 13th Judicial Circuit.

Schweich cites more than $11,000 in what he termed “problematic” transactions and $355 in missing funds.

Schweich’s office was contacted after a routine accounting review by the Office of the State Courts Administrator. His report says the supervisor in charge of the affected accounts was fired last fall, information has been forwarded to the sheriff’s department and a special prosecutor has been appointed.

The current circuit clerk, Judy Groner, says no one suspected of wrongdoing currently is employed and that she has worked to implement the audit’s recommendations.

After security leaks from contractor Edward Snowden and the tragic shooting at the Washington Navy Yard illustrated systemic problems with the security clearance background check process, U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), today introduced bipartisan legislation that would implement an automated review of public records and databases for any information that might affect the security clearance status of individuals who have such a clearance.

“There are systemic failures in the current process that are jeopardizing our ability to protect our nation’s secrets and our secure facilities,” said McCaskill, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Senator Collins and I aren’t ones to identify a problem and just talk about it-we are determined to offer concrete solutions, and that’s what this bill is all about.”

“Although we have made significant advances in the processing of background checks, there is still a gaping hole in the current security clearance process that has enabled people who exhibit obvious signs of high-risk behavior to remain undetected,” said Collins, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and former Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. “There needs to be a balance between the processing of clearances quickly enough to allow individuals to do their jobs, but also thoroughly enough to flag potential problems. Our legislation represents a sensible path forward to protect national security and to help prevent future tragedies.”

“There are serious gaps in the government’s security clearance system, and our bipartisan legislation will help close those gaps by putting in place safeguards to better identify potential risks,” said Ayotte, a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. “We must ensure that individuals who hold security clearances are qualified, fit to serve, and don’t pose a danger to the workforce or our national security.”

“When we give someone a security clearance, we need to make sure that appropriate and commonsense safeguards are taken so that our country’s government facilities and its workers are protected,” said Heitkamp, a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. “This is a solutions-oriented approach to help make that possible, and I’m proud to join my colleagues from both sides of the aisle in introducing it.”

This bipartisan legislation would require the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to implement an automated review that would search public records and databases for information on every individual with a security clearance at least twice, at random times, every five years. These audits would identify information these individuals are already obligated by law to disclose including information relating to any criminal or civil legal proceeding; financial information relating to the covered individual; data maintained on any terrorist or criminal watch list; and any publicly-available information that suggests ill intent, vulnerability to blackmail, compulsive behavior, allegiance to another country, or change in ideology of the covered individual.

If, in the course of a randomly timed audit required under the Senators’ bill, the review finds any information pertinent to security clearance, the OPM would be required to notify the agency employing the individual-allowing the agency to follow the procedures already in current law to make an informed determination as to the individual’s ongoing employment, level of clearance, and access to classified information.

Recent reports have identified significant issues in the execution of background investigations on Edward Snowden and Aaron Alexis, including the exclusion of previous arrest records and a failure to independently verify submitted information.

The Collins-McCaskill-Ayotte-Heitkamp legislation has been endorsed by:

• Federal Managers Association;
• The FBI Agents Association;
• The Alcohol-Tobacco-Firearms and Explosives Association;
• The International Association of Chiefs of Police
• The National Native American Law Enforcement Association;
• General Dynamics Information Technologies;
• Lexis-Nexus;
• Lt. Gen. Charles J. Cunningham Jr., Former Director of the Defense Security Service (1999-2002);
• Brian Stafford, Former Director of the United States Secret Service (1999-2003);
• Howard Safir, Former Police Commissioner of New York City (1996-2000);
• Floyd Clarke, Former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1993);
• Michael Sullivan, Former Acting Director of the ATF (2006-2009) and US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts (2001-2009);
• TechAmerica Foundation;
• and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.

(AP) – A former Kansas City municipal court employee has pleaded guilty in a scheme to use an insurance member benefit program to illegally rack up tens of thousands of dollars in gift cards.

The U.S. attorney’s office says 43-year-old Crystal Burgin-Woods admitted Wednesday that she made fraudulent submissions to the city’s health insurance program on behalf of 383 employees. Those claims resulted in the issuance of 939 gift cards worth nearly $186,000.

The fraudulent submissions included claims that a 3-year-old child had completed four triathlons, three marathons, two duathlons and three half marathons.

Five other employees also have pleaded guilty in the scheme. Each of the defendants face up to 20 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000.

(AP) – Sheriff’s deputies in southeast Missouri are investigating the source of bullet holes in a school bus.

The Southeast Missourian reports officials of Cape Girardeau County’s Jackson R-2 school district filed a property damage complaint on Monday.

The sheriff’s department says deputies recovered two bullets from the outer skin of the bus. They’ll be examined for ballistic information.

Sheriff’s Lt. David James says it’s not known if the damage occurred when the bus was in service or at some other time. It’s also unclear if the shooting was deliberate or accidental.

The damaged bus travels on Highway 72 in the Millersville area, a few miles west of the city of Jackson

(AP) — Authorities in northeast Kansas are blaming a lightning strike for an explosion and fires at an oil tank farm.

No injuries were reported when three 8,500-gallon crude oil tanks were struck around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday in northern Leavenworth County.

Emergency management officials say two of the tanks exploded. One went airborne and landed about 200 yards away. The top of a third tank was blown off, and most of the oil inside burned.

Flames were visible from five miles away. Firefighters allowed the oil in the tanks to burn itself out, along with a 1,000-gallon propane tank that also ignited.

The company that owns the tank farm was cleaning up about 2,000 gallons of crude oil that spilled onto the ground.