(AP)Faculty and staff at Southeast Missouri State University will be getting raises in early 2014 under a plan approved by the university’s board of regents.

The ncreases take effect Jan. 1 for 251 employees across several departments. The total projected cost is $1.24 million from the general fund and about $212,000 from auxiliary and designated revenue.

University president Kenneth Dobbins says the increases are a way to attract and retain quality faculty and staff.

The Missouri attorney general’s office says its investigating the conduct of Perryville’s former chief of police.

Nanci Gonder, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Chris Koster, says Judge Michael Bullerdieck issued an order Sept. 26 appointing Koster’s office to look into allegations against Keith Tarrillion.

Perryville’s city attorney also is asking a judge if the city can make public an investigative report into Tarillion’s conduct that a judge initially ordered sealed.

Tarrillion resigned amid allegations that he falsified a police report in a personal insurance claim. Tarrillion has denied wrongdoin

State tax and budget policies enacted by the administration of Gov. Sam Brownback are putting added pressure on already cash-strapped local

governments,according to officials who gathered at the University of Kansas this week for the annual Kansas Economic Policy Conference.
Likely results are increases in local property and sales taxes to help offset losses in state aid, they said.

“This is not rocket science from my perspective: We have less money coming in from the feds, less money coming in from the state, more increased demand — where are property taxes going to go for local governments? Let’s all say it together: Up,” said Hannes Zacharias, county manager for Johnson County, which is the state’s most heavily populated.

The focus of the conference — titled “The Kansas Fiscal Experiment: Impact on Communities” — was on the sweeping tax cuts implemented by the Republican-dominated Legislature and Brownback. The governor has said he wants to completely eliminate the state’s income tax as a way of promoting business growth and employment.

But it remains far from certain whether the controversial strategy will work.

Chris Courtwright, the Legislature’s chief economist, said the tax cuts have become an “Obamacare-like issue at the state level.”

“Diametrically opposed, partisan groups from both sides of the spectrum are able to produce mountains of research, data, and studies bolstering their own preconceived notions as to whether the changes are going to be deemed a success or not,” Courtwright said. “How and when and who gets to decide the outcome of our very interesting ‘fiscal experiment’ here in the Sunflower State?” Courtwright said, “I don’t know.”

Conference officials said they had record turnout with about 140 people in Lawrence and 15 participating from Ulysses in the far west of the state. About a dozen legislators also attended.

“Local governments are in a pickle,” Zacharias said. “We are at the end of the food chain and things run downhill, and we’re the ones that have to clean up the mess. We’ve cut where we can. Most counties and most local governments have done that as well. We’ve run that out, from my perspective.”

John Battin, mayor of Ulysses, said via video conference that while property values of farmland in his area have risen dramatically, the county’s revenue from property taxes has remained flat.

Raising property taxes, he said, “could help a little bit.”

Panelists and members of the audience repeatedly expressed concerns about inevitable debates over raising property taxes or cutting back on funding for schools, police, fire, emergency medical, and other public services.

Jason Gage, Salina’s city manager, said he sympathizes with county governments, and thinks the state tax cuts will be harder for them to cope with than for cities.

That said, cities’ primary revenue tool — the sales tax — becomes less and less viable as the state relies more heavily on sales taxes to make up for income tax cuts.

Gage said the accepted wisdom is that an overall sales tax of 10 percent is about the most citizens will tolerate. In Kansas, county sales taxes are capped at 1 percent, and many are already there. Cities can impose up to 3 percent sales tax. Salina’s total city and county take rate is 1.9 percent. But the local rates are on top of the state’s 6.15 percent sales levy, which means there’s not much room for Salina to find more revenue that way, Gage said.

“We are starting to feel the repercussions of the strong dialogue around the state budget,” Gage said. “If the state begins relying more on sales tax, that takes away sales tax to a degree as a tool for cities and counties. Maybe not legally, but practically — again that’s either going to put pressure on property taxes or pressure to make service cuts. So that starts to disrupt the system.”

Gage said lower income taxes can help lure businesses to relocate or spur existing ones to expand. But there are other factors that determine business growth.

“Location of your community is a pretty big factor. And labor availability — that’s huge. Ask your businesses. Having people with the skill sets…if you don’t have that, you’re going to have a hard time getting a business that needs that to come to your community.”

Sen. Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican was in the audience. He told KHI News Service that it wasn’t clear to him whether raising property taxes was necessarily a bad thing.

“Is there really a difference between taking Johnson County’s money and spreading it out to the state or keeping it in county? What’s better? The argument of the state has been that it’s better to spread Johnson County’s money out west,” Denning said.

“But the gentleman from Ulysess admitted — and I’ve heard it many times — that they’re not taxing their most valuable asset (farm land) enough. So maybe that would equalize things. Start taxing their most valuable asset to pay some of the bills. But I just don’t have my arms around that yet,” he said.

Denning said he didn’t expect Johnson County would make deep cuts in public services but that other areas of the state might.

“We’re not going to have weeds and bad schools in Johnson County. That won’t happen. The quality of life will continue to improve and we’ll pay for it. But will Wyandotte or western Kansas? I don’t know. I’m walking away from this conference with more questions than answers. But that’s really why I came today.”

Sally Cauble, vice chair of the Kansas State Board of Education, spoke via video conference in Ulysses.

She said that shifting more of the tax burden to local governments makes them compete for tax dollars that support public schools.

“These situations create great disparities in educational opportunity that depend upon your zip code, exactly the opposite of what we believe is best for students in our state,” Cauble said.

John Heim, executive director of the Kansas Association of School Boards, said that the income tax cuts would inevitably lead to higher property tax rates in more rural areas.

For example, Baxter Springs and Ulysses have about the same size school districts, he said. But Baxter Springs’ tax base is less than half that of Ulysses.

In the past, “the state has said ‘We’ll help Baxter Springs because they don’t have the ability to raise money like Ulysses does or like Shawnee Mission does,” Heim said.

But in recent years, the state has “cut that aid that goes to those districts. That’s about 80 percent of school districts in Kansas that are having their aid cut. So what’s that got to do to property taxes? That causes property taxes to go up.”   -Phil Cauthon, KHI News
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(AP) — Union officials have announced a tentative agreement with management at the Topeka Goodyear Tire & Rubber plant.

Robert Tripp, president of United Steelworkers Local 307, says the union isn’t releasing details about the proposed contract until the members voted on whether to approve it.

The local union had set a deadline of 1 p.m. Friday to reach an agreement on the local portion of its labor contract. The local tentative agreement announced Friday covers such issues as scheduling and work rules. Most compensation issues are handled at the national level.

The Topeka plant employs 1,550 workers, with 1,400 covered by the USW.

Whitney Watson, Goodyear spokesman for the Topeka plant, says the agreement will go into effect if the union members approve it.

(AP)  New details are emerging about a southwest Missouri teenager’s confession to a December 2011 killing.

Gabriel Roche told detectives he had his “murder suit on” before walking into the woods planning to kill 17-year-old Weston North. The ensemble consisted of blue jeans, batting gloves and a shirt that could repel stains.

Detectives asked Roche, who was 18 at the time, why he stabbed North in the chest with a butcher knife on Dec. 31, 2011, according to details that emerged during a court hearing Wednesday. North’s body was found in a ditch near Republic.

“I wanted it to be clean,” Roche allegedly replied. “I didn’t want to hurt the poor kid.”

He might have wanted the other teen to die quickly, officials said Wednesday, but it didn’t work out that way. Instead, they said Roche had to chase his victim down again and ultimately slice his throat.

Roche’s attorneys also revealed in open court portions of what they referred to as the “interrogation.” They focused on statements that they say showed Roche’s inability to knowingly waive his rights, as well as what they call evidence of coercion by investigators.

Roche’s attorneys argued their client’s statements should be thrown out.

Judge Calvin Holden said he would consider whether Roche’s alleged confession should be admitted as evidence in an upcoming trial.

The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City has rolled out a new website designed to be a comprehensive source of health information for a six-county

region in Missouri and Kansas.

The website KCHealthMatters.org has about 150 data indicators, and it allows users to analyze information down to the census tract.

“And it’s more than just numbers,” said Sarah Hurd, an analyst with the Kansas Health Institute, which helped develop the site. “There is a focus on action.” (The institute is the parent organization of the KHI News Service.)

In a presentation Wednesday, Hurd pointed to the “promising practices” portion of the site, which includes reports from local, national, and international sources. Users can submit their own promising practices.

The site covers the Health Care Foundation service area: Cass, Jackson and Lafayette counties in Missouri, and Johnson, Wyandotte and Allen counties in Kansas.

Officials involved with development of the site said they hope it can help the social service community in applying for grants. But, they said, it’s also meant to be a resource for a variety of users, including providers, government officials and the general public.

The website should prove to be a “wonderful tool” for the community, said Gretchen Kunkel, president of KC Healthy Kids, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing childhood obesity.

She said nonprofit officials are always looking for data.

“Data to help us tell a story of what (is) happening in the community, data that help us understand how we can apply limited resources, and data to help us create understanding and collaboration to bring those resources together so that we can realize a healthier community,” she said.

The site is similar to KansasHealthMatters.org, sponsored by the Kansas Partnership for Improving Community Health, a collaboration that includes nonprofit, government and university partners.

The Health Care Foundation unveiled the site at a health forum sponsored by the foundation’s Community Advisory Committee. The forum drew about 180 people, including representatives from local government and service providers.

At the forum, panelists discussed their work in the areas of healthy communities, mental health, and safety net care. Some of the points of discussion included:

Healthy Communities

Independence, Mo., Health Director Larry Jones said that for the last two years, his department has coordinated The Mile Starts Here. Every Wednesday at 9 a.m., city staff members meet with residents at various spots around the community for a one-mile walk.

They go to different parks and different trails to build familiarity with the resources, he said.

Jones said he has found that pulling officials together from various departments – none of which are directly related to health – is useful in improving community well-being.

“When we pull the health director and the parks director and the public works director and the community development director and the water department director and the tourism director into the same room,” he said, “they can do a whole lot more to change the health of the community than I can ever do as the health director.”

Public works, for instance, he said, can coordinate installation of streetlights and sidewalks.

Mental Health

Mel Fetter, chief executive of Pathways Community Health, a community mental health center serving various Missouri communities, said his organization emphasizes same-day or next-day service.

“I don’t know when it became OK to tell a parent when they call looking for services for their child, that ‘OK, I think you have a problem, we’ll see you in six to eight weeks.’ It’s just not acceptable. It never has been, but somehow the mental health system got that way.”

Safety Net Care

Panelists described the difficulty providing oral health services, particularly to adults. Despite an increase in awareness and emphasis on dental services, they have been underfunded, said Sheri Wood, chief executive of the Kansas City CARE Clinic.

Wood said she took a call the other day from a woman seeking help for her husband who was in a lot of pain from a chipped tooth. Wood was unable to help because her clinic cannot add patients at this time.

“The other thing we all know,” she said, “is if your teeth are all crooked and dirty and falling out, your chances of getting a job are much more difficult.”

U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and U.S. Reps. Tom Reed (NY-23) and Joe Kennedy (MA-4) have announced that both the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) endorsed their bipartisan legislation, the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act of 2013. Their landmark bill would establish a Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NMI) to position the United States, once again, as the global leader in advanced manufacturing and ensure that the U.S. can out-innovate the rest of the world while creating thousands of high-paying, high-tech manufacturing jobs.

“I’m pleased to see these industry associations support the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act,” Blunt said. “Missouri is home to world class research institutions and innovative manufacturers, large and small – many of which are represented by organizations such as NAM and SEMI. This bipartisan bill will create an important network of partnerships to bolster private sector job creation and encourage more manufacturing innovation in Missouri and nationwide.”

“I appreciate the support from these industry associations who represent several Ohio companies. Small and medium companies play a critical role in manufacturing supply chains, and their competiveness is crucial to our economy,” Brown said. “By partnering with universities, community colleges, workers, and the public sector, members of NAM and SEMI can transform American manufacturing. In order for our country to maintain its competitive edge and help rebuild the middle class, we need to give greater support to our manufacturing sector, and our bipartisan bill is a big step forward.”

“The strong support we’re receiving for our manufacturing bill is a testament to the bill’s mission of revitalizing American manufacturing competitiveness,” Reed said. “As co-chair of the House Manufacturing Caucus, I hear from manufacturers of all sizes about the need to facilitate the kinds of public-private partnerships our bill provides. With this infrastructure in place, we can grow domestic manufacturing with a ‘make it here, sell it there’ approach and put Americans back to work.”

“This country’s manufacturing base lies at the epicenter of efforts to address some of our greatest economic challenges,” Kennedy said. “From still-stubborn unemployment rates to trade deficits and income inequality: a national manufacturing policy is essential to continued economic recovery. This national network will be smart and strategic in addressing perennial manufacturing challenges, building an infrastructure from the local level up that is directly tapped into the unique regional challenges US manufacturers face. I’m pleased that this bill received endorsements from these two influential organizations in the manufacturing industry.”

The Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act of 2013 is modeled on the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII), a public-private manufacturing hub located in Youngstown, Ohio. The legislation is designed to bring together industry, universities and community colleges, federal agencies, and all levels of government to accelerate manufacturing innovation. It would establish public-private institutes to bridge the gap between basic research and product development.

“The Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act of 2013 has the potential to strengthen the technology leadership position that manufacturers have worked years to establish,” NAM said. “By creating a network of innovation centers, the legislation will bring together businesses, schools, and government in a joint effort to speed the transfer of advanced manufacturing technology and techniques into the commercial sector. This cooperative partnership will benefit all three sectors and the economy as a whole.”

“We know industry-led initiatives like the one proposed in S.1468/H.R. 2996 can have great impact on not only ramping up new innovations, but also in helping to solidify industries and technologies where we have leadership, as well as creating and retaining jobs that go along with it,” SEMI said. “Again, thank you for your leadership in supporting a bipartisan and common sense proposal that will have a real impact on advanced manufacturing in the U.S.”

Blunt and Brown worked together to pass a bipartisan amendment to the Senate Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 aimed at supporting the creation of a network of manufacturing innovation hubs. The amendment to the Senate was supported by NAM, Association for Manufacturing Technologies (AMT), SEMI, US Conference of Mayors, Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, Council on Competitiveness, the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), American Society for Engineering Education, United Auto Workers (UAW), Association of American Universities, Semiconductor Industry Association and the American Auto Policy Council, and The Ohio State University.

The Youngstown-based institute is the pilot of NMI. In August 2012, Brown visited M7 Technologies in Youngstown to announce the $30 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), matched by nearly $40 million in non-federal funds. The funds helped to establish the new, first-of-its-kind manufacturing institute to specialize in additive manufacturing technology, a type of 3-D printing in which digital models are used to make parts and components.

A report from the University of Illinois says cash cattle prices have moved higher this fall, supported by small cattle supplies, a generally favorable demand base, and low feed prices that have sent feeder cattle futures prices to record highs. The outlook suggests even higher prices in coming months.

Finished cattle prices fell to summer lows in early August, slightly below $120 per hundredweight. Prices recovered somewhat into the low $120s in August and September, but have recently moved toward $130. The anticipation of small beef supplies in the coming year has been well documented. Per capita beef supplies will likely be down about five percent for the rest of this year and well into 2014. The loss of cattle in South Dakota due to the early-October blizzard gained national attention and may have helped support the idea that cattle supplies would be even tighter. However, the reduction is not large in terms of the national impact.

Even at 100,000 head of losses, which is the upper end of estimates so far, that represents only one-tenth of one percent of the nation’s 89 million head of cattle. If one-half of the animals were beef cows that still represents less than two-tenths of one percent of the nation’s beef cow herd. Losses of this magnitude are huge for individuals, but not highly significant for beef supplies on a national basis. The blizzard losses would be expected to increase finished cattle prices by only 20 to 35 cents per hundredweight over the coming year.

Feeder cattle futures reached record high prices on October 14 at nearly $1.70 per pound, driven by a combination of high finished cattle futures and low feed prices. December corn futures, as an example, touched lows on October 14 at $4.32 per bushel. Calf prices have likely reached $175 per hundredweight, or higher, at Plains markets, although USDA reports have not been published due to the partial government shutdown which ended October 17. The direction of calf and feeder cattle prices will be determined by the strength of finished cattle prices and the direction of feed prices. Feed prices seem to hinge mostly on yields for corn and soybeans and on early signs of demand growth in the export market.

How much more upside is there in finished cattle markets? Prices are expected to move into the very-low $130s in November and average about $130 for the October to December quarter. Further strength is expected into March and April with highs reaching the mid-$130s. First quarter averages are expected to be about $133 and second quarter near $132. On an annual basis, cattle prices should set new record highs this year near $126 and break that record once again in 2014 with an average near $130 for the entire year.

The most recent monthly Cattle-on-Feed report was also a casualty of the partial shutdown. However, with abundant feed resources and much lower prices, the small number of calves that are available are expected to move to feedlots and be placed at lighter weights than a year-ago when feed was high priced. Lower priced feed and the expectations for increasing finished cattle prices over the next four to five months should also encourage feedlot managers to feed to heavier weights.

Some brood cow producers in areas where pastures have returned are expected to begin heifer retention this fall. However, it is estimated that dry regions still represent about 45 percent of the brood cow herd that are not expected to expand until better pasture and forage conditions prevail. Overall, this means that the expansion of the beef herd will remain slow into 2014.

With low cattle numbers, there is considerable excess capacity in feedlots and packing facilities. Both packers and feedlots tend to have large fixed costs in facilities. The combination of excess capacity and high fixed costs means that both will tend to bid strongly for the limited cattle numbers. Ultimately this strong bidding gets back to the brood cow producer in the form of record high calf and feeder cattle prices. Unfortunately, these conditions also mean that the margins for both packers and feedlots, while better than in the past year, will still be narrow and will likely be less than their total costs.

The beef cattle industry has been downsizing, with falling numbers for several years. Continued excess capacity likely means one to two more years of downsizing. Then, if beef cow numbers begin to slowly turn upward in 2014, downsizing of cattle feeding capacity may end in 2015 and in the packing industry by 2016.

The years beyond 2016 should provide some expansion for the beef cattle industry, but still a slow upward growth. A slow upward trend is not highly optimistic, but much better than the declining trends of recent years.

(AP) A 69-year-old man was charged Friday with trying to extort $10,000 from the FBI in exchange for averting what a federal prosecutor called an “imaginary plot” to contaminate public water supplies in four Kansas and Missouri cities.

Manuel Garcia, of Kansas City, Mo., was charged in a criminal complaint and placed in federal custody pending a detention hearing, U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson said.

“There is no evidence that anyone actually possessed any chemicals to contaminate public water supplies,” Dickinson said in a news release. “The chemicals were as fictional as the conspirators in this imaginary plot.”

Investigators said in an affidavit that Garcia spoke of the plot in calls this month to the FBI, the Kansas City Police Department and the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Joint Support Operations Center in Washington, D.C.

Garcia told the federal agents that two of his acquaintances planned to put an unknown chemical into the four cities’ water supplies, according to the affidavit.

Garcia said the two had tested their plan on horses that suffered convulsions and died. Garcia stated that for $10,000 and a grant of immunity he would attempt to locate his acquaintances, investigators said.

The affidavit states that Garcia was contacted Wednesday after an FBI agent recognized his voice on three of the calls. He lives close to a cell tower identified as the vicinity from which one of the calls originated, investigators said.

Garcia did not have a lawyer Friday.

In 2010, Garcia was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to making a phone call threatening to bomb the U.S. courthouse in downtown Kansas City.

Prosecutors said he placed a mesh cloth cooler outside the courthouse with a note saying it contained explosives, although it contained only telephone books. He also was accused of calling 911 to say three more bombs were inside the courthouse the next day.

5:33 p.m. (AP) — Crews have recovered the body of a worker killed in the collapse of a trench being dug to connect a sewer line to a house under construction in suburban Kansas City.

Forty-nine-year-old Brian D. Allen, of Windsor, was buried in dirt and clay when the trench — about 10 to 15 feet deep — collapsed Thursday afternoon in Lee’s Summit.

Lee’s Summit firefighters worked more than 24 hours before recovering Allen’s body Friday afternoon. The rescuers had reached the body overnight, but additional shoring had to be installed to keep the sides of the trench from collapsing again.

Police Sgt. Chris Depue says Allen and another man working with him were employed by a local plumbing company that was working for the builder.

9:45 a.m. Friday(AP) — Authorities have identified a worker who was killed in a trench collapse at a suburban Kansas City home that was under construction.

Lee’s Summit Police Sgt. Chris Depue said in a news release Friday that the victim is 49-year-old Brian D. Allen of Windsor. Emergency crews were called at 1:30 p.m. Thursday to the scene where a 75-foot trench had been dug from the street to the house so crews could connect a sewer line.

Depue says the earth shifted in the trench and collapsed on the worker, while a second worker at the top of the trench was not harmed.

Rescue crews tried frantically to dig the victim out before the trench began to collapse again and they shifted to recovery mode.

Authorities didn’t immediately release the company involved.

6 p.m. Thursday  A worker who was connecting a sewer line to a Lee’s Summit home under construction is dead after the trench he was in collapsed and trapped him inside.

Lee’s Summit Police Sgt. Chris Depue says emergency crews were called at 1:30 p.m. Thursday to the scene where a 75-foot trench had been dug from the street to the house.

Rescue crews tried frantically to dig the victim out before the trench began to collapse again and they shifted to recovery mode.

Depue says the man’s body is not expected to be pulled out until late Thursday night. His name has not been released.