In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.), Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) said recent reports of more frequent,

targeted attacks against Coptic churches and individuals in Egypt “warrants a clear U.S. response.”

“Egypt’s Christian minority and their ability to worship are in danger. The situation warrants a clear U.S. response. We are especially troubled by reports that Egyptian authorities have failed to respond to attacks on Christians and churches, or hold perpetrators accountable,” wrote the senators. “It is our view that Egypt is part of a broader trend: religious freedoms throughout the Middle East and South Central Asia, particularly for Christians, are under assault. The U.S. must respond to this challenge and continue to be a forceful defender of religious freedom throughout the world. We recognize this is not an easy task. We offer our support and stand prepared to work with you as you find ways to use U.S. influence to stop sectarian violence and end the persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt.”

In August 2013, Blunt reiterated calls for Congress to pass bipartisan legislation aimed at promoting and protecting religious freedoms throughout the region. Blunt’s bill would create a new U.S. Department of State special envoy for religious minorities in the Middle East.

 (AP) — Missouri’s firearms deer season takes place next month, and conservation officials are asking hunters to help prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease.

The disease is deadly to deer, but there is no evidence it can affect humans. Deer can be affected through exposure to soil containing abnormal proteins that are called prions. The prions can get into soil when infected deer decompose on the surface.

The Conservation Department says hunters should avoid cutting through the spine, brain or bones. If hunters must move a whole carcass, they should send the non-edible parts to state-approved landfills for proper burial.

Shrinking supplies of feeder cattle and finished cattle, coupled with lower grain prices and the psychological impact of cattle death losses due to the October blizzard likely will be supportive to prices over the coming months.
Purdue University Extension economist Chris Hurt, PhD, says finished-cattle prices fell to summer lows below $120 per hundredweight in early August. Prices recovered somewhat into the low $120s in August and September, and recently moved toward $130.

Hurt adds that per-capita beef supplies will likely be down about 5 percent for the rest of this year and well into 2014.
As for the losses in South Dakota and neighboring states, Hurt says national media attention could help drive market sentiment based on perceptions of further shortages. He says though that in terms of actual numbers, the reduction likely is not large enough to significantly affect national supplies or beef production. Even if 100,000 cattle died in the storm, which is the upper end of estimates so far, that would account for one-tenth of 1 percent of the nation’s 89 million head of cattle. “If half of the animals were beef cows, that still represents less than two-tenths of 1 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,” he says. Hurt expects the blizzard losses to increase finished cattle prices by only 20 to 35 cents per hundredweight over the coming year.

Fed-cattle prices, Hurt says, likely will move into the low $130s in November and average about $130 for the October to December quarter. First-quarter 2014 averages are expected to be about $133 and the 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,” Hurt says.
Prices for finished cattle showed some strength last week as market data slowly becomes available in the wake of the government shutdown. The Texas Cattle Feeders Association last week reported finished steer and heifer prices at $129 per hundredweight, up a dollar from the previous week. That average is up $1.56 per hundredweight from a year ago and nearly $24 higher than the five-year average for the date.
As for feeder cattle, last week’s National Feeder and Stocker Cattle Summary from USDA notes a shortage of data, but indicates the week’s available regional weighted average feeder cattle prices were 2.00-5.00 higher than the last available from the last full week of September. The full advance was noted in the Southern Plains on true yearling feeders and on 5 weight calves for wheat pasture.
The report also notes that 500- to 600-pound replacement-quality heifer calves in Kearney, Neb. on Wednesday brought $201.00 to $208.25 per hundredweight. In a Valentine, Neb. sale on Thursday, a 243 head string of fancy 492-pound steer calves sold for $220.25, while a 100-head load weighing 553 pounds sold at $198.75.

Wholesale beef prices also have moved higher, adding support to cattle markets. On Monday, USDA reported the Choice beef cutout averaged $198.29 per hundredweight, up $2.00 from Friday’s average. The Select cutout moved $1.67 higher to $181.65. The Choice-Select spread on Monday was $16.64. A week earlier, on Oct. 14, the Choice cutout stood at $193.28 and Select at $179.73, for a Choice-Select spread of $13.55  –John Maday, Cattle Trader Center

(AP) — Michigan authorities say a missing 13-year-old girl has been found safe in Missouri and her 34-year-old male companion is in custody.

The Allegan County sheriff’s office says the girl from Hamilton last was seen at 11 p.m. Monday. The department said Tuesday that it got a tip and called police in Crestwood, Mo., who found the girl and arrested a 34-year-old California man she met on the Internet.

According to the sheriff’s office, the man from San Jacinto, Calif., arrived in Michigan about two weeks ago and has been in contact with the girl.

The girl’s mother found a letter left by the teen. In it, she says she wants to be with the man.

Hamilton is near Lake Michigan, about 25 miles southwest of Grand Rapids.

(AP) — The superintendent of the Kansas City school district is vowing to “knuckle down” after failing to regain partial accreditation.

Superintendent R. Stephen Green spoke to reporters Tuesday after the Missouri State Board of Education took no action on the district’s request for provisional accreditation. Green says the district will continue its efforts to improve.

The accreditation upgrade would have meant the district no longer was subject to a state law allowing students to transfer to accredited districts. A pending legal challenge is preventing transfers for now.

Green says the transfer issue “looms large” and that complying would cause a “serious financial challenge.”

(AP) — A Kansas City mother has been charged with beating up her child’s kindergarten teacher.

Jackson County prosecutors filed a third-degree assault charge Monday against 25-year-old Simone Baker. Police said in a news release that Baker isn’t currently in custody. No attorney is listed for her in online court records.

Police reports say the mother pulled the teacher out of her chair by the hair, punched her in the face and slammed her head against a file cabinet in September at Truman Elementary School in the Hickman Mills School District.

Police reports say the mother was upset because her 6-year-old son had blamed his teacher for a scratch on his neck. But a district official has said that the boy told administrators and police that the teacher hadn’t hurt him.

A Kansas City, Mo., man has pleaded guilty in a case in which an Overland Park bank was robbed by a man with a hatchet, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Derek T. Brownlee, 35, Kansas City, Mo., pleaded guilty to one count of armed robbery. A criminal complaint filed in July alleged Brownlee was wearing a bandanna over his face and carrying a hatchet on July 1, 2013, when he robbed the Metcalf Bank at 7800 College Boulevard in Overland Park.

The complaint alleged Brownlee jumped the teller’s counter and demanded money. He took cash from a drawer and some personal items from a teller including a Kindle Fire and a cellular telephone. When police officers spotted his car, he led them on a chase at speeds up to 90 miles an hour before being stopped in the 8700 block of Indiana in Kansas City, Mo. He was arrested after he fled from the car on foot.

Sentencing is set for Jan. 21. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years and a fine up to $250,000. Grissom commended the FBI, the Overland Park Police Department, the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Martin for their work on the case.

(AP) — A Missouri judge has struck down a pair of new laws that had limited the ability of cities and counties to regulate cellphone towers.

Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce ruled that lawmakers violated procedural requirements of the state constitution when passing the bills earlier this year.

She said the bills’ title of “relating to telecommunications” did not encompass everything in the bills. She noted that one bill also contained provisions related to railroad crossings and utility right-of-ways. Another bill contained provisions related to cable TV services, which she said are not legally the same as telecommunications.

Joyce also said lawmakers had changed the bills’ original purpose.

Gov. Jay Nixon and legislative leaders had touted the legislation as a way to encourage expansion of high-speed Internet and wireless phone service.

Authorities say two men stationed at Fort Leonard Wood are charged with attempting to lure a 12-year-old girl into a vehicle while asking for sexual favors.

Thirty-four-year-old Mohammed Mahmoud Omar Mefleh of St. Roberts and 31-year-old Antoine Chela of Waynesville are jailed in Pulaski County on $200,000 bond on charges of harassment and enticement. No attorney is listed for either man in online court records.