The federal shutdown is in day 4. It has shut down offices around the state and the nation. Shutdown rules do not apply to Senate offices.
Sen. Roy Blunt’s office is open. However Senator Clair McCaskill’s office tells callers by an answering machine, that the office has been forced to close and that she
is disappointed with the shutdown and inconvenience to Missourians.
The answering machine says her office will reopen when a continuing resolution is passed.
A powerful storm system will move into the Plains Friday and push a strong cold front through the area Friday evening and overnight. Thunderstorms may be 
ongoing Friday morning, mainly across northern Missouri, but these should decrease through the afternoon. A few of these storms could produce hail but the threat of severe weather from storms earlier in the day is low. The greater risk of severe storms will come during the evening hours as a line of storms moves east out of Kansas and Nebraska. These storms may become severe with damaging winds the main threat during the evening hours as the whole line tracks east. The greatest risk of severe weather is across far northwestern Missouri, generally northwest of Interstate 35 and northeastern Kansas during the evening hours.
Today A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 2pm, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 86. South wind 11 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Tonight Showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 7pm and 1am. Some of the storms could be severe. Low around 50. South wind 9 to 15 mph becoming west after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.
Saturday Mostly sunny, with a high near 58. West wind 9 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.
Saturday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 40. West wind around 14 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Sunday Mostly sunny, with a high near 61. West northwest wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.
(AP) — A Kansas City, Kan., man has received to two life sentences for killing his girlfriend before starting a fire that killed the woman’s 2–old niece.
37-year-old Curtis T. Horn will serve 40 years in prison before he is eligible for parole under the sentence imposed Thursday. Prosecutors said Horn strangled 34-year-old Brandi Johnson last February inside an apartment where she was babysitting her niece, Amiyah McClenton.
He then started the fire that killed the toddler and forced apartment complex residents to flee. No one else was injured.
Horn pleaded guilty in August in Wyandotte County District Court to two counts of first-degree murder.
(AP) Backers of proposals to have judges of the Missouri Supreme Court and Court of Appeals elected rather than appointed can begin working to put the questions to
a statewide vote.
The secretary of state’s office this week approved the proposed ballot language for two identically worded amendments to the Missouri Constitution. The approval clears the way for proponents to begin seeking enough signatures from registered voters to earn spots on the 2014 statewide ballot.
Besides having the judges elected by popular votes, the proposals would also increase the membership of the Missouri Supreme Court to nine from the current seven.
by American Farm Bureau:
Autumn in farm country brings with it the roar of combines lumbering across America’s farm fields. It’s harvest season and across the land, farmers are hard at 
work bringing in the bounty of what, in many areas, amounts to a “pretty good year.” The farm policy landscape, on the other hand, has yielded little, thanks to the frosty bite of American politics.
Because of congressional inability to reach a consensus, the nation’s farm bill has expired – an occurrence that might have been lost in the hubbub of the larger government shutdown. This is not the first sign of farm bill trouble. It would have expired a year ago had Congress not simply extended it for another year due to disagreements and partisan paralysis.
Gone with the farm bill is the basic, no-frills safety net for farm families. Gone is the publicly recognized good of government-backed food security for our nation. Gone is the direct link between the people who farm and those Americans who feel the daily pang of hunger.
Two heartland farmers we spoke with were disappointed, even gloomy about these losses. Glen Brunkow shared that feeling as he steered his combine into the afternoon sun on his farm in Pottawatomie County, Kan.
“I am very, very disappointed that Congress would play political football with something that is as important as our nation’s farm bill,” Brunkow said. “Crop insurance as a safety net is important to me and most other farmers I know. Without crop insurance, and the promise of crop insurance, farmers cannot secure the operating loans they need to make it through another year.”
Brunkow said without incentives included in the farm bill to purchase crop insurance, the product simply is not affordable for most farmers. He said the difference is $40 to $50 an acre.
“I just can’t imagine going through a crop year without having a safety net,” Brunkow said. “We had adequate rainfall this year, but not enough rainfall to restore soil moisture. We are just one dry spell away from being in another drought and I cannot imagine going into that not knowing that I have crop insurance to help at least pay my fixed costs back.
“We are not talking about making a profit off of crop insurance. We are talking about just paying our fixed costs – our land costs, our seed, our fertilizer, our fuel costs, just enough to make it so we can carry on into another year.”
According to Brunkow, crop insurance is keeping some farmers in business this year, helping them weather through one of the worst drought periods since the Dust Bowl. The prospect of that safety net being in place for the next growing season rests at the doorstep of Congress.
“We each need to contact our members of Congress and let them know how important this is,” Brunkow said. “We need to let them know we rely on and need crop insurance. And it is not just us; it’s everyone up and down the Main Streets of our rural communities. Our rural communities rely on us. We are the foundation, the building block of the rural economy. When we have a good year, Main Street has a good year.”
Meanwhile, about 150 miles north and east of Brunkow, in Atchison County, Mo., Blake Hurst has his combines lined up and ready to start the harvest. Like Brunkow, he is living on the edge of drought. Due to drier conditions during key growing periods, Hurst believes he is looking at a corn crop that is two-thirds to three-fourths of optimal and a soybean crop that is on the lower side of that range.
Hurst, who is president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, considers this a drought year, just not quite as severe as the one he and other farmers faced in 2012. However, it is the first time he has faced two consecutive drought years in his 35 years of farming.
“Crop insurance kept everything together last year,” Hurst said. “Crop insurance was the difference for me between a large loss and a small profit. Crop insurance is extremely important.”
Not knowing whether he will have that key risk management tool heading into next year is more than a little disconcerting for the Missouri farmer.
“It’s the uncertainty of it,” Hurst said. “I can’t really plan on what the crop insurance program might be next year. I don’t really know how long it will last. I don’t know what will be required of me as far as qualifying for crop insurance and what will be required from me as far as premiums.
“We already have enough uncertainty in farming from weather, bad prices, which currently means 45 percent lower prices for corn than they were last year. So, I already have uncertainty without uncertainty caused by the political situation as well.”
Hurst explained that farmers are constantly living under time constraints. If they are not able to harvest all their crops before the snow starts to fly in the Midwest, they face the prospect of huge yield losses, which drastically impacts the bottom line.
“It’s much like Congress with the farm bill expiring,” Hurst explained. “We know that no matter what happens, we will get our harvest out this year. Congress is a year late in getting its job done on the farm bill. It is expiring now and that is after a one-year extension. And now, even that has expired. Of course, Mother Nature never gives me a one-year extension on harvest. If I don’t get it done, I just lose the crop.”
He believes that if members of Congress could feel the same kind of time pressure he experiences during harvest, it could possibly make a difference.
“I don’t know what the parable is to this story, but if I do not get my harvest done, I don’t have any income for the year,” Hurst said. “If I were to leave 30 percent of my crop in the field because I just don’t work hard enough to finish, I lose 30 percent of my income. Members of Congress seem to be able to maintain their income, while leaving well over 30 percent of their work in the field. It wouldn’t be a bad idea if we said that if they did not renew bills on time, if they didn’t finish a budget, if they didn’t finish appropriations bills, that maybe they ought to face the same penalties that any small business might face when they do not get their work done.”
Meanwhile, the farm bill has expired, and government has shut down due to partisan politics. Both Hurst and Brunkow are hopeful both situations are settled before they bring in their last bushels and park their combines in their machine sheds. Otherwise, both know that it could be a long, cold winter for farmers and all Americans.
An aide to Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones has resigned after leaving a loaded handgun in a state Capitol bathroom last month.
Jones chief of staff Tom Smith said Thursday in a statement that he accepted the resignation of Dave Evans on Sept. 27. Missouri Capitol Police said a gun belonging to Evans was found by another legislative employee on top of a toilet paper dispenser in a basement bathroom. The gun was in a black nylon holster.
Police say the gun was found Sept. 20 and that Evans has a concealed carry permit. A Missouri law passed in 2011 allows elected officials and their employees to carry concealed firearms inside the Capitol if they have permits.
After the incident, Evans was instructed to take an additional gun safety course. Smith said Thursday he was satisfied with the corrective actions to which Evans had agreed.
“He ultimately felt it was in the best interests of his colleagues and friends in the Capitol, as well as for himself and his family, to move on to another endeavor,” Smith said. “The office will sorely miss his strong work ethic and high level of professionalism.”
The bathroom where the gun was found is across a hallway from a meeting room used by House committees. The Missouri Capitol’s basement includes several House hearing rooms, offices for some staff members and a cafeteria. Relatively few people were in the Capitol the day the gun was found.
(AP) — A St. Charles man has been charged with faking suicide to avoid a child sex abuse accusation.
Forty-five-year-old Raymond Avett was charged Wednesday with concealing a felony. So was his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Callaway, the 6-year-old’s mother.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (bit.ly/19XREdZ ) reports that Avett disappeared in June after leaving several suicide notes. He had recently learned that Callaway’s daughter disclosed the alleged sexual abuse.
Callaway is accused of blackmailing her boyfriend to give her his home, boat, sport-utility vehicle and a life insurance policy naming the child as beneficiary in return for not telling police about the alleged attack.
Avett was not located until mid-July when he was stopped by police in Maryland. Police say he cashed out more than $100,000 from a retirement account.
U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.), Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, joined his colleagues on the floor today in an effort to restore funding for several common-sense government operations – an effort that Senate Democrats blocked:
“Senate Republicans don’t want a government shutdown. Unfortunately, Majority Leader Reid and his Democrat colleagues who control the Senate would rather continue waging a partisan battle than restore common-sense funding for our National Guardsmen and women, veterans’ services, life-saving cancer research, and national parks and museums. Just as Congress passed legislation to ensure our men and women in uniform receive paychecks during the shutdown, it makes sense to ensure these operations continue until Congress can reach an agreement to reopen the government.”
Blunt spoke on the floor this morning calling for a unanimous consent agreement to allow a vote on legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would restore funding to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for critical life-saving medical treatment. The effort was blocked by Democrats, who objected to four unanimous consent requests to pass spending bills to resume normal operations for several important government functions.
It was recently reported that NIH is unable to provide life-saving medical treatment due to the shutdown, which resulted in the furlough of approximately 75 percent of NIH employees.
(AP) A Missouri state senator is calling on Gov. Jay Nixon to consider funding for a gas chamber, citing concerns over the availability of execution drugs.
Republican Sen. Kurt Schaefer of Columbia sent a letter on Thursday asking the Democratic governor to either include gas chamber funding in his fiscal year 2015 budget or propose a statutory change with an alternative method of execution.
Schaefer’s letter cites reports that the anti-death penalty European Union could limit export of the anesthetic propofol if Missouri moves ahead with plans to use it in an execution on Oct. 23. Missouri has turned to propofol because drugs used for lethal injection in the past are no longer being sold to prisons and corrections departments.
A state audit questioned Thursday whether the Missouri lieutenant governor’s office has the authority to create a planned government waste reporting website and 
whether his office can ensure the confidentiality of tipsters who use it.
The Missouri Waste Report aims to help government employees and the public to report examples of government waste and abuse. Lawmakers increased the budget of Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder’s office by about $38,000 to pay for it. Through July, the office spent about $2,700 with another $1,189 coming from Kinder’s campaign committee. The website is not yet online.
Further, the auditor’s office said other officials and agencies have the authority to investigate fraud and misuse of public funds.
The Missouri lieutenant governor advocates for seniors and military veterans, serves on state housing, tourism, and other commissions and presides over the 34-member Senate while breaking tie votes. The officeholder also takes over if the governor dies or is removed from office. Kinder is serving his third term.
Deputy Auditor Harry Otto said the waste reporting website is well-intentioned.
Yet, “there’s no specific statutory authority for the lieutenant governor’s office to have this website, and once it’s established, there’s a question of how much authority he would have to pursue an investigation and how could he require state agencies, divisions, boards to respond to his requests,” Otto said.
Otto led the audit because state Auditor Tom Schweich recused himself from reports involving Kinder. Schweich, a Republican, received $220,000 from Kinder during the 2010 auditor’s election.
Kinder pointed to his office’s overall “good” rating Thursday.
“I am pleased to receive a good rating from the auditor’s office, which shows that our office is well-managed and that the fiscal controls we have in place are sound and effective,” he said.
The lieutenant governor’s office said in a written response included with the audit that previous lieutenant governors have used the office for purposes absent specific statutory authority. It said that as the state’s official advocate for seniors, Kinder has authority to investigate allegations of “of waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars detrimental to our already vulnerable senior citizens.” Further, it noted Kinder’s role with several government boards and commissions gives him an interest in ensuring public funds are prudently spent.
Kinder’s office said it also plans to request legislation letting it keep confidential the reports it receives. Missouri lawmakers return to the Capitol in January.
