Congressman Sam Graves met with veterans at the WWII Memorial in Washington on Wednesday.

Graves tweeted, “It’s always great to welcome our nation’s veterans to the World War II Memorial, and I was pleased to be there again today with others from Missouri and Kansas in greeting a large group from the Kansas City area. This is not a partisan issue – and regardless of what’s happening in government, the World War II Memorial should always be open to the men and women who saved our nation 70 years ago.”

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill tonight released the following statement as the federal government heads into a shutdown, after the U.S. House of Representatives failed to allow an up-or-down vote on a clean government funding bill, and instead voted to dismantle the Affordable Care Act of 2010:

“It is completely unacceptable that U.S. House Republicans are willing to shut down the government. This will upset our economic recovery and cause thousands of Missourians real pain. They know that the President will not back up on his work to provide affordable and accessible health care. They know that the Senate will not overturn these reforms. A decision was made at the ballot box last November, and supporters of the Affordable Care Act were returned to office by the American people. We can negotiate federal spending and the budget. We should not negotiate on keeping our government functioning and paying our bills. It is time for Speaker Boehner to allow the House to vote on a clean government funding bill without the unrealistic and irresponsible political posturing.”

A federal government shutdown will effect jobs and businesses across the country. Consequences will include: delayed benefits for our veterans; furloughs for 39,000 federal employees in Missouri; delays in vital loans for small businesses, and in Social Security checks for seniors enrolling in the program for the first time.

The Affordable Care Act of 2010 is already working to slow the rise in cost of health care, and protect Missourians from the worst abuses of the insurance industry-banning discrimination based on a patient’s pre-existing condition, barring insurance companies from dropping coverage for a person who becomes sick, allowing young people to stay on their parent’s health insurance plan until their 26th birthday, providing small businesses with tax credits to insure their employees, and requiring insurance companies to spend at least 80 percent of their revenue on medical care rather than marketing, administration, and profits. Health insurance marketplaces-known as exchanges-will open this week (regardless of a federal government shutdown) and begin providing previously uninsured Americans access to affordable health plans.

(AP) — A Branson attraction will end a 54-year run this month when “The Shepherd of the Hills” is performed for the last time this month.

The owners of Shepherd of the Hills Outdoor Theatre said Wednesday the play’s last performance will take place Oct. 19. The outdoor drama was first staged in 1960.

Each production involves more than 80 actors, 40 horses, a flock of sheep and the burning of a cabin. The play is based on Harold Bell Wright’s 1907 book about coming to the Ozarks homestead where the drama is set.

The owners cited declining attendance, rising costs and the federal health care overhaul as reasons for the closing. Summer tours of Old Matt’s Cabin, which is on the National Registry of Historic Places, will continue to be offered.

(AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court again is considering a court challenge to a law permitting students to transfer from unaccredited school districts to other districts nearby.

The court upheld the law earlier in a case from the St. Louis area. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court’s focus turned to Kansas City, which has been unaccredited since 2012.

Taxpayers from five surrounding districts filed suit and contend the transfer law is an unfunded mandate violating the Missouri Constitution.

A Jackson County judge ruled in favor of the Independence, Lee’s Summit and North Kansas City plaintiffs but rejected the argument for Blue Springs and Raytown. The state and some plaintiffs appealed.

Transfers from Kansas City schools have been on hold, but student transfers have caused acrimony in the St. Louis area.

A Missouri man was involved in 4-vehicle fatal accident on Tuesday.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol 27 year old Cody D. Conley of Raytown was driving a 2006 passenger van eastbound on K10, between Renner Road and Ridgeview in Lenexa, and sideswiped an east bound 1983 pickup driven by Randy R. Schimmel age 52 of Lawrence. The truck spun out of control, crossed the median and entered onto westbound traffic and was struck by a 2010 Dodge pickup driven by Jeffrey P. Placek, age 42 of Lenexa, in the drivers side door. A 2001 Lexus driven by Cynthia Green age 55 of Shawnee struck the passenger side of the 2010 Dodge pickup. Schimmel was transported to the hospital in Overland Park where he died. He was not wearing a seat belt. No other injuries were reported.

Lawmakers locked in a political stare-down Wednesday were buffeted by rising anger from across the nation about a partial government shutdown that ruined

vacations, sapped businesses and closed military cemeteries as far away as France.

Some on Capitol Hill ominously suggested the impasse might last for weeks, but a few Republicans seemed ready to blink.

Republican Rep. Peter King of New York accused tea party-backed lawmakers of trying to “hijack the party” and said he senses that a growing number of rank-and-file House Republicans — perhaps as many as a hundred — are tired of the shutdown that began Tuesday morning.

GOP lawmakers will be in meetings Wednesday to look for a way out, King said.

But GOP leaders and tea party-backed members seemed determined to press on.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a tea party favorite, said there would be no solution until President Barack Obama and Democrats who control the Senate agree to discuss problems with the nation’s unfolding health care overhaul.

“The pigsty that is Washington, D.C., gets mud on a lot of people and the question is what are you going to do moving forward,” Chaffetz, R-Utah, said on CBS’ “This Morning.”

Funding for much of the U.S. government was halted after Republicans hitched a routine spending bill to their effort to kill or delay the health care law they call “Obamacare.” The president accuses them of holding the government hostage.

Republicans pivoted to a strategy of trying to reopen more popular parts of the government piecemeal, but were unable to immediately advance the idea in the House.

Meanwhile, another financial showdown even more critical to the economy was looming. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told Congress that unless lawmakers act in time, he will run out of money to pay the nation’s bills by Oct. 17. Congress must periodically raise the limit on government borrowing to keep U.S. funds flowing, a once-routine matter that has become locked in battles over the federal budget deficit.

Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking House Democrat, said Democrats would overwhelmingly accept a short-term spending measure to reopen the government and increase the nation’s debt limit while other political differences are worked out. “That would be a responsible way to go,” Hoyer told CNN.

Fed-up Americans took to Facebook and Twitter to call members of Congress “stupid” or “idiots.” Some blamed Republicans while others blasted Obama or Democrats “who spend our tax dollars like crack addicts.”

Bruce Swedal, a 46-year-old Denver real estate agent, tweeted to Congress members: “You should not be getting paid. In fact, you all should be fired!”

A Wisconsin man began flying his flag upside down and urged other Americans to do the same.

Some 800,000 federal workers deemed nonessential were staying home again Wednesday in the first partial shutdown since the winter of 1995-96.

Across the nation, America roped off its most hallowed symbols: the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, the Statue of Liberty in New York, Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, the Washington Monument.

Its natural wonders — the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, the Smoky Mountains and more — put up “closed” signs and shooed campers away.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said he was getting pleas from businesses that rely on tourists. “The restaurants, the hotels, the grocery stores, the gasoline stations, they’re all very devastated with the closing of the parks,” he said.

The far-flung effects reached France, where tourists were barred from the U.S. cemetery overlooking the D-Day beaches at Normandy. Twenty-four military cemeteries abroad have been closed.

While U.S. military personnel are getting paid during the shutdown, thousands of civilian Defense employees are being furloughed.

Even fall football is in jeopardy. The Defense Department said it wasn’t clear that service academies would be able to participate in sports, putting Saturday’s Army vs. Boston College and Air Force vs. Navy football games on hold, with a decision to be made Thursday.

The White House said Obama would have to truncate a long-planned trip to Asia, calling off the final two stops in Malaysia and the Philippines.

Even as many government agencies closed their doors, the health insurance exchanges that are at the core of Obama’s health care law were up and running, taking applications for coverage that would start Jan. 1.

“Shutting down our government doesn’t accomplish their stated goal,” Obama said of his Republican opponents at a Rose Garden event Tuesday hailing implementation of the law. He said the Affordable Care Act “is settled, and it is here to stay.”

GOP leaders faulted the Senate for killing a House request to open official negotiations on the temporary spending bill. Senate Democrats led by Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada insist that Republicans give in and pass their simple, straightforward temporary funding bill, known as a continuing resolution, with no strings attached.

Republicans insisted that Democrats must agree to negotiate over the health care law as part of the funding deadlock.

House Speaker John Boehner said his party was working to “deal honestly with the problems we face.”

“We hope that Senate Democrats — and President Obama — change course and start working with us on behalf of the American people,” Boehner wrote in an op-ed in Wednesday’s USA Today.

Late Tuesday, House Republicans sought passage of legislation aimed at reopening small slices of the government. The bills covered the national parks, the Veterans Affairs Department and city services in Washington, D.C., such as garbage collection funded with local tax revenues.

The move presented Democrats with politically challenging votes but they rejected the idea, saying it was unfair to pick winners and losers as federal employees worked without a guarantee of getting paid and the effects of the partial shutdown rippled through the country and the economy.

Since the measures were brought before the House under expedited procedures requiring a two-thirds vote to pass, House Democrats scuttled them, despite an impassioned plea by Democratic D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who recalled that in the last shutdown 17 years ago she prevailed on House Speaker Newt Gingrich to win an exemption to keep the D.C. government running.

“This piecemeal approach will only prolong a shutdown,” Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said.

(AP) — The pilot of an ultralight plane has died in a crash at a private airfield southeast of Kansas City.

The Jackson County sheriff’s office was called just before 6 p.m. Tuesday. Sheriff Mike Sharp says the crash happened as the pilot was attempting to land on the grass runway of a small airfield known as Lamb’s Field near the town of Lone Jack.

The name of the victim wasn’t immediately released, pending notification of relatives.

 

(AP) — A new Kirksville dental school is seeking to ease a shortage of dentists in Missouri.

The Missouri School of Dentistry & Oral Health opened Tuesday at A.T. Still University. The only other dental school in the state is at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

The new dental school’s initial class of 42 includes only nine Missouri residents. But the school hopes that its health center placement program will persuade many of them to remain in state.

Dentists are in short supply across much of the state. Missouri ranks 41 out of 50 states in adult oral health based on the percentage of adults who regularly visit the dentist. But the low number of dentists is not the only factor holding down the ranking.

 

(AP) — Almost two years have passed since a 10-month-old baby was reported missing from her Kansas City home.

Family and supporters of Lisa Irwin’s parents will hold a vigil Saturday night.

Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin have said they believe someone kidnapped the baby from her crib. Jeremy Irwin said that when he returned home from a late shift on Oct. 4, 2011, the front door was open and the baby was missing.

Police and the FBI conducted extensive searches, but no one has been charged. A $100,000 reward is being offered to anyone with information that brings the child home.

Police say their investigation continues, but the calls and tips have dwindled. A family attorney says a private detective continues to investigate.