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Category: brief

Brief: Firework Amputations, Tariffs, Detentions, Baby Lemur Princess Buttercup

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4th of July injuries include two amputations in the region. KC Star reports that in addition to the injuries, a bullet entered a home through a skylight, and one through the ceiling of another home. Police previously warned residents to not shoot guns in the air to celebrate.

The seven area hospitals that are part of HCA Midwest Health treated 53 patients for injuries directly related to fireworks over the last several days, including the area’s two amputations. That is down slightly from 55 injuries treated last year. But there was only one amputation last year.


You can read Senator Moran’s full statement here.

Kansas Congressman Kevin Yoder to the KC Star on detentions at the border:

“I think we need to enforce the rule of law. I think we need to enforce our borders, but I think we can do it humanely,” Yoder said. “And I think there is an obvious clear pathway here where we enforce the law and we do it compassionately. I think that’s the middle ground.”

It was in his capacity as newly minted chairman that Yoder took a fact-finding trip to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas on June 5 and 6.

Yoder is chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security.

KCUR on tariffs’ local effects:


KCPL reminds you about assistance with your bill.

Below is a collection of lovely photos.


The Brief is a daily roundup from St. Joe Post and around the web. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Brief: Farmers on Trade, VP to KC, Beetle Traps Attract More Beetles

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“Because we have become so tribal in our politics in this country, the one thing that we’re going to have to do is have the farming community — because they support Donald Trump in a very, very powerful way — to call Washington and say to the president … they are not happy with the direction that he’s taking this country as it relates to the tariffs.”

Mike Pence will visit Kansas City next week to campaign for Representative Kevin Yoder.

NY Times wrote a flattering profile on Kansas City’s streetcar.

Step off the KC Streetcar (as it is officially known) and look around as if you don’t know where you are going and a passer-by will stop and ask where you’re trying to get to. Sport that expression while you’re still riding it and someone sitting across the aisle from you will do the same thing. Ask them how they like the streetcar and they will tell you, sincerely and in a fair bit of detail. And they do like it. They ride it. The city — which has a population just under a half-million — projected one million riders in the streetcar’s first year; it got twice as many by day 364. A year later that figure exceeded four million.

The Villages says it’s grateful for the support but has no more room for items.

Kansas Capitol Police sing James Brown’s “Living in America.”

 

The Brief is a daily roundup from St. Joe Post and around the web. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Brief: Gun Shots on the 4th, Chinese Fireworks, St. Joe’s Superintendent

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St. Joe’s average June temp: 78; 4.4 degrees warmer than usual. Average high: 89; 5 degrees warmer than normal. The average low temp 67 degrees; 3.7 degrees warmer than the 130-year average.

St. Joe School’s new Superintendent started his new job Monday.

“A little overwhelming anytime, I think, that you transition into a new job, but my impression is we’ve got a lot of great folks that I’ve dealt with so far in the short time that I’ve been here and people that really want to do what’s right for the community and for our kids and that’s really what our focus needs to be.” –St. Joe Post


Kansas City police are knocking on doors to remind residents not to fire their guns in the air to celebrate the 4th. A stray bullet killed an 11-year-old in 2011.

“A lot of people don’t realize that; they think it goes off into space or something,” Becchina said. “It comes back down at the same velocity and that’s why it’s so dangerous.” –KC Star

Americans will spend close to a billion dollars on fireworks this year. Almost all come from China.

“Ninety-nine percent of the backyard consumer fireworks come directly from China,” said Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association. “And about 70 percent of the professional display fireworks are manufactured in China.” –Morning Edition


The Brief is a daily roundup from St. Joe Post and around the web. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Brief: Sword Shooting, Climate and Allergies, Ketchup Tariffs

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Bearing two swords, a 60-year-old man charged at Grandview police. One officer fired two bean bag rounds. The man continued his charge, and the other officer then shot and killed the man with live ammo. –St. Joe Post

Illegal arms dealers might be reporting gun thefts to Kansas City Police to mask sales.
“Someone who legally acquired a gun passes it on to an illegal gun owner. And then, as an alibi, the legal gun owner reports the gun as stolen just in case it is recovered in a violent crime and traced back to their hands.” -KC Star

Is climate change contributing to worse allergies? Children’s Mercy Hospital has been collecting allergen data for more than 20 years.

“In Kansas City, when we started collecting the data, it was unusual for the pollen count to get over 1,000 (particles per cubic meter). Now it’s pretty routine to get up to 8,000. We never saw that before…It’s not a hoax. It’s actually happening.” –KC Star
You can no longer smoke on campus at the University of Kansas. The ban began Sunday. It includes electronic cigarettes and vaping devices. –The University Daily Kansan
Canadian tariffs went into effect Sunday.
U.S. products, mostly steel and iron, face 25 percent tariffs, the same penalty the United States slapped on imported steel at the end of May. Other U.S. imports, from ketchup to pizza to dishwasher detergent, will face a 10 percent tariff at the Canadian border, the same as America’s tax on imported aluminum. –KC Star

Missouri’s State Fire Marshal says fireworks cause 18,500 fires a year, including 1,300 structure fires, 300 vehicle fires, and an average of $43 million in direct property damage.
“Shooting the fireworks inappropriately or in inappropriate areas causing grass fires and those fires spread to structures or vehicles, that’s the most common error when it comes to fireworks.” –St. Joe Post

The Brief is a daily roundup from St. Joe Post and around the web. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Brief: Roberts on Farm Bill, Protestors Locked Out, Tornado Relief in Kansas, Key Endorsement for Colyer

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Volunteers showed up to help after an EF-3 tornado tore through Eureka, Kansas. The tornado injured eight people and damaged dozens of homes

The state Adjutant General’s Department says in a news release that more volunteers are needed in Eureka after more than 300 people showed up on Thursday to help. The twister that hit the town of about 2,400 residents Tuesday night has been classified as an EF-3 with winds of at least 136 mph. Nearly 80 homes were damaged and at least 10 were destroyed. The high school also was damaged.

 

 

Kansas Senator Pat Roberts spoke about the Farm Bill. He is the Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman.

“Today marks an important day for farm country. We are one step closer to providing farmers and ranchers a Farm Bill with the certainty and predictability they deserve,” said Chairman Roberts. “I thank my partner in this journey, Ranking Member Stabenow, as well as many of our Senate colleagues who offered leadership and expertise. I am proud we have a strong, budget neutral Farm Bill with broad support.”

 

Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer received a key endorsement. Developing story. The Wichita Eagle’s Kansas Statehouse reporter:


 

Kansas lawmakers question why security officials locked protestors out of the Statehouse.

Top leaders from both parties directed the director of Legislative Administrative Services to prepare a report during a meeting Wednesday. They want answers about when security officials can lock people out of the Statehouse and who has the authority to make such a decision.

 

 

The Brief is a daily roundup from St. Joe Post and around the web. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Brief: MO pays 110k in Greitens probe; Excessive Heat; Phone Scams

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Vermin Supreme, attorney general for Kansas?

Excessive Heat Warning in St. Joe tomorrow through Saturday. 100 degree highs for both tomorrow and Friday.

 

Missouri lawmakers spent $110,000 due to its investigation of former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens.

The House investigatory panel spent more than $29,000 from March through May, mainly for court reporters who transcribed its hearings.

The special session cost $70,000 in the House and $10,500 in the Senate. That includes more than $36,000 for lawmakers to return to the Capitol on June 11 to hear a speech from new Gov. Mike Parson.

 

KCUR reports Kansas City gained a third insurer for the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace.

Medica, an insurance company based in Minneapolis, announced Monday it will sell individual plans on the exchange to customers in Cass, Clay, Jackson and Platte counties in Missouri. It began selling insurance plans on the exchange last year to Kansas customers in Johnson and Wyandotte counties.

 

 

As always, be on the lookout for scams.

The Brief is a daily roundup from St. Joe Post and around the web. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Brief: Barrel Bob falls; Hawley’s emails; No M.D. on Chief jersey

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KC Star reports Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley used lawyers to review emails and documents from when he was a law professor at the University of Missouri. Hawley was due to release documents under Missouri’s Sunshine Law.

From the reporter:

Experts said Hawley’s use of campaign funds was legal. Democratic groups that filed the records requests for documents said it was hypocritical of Hawley, who has cast himself as a proponent of Missouri’s Sunshine Law as attorney general and during his Senate campaign to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

Kansas received a “C” on an infrastructure report.

KCUR:

Kansas earned a C on the report card, which ranks the quality of state infrastructure in nine categories, such as bridges, roads, energy and drinking water. This is up from a C- in 2013, the last time the Kansas ASCE chapter released a report card. And while some areas, such as levees and bridges, increased in quality, roads went down.

Over several years, lawmakers have diverted more than $2 billion from KDOT to fill deep holes in the Kansas budget.


KC Star reports on reaction to reports the NFL rejected Chiefs offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif’s request to have “M.D.” added to his jersey. He received his medical doctorate in May.

“The marketing value alone makes ‘Duvernay-Tardif, M.D.’ a great idea for the league. Allowing him to show off his status as the first active player to earn a medical degree would be unquestionably great P.R., especially in an offseason that involved fallout from the new anthem policy and another prominent player facing suspension for violating the personal conduct policy.

The Brief is a daily roundup from St. Joe Post and around the web. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Brief: McCaskill Heimlich; KS GOP Debate; Nugent and Kobach

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U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin performed the Heimlich maneuver on Senator Claire McCaskill.

McCaskill at a Hearing on tariffs:

Headline from St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Trade tensions send waves through Missouri, offering a possible opening for McCaskill

Also from St. Louis Post-Dispatch: McCaskill faces a familiar political problem: her own wealth

The Wall Street Journal reports Harley-Davidson is suffering from tariffs at home and overseas.

Other factories are falling victim to the declining demand for motorcycles in the U.S. Dave Rogers, a 50-year-old with two children in college, will be losing his job at Harley-Davidson’s Kansas City, Mo., factory, which will soon close its doors . He joined the company in April 2017 “thinking this is the last job I’m going to have to get.” He expects to find work once Harley cuts him loose, but it is hard to replace the high-paying manufacturing jobs that old unionized producers offer.

Senator Roy Blunt spoke to the Senate about apprenticeships. Video below.

“200 years ago were the way everybody learned to do whatever it was they learned to do. If you were going to learn a skill, you were going to learn it as an apprentice. This is a program where it really gives the employers the tools they need to develop the workforce they would like to have.”

Blunt is Chairman of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS)

KC Star reports on ease of voting after a court ruling against Kansas’ law on voter registration.

Instead, all she and the other newly registered voters had to do was write down their names and addresses and attest to their new status as citizens. “It takes five minutes or less, and it’s done,” said Christine Hutchins, a member of the Johnson County chapter of the League of Women Voters.

The Wichita Eagle reports on child trafficking victims in Kansas’ jails.

One in five possible child victims assessed by rapid response teams from 2014 to 2018 were in juvenile detention, according to Kansas Department for Children and Families data obtained by The Eagle. In eastern Kansas, juvenile detention was the most frequent housing option for possible trafficking victims.

MoDot reminds us to be careful in work zones. No injuries.

If you have 90 minutes, here’s the Kansas Gubernatorial debate from Saturday.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach held a fundraiser with Ted Nugent. 175 people attended.

The Brief is a daily roundup from St. Joe Post and around the web. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Brief: KCI Delay, Royals in Omaha, Watch Your Mouth

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Kansas City’s new airport will open a year later than planned. The new opening date is October 2022. Officials expect the airport to cost $1.4 billion. Airlines are funding the project, not taxpayers.

 

The Kansas City Royals will play a home game in Omaha on June 13 of next year. It will be before the 2019 College World Series. Kansas City’s AAA affiliate is the Omaha Storm Chasers.

KC Star has the quote from General Manager Dayton Moore.

“When we first got wind that this would be a possibility we wanted to be a part of this.

“This is our fan base. This is a community we love, a community that has been very kind to us, that’s helped raise our players.”

 

KDOT wants you to watch your language.


Democrats in Kansas held a news conference about immigrant children in Kansas group homes.

The Villages confirmed Thursday that it has a federal contract to house 50 unaccompanied immigrant children at its seven group homes in Topeka and Lawrence. But it would not say whether any of them had been separated from their parents during recent crackdown at the border.

 

A Cuban immigrant arrived in the United States in 1961. KC Star shares his story about being separated from his mother, and how he arrived in Kansas.

“The emotional cost I still pay today,” the 70-year-old said. “And the long-term harm that we are causing now will be a stain on our nation that will last for years.”

 

KCUR reports the Interstate Crosscheck system has paused while the Department of Homeland Security makes a security check. The system searches for duplicate voters. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach runs the program.

Crosscheck, at one time, held data on half the registered voters in the country, and critics have warned that the program isn’t keeping the voter data safe. Crosscheck recently came under fire for a data security breach that made public the names, dates of birth and partial Social Security numbers of 945 Kansas voters.

 

National Weather Service Kansas City points out an oddity in our transition from spring to summer.


 

The Brief is a daily roundup from St. Joe Post and around the web. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Brief: Kander for Mayor, Internet Taxes for the States

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Jason Kander might run for Kansas City mayor, according to the KC Star. Kander lost in a close race against Roy Blunt for senator in the 2016 election.

In a strong sign that Kander is serious about entering the race, he called former Kansas City mayor Emanuel Cleaver in the past few days to tell him he was running, a source familiar with the conversation said. Cleaver, a Democrat, now serves as the congressman for Kansas City in the U.S. House of Representatives.

From St. Joe Post:

The cases the court overturned said that if a business was shipping a product to a state where it didn’t have a physical presence such as a warehouse or office, it didn’t have to collect the state’s sales tax.

 

Wichita Eagle reports Kansas is underfunded to fight wildfires.

“Kansas often requires state agencies and local jurisdictions involved in wildfire suppression efforts to cover their own costs,” the report says.

…

“We have, obviously, the worst-funded state wildfire suppression system probably in the nation by every measure,” said Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, who initially requested the audit.

 

The Kansas Board of Regents approved tuition hikes for state universities in Kansas for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Tuition increases for resident and non-resident graduate students also ranged from 1.1 percent to 2.8 percent, excluding Kansas State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, which had no tuition increase.

 

Missouri Governor Mike Parson and seven other Governors are meeting with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

 

EPA chief Scott Pruitt made a stop in Kansas. Politico with the quote:

“My personal opinion is farmers are demanding accountability and I think that Mr. Pruitt probably is a dead man walking,” said Dane Hicks, the GOP chairman in Anderson County, Kan., where Pruitt stopped Tuesday. “I can’t imagine he rebounds from this in any way to salvage his position. I would expect his resignation soon.”

 

The Brief is a daily roundup from St. Joe Post and around the web. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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