JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Mandatory safety inspections would no longer be required for more than a million vehicles on Missouri’s roads under legislation passed by the state House.
Safety inspections currently are required every other year for all vehicles more than five years old. Legislation passed Wednesday by the House would require inspections only for vehicles more than 10 years old or with more than 150,000 miles.
Legislative staff estimate that almost 1.2 million vehicles would become exempt from inspections as a result of the bill.
Missouri’s safety inspections typically cost $12 and are required to renew a vehicle registration. They check a vehicle’s steering, braking and exhaust systems. Other things checked include the lights, turn signals, wipers, seat belts, tires and horn.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas House has approved a bill that provides legal protection for people who treat medical conditions with CBD oil containing a small amount of the chemical in marijuana that produces a high.
The House approved the bill Wednesday on an 89-35 vote.
The bill allows people charged with possessing CBD oil with up to 5 percent THC to defend themselves in court if they can prove they are using the oil to treat a severe medical condition. Parents also could give the oil to their children with chronic conditions.
Supporters say CBD oil with THC can reduce seizures and relieve pain.
But law enforcement and medical groups say the bill would be difficult and expensive to enforce.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A man involved in an autopsy of Michael Brown after the black teenager was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, has been temporarily banned from conducting autopsies in Kansas.
Parcells -photo Shawnee Co.
A judge ruled Monday that Shawn Parcells, of Leawood, Kansas, can’t resume his work until a lawsuit filed last week by the Kansas attorney general is resolved.
The lawsuit alleges Parcells is a self-taught pathology assistant who conducted coroner-ordered autopsies for Wabaunsee County without a qualified pathologist, as required by state law.
The suit also alleges Parcells billed the county for 14 autopsies that weren’t performed and collected payments for private autopsies that he also failed to conduct. The lawsuit noted that some families who sought Parcells’ services believed he had medical qualifications and was licensed to perform the exams.
Parcells, 37, also faces criminal charges filed last week by Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office. Parcells is charged with theft and criminal desecration in regard to the autopsies.
His attorney, Eric Kjorlie, said they’re considering their next steps.
Parcells assisted a privately hired pathologist in a second autopsy of Brown in 2014, after St. Louis County performed an initial examination but Brown’s family and attorneys wanted an independent review.
Brown was 18 and unarmed when he was fatally shot by Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014. Wilson resigned from the police force that November, and he was later cleared of wrongdoing by a St. Louis County grand jury and the U.S. Justice Department.
The shooting and lack of charges against Wilson sparked nationwide protests and helped fuel the Black Lives Matter movement.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on protest in favor of Medicaid expansion at the Kansas Statehouse (all times local):
5:20 p.m.
Capitol Police have banned three Kansas State University students from the Statehouse for a year for participating in the hanging of huge banners favoring Medicaid expansion inside.
Four banners hung briefly from the fifth floor rotunda. They criticized Republican legislative leaders who oppose Medicaid expansion by name and said they have “blood on their hands.”
A legislative policy requires protesters to obtain permission in advance to bring banners into the Statehouse. Legislative Administrative Services Director Tom Day removed them within minutes.
Officer Scott Whitsell said he imposed the yearlong ban because of the policy violation. The banned students are Jonathan Cole, Nate Faflick and Katie Sullivan.
Sullivan questioned whether the ban is legal. But Whitsell if the students return within a year, they face being cited for criminal trespassing.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Supporters of expanding Medicaid in Kansas have briefly hung huge banners inside the Statehouse criticizing Republican legislative leaders who oppose the idea.
“Blood on their hands” banners drop in the Statehouse naming Kansas Senate President Wagle and Majority Leader Denning who are blocking over 100,000 Kansans from healthcare access #ExpandMedicaidpic.twitter.com/FpAnamSzTt
The four banners hung Wednesday from the fifth floor railings of the rotunda said GOP leaders have “blood on their hands” for blocking Medicaid health coverage for up to 150,000 more Kansas residents.
Protester Thea Perry said such coverage would be life-saving for some individuals. House Majority Leader and Wichita Republican Dan Hawkins dismissed the banners as “ridiculous.”
The House approved a modified version of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s expansion plan last week over GOP leaders’ objections. The Senate has yet to consider it.
Legislative Administrative Services Director Tom Day took the banners down within minutes. He said legislative rules require prior permission to hang banners.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Republicans are pushing to make it harder to file initiative petitions.
A House elections committee on Wednesday considered bills to revamp the process for putting ballot initiatives before voters.
Ideas include adding a $500 fee to file petitions. Another provision would require a 40-cents-per-signature fee if groups hire workers to help collect signatures.
The push for change comes after voters approved several ballot measures that were opposed by some Republican lawmakers.
Voters last year struck down a right-to-work law passed by the Republican-led Legislature, approved a minimum wage hike and changed the redistricting process.
Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft says advocates file too many petitions without any plans to actually collect signatures on them.
House Democratic Minority Leader Crystal Quade says the efforts are an attack on democracy.
CARTHAGE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man accused of calling in a bomb threat to a high school to try to get out of a traffic stop has pleaded guilty in the case.
Ritter -photo Jasper Co.
Robert Ritter of Carthage in southwestern Missouri entered the plea Monday to a charge of making a false bomb threat.
Ritter was given a four-year suspended sentence as part of his plea deal and placed on five years of supervised probation.
The 44-year-old Ritter was a passenger in a car that a Jasper County deputy pulled over in November for having expired plates that did not match the vehicle. Authorities said Ritter called in the bomb threat to try to get the deputy to leave the traffic stop and report to the high school.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — People as young as 18 would be allowed to carry concealed weapons under a bill that has advanced in the Kansas House.
Advocates rejected arguments Tuesday that the bill could endanger lives. The bill will likely receive a final passage on Wednesday.
Kansas law has what is called constitutional carry, or the right to carry a firearm in any capacity, for residents 21 and older. A concealed carry license, available to those who complete required training, allows the holder to carry in states that have reciprocal agreements with Kansas.
Under the new law, the minimum age for concealed carry training would drop to 18. Residents who don’t receive a license at 18 would still be allowed constitutional carry in the state at age 21.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly could be forced to replace Kansas’ top business development official because of two small grants to a nonprofit group he previously managed from a fund tied to a late physician known nationally for doing late-term abortions.
Acting Commerce Secretary David Toland visits with Gov. Kelly during a March 21 presentation in Topeka -photo courtesy Kan. Commerce Secretary
Acting state Commerce Secretary David Toland has no role in regulating abortion providers, but the state’s most influential anti-abortion group has joined an effort by some Republican legislators to oust him. They are troubled by grants totaling less than $20,000 to a southeast Kansas economic development group from a memorial fundnamed for Dr. George Tiller.
Tiller was among a handful of physicians in the U.S. known to terminate pregnancies in their final weeks. His clinic in Wichita was the site of repeated anti-abortion protests, including the weeks-long “Summer of Mercy” in 1991. He was shot to death in 2009 in his church by an anti-abortion zealot who is serving a 25 years-to-life prison sentence.
Toland’s political problems began with serving as the unpaid treasurer for Kelly’s successful campaign last year and have since mushroomed. The Republican-dominated Senate is expected to vote on his appointment next week, and it refuses to confirm him, he will have to step down from the Cabinet post he’s held since Kelly took office in January.
Several Republican senators said Tuesday that the Tiller fund grants troubled them, and the anti-abortion group Kansans for Life emailed all 40 senators a letter Monday urging them not to confirm Toland’s appointment. A few GOP lawmakers noted that the commerce secretary controls programs and incentives for luring businesses to Kansas.
“The next logical question is: Is he going to try to increase the number of abortion clinics in the state of Kansas?” said state Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a conservative Kansas City-area Republican. “I think that we can’t rule that out.”
Opposition to Toland’s appointment is an example of how abortion remains an enduring political issue in Kansas, which has only three clinics providing abortions. The Legislature has had solid anti-abortion majorities for two decades and recently passed a resolution condemning a new law in New York protecting abortion rights.
“The last thing we want to see happen is a commerce secretary who is dialed in to how to get money from the Tiller foundation,” said Mary Kay Culp, Kansans for Life’s executive director.
The controversy also shows how Kelly, who promised a bipartisan governing style, has had a rocky start in the face of resistance to her agenda from conservative Republican leaders. It’s especially notable because it’s rare for even Democratic governors to have Cabinet appointments rejected.
“It’s a smear campaign,” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat and close Kelly ally. “It’s just politics.”
Toland previously served 11 years as executive director of Thrive Allen County, the southeast Kansas nonprofit. He’s received credit for helping to lure a new grocery store to his hometown of Iola and persuade voters to build a new community hospital.
Some Republicans have questioned Toland’s credentials and criticized him over a few social media posts and comments he made at a rally last year for expanding Medicaid. However, he also has the support of business leaders and local chamber-of-commerce officials across the state, and even some GOP senators consider him well-qualified.
“It’s time to end these baseless attacks and confirm him to be our next secretary of commerce,” Kelly said in a statement Tuesday.
According to the Wichita Community Foundation , which administers the Tiller fund, its first grant to Thrive Allen County, in 2015, was $9,380. It went to efforts to help low-income pregnant women stop smoking and get them to appointments for breast and cervical cancer screenings.
The second grant, in 2018, was $10,000 and went to the local health department to help provide long-acting contraceptives to women who have no or limited health insurance coverage.
Toland said in statement that he’s proud of Thrive Allen County’s work and, “We have healthier mothers and healthier babies in the county as a result, which is good for businesses and our economy.”
Kansans for Life and other abortion opponents are put off because Thrive Allen County’s website lists the Tiller fund as one of its “partners.”
Culp worries that small grants across the state could be used to refer women to abortion providers as part of a “racket to protect abortion.”
And Sen. Gene Suellentrop, a conservative Wichita Republican, said Toland and Thrive Allen County now have a tie with the Tiller fund.
JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — One of two Missouri men accused of subjecting an 11-year-old boy to grueling exercises and beatings has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Robert Black-Gamble -photo Jasper Co.
Thirty-year-old Robert Black-Gamble was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty to felony child abuse. As part of his plea agreement, a second count of child abuse was dismissed.
Black-Gamble and 33-year-old John Mason Jr., both of Joplin, were arrested in January. Authorities said the boy had showed up at school with severe bruising on his buttocks.
A probable-cause affidavit states Black-Gamble made the boy perform physical training exercises, including push-ups, sit-ups, wall sits and planks for about seven hours. Whenever the boy complained, he would be spanked with a hand, belt, wooden kitchen utensil and tree branch.
Mason, who is accused of participating in the abuse, has a preliminary hearing scheduled May 15.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — The Latest on flooding throughout the Midwest (all times local):
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it is assessing two Superfund sites located in areas that have seen overwhelming floods in recent weeks.
The EPA identified the Superfund sites as the Nebraska Ordnance Plant in Mead, Nebraska, and the Conservation Chemical Corporation in Kansas City. Superfund is a law that gives the EPA funding and authority to clean up contaminated sites.
The Mead site operated as a munitions plant from 1942 to 1956 and its disposal of radioactive waste and other chemicals led to groundwater contamination. The EPA says it has not found evidence that any hazardous contaminants were released by the flooding.
The federal agency says it will evaluate the sites further as floodwaters recede.
