KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens’ request to return to active duty with the Navy has been approved, but he will not serve again as an elite Navy SEAL.
Greitens will be assigned to the Navy Operation Support Center in St. Louis as a general unrestricted line officer, which usually involves performing general office jobs, Navy Personnel Command spokeswoman Cmdr. Karin Burzynski said.
Greitens, 45, resigned as governor in June 2018 amid allegations of sexual misconduct and campaign finance violations. He made his former status as a Navy SEAL a cornerstone of his gubernatorial campaign and tenure as governor.
The news that Greitens is returning to the Navy was criticized by some who said it sent the wrong message while the military is grappling with an increase in sexual assaults, The Kansas City Star reported .
Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat who has pushed Congress to combat sexual assault in the military, said it is “beyond pathetic” that the Navy would even consider allowing Greitens to return to active service.
“He should be court-martialed,” said Speier, who is chairwoman of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee. “Retaining him sends a horrible signal about what the Navy values and its unwillingness to hold officers accountable.”
A spokesman for the Navy Reserve said the Navy is committed to addressing sexual misconduct.
“Sexual assault and sexual harassment are toxic threats that harm us all. Sexual assault and harassment are not tolerated in the Navy,” said Capt. Christopher Scholl.
Greitens, who has not commented to the media since his resignation, was put on inactive status with the Standby Reserve in 2017. He applied for a transfer to selected reserves in April 2019 and late Wednesday the Navy confirmed he was approved to return to active status.
However, during any reactivation process to the Navy Selected Reserves, each community the applicant applies to or could potentially return — such as, in Greitens’ case, the Special Warfare community — conducts its own review. In Greitens’ case, the Special Warfare community determined that he would not be able to return, an official said. The Navy didn’t provide a reason for that decision.
The Trump administration announced a new trade relief package in response to the U.S. trade dispute with China. USDA’s trade retaliation relief program includes direct payments to qualifying producers. The National Pork Producers Council says the program will include pork surplus purchases for the benefit of low-income families and others in need. They’re also happy it will include additional funding to develop new export opportunities.
The American Soybean Association says it welcomes news of the aid package. “We recognize that these funds will help offset the persisting damage from tariffs, as well as enable new market development,” says ASA President Davie Stephens. However, Stephens emphasized that the soybean industry needs more access to trade. The National Farmers Union is appreciative of the aid package and supports efforts to address China’s unfair practices.
“While the trade aid package is an improvement over last year’s Market Facilitation Program, by definition it fails to provide predictable, consistent, and adequate relief across American agriculture,” says NFU President Roger Johnson. House Ag Livestock and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee Chair Jim Costa of California called the package a “rushed and poorly-planned bailout.” Costa says producers of every commodity have been asking for more access to foreign markets, not aid funds.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new Trump administration rule would roll back sex discrimination protection for transgender people in health services.
In the proposed rule issued Friday, the Health and Human Services Department says laws banning sex discrimination in health care don’t apply to people’s “gender identity.” LGBT groups have long warned such a move could lead to denial of needed medical care.
That rule reverses the policy of the Obama administration, which had found that sex discrimination laws do protect transgender people. It faces a 60-day comment period and court challenges are expected.
Under the Obama-era rule, a hospital could be required to perform gender-transition procedures such as hysterectomies if the facility provided that kind of treatment for other medical conditions. The rule was meant to carry out the anti-discrimination section of the Affordable Care Act, which bars sex discrimination in health care but does not use the term “gender identity.”
In the Texas case, a Catholic hospital system, several states and a Christian medical association argued that the rule went beyond the law as written and would coerce providers to act against their medical judgment and religious beliefs.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — A Kansas City man who was released from prison and awarded $1 million for his wrongful conviction has been indicted on weapons and drug charges.
Jones -photo KDOC
Federal prosecutors say Richard Jones is charged in a five-count indictment returned Wednesday by a grand jury. He is charged with possessing cocaine and methamphetamine and being a felon in possession of weapons.
Jones’ original conviction became known as the “doppleganger” case after he was wrongfully convicted of a robbery that he said was committed by someone who looks like him.
Eyewitnesses said Jones committed the robbery in 1999 in Roeland Park, Kansas. But the witnesses recanted their identification and evidence pointed to a man who looks like Jones.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — The National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City is offering a range of events for this Memorial Day weekend.
Photo courtesy National World War I Museum and Museum
The memorial also is offering free admission for veterans and active duty military and half-price general admission for the public Friday through Monday.
The events will include installation of 140 U.S. flags to draw attention to the 140 veterans lost to suicide every week. Visitors also will be able to use research stations to find any possible family connection to WWI, or to write letters of support to military or first responders.
On Memorial Day, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver and Kansas City Mayor Sly James are scheduled to attend a ceremony that will feature music and a keynote address from U.S. World War I Centennial Commissioner Dr. Monique Seefried.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — An outbreak of nasty storms spawned tornadoes that razed homes, flattened trees and tossed cars across a dealership lot, injuring about two dozen people in Missouri’s capital city and killing at least three others elsewhere in the state.
National Weather Service image shows the track of the deadly storm -click to enlarge
The National Weather Service confirmed that a large and destructive twister moved over Jefferson City shortly before midnight Wednesday.
The tornado cut a path about 3 miles long and a mile wide from the south end of Jefferson City north toward the Missouri River, said police Lt. David Williams. Emergency workers reported about two dozen injuries, Williams said, and around 100 of people went to shelters. Hospitals reported treating injuries such as cuts and bruises.
There were no immediate reports of any deaths or missing people in the capital city of about 40,000, and it appeared everyone was accounted for after door-to-door checks that were nearly complete Thursday evening, police Lt. David Williams said.
Many in Jefferson City considered themselves fortunate to survive.
David Surprenant watched the storm approach then rushed to join his family in the basement. By then, the windows had started shattering and the pressure dropped.
“It was just the eeriest sound ever, and it felt like it was taking your breath right out of you,” Surprenant, 34, said. He and his family were unharmed.
Kevin Riley operates a car dealership next to Surprenant’s home, where he sells Chevys and Toyotas. He figured that 98 percent of the approximately 750 vehicles on the lot were damaged.
Lincoln University President Jerald Woolfolk rode out the tornado in the basement of her official residence, and it may have saved her life. University spokeswoman Misty Young told the Jefferson City News-Tribune that the home, built 103 years ago, was so badly damaged it appeared to be uninhabitable.
Weather forecasters had been tracking the storm before it arrived, and sirens first sounded in Jefferson City at 11:10 p.m. — about 30 minutes before the first property damage. Gov. Mike Parson credited the warning system for saving lives.
Kenneth Harris, 86, and his 83-year-old wife, Opal, were found dead about 200 yards (180 meters) from their home, and Betty Berg, 56, was killed and her husband, Mark, seriously injured when their mobile home was destroyed, authorities said.
The National Weather Service said preliminary information indicates the tornado at Jefferson City was an EF-3, which typically carry winds up to 160 mph.
The severe weather moved in from Oklahoma, where rescuers struggled to pull people from high water. This week has seen several days of twisters and torrential rains in the Southern Plains and Midwest.
Kerry Ann Demetrius locked herself in the bathroom of her Jefferson City apartment as the storm approached.
“It sounded like stuff was being thrown around, everything was just banging together, and then it just went dead silent,” she said. She emerged to find the roof had been blown off her apartment building.
Another natural disaster could be imminent in Jefferson City. Most of the city, including the tornado-ravaged section, sits on a bluff overlooking the south side of the Missouri River. But the swollen river is projected to top a levee on the north side of the river by Friday, potentially flooding the city’s airport, which already has been evacuated.
The Missouri Office of Administration said several state office buildings sustained damage, mostly roof damage.
A tornado also skipped through the town of Eldon, population 4,900, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) outside Jefferson City, where it damaged the business district and “tore up several neighborhoods,” Miller County Emergency Management Director Mike Rayhart said.
But Mayor Larry Henderson said people in Eldon were counting their blessings: Despite all the damage, just one man was hurt, when the wind flipped his truck. Henderson did not have any details about the man’s injuries.
A twister also caused damage and several injuries in the town of Carl Junction, not far from Joplin, on the eighth anniversary of the catastrophic tornado that killed 161 people in that city. Police Chief Delmar Haase said nearly three dozen homes had significant damage and several people sustained minor injuries. He estimated total damage in Carl Junction was “in the millions.”
A few photos of the damage in Jefferson City. The Patrol is assisting @JeffCityPolice and the Cole County Sheriff’s Department with efforts after last night’s tornado. #mowxpic.twitter.com/z7fZhIsysm
The National Weather Service says the EF-3 tornado that hit Carl Junction was among four tornadoes that hit that area of the state Wednesday night over a path of roughly 50 miles. Meteorologist Mark Burchfield in Springfield, Missouri, said Thursday that the tornado that hit Carl Junction was on the ground for about nine miles. He said the deadly EF-3 tornado outside Golden City was on the ground for 12 miles.
The severe weather was expected to push eastward Thursday, with forecasters saying parts of the Ohio Valley and the mid-Atlantic — including Baltimore and Pittsburgh — could see tornadoes, large hail and strong winds.
Storms and torrential rains have ravaged the Midwest, from Texas through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois, in the past few days.
Two barges carrying a total of about 3,800 pounds (1,700 kilograms) of fertilizer broke loose Thursday and floated down the swollen Arkansas River in Oklahoma, spreading alarm downstream as they hit a dam and sank. On Facebook, Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, warned the town’s 600 residents: “If the dam breaks, it will be catastrophic!! Leave now!!”
The barges had been floating out of control, on and off again, since Wednesday night near the town of 600, which was under a mandatory evacuation order due to flooding concerns. Aerial footage from the Oklahoma City television station KFOR showed the moment of impact shortly before noon Thursday. The Army Corps of Engineers was checking the dam for damage.
The Army Corps of Engineers immediately inspected the dam and said only “minimal” damage was found. However, the wrecked barges sank and are blocking three of the dam’s 12 flood gates.
Near Tulsa, about a dozen homes were evacuated as the Arkansas River continued to swell. The potential for further flooding also prompted the HolleyFrontier Tulsa Refinery to temporarily shut down.
Officials in Tulsa said additional residents may be asked to evacuate as the Army Corps of Engineers increases the flow rate at a dam northwest of the city to help drain a watershed flooded by severe storms.
Missouri’s three tornado fatalities bring to seven the number of deaths from storms this week.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — Prosecutors say a man will spend the rest of his life in prison for a 2014 rampage that killed five people in a quiet Kansas City neighborhood.
Brandon Howell -photo Jackson Co.
Brandon Howell was convicted in April of five counts of first-degree murder for beating two people to death and shooting and killing three others. His sentences are consecutive, and he’ll never be eligible for parole.
Howell beat 80-year-old George Taylor and his wife, 86-year-old Anna Taylor, while trying to steal their vehicle. They died a week later.
Their neighbor, 69-year-old Susan Choucroun, was shot in her driveway. Eighty-eight-year-old Lorene Hurst and her son, 63-year-old Darrel Hurst were killed as they returned from a store.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker says the case struck terror in a whole community.
KIRKWOOD, Mo. (AP) — A convicted sex offender in Missouri has admitted having sex with a two underage girls and possessing thousands of images containing child pornography.
Helm photo Missouri Offender Registry
29-year-old Christopher E. Helm of Kirkwood pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal charge of child pornography.
His plea agreement says he met the girl online when she was 14 and they had sex several times near her Missouri home in St. Clair County. His plea says he took pictures during the crime.
When arrested in August 2017, he was in a car with a 16-year-old with whom he’d also been having sex.
He also pleaded guilty in March 2018 in St. Clair County Circuit Court to two counts of statutory rape and was sentenced to a total of eight years.
TOPEKA – Kansas has resolved the second lawsuit filed under the state’s mistaken-conviction statute enacted by the legislature last year, according Attorney General Derek Schmidt.
Floyd Bledsoe was exonerated after spending 16 years in prison. He told lawmakers that financial compensation from the state would help him establish a footing in life that prison denied him. CREDIT STEPHEN KORANDA / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
The attorney general reached an agreed resolution of a mistaken-conviction lawsuit filed under the new statute by Floyd Scott Bledsoe in July 2018. In 2000, Bledsoe was convicted in Jefferson County and imprisoned for murder, kidnapping, and indecent liberties. His conviction was vacated and charges against him dismissed in 2015. The agreed resolution was approved Wednesday in Shawnee County District Court by Judge Richard D. Anderson.
“We are committed to faithfully administering the state’s mistaken-conviction law as the legislature wrote it,” Schmidt said. “In this case, it was possible based on review and evaluation of the existing record and discovery from Mr. Bledsoe to resolve all issues, satisfy all of the statute’s requirements, and agree to this outcome so Mr. Bledsoe can receive the benefits to which he is entitled by law because of his mistaken conviction.”
In the agreed order, the court determined that Bledsoe did not commit the crime or crimes for which he was convicted, nor was he an accessory or accomplice to that crime or crimes, nor did he suborn perjury, fabricate evidence or cause or bring about the conviction. Between November 1999 and December 2015, Bledsoe served 5,592 days in prison or jail and 277 days confined by bond and court supervision.
Accordingly, the court ordered the following relief for Bledsoe, as provided by the mistaken-conviction statute:
Bledsoe was granted a Certificate of Innocence.
Records of his conviction, arrest, and DNA profile record information were ordered expunged.
He was granted total compensation of $1,038,526.95.
He was granted counseling.
He was granted permission to participate in the state health care benefits program for plan years 2019 and 2020.
A separate federal lawsuit filed by Bledsoe in May 2016 remains pending. Requirements of that federal case, including an order entered in that case by U.S. Magistrate Judge James P. O’Hara on May 17, 2019, affected the relief the State could provide in this case and were taken into account in the agreed resolution. That federal case is Floyd S. Bledsoe v. Jefferson County, Kansas, et al., Case No. 16-CV-2296, United States District Court for the District of Kansas.
By law, payment on the state judgment entered yesterday is subject to review by the State Finance Council. Schmidt plans to formally ask the Finance Council to review the matter at its June 5 meeting.
In total, five lawsuits have been filed under the new mistaken-conviction statute. Three remain pending in Sedgwick County, Clay County and Shawnee County. One previous lawsuit in Johnson County was resolved in December.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on severe weather moving across the central United States (all times local):
The National Weather Service says a deadly storm in southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri spawned four tornadoes in roughly 50 miles.
National Weather Service image
Weather Service Meteorologist Mark Burchfield in Springfield, Missouri, said Thursday that two of the tornadoes Wednesday night were EF3 tornadoes with winds of 140 mph.
One outside Golden City, Missouri, northeast of Joplin, killed three people and seriously injured a fourth. Burchfield said it was on the ground for 12 miles.
Another EF3 tornado struck Carl Junction and was on the ground for 9 miles.
The tornadoes started Wednesday night with an EF0 tornado outside of the southeast Kansas ghost town of Treece that remained on the ground for 3 miles.
An EF0 tornado also touched down near Oronogo, Missouri, and was on the ground for 8 miles.
The Trump administration announced a new trade relief package in response to the U.S. trade dispute with China. USDA’s trade retaliation relief program includes direct payments to qualifying producers. The National Pork Producers Council says the program will include pork surplus purchases for the benefit of low-income families and others in need. They’re also happy it will include additional funding to develop new export opportunities.
