Trade talks are underway between Japan and the United States this week as Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer meets with Japan’s Economic Advisor. Agriculture complaints are “front and center” according to Politico, ever since President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The Trump administration is expected to push for similar concessions for U.S. agriculture as seen in the TPP. The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, called the CPTPP, replaced the original agreement that the U.S. backed away from, giving U.S. agriculture’s competitors a market advantage. Japan will be seeking market access in return, which could include growing markets for its specialty agricultural products.
The preliminary talks are expected to wrap up early this week. But for now, there’s little word on what objectives the Trump administration has for any deal with Japan, with the expectation that talks this week will surface more details.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Senate has passed a proposal to pay for bridge repairs across the state.
Lawmakers voted 26-7 for the resolution Monday.
The plan calls for the state to pay $50 million upfront to fix 35 bridges. If the state gets a federal matching grant, that would pave the way for Missouri to borrow $250 million to fix another 215 bridges.
The aim is to get a large enough matching grant to help replace the Interstate 70 bridge in the mid-Missouri city of Rocheport.
Missouri lawmakers have been divided on the best way to pay to fix state roads and bridges.
The Senate compromise includes less bonding and higher debt payments than Gov. Mike Parson originally proposed. The deal is aimed at addressing concerns about taking on debt and interest.
The Department of Agriculture Monday announced changes to future World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates Reports. Starting with the May 10 issue, USDA announced price range forecasts will be eliminated in favor of single price points for all crops and livestock.
USDA says the international Supply and Use tables for Crops will include an aggregate value for “World less China,” representing the balance sheet values outside of China. Also, the ordering of countries and lists of Major Importers/Exporters will be updated to eliminate outdated aggregations, such as “Former Soviet Union,” and better reflect current trade patterns.
The World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, or WASDE, is prepared monthly by the USDA World Agricultural Outlook Board based on information from USDA and other domestic and foreign official sources. It includes forecasts for U.S. and world wheat, rice, and coarse grains, oilseeds, and cotton. U.S. coverage is extended to sugar, meat, poultry, eggs, and milk.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Lawyers for Kansas told the state Supreme Court on Monday that it should sign off on a new law boosting spending on public schools and end a protracted education funding lawsuit partly because the law has broad, bipartisan support.
photo Kansas News Service
Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican, filed written legal arguments defending the new law. It contains Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s proposal for an education funding increase of roughly $90 million a year and is aimed at satisfying a state Supreme Court ruling last year that education funding remained inadequate.
Four school districts sued the state in 2010, and their attorneys have said that the new law does not provide enough additional funding after the 2019-20 school year. Schmidt said the districts are seeking a “heckler’s veto” after Kelly, many Republican lawmakers and the GOP-led State Board of Education agreed that the increase she sought would satisfy the court.
“This court should give great weight to the considered decisions of both the education officials and the people’s representatives,” Schmidt’s written argument said. “That is particularly true here given the widespread, bipartisan consensus.”
Attorneys for the four school districts asked in their own filing for the Supreme Court to order higher spending after the 2019-20 school year, give legislators another year to comply and keep the case open so that the state’s actions can be monitored.
“The state cannot demonstrate it has met its burden,” they wrote.
The Supreme Court plans to hear oral arguments from both sides’ attorneys May 9 and has promised to rule on whether the new law is sufficient by June 30. The justices have ruled repeatedly that the state constitution requires lawmakers to fund a suitable education for every child.
The high court has issued six rulings directing lawmakers to increase education funding in a little more than five years, so that it now tops $4 billion a year. The court declared last year that a 2018 law promising funding increases into the future wasn’t sufficient because it hadn’t accounted for inflation.
The four school districts argued that accounting for inflation is a straightforward math problem that requires increasingly larger amounts of money each year through the 2022-23 school year. Under their calculations, the increase for that year would be $363 million instead of the roughly $90 million under the new law.
“While the state has increased funding to account for some inflation, it has not completed the plan,” the school districts’ attorneys wrote.
Schmidt’s filing argues that given that the new law represents the consensus of “just about every other stakeholder” in the education funding debate, the court should not declare the law insufficient simply because some districts “will always want more money.” The four districts are part of a coalition that initially endorsed Kelly’s plan , then withdrew its backing.
“They should not be allowed to single-handedly override the governor’s and Legislature’s reasonable and considered funding determinations,” Schmidt wrote, adding that the law was passed “in light of the many competing demands on limited state funds.”
Kelly’s chief counsel also filed a request Monday with the Supreme Court, asking for permission to file “friend of the court” arguments by April 26. Her attorney argued that as a former state senator “intimately familiar” with school funding issues, she has a “unique” perspective on the law now that she is governor.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri House has passed legislation to give taxpayers a break if they can’t pay on time this year.
House lawmakers voted 144-1 in favor of the bill on Monday, which is tax day.
The legislation would waive fees through the end of the year for individual taxpayers who file on time and go on a payment plan. It also would delay interest until May 15.
Department of Revenue officials have said they currently can waive penalties on an individual basis.
House Democratic Minority Leader Crystal Quade has said the measure comes too late. The bill still needs Senate approval.
If the bill is enacted but taxpayers have already been charged interest or penalties, they’ll get a refund.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Authorities have arrested a man suspected of filming patrons of a Columbia library in a bathroom and fleeing to Iceland.
Jay Paul Robinson -photo Boone County
43-year-old Jay Paul Robinson was arrested in Chicago and transferred Sunday to the jail in Boone County, Missouri. He faces charges of rape, sodomy, first-degree invasion of privacy and first-degree attempted sodomy. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.
Boone County Sheriff’s Department Det. Tom O’Sullivan says he didn’t know the circumstances of Robinson’s arrest.
He was indicted last year after library staff discovered a hidden camera in the unisex restroom. A city press release said the camera showed patrons using the restroom and Robinson concealing it. Investigators believe he booked a flight from Chicago to Reykjavik, Iceland.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will be taking steps toward allowing farmers to grow hemp for industrial use under a measure Gov. Laura Kelly signed into law Monday.
The new law taking effect later this month replaces a state program only for researching hemp and its potential uses with a program for commercial production. Lawmakers authorized the research program last year after federal farm legislation allowed commercial hemp production.
The new law requires the Kansas Department of Agriculture to submit a plan to the federal government for regulating commercial hemp production. The department is required to confer with the governor’s and attorney general’s offices before submitting the plan.
Kelly said in a statement that the new law will help the state’s agricultural economy by giving farmers another crop to grow.
Bogdana Alexandrovna Osipova referred to by her married name Mobley in court documents is being held in Harvey Co.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — Russia is demanding that the U.S. release a Russian citizen who was convicted of kidnapping for moving her children from the U.S. to Russia amid a divorce.
Bogdana Alexandrovna Osipova, who is referred to by her married name of Mobley in court documents, was convicted in Kansas last month of one count of international parental kidnapping and two counts of attempting to extort money. Ospivoa, 38, faces up to 20 years in prison on each extortion count and up to three years on the kidnapping count at her May 20 sentencing hearing.
The Russian Embassy said in a tweet Friday that U.S. authorities should “stop their lawless behaviour and release the Russian citizen Bogdana Osipova, thus returning the mother to her children.” Her attorney, Craig Divine, didn’t immediately return a phone message. A Russian court has found that the children should remain in Russia.
U.S. prosecutors said Osipova, who has dual Russian and U.S. citizenship, left Wichita, Kansas, in April 2014 with one child from her first marriage and another child from a second marriage to Brian Mobley, an Air Force recruiter. She gave birth to a third child soon after returning to Russia. She was arrested in September 2017 after returning to the U.S. without her children to change child support arrangements.
Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov previously rejected a plea from Kansas Republican Rep. Ron Estes that the younger children — ages 6 and 4 — be reunited with their father. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a briefing that the children are living with relatives in Kaliningrad, The Wichita Eagle reported. Osipova’s oldest child is 16, and her first husband isn’t seeking custody of him.
Antonov told Estes that Osipova has been a victim of “discrimination and psychological pressure” in the U.S. criminal case.
“We’ve attempted to work with Russian authorities to find a diplomatic solution to this situation on behalf of a constituent, but clearly Russia is not interested in adhering to court rulings or acting in good faith,” Estes said Friday in a tweet. “I once again call on Russia to reunite this father with his children and will work with the State Department in solving this case.”
The U.S. State Department didn’t immediately return an email from The Associated Press seeking comment Monday.
Weeks before Osipova left for Russia, Mobley filed for divorce and was granted joint custody. The Russian court system granted the couple a divorce in July 2014. That December, a Kansas judge also granted the couple a divorce and ordered her to return the two youngest children. The Kansas judge awarded sole custody to her ex-husband because Osipova had left the U.S. without court approval or Mobley’s knowledge.
According to the U.S. criminal complaint, Mobley hasn’t been able to see his children. His ex-wife in January 2015 showed up to a meeting in Poland without the children. She allowed him to talk to the children on the phone and on Skype until November 2016, when she said he needed to send money to communicate with them, the complaint said.
Zakharova said the Russian court sees the situation differently.
“Her claim to her ex-husband for alimony, which was supported by a Russian court, was qualified there as extortion,” Zakharova said in the ministry’s translation of a briefing.
—————
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Russian Embassy is demanding the release of a citizen convicted of taking her children from the U.S. to Russia amid a divorce.
Thirty-eight-year-old Bogdana Alexandrovna Osipova was convicted last month of one count of international parental kidnapping and two counts of attempting to extort money. She is referred to by her married name of Mobley in court documents.
The Russian Embassy said Friday in a tweet that Osipova should be returned to her children and described the behavior of U.S. authorities as “lawless.” Prosecutors said she left Wichita, Kansas, in April 2014 with one child from her first marriage and another child from a second marriage to Brian Mobley. She gave birth to a third child soon after returning to Russia.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man has been found guilty of killing five people in September 2014 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Brandon Howell -photo Jackson Co.
Jurors on Monday convicted 38-year-old Brandon Howell of five counts of first-degree murder and seven other felonies.
The jury deliberated for less than two hours.
Prosecutors said 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.
The Taylors’ neighbor, 69-year-old Susan Choucroun, was shot in her driveway. Two others — 88-year-old Lorene Hurst and Hurst’s son, 63-year-old Darrel Hurst — were killed as they returned from a store.
Howell was arrested that night walking along a freeway carrying a shotgun in his pants.
Howell previously was acquitted of killing two teens from Kansas.
——
KANSAS CITY (AP) — Deliberations have begun in the trial of a man charged with killing five people in 2014 during a rampage in a quiet Kansas City neighborhood.
Jurors got the case Monday after closing arguments in the case against 38-year-old Brandon Howell. He is charged with five counts of first-degree murder and seven other felonies.
While trying to steal a classic Jaguar from a home, Howell is accused beating 80-year-old George Taylor and 86-year-old Anna Taylor so badly that they later died.
The couple’s neighbor, 69-year-old Susan Choucroun, was shot in her driveway. Two others — 88-year-old Alice Hurst and Hurst’s son, 63-year-old Darrel Hurst — were killed as they returned from a store.
Howell was arrested that night walking along a freeway carrying a shotgun in his pants.
Howell previously was acquitted of killing two teens from Johnson County, Kansas.
AURORA, Mo. (AP) — A southwest Missouri man charged in the death of a woman who was fatally shot by police was sentenced to seven years in prison as part of a plea deal.
Mason Farris -photo South Central Correctional Center
Twenty-year-old Mason Farris, of Aurora, was charged with second-degree murder and other felonies in the May 2018 death of 21-year-old Savannah Hill.
Farris on Friday pleaded guilty to resisting arrest and the other charges were dropped. He was sentenced to another three years for resisting arrest in an unrelated case.
Court documents say Hill called Aurora police to tell them she was with Farris, who was wanted for a parole violation.
When the police tried to stop the car, it sped backward and hit an officer. A second officer fired at the vehicle, hitting Hill. Prosecutors cleared the officer of wrongdoing.
Trade talks are underway between Japan and the United States this week as Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer meets with Japan’s Economic Advisor. Agriculture complaints are “front and center” according to Politico, ever since President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The Department of Agriculture Monday announced changes to future World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates Reports. Starting with the May 10 issue, USDA announced price range forecasts will be eliminated in favor of single price points for all crops and livestock.
