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New $35M Center for Missouri Studies nearly complete

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The State Historical Society of Missouri’s new $35 million facility designed to encourage the study of the state’s history is taking shape in Columbia.

Construction of the Center for Missouri Studies is nearing completion, and the society’s leaders are confident that the facility will open on schedule this August, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported .

The society began the project to move out of its current Columbia Research Center in the Ellis Library roughly a decade ago. Expanding into a larger space will provide the public better with access to artwork, newspapers, archival documents, maps and photography, according to the society’s officials.

The new center’s construction is now far enough along that the society announced it will close the Columbia Research Center on April 19.

Gerald Hirsch, the society’s senior associate executive director, said staff will be able to collaborate more easily at the news center than in the cramped quarters in Ellis Library.

The climate-controlled storage room for the society’s manuscript collection will sit next to a pair of public classrooms in the new center, which will also hold an event space that can host about 180 people.

“That’s one of the biggest shortcomings we have in our current space,” said Gary Kremer, the society’s executive director. “No public programming space.”

The center was designed with two entrances to serve as a place of convergence where experts are welcome to study and the public is welcome to learn, Kremer said.

The shape of the building was designed to evoke the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers that carried the first French settlers to the area, and to connect the center to downtown Columbia.

“To the degree we can, we’re trying to evoke that feeling of confluence in this building,” Kremer said. “A connecting point as the premier institution for the study of Missouri history.”

Kan. man dies after semi hits pickup disabled from earlier crash

JOHNSON COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after midnight Sunday in Johnson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Dodge Ram driven by Nolvin Nain Lopez-Flores, 35, Kansas City, Kansas, was northbound on Interstate 35 at 119th Street in Olathe. The driver lost control, ran off the road to the left, struck the median barrier wall, and became disabled.

A northbound semi 2014 International semi driven by Elmer A. Reuse,62, Buckner, MO., did not see disabled pickup lane and struck it.

Lopez-Flores was pronounced dead at the scene. Reuse was properly restrained at the time of the accident and not injured, according to the KHP.

Sheriff: Kansas man accused of recording people in restroom

JACKSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas man for allegedly recording victims in a restroom on multiple occasions.

Wathen -photo Jackson Co.

On November 1st, 2018, Jackson Co. Sheriff’s Deputies and investigators served search warrants on two homes including Wathen’s residence east of Mayetta, according to Sheriff Tim Morse.

Deputies confiscated computers and other electronics during the search.

On Friday, Kerry Wathen Jr., 52, was jailed on requested charges that include two counts of sexual exploitation of a child and four counts of breach of privacy, according to Morse.

Wathen paid a $10,000 bond and is no longer in custody, according to online jail records.

Should the SAT be optional? College bribery scandal renews debate

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The most brazen abuses of standardized testing in the college bribery scandal could be chalked up to security lapses: the ringer hired to take the SAT, the proctors paid to look the other way, the accommodations for extra time obtained through false diagnoses of disabilities.

But the scheme in which wealthy parents allegedly bribed their children’s way into top schools also has highlighted deeper concerns about the fairness of using SAT and ACT tests — focal points of a billion-dollar consulting industry and gatekeepers for a U.S. admissions system already seen as favoring wealth and privilege.

Hundreds of colleges in recent years have made it optional for applicants to submit test scores in an effort to promote equity and diversify applicant pools. Lately, their ranks have been growing by the week.

David Hawkins, executive director for educational content and policy at the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said he expects more colleges will explore going test-optional.

“In the long term, the conversation — even without the bribery scandal of a couple of weeks ago — the conversation about access to higher education has been simmering for a long time, and is starting to take shape in a way that we really are examining every aspect of the admission process to understand fully how it either promotes or inhibits access,” he said.

The ringleader, admissions consultant Rick Singer, was among 50 people charged in the scheme that involved bribes paid to test administrators and college coaches. Perfectly legal, however, are $1,000-an-hour tutors and coaches hired to guide affluent students through the admissions maze, including rigorous test preparation.

In California, lawmakers disgusted with the fraud have proposed reforms to prevent a repeat, including a discussion of whether it’s time to phase out the tests at public colleges statewide.

David Coleman, the chief executive of the College Board, which administers the SAT, said he agrees that commercial prep classes have corrupted the test. But he said the solution is not to do away with the tests, which he sees as complementing a student’s high school grades and as a check on grade inflation, which also tends to benefit wealthy students.

“We’ve got to admit the truth, that wealth inequality has progressed to such a degree that it isn’t fair to look at test scores alone,” Coleman said, “That you must look at them in context of the adversity students face.”

To that end, College Board has begun piloting an “Environmental Context Dashboard” to measure SAT scores in relation to the student’s neighborhood and school. In its pilot phase, the dashboard helped Florida State University admit about 400 more students from disadvantaged backgrounds — which are more likely to be students of color — in 2018, said John Barnhill, the university’s associate vice president for enrollment management.

“It takes the emphasis away from getting the highest score you can get to,” Barnhill said. He added it’s more about, “How did you do where you are?”

But despite a growing number of schools moving away from standardized tests, most U.S. colleges still require them just as much as a high school transcript and application fee. Last year, about 2.1 million students took the SAT, and about 1.9 million took the ACT.

At the University of San Francisco, which announced a shift in its standardized test policy last week, administrators said SAT and ACT scores are more reflective of a student’s economic background than their academic abilities.

DePauw University, the University of Minnesota Crookston, University of Denver and Bucknell University are among others to say recently they won’t ask for the results, joining roughly 1,000 other schools, according to the nonprofit group FairTest, which argues standardized tests are biased against minority groups. The list includes elite liberal arts colleges as well as research universities and for-profit schools. Those caught up in the scheme require scores.

Technology is letting institutions that may have once relied heavily on them to consider other measures, said Dan King, president of the American Association of University Administrators.

“Now a college can look very quickly at the high school. What do we know about this high school, about students who come from here? What do we know about students who come with four units of English and three units of science and students who took chemistry? We can plug all of those into formuli, which give us a lot of information that we just didn’t have before,” he said.

A study published last April of nearly 1 million applicants found that when given the choice to submit scores, about a quarter of applicants did not. Female, underrepresented and low-income applicants chose not to submit scores at higher rates than male applicants. Black students were about twice as likely to exclude scores as white students.

Philip Sheppard, 20, from Houston, knew his SAT scores weren’t great when he applied for Hilbert College just outside of Buffalo, New York. He included them in his application to the test-optional school anyway, hoping the additional effort would be rewarded.

“I saw it was optional but I submitted it just to solidify a place in the class,” said Sheppard, who said he scored just under 1,000 out of a possible 1,600. “My thought process was, my scores weren’t the highest so I just used them as something, ‘Hey, I went the extra mile to take the SAT. Even though I didn’t do the best, still I gave it my best shot.'”

State monitoring odor complaints in Joplin

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Department of Natural Resources is monitoring five manufacturers in Joplin for odor levels after receiving continuing complaints from residents.

Joplin’s interim city manager, Dan Pekarek, said the city also reports odor levels to the state agency, but the DNR cannot file a complaint based on a city report.

Ryan Talken, assistant director of the Joplin Health Department, said the city relayed nine complaints in February and two in March to the state.

The Joplin Globe reports two manufacturers — Protein Solutions and Heartland Pet Food — were flagged last week for violations.

The state agency also periodically checks Jasper Products, Hampshire Pet Products and Ajinomoto Foods.

The city’s health department says plants that have been investigated in the past have made several upgrades to stop or reduce odors.

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Relieved To Have A School Funding Plan, Kansas Lawmakers Await The Court

It took a fight, but the Kansas House and Senate have agreed to the school funding hikes Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly called for. Now, lawmakers will wait to see if it’s enough to satisfy the state’s highest court.

Sen. Molly Baumgardner, left, was the Senate’s lead negotiator on the school funding agreement.
STEPHEN KORANDA / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE

“By investing in our local schools, we can ensure that all Kansas children – no matter who they are or where they live – have the opportunity to succeed,” Kelly said in a statement touting the bill’s passage. She’s expected to sign it.

The Kansas Supreme Court said the half-billion dollar boost lawmakers approved last year largely provided the resources needed to support public schools and help struggling students. Still, justices said it required an inflation adjustment.

The newly passed plan will add about $90 million in funding for schools per year for four years. After that, current state law says future spending increases will be set by a rolling average of the Midwest Consumer Price Index.

According to the Kansas Association of School Boards, it translates to a roughly 3% raise to the general aid districts get from the state.

Though conservative Republican leaders concerned about the cost had held off a vote in the House for weeks, the bill drew broad bipartisan support. It passed the House on a 76-47 vote, and 31-8 in the Senate.

“Folks really do believe that this is our best shot at ending that litigation,” Republican Sen. Molly Baumgardner said after the final vote.

But within hours an attorney representing the districts suing the state told the Associated Press that he doesn’t believe the money will be adequate beyond the 2019-2020 school year.

A coalition of school districts initially supported the governor’s funding recommendation, which was based on calculations from the state Department of Education, but after further study pulled its endorsement.

Republican leaders who objected to the spending argued that it would not guarantee improvements in student achievement nor an end to litigation if the state can’t live up the agreement — at least not without tax increases or cuts to other state services.

“The plan in front of us today will not give our schools the certainty they deserve,” House Speaker Ron Ryckman said during debate on the bill. “This is a promise that we cannot keep.”

Some supporters of the bill shared those cost concerns but hope the state’s tax collections will be able to cover the expense.

“I know it’s a lot of money,” Republican Rep. Brenda Dietrich said after the vote. “But nobody knows what our revenue will look like.”

The ongoing fight in the Gannon case, filed in 2010, is really an outgrowth of the Montoy lawsuit settled in 2006. After the economic downturn, the state reneged on funding obligations from the agreement that ended Montoy, which led to the filing of Gannon.

When justices struck down the state’s funding formula in 2017, they noted that around a quarter of students struggled in reading and math. Lawmakers tried to tailor their new plan in response.

The agreement directs the Kansas State Board of Education to identify programs that help kids at risk of falling behind. And it calls for the continuation of the legislative task force on dyslexia for another three years.

The bill also folds in some of the accountability measures that conservatives were insisting on. Included is an audit in 2021 of school district savings accounts and bilingual education for students learning English.

The state Department of Education will have to publish one-page performance reports for individual schools, district budgets, and reports specifying how much is being spent on school finance litigation.

Ryckman’s concern about the cost of the increases recommended by the governor prompted him to offer a last-minute alternative that would have only given schools an additional $120 million for the next four years. It would have banked another $240 million in the event the Legislature or the courts decided more was needed for education down the road.

That idea was quickly sidelined after Senators refused to budge from the four-year, $360 million plan that passed their chamber.

The full House never actually approved a spending plan, which put House members at a disadvantage in the negotiations over funding.

During those talks between the House and Senate, the CPI adjustment in the future was a major sticking point.

“The … plan is to put taxpayers on the hook in perpetuity for inflation,” Republican Rep. Kristey Williams said as talks got heated.

House leaders ultimately relented to break the logjam and allowed the Senate plan to go up for debate.

Even if the court signs off on the funding now approved by the Legislature — briefs are due later this month with oral arguments scheduled for early May — wrangling over the CPI adjustment could continue.

Senate leaders did also raise concerns about the automatic increases in school spending and want to look at the issue again next year.

“I think there’s another way to skin the cat that would make sense, but we don’t have time to do it,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning said.

Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda.

Second teen charged in killing of 17-year-old NE Kan. high school student

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A second teenager has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of a 17-year-old Olathe East High School senior.

Rowan Padgett photo courtesy ARA Cremations

The new suspect charged is a 17-year-old boy. He and a 16-year-old girl also chargedwith murder earlier this week are accused in the death of 17-year-old Rowan Padgett of Overland Park. Prosecutors are seeking to try both teens as adults.

Authorities say Padgett’s killing in a suburban cul-de-sac on March 29 occurred during a drug deal involving the anxiety drug Xanax.

Padgett, an Olathe East High School senior, was just weeks from celebrating his 18th birthday when he died.

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Man charged with threatening Senator Josh Hawley on Facebook

ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man has been arrested after authorities say he threated Republican Sen. Josh Hawley in a social media message.

Senator Hawley

Jeremy Cawthon appeared in federal court Friday in St. Louis for a brief hearing on a charge of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.

An arrest affidavit says the FBI was contacted on April 1 about the Facebook threat, in which Cawthon is accused of writing to the senator from Missouri that “I will kill you before I allow you to continue a dictatorship of monetary and religious systems….”

Cawthon has asked a judge to appoint a lawyer for him. The judge ordered Cawthon held until next week, when a hearing will be held to determine if he should be kept in jail until trial.

Prosecutors plan to present the case to a grand jury next Thursday.

Hawley spokeswoman Kelli Ford said the senator appreciates “the vigilance of the law enforcement community.”

Authorities said Friday that a western New York man had been charged with threatening to kill Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota. She is one of the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress.

Live Civil War-era cannonball discovered in Kansas museum

PLEASANTON, Kan. (AP) — Authorities in eastern Kansas have detonated a Civil War-era cannonball that had been on public display for two decades before officials determined it was live ordnance.

photo courtesy KMBC-TV

KMBC -TV reports that the cannonball had been on display for 20 years at a Pleasanton museum before it was detonated Friday afternoon.

The 90-pound cannonball was donated to the Trading Post Museum. It had originally been purchased in the Chesapeake Bay area in the 19th Century.

A visitor to the museum Thursday noticed a fuse in the cannonball and alerted museum officials that it might still be live. Museum officials contacted authorities, and Fort Riley’s Explosives Ordnance Disposal Unit later came out to detonate it in a controlled environment.

No one was injured.

Update: Missouri teen charged with threatening to ‘shoot up’ school

PERRYVILLE, Mo. (AP) — An 18-year-old Perryville student has been charged with threatening to “shoot up” Perryville High School.

Perry County Prosecuting Attorney Caitlin Pistorio says in a news release that Rylan Carlson was arrested this week on a felony charge of making a terroristic threat in the second degree.

Prosecutors say Carlson is one of three male Perryville High School students accused of discussing a mass shooting. The other two students are not facing adult charges because they are juveniles.

The Southeast Missourian reports a probable-cause statement said high school assistant principal Shadrick Shafer called police March 13 after a student heard the three plotting an attack.
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PERRYVILLE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri high school student has been charged in a school shooting plot.

18-year-old Rylan Carlson, of Perryville, is free on $5,000 bond after being charged Wednesday with making a terroristic threat. He’s one of three Perryville High School students accused of discussing the idea of a mass shooting. Because the other two students are juveniles, no information could be released about whether they also face charges.

Charging documents in Carlson’s case say another student overheard the three plotting an attack last month. The student recalled one of the three saying, “Hey, let’s shoot up the school” and another remark, “I already have a shotgun and pistol. All we need is an AR-15.”

Weapons and ammunition were found during a search of one juvenile’s home. No attorney is listed for Carlson in online court records.

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