KC Buzz Blog

FDA lab update

   Earlier this month, The Star reported on bipartisan congressional efforts to save 13 regional Food and Drug Administration labs, including one in Lenexa. (Confidential to Claire McCaskill: That's just over the state line from Missouri.)

   Now, we're informed by Rep. Dennis Moore's office that FDA staff meetings to discuss the potential closings have been postponed as agency brass respond to congressional inquiries and try to ensure Reps. Moore, Boyda, Cleaver and Graves and Sens. Brownback, Roberts, and Bond (who all wrote various letters to FDA questioning the proposed closings) are happy with the process. No word on when those meetings might be held.

   At stake: More than 50 jobs in Lenexa.

Posted by Matt Stearns

A new Senate hat

    Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill added a new title to her Capitol Hill resume today - deputy whip. She was one four freshmen Democrats that Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the assistant majority leader, named to his whip team.

  The deputy whips are tasked with persuading colleagues to support Democratic bills. "A razor-thin Democratic majority means that every vote counts and there is no room for error," Durbin said in a statement.

    McCaskill is one of 11 deputy whips. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California is the new chief deputy whip.

Posted by David Goldstein 

Burl Ives spotted in Indy

   Allen Garner may have a new nickname around Independence City Hall.

     It happened Monday night while Garner, Independence city counselor, led the Independence City Council through his interpretation of the Clean Indoor Air Act of 2006, which Independence voters approved in November and which prohibits smoking in most public places.

    Garner’s remarks included discussions of legal theory and occasional references in Latin. His expertise didn’t seem to satisfy council member Renee Paluka-White who, in reference to Garner, called him “Burl Ives.”

   After the meeting Paluka-White confirmed that the actor she had wanted to invoke was not Ives but Raymond Burr, television lawyer and hero of the old “Perry Mason” series.

   Garner shrugged off the reference after the meeting.

   “I usually had a problem with Perry Mason,” he said, referring to the TV lawyer’s sometime unlikely legal maneuvers that helped wrap up episodes in dramatic fashion.

Posted by Brian Burnes

Will she or won't she?

    KC Mayor Kay Barnes spurned congressional Democrats last year when they tried to persuade her to run against Republican U. S. Rep. Sam Graves. But they've started their courtship all over again.

    Barnes, in Washington for a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting, met today with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and others in all likelihood to talk about the race.

     All the mayor would say was, "I've been involved in some general discussions, but I don't have any comment beyond that. I met with some of them, yeah."

     Barnes didn't run last year because she wanted to complete her second term in City Hall without distractions. But she's popular and her Northland ties are strong. Will she go this time?

    "I certainly told her I thought she would be a great candidate," said Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, who also met with the mayor today. "She has not made up her mind to do this. I think she's certainly being encouraged by a lot of people."

Posted by David Goldstein  

Blunt calls for more scholarship money for needy college students

   Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt proposed tonight to more than double the state scholarship money going to needy college students, while Senate Democrats countered with a scholarship expansion financed with proceeds from Missouri's student loan agency. As part of his State of the State address tonight, Blunt recommended $72.5 million for needs-based scholarships during next school year -- up about $45 million from what was originally budgeted for the current school year.
    Here's the text of the speech.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Troubled water commission

    The Sierra Club continues to snap at Gov. Matt Blunt’s heels over what the “illegal composition” of Missouri's Clean Water Commission.
  The environmental organization has raised concerns that Blunt has appointed too many Republicans to the commission. Although the law says only three members of the same political party can be on the commission, Blunt has appointed four.
  Late Monday, Ken Midkiff of the Sierra Club announced in a press release  that his organization has filed a formal complaint with the attorney general’s office.
    It’s also rumored there is a bill floating around that would make it OK for the commission to have four Republicans. But even if the General Assembly passes the law, it won’t go into effect until much later this year.
   So what does the commission do in the meantime?

Posted by Karen Dillon

Rep. Beth Low: Missouri lawmakers aren't earning their money this month

      Missouri state Rep. Beth Low said Wednesday she will introduce a bill that would deny per diem payments to Missouri lawmakers on days when they make only procedural votes in their chambers.

   The Kansas City Democrat frankly said her proposal was in response to the inaction of the House since the session began Jan. 3 The House has not started moving on legislation because Republican leaders have not yet brought rules to the floor for approval, a necessary step before lawmakers can take up bills.

   Her bill would require a lawmaker to cast at least one vote every day to collect the $79.20 per diem, and that couldn't include simple quorum votes and votes to approve the House journal that occur each day. Low said that if her bill were law today, taxpayers would have already saved $103,277.

   “It is outrageous that the House hasn’t done an iota of meaningful work two weeks after convening,” Low said. “House leadership had ample time to get the rules ready for a vote on the first day of session so we could immediately begin the jobs voters sent us here to do. The way things are going right now, taxpayers clearly are getting ripped off."

Posted by Tim Hoover

Susan Phillips signs on with Graves

   U.S. Rep. Sam Graves has hired former GOP state representative Susan Phillips to be a staff liaison.

    Phillips, a Kansas City, North, Republican, recently stepped down as the 32nd District representative because of term limits. As a Graves’ liaison, she will work with him on policy issues concerning law enforcement, faith-based issues, women, children and charities.

   “I am excited to have a four-term state representative on my team,” Graves said in a press release. “Susan will be a valuable asset as she represents my office in the area she previously served as state representative.”

   Phillips was a leading social conservative in the House. She favored more restrictions on abortion and ending state subsidies for birth control pills.

Posted by Mike Rice

Claire and the Passions: So Tough

   Sen. Claire McCaskill told a morning audience on ABC that no one should doubt the toughness of the 16 women now sitting in the Senate.

   "This is a tough, tough group of women," she said.  "Don't cross these women."

   McCaskill appeared with 15 other women, all Senators, on Good Morning America (Nancy Kassebaum would be proud.)

    Go here to find the video of the interviews.  McCaskill's at the end.

    Go here to understand today's headline.

Posted by Dave Helling

Bond's cousin nominated to be U.S. attorney

   The long-rumored nomination of John Wood to become U.S. Attorney in Kansas City materialized Tuesday with a White House announcement that he is going to the Senate for confirmation.
   Until recently, Wood served as chief of staff to Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Predictions that President Bush would nominate Wood, a cousin of U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, began circulating in the legal and political communities last spring.
    He will replace Bradley J. Schlozman, who was appointed interim U.S. Attorney in March 2006 following the resignation of Todd Graves.
   Schlozman said he is looking forward to a smooth transition:   “I know John well and have worked very closely with him during my time at the Department of Justice. He is an incredibly bright, highly principled and genuinely likeable person for whom I have nothing but the greatest respect.”
    A magna cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School, Wood clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from 1997 to 1998. He then worked until 2001 as an associate in the law firm of Kirkland and Ellis.
   A Missouri Republican, Wood also served on the staff of former U.S. Sen. John C. Danforth.
   He worked in the Justice Department before moving to the White House, where he served as deputy general counsel for the Office of Management and Budget. Returning to Justice, he served as counselor to the attorney general, where he oversaw the department’s civil, civil rights, antitrust, tax and environmental divisions and civil terrorism litigation.
     Chertoff appointed Wood as his chief of staff in February 2005.
     He is married to Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She’s a native of Shawnee.

Posted by Mark Morris

When you need some friends...

  Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt will appear on Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" at 6:15 a.m. CST Tuesday. He'll be live from the State Emergency Management Agency office in Jefferson City. The guv's office says he'll discuss the rescue of two kidnapped boys near St. Louis and the return to their families, as well as the deadly winter storms that struck Missouri this weekend.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Colbert's Word? Worra, as in Missourah

  On "The Colbert Report" last night, Stephen Colbert did a hilarious take-out on Missouri: Mo. Better Blue? (This is a video link. You have to watch through a commercial and a short intro to the show before the segment starts.)

  Colbert, applying his best bombast, thinks the heart of the country has gone soft because we elected Claire McCaskill, passed the stem-cell initiative and raised the minimum wage. After all, how do we come off acting like a coastal elite?

   To fix his problem with the state, he proposes we switch places on the map with Texas.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Missouri librarians throw the book at KC Symphony

   Add another sour note to the chorus of groups berating the Kansas City Symphony for suing the State of Missouri over arts funding.

    This time, it's the librarians.

   In a letter, to Gov. Matt Blunt, Karen Horny, president of the Missouri Library Association, thanked him for his support for "all feasible funding in current budgetary circumstances."

   The librarian association "is seriously dismayed to learn that the Kansas City Symphony has sued the State of Missouri" over arts funding, Horny wrote. The aim of funding the arts with taxes on out-of-state athletes and entertainers was always understood as a "target" not a promise, she wrote in the letter.

   "We particularly regret the lawsuit because we have observed that appropriations to the Cultural Trust are on a good path to recovery after the catastrophic drop in state revenues in 2002," Horny's letter says. "The interests of our libraries and other cultural and arts organizations have been compromised by this surprise action by an entity that is not actually named as a recipient of the appropriations into the Cultural Trust accounts."

Posted by Tim Hoover

Skelton: "So many mistakes"

    Rep. Ike Skelton, the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, went to the White House today to get a briefing on the speech President Bush will give Wednesday night. The president is expected to say that he plans to send another 20,000 troops to Iraq.

    Here's what Skelton said afterward in an interview on CNN:

   "I have some serious concern about increasing the troop level in Iraq. The main reason is you're just continuing the dependence of the Iraqi government and Iraqi military on America.

   "Everybody saw (Dallas Cowboys quarterback) Tony Romo fumble the football the other day and you can't go back and redo that play. We've had a series of, frankly, strategic mistakes through the years that you can't undo. It's just a matter that we've made so many mistakes that it's put us in a bad position right now.

   "There is no certainty of success (with the additional troops). That, of course, is what concerns me. We had an increase in troops last summer. And we see very well that did no good. What's difference this time? There is a plan for Baghdad, which (Bush) spelled out. Would that make a difference? I seriously doubt it...

"I think it's a very serious situation. The best we can do is come of there with some sort of stable government. But I have concerns that they're so dependent on us that they can't glue it together they way they should.

  "Since 1995...I've been saying the U.S. Army is 40,000 people short...It's stretched thin. I think the Marine Corps is stretched thin...It's not just the troops that are being stretched, sent back for second, third, fourth time. It's their families that concerns me so much."

Posted by David Goldstein

Gladstone funerals off-limits to Phelps

    Fred Phelps and his legion of anti-gay funeral demonstrators will not be welcome in Gladstone.
   That’s because the City Council on Monday 1-8 passed an ordinance that bans picketing at funerals. The ordinance mirrors the restrictions that the Missouri Legislature passed last year.
   Under the Gladstone ordinance such protests must be concluded an hour before the service begins or started an hour after the funeral.
  City Attorney David Ramsay said no funeral protests have been held in Gladstone. But he said the protesters who have picketed military funerals are intent on showing up in as many communities as they can.
   “Enactment of this ordinance may discourage such activity in our city,” Ramsay wrote in a memo to the council, “or at least give our law enforcement officers the authority to protect mourners from the abusive actions of the few who would attempt to inflict additional grief on the grieving.”
   Councilman Les Smith, who voted in favor, said the ordinance was about respect. “It’s a shame that we have to legislate it,” he said in reference to the funeral demonstrators.
   Violators of the ordinance will be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to 90 days in jail or a fine of up to $500.
  Neither Ramsay nor the council members mentioned Phelps by name. But they acknowledged that their actions are aimed at him and his group.
    Phelps’ church, with assistance from the American Civil Liberties Union, has filed lawsuits, claiming that such restrictions are a violation of free speech.

Posted by Mike Rice

Rethinking the gerrymander

   Is it possible to take politics out of the redistricting process?

   Missouri House Democrats think so and introduced a plan Monday to do just that. Redistricting, which occurs every 10 years, is one of the most bitter partisan activities in Missouri politics.

  In 2001, the last year of redistricting, partisan redistricting commissions deadlocked and a panel of judges was appointed to approve new boundary lines. Redistricting occurs again in 2011.

   At a press conference of House Democrats, Rep. Rachel Storch of St. Louis, pointed to a map of her own legislative district to show the doglegs and awkward appendages that can result from redistricting.

   “Gerrymandering for partisan advantage has a long history in American politics, but it is a tradition Missouri can do without,” Storch said. “Fair and impartial redistricting is essential in a representative democracy.” 

   Storch is proposing a bill that would change Missouri’s system of redistricting to model it after Iowa, where bureaucrats, not partisan commissions, redraw legislative and congressional districts. The measure would put a constitutional amendment before voters asking them to approve an Iowa-style plan.

  Storch said the Iowa plan has resulted in regular competitive races instead of mostly safe districts for incumbents.

  Under the proposal, state demographers would draw House and Senate districts instead of commissions of appointed partisans. The demographers would use computer drafting programs and use mainly geographical criteria to draw boundary lines, trying not to split up cities and counties into different districts where possible.

   Those making the maps could not take into consideration incumbents’ addresses, political affiliations of registered voters, the results of previous elections any other demographic information except for that which is required by federal law. That category includes racial and ethic minority voting demographics.

  Paul Sloca, spokesman for the Missouri Republican Party, was unimpressed by the Democratic appeal for non-partisan redistricting.

   “It’s disingenuous for the Democrats to call for reform in redistricting simply because they had ample opportunity as the majority party in the late 1990s” to change the system, Sloca said.

   Would it hurt to look at the Iowa plan?

  “Any system of this complexity should be looked at and reviewed,” Sloca said, adding though that current system “has been successful for decades.”

Posted by Tim Hoover

Sierra Club officially complains about make-up of water board

     The commission responsible for ensuring safe drinking water in Missouri has too many Republican members and is in violation of state law, an environmental group says.
   The Sierra Club has filed a complaint with Gov. Matt Blunt, asking that he remedy the problem, according to a press release embargoed until today.
    The governor, who is a Republican, is responsible for appointing the seven commissioners.
    If he refuses to take action, the Sierra Club will ask the state’s attorney general to step in and “declare all actions of the Clean Water Commission to be null and void,” said Ken Midkiff, a Sierra Club member.
    The Sierra Club hopes “that the governor will take prompt and decisive action to rectify the statutory imbalance of the membership,” Midkiff said in the press release.
   The commission is scheduled to meet Tuesday and Wednesday.
   Jessica Robinson, the governor’s spokeswoman, told The Star two weeks ago that the governor believes the law regarding the composition of the commission is vague even though it says, “No more than three of the members shall belong to the same political party.”
   The law is vague because it does not specify a party affiliation for the seventh commissioner, and Blunt has no plans to change the composition of the commission, she said.
    But Midkiff said the seventh member should be a representative from one of the many other political parties in the state.
    “It is disingenuous of the Governor’s Office to state that a “vagueness” exists,” Midkiff said. “The facts are that there are independents and many political parties in this state, and many deserving persons who are neither Democrats nor Republicans.”
    Blunt appointed the fourth Republican, Jan Tupper, to the commission in August. Tupper told The Star he had no plans to resign, and would be attending the commission meetings this week.

Posted by Karen Dillon

Don't count your Amendment 7 chickens yet, guys

   A pay raise for lawmakers, statewide elected officials and judges may be getting less likely.

  House Speaker Rod Jetton, a Marble Hill Republican, says he will allow lawmakers to vote on whether to reject pay raises recommended by a citizen commission in November.

   “We will definitely have that up, and there will be a debate and I would likely say a vote,” Jetton said at a news conference. “The citizens of Missouri

will know where the representatives stand on that issue.”
  Jetton also said he could not support the proposed pay hikes.

   “I feel like it’s a little too high,” he said.

    The commission recommended the pay raises as a result of Amendment 7, which 84 percent of voters approved. Under Amendment 7, any pay raises the salary commission recommends automatically go into effect unless lawmakers reject them by a two-thirds majority. In the past, lawmakers could reject the pay raises by a simple majority or simply choose not to fund the raises.

   The commission recommended pay raises starting in July 2007 ranging from 5 percent for Missouri Supreme Court judges to 7.4 percent for associate circuit judges. Meanwhile, most statewide elected officials would get pay raises of about 5 percent.

   Lawmakers, though, would see an 8 percent pay raise in 2009.

   Rep. J.C. Kuessner, an Eminence Democrat, has filed a resolution that would reject the salary hikes recommended in November, and there are similar resolutions pending in the Senate.

   “I am encouraged by Speaker Jetton’s public pledge that legislation to stop this pay hike will be debated and voted upon and not be allowed to quietly die in committee,” Kuessner said in a statement.

Posted by Tim Hoover

MO campaign lawsuit on tap

   Today in Cole County, Circuit Judge Richard Callahan will hold a hearing on a lawsuit aimed at tossing out Missouri's new law that eliminates campaign donation limits.

   The suit was filed Tuesday by Jim Trout, a Democrat from Webster Groves who lost a race for state rep in November.

   Last year, the General Assembly and Gov. Matt Blunt approved the new law, which went into effect this week. The law wipes out limits voters approved in 1994.

   Those limits were among the strictest -- read: lowest -- in the nation.

   Trout's effort is backed by a group called the Missouri Election Reform Project.

   "When Missourians overwhelmingly supported campaign contribution limits in 1994, voters would never have guessed their will would be so blatantly ignored and that their government would be for sale to the highest bidder," said the project's Shonagh Clements.

   If the lawsuit fails, the group has indicated it may mount an initiative petition drive next year that would ask voters to reinstate the limits.

Posted by Steve Kraske

Montee gets the job four days early

   Missouri Auditor-elect Susan Montee will take over as auditor on Thursday when Gov. Matt Blunt appoints her to fill the final days of outgoing Auditor Claire McCaskill's term.

   Montee, a Democrat elected by nearly 10 percentage points in November, was due to take office on Monday, Jan. 8. But Blunt's office announced that he would be appointing Montee on Thursday to replace McCaskill, who is resigning early so she can be sworn in as Missouri's junior U.S. senator.

   McCaskill will take the Senate's oath of office shortly after Congress convenes about noon in Washington. To make sure the auditor's office is not left leaderless over the weekend, Blunt will appoint Montee to the post, effective Thursday at 11 a.m. Central Standard Time.

   “I have asked Susan Montee to begin her service to the state a little early,” Blunt said in a statement. “I look forward to working with Susan to improve the efficiency of state government.” 

   Montee, the Buchanan County auditor, was elected with 53 percent of the vote over three contenders. Republican candidate Sandra Thomas, the Platte County auditor, was second with 43 percent.

   “I'm anxious to get started,” Montee said in the statement issued by Blunt's office. “Missourians expect a high level of service from their state auditor and the head start will help us continue the tradition.”

   McCaskill, a Democrat who narrowly lost a bid for governor in 2004, won political redemption last year by defeating incumbent Republican Sen. Jim Talent by 48,314 votes out of more than 2 million cast.

Posted by Kit Wagar

KC's Erdman named to Missouri Board of Curators

   Warren Erdman, a prominent Kansas City businessman and former aid to Republican Sen. Kit Bond, was appointed Friday to the University of Missouri Board of Curators. Erdman, 48, is senior vice president of corporate affairs for the railway firm Kansas City Southern. He previously served as Bond's chief of staff and more recently served as co-chairman of Gov. Matt Blunt's Missouri State Government Review Commission that recommended ways to make state government more efficient.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

What does Matt Blunt have against psychiatry?

   Fired Up! Missouri notes that the Matt Blunt administration has booked a Church of Scientology traveling museum into the Capitol Jan. 18 and 19.  The museum, called "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death", will set up shop next to the venerable Missouri State Museum on the Capitol's first floor.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Top homeland security official from Missouri quits

   Philip Dine of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Tracy Henke, the Missourian who stirred controversy in a top homeland security job, has left the government to join her former boss, John Ashcroft, at The Ashcroft Group. When President Bush appointed Henke to coordinate U.S. national-disaster and anti-terrorist efforts with state and local officials, lawmakers of both parties questioned her experience, as well as Bush's bypassing of the Senate confirmation process.
    But that criticism was nothing compared to the uproar when Henke, from Moscow Mills, Mo., decreased homeland security grants for New York and Washington, while increasing them for some smaller cities and towns.
   "SHE GAVE US THE AX: New York's money cut by a woman from the sticks," complained a headline in the New York Daily News.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Missouri state senator to step down

   Missouri GOP state Sen. Chuck Gross of St. Charles will quit his legislative post at the end of the upcoming session in May to become director of administration for St. Charles County. Gross will leave with a year and a half left in his term, according to STLToday.com, the Web site for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Bond on the bubble to head MU?

  This from Wonkette:  According to a Wonkette operative who heard this from two different sources, Republican Senator Kit Bond is going to bail on the Hill and become Chief Lord of the University of Missouri. In a dastardly move that won’t change the Balance of Power (unless it also involves somebody sneaking into Tim Johnson’s hospital room), Republican and Missourah Guv Matt Blunt will do a Dick Cheney and appoint himself to the Senate seat.

UPDATE: Roy Temple of FiredUpMissouri.com called to gently chide KC Buzz Blog that his Web site had the Bond rumor two weeks ago. Here's the link.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Interested in 'terror-free' investing?

    Missouri Treasurer Sarah Steelman is scheduled to appear on Fox News Channel's "Your World with Neil Cavuto" today at 3 p.m. CST for a live interview regarding terror-free investing.

UPDATE: Steelman's office provides a video link to her appearance.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

And the fee office contract goes to...

    The state Revenue Department has awarded its first competitively bid contract to run a vehicle and driver's license office to a longtime manager of the office. The contract for the west St. Louis County office in Ballwin was awarded to Ryker Enterprises, which is run by Danah Lewis. Lewis has managed that office for nine years under both Democratic and Republican gubernatorial appointees, the department said.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

MOHELA board admits Sunshine Law violations

   AP reports that the state's student loan agency acknowledged today it violated Missouri's open meetings law while scrambling to come up with an alternative to Gov. Matt Blunt's proposal to sell that agency's assets.
   In a settlement to a Sunshine Law lawsuit brought by Attorney General Jay Nixon, the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority and its former board members agreed that "various procedures and communications" last January had broken the law. But they denied those violations were committed "knowingly, purposefully and/or willfully."
   The agreement filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court requires MOHELA and each of its board members at the time to pay $1,000 to the state.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Carnahan on why she's not running: I'm getting married

  The Star's vacationing Steve Kraske caught up with Secretary of State Robin Carnahan to talk about her decision today not to run for Missouri governor.
   She told Kraske of her personal reasons for not running, including plans to get married for the first time. Carnahan said her boyfriend of four years, Juan Carlos-Antolinez of St. Louis, proposed to her on Christmas.  The couple has not set a wedding date.
    Another recent development: Carnahan’s doctors have declared her cancer-free. She was diagnosed with breast cancer early this year.  “I feel great,” Carnahan said. “It’s been a hectic year.”
   She added that she wanted to focus on being secretary of state. “I didn’t want to jump in and get in another race.”
   Carnahan said she seriously considered a campaign for governor. “I think we’ll all be better off being unified,” she said. “I’ve already talked to Jay, and we’ll be doing what I can to help him.”
   She said she was “impatient” about “wrong way” the state was headed.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

This Robin won't fly

   Secretary of State Robin Carnahan said Wednesday that she will not run for governor in 2008, squelching speculation of a Democratic primary showdown against Attorney General Jay Nixon. The AP's David Lieb files an exclusive.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Here comes the judge...

    A book by a veteran St. Louis judge, due out this week, is causing a stir in political and legal circles for its sentiments on "femifascists" and "illiberal liberals." And some say it could cost him his job. The liberal-bashing book by St. Louis Circuit Judge Robert H. Dierker Jr. may become available publicly this week, but the official rollout is scheduled for next Tuesday on conservative TV host Bill O'Reilly's show. The first chapter of "The Tyranny of Tolerance: A Sitting Judge Breaks the Code of Silence to Expose the Liberal Judicial Assault," has circulated for weeks via e-mail and been widely read in legal circles, lawyers and judges told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

I-70 & I-44 lauded as better than goat paths

   Interstate 70 from Kansas City to St. Louis is officially no longer a goat path, according to a survey of the nation's highways by Overdrive magazine.

   The December issue of Overdrive, a trade journal for the trucking industry, named the Missouri portion of I-70 as the fourth-most improved roadway in the United States. Interstate 44, which connects St. Louis with Springfield and Joplin, tied with Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania as the second-most improved.

   The often-ridiculed Missouri Transportation Department is crowing about the survey. MoDOT director Pete Rahn credited the results to the department's Smooth Roads initiative, a two-year program to upgrade the most-heavily traveled 2,200 miles of Missouri highways.

   The program, completed last month, upgraded those roads to good condition. Two years before, three-quarters of the roads were rated in fair or poor condition.

   “No one knows road conditions better than truckers, so I’m very pleased they’ve found Missouri’s interstates among the most improved,” Rahn said in a statement.

   The magazine's survey was based on the responses of more than 400 truckers operating in all 48 contiguous states. Nearly 70 percent of the respondents claimed 21 or more years of experience.

   Missouri's only other mention in the article was a 5th place finish in the best truck stops category. Curiously, the survey found that Texas had both the best rest stops and worst rest stops in the nation.

   The survey found that nation's best roadway was Interstate 40 in Tennessee. Here are worst five:

I-10 Louisiana
I-80 Pennsylvania
I-40 Arkansas
I-5 California
I-40 Oklahoma

   To read the entire article, click here.

Posted by Kit Wagar

AP: Settlement offered in Taum Sauk reservoir collapse

   The Missouri Department of Natural Resources' settlement offer to Ameren Corp. calls for the utility to pay more than $125 million for damages and fines stemming from the Taum Sauk reservoir collapse, according to a copy of the proposal obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. The revelation is another wrinkle in the dispute between the department and AG Jay Nixon over who should have legal authority in the case.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Citizens commission: Raises for all!

    Tim Hoover files: Judges, statewide elected officials and lawmakers would get raises under a plan approved by a citizen panel today that legislators still could reject.

    The recommendation from the Citizens’ Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials calls for judges and statewide elected officials to get the same raise that most state employees have gotten since 2000 -- a flat $1,200 increase and then a 4 percent hike on top of that. Associate circuit judges, though, would get $3,200 and then a 4 percent salary increase.

  Under the new plan, for example, Missouri Supreme Court judges’ pay would increase from $123,000 a year to $129,168, and the governor’s pay would go from $120,087 a year to $126,138.

  More here.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Abortion rights group to Ed Emery: Women are not "brood mares" for employers

   Add another log to the conflagration over a House report that linked illegal immigration to abortion and welfare.
   This time, it's NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri that has stepped into the fray. In a statement, the group calls comments from Rep. Ed Emery, the Lamar Republican who heads the House Special Committee on Immigration Reform, "gratuitous, inacccurate and odious opinions about a variety of subjects having no relationship to illegal aliens."
   In the panel's report, Emery wrote that abortions since 1973 have eliminated as many as 80,000 potential employees from the workforce and that a "welfare culture" has resulted in too many Missourians without a work ethic. The six Democrats on the panel refused to sign the report, calling the conclusions absurd.
   Emery has complained that media coverage has focused too intently on his comments on abortion and welfare and not enough on other recommendations like denying illegal immigrants admittance to state colleges or imposing tougher sanctions on illegal hiring. Democrats on the panel complained the report barely touched on cracking down on employers. They also complained that Emery was "editorializing" in sections on the history and law of immigration and on the importance of English.
   The NARAL statement called the report "a tissue of illogic knitted together only by the thread of reactionary prejudice.
   "We leave it to other groups to address whether it is appropriate for a legislative body in our pluralistic society to engage in the wholesale defamation of all Muslim cultures, to display the shrill religious intolerance incumbent in the report’s 'Christian nation' rhetoric, to disparage poor people as invariably lazy, and to proudly wave the banner of general xenophobia buttressed by amateurish eugenics theories reminiscent of early 1900s anthropology texts," the group said.
   What the abortion rights group said it could not let slide, though, was Emery's comments on social programs and abortion.
   "Apparently, the Special Committee has concluded that poor people on public assistance who were not aborted (possibly because there is no federal or state funding for poor women’s abortions) are too lazy to work," the statement said. "Presumably, the aborted fetuses would all have been industrious engines of commerce. 
  "We call on Speaker Jetton and Chairman Ed Emery to retract the committee report that has made the 'Show Me State' the 'What’s That? State' to the rest of the thinking world, and to apologize to the women of Missouri for demeaning them as brood mares for the state."

Posted by Tim Hoover

Nixon: Don't call us...

     Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon in a Kansas City press conference Wednesday urged the state’s General Assembly to pass legislation to protect residents from automated political calls by including them on the state’s no-call list. Currently they are not covered by the no-call list.
    Most so-called robo calls are recorded messages dispatched in the thousands by automated dialing machines. Some consumers reported receiving five to eight per night. Nixon said his office received more than 600 complaints about automated political calls in the weeks before the election.
   “Missourians are frustrated that they can’t stop these calls by being on the no-call list,” said Nixon, who was accompanied by several state legislators, including state Rep. Ed Wildberger of St. Joseph, who previously sponsored legislation that would deal with political calls.
   Here's Paul Wenske's complete story. 

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Dems gain Moleg seats

  (Attn: Old Drum.) 

   Republicans lost seats in the Missouri House and Senate in Tuesday’s elections but retained comfortable majorities in both chambers.  Democrats gained five seats in the House and two in the Senate.

   Republicans will have a 92-71 edge in the House, compared to 95-66 currently. Two seats are vacant. The GOP will control the state Senate 21-13, down from the current 23-11.

    "We feel really good about yesterday’s results,” said State Rep. Jeff Harris, a Columbia Democrat and House minority leader. Democrats gained House seats for the first time since 1986, he said.

    Republican Party spokesman Paul Sloca downplayed the losses: “The bottom line is these losses are small. It’s very clear Missourians in general supported what Republicans are doing within the state.”

Posted by Kevin Murphy

Minimum wage backers hopeful

     Supporters of the minimum wage ballot initiative said reports of high turnouts in Kansas City and St. Louis were good news for them. That's where they've focused their effort to raise the basic hourly wage in Missouri by $1.35.

    "That would be the clearest indication" of whether their campaign has been successful, said Sara Howard, spokeswoman for the "Give Missourians a Raise" coalition.

    Howard said the minimum wage campaign has 700 people on the ground to call voters and knock on their doors to see if they've voted, and if they haven't gone yet, then stop back and ask again later. Even two or three times?

     "If need be," Howard said.

Posted by David Goldstein     

Again, photo ID not needed in Missouri

     Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan raised concerns about potential voter confusion in Tuesday's elections, citing her own experience casting an absentee ballot as an indication that some poll workers may wrongly be asking voters for a photo identification. Carnahan told The Associated Press on Monday that a worker at the St. Louis Election Board asked her three times to show a photo identification when she voted absentee last Friday - despite a Missouri Supreme Court ruling striking down the photo requirement.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Missouri's Amendment 7: Hogwash?

    An organization best-known for challenging industrial hog farms said Friday that Amendment 7 on Tuesday’s ballot in Missouri doesn’t pass the smell test.

    The Missouri Rural Crisis Center, based in Columbia, issued a statement Friday calling Amendment 7 “a blatant attempt to mislead voters.” The amendment would deny pensions to judges, lawmakers and statewide elected officials who commit felonies, but it also make it easier for them to get pay raises.

   Rhonda Perry, program director for the group, said the amendment’s ballot title does not make clear that the measure would make it easier for lawmakers and state politicians to get pay raises. She called the language, which lawmakers wrote themselves instead of following the normal practice of letting the secretary of state write it, “despicable.”

    “I can’t imagine anything more low than holding a vote in the state of Missouri in which thousands of voters think they’re voting on one thing when in fact they’re voting on something altogether different,” Perry said.

    Other critics, like Sen. Victor Callahan, an Independence Democrat, and Rep. Brad Lager, a Maryville Republican, also have called the measure deceptive.

    Under current law, a commission recommends salaries for judges, lawmakers and statewide elected officials. However, lawmakers have had the power to reject the raises and have done so in recent years.

    The amendment would make it harder for lawmakers to reject their own raises, requiring that they muster a two-thirds vote to shoot down the salary hikes.

    And though the amendment would deny pensions to judges and elected officials who commit felonies, there already are provisions in state law that do this for any felony committed by a judge and for any felony connected to a lawmaker’s official duties. The amendment merely would add language that denies pensions to lawmakers and elected officials removed from office or for felonies not connected to their official duties.

    Perry’s group, which is distinguished mainly for its fight against large-scale hog- and chicken-farming operations in rural areas, is the first group to take a stance against Amendment 7.

    She said several rural members had started reading about the amendment and became outraged.

   “We were really appalled when we found out about it,” Perry said.

Posted by Tim Hoover

The Rev keeps promise to Chris Moreno

   Congressman Emanuel Cleaver is headlining a fund-raiser for up-and-coming politico Chris Moreno. As reported previously on KC Buzz Blog, Cleaver's folks had promised that Cleaver would campaign for Moreno, who is running for the 48th District Missouri House seat.

  Obviously, the Democrats are smelling blood in Moreno's bid against Republican Rep. Will Kraus. That's because virtually every major Democratic politico is locking hands in this event, including seven state lawmakers, four county lawmakers and several Democrats unopposed on the November ballot. The Hispanic political leadership is also stepping up for Moreno.

  And making another Kansas City appearance will be Attorney General Jay Nixon, who along with Jackson County Prosecutor Mike Sanders is joining Cleaver in hosting the event at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at a Lee's Summit banquet hall.Tickets start at $25 and go up to $325.

Posted by DeAnn Smith

Mo Supreme Court says tobacco tax can be on ballot

    Missouri voters can consider a proposal to raise the state's tobacco tax on Nov. 7, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

    The court unanimously held that proponents of the increase collected enough valid signatures from voters to secure a ballot spot for proposed Amendment 3 to the Missouri Constitution.

    The opposition group Missourians Against Tax Abuse sought to whittle down the valid signatures, citing problems such as thousands of signers who listed a different address on the petition than was shown in the voter registration files, some who did not designate their congressional district, and some signature pages that were not properly notarized.

   Here's the rest of the AP story. And a link to the court's decision.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Prosecutor drops probe of Missouri motor vehicle offices

   The federal prosecutor investigating the way Gov. Matt Blunt's administration awarded contracts to operate Missouri's motor vehicle offices has dropped the investigation without seeking indictments.

   Bud Cummins, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced his decision today in an e-mail message to reporters. After a nine-month investigation, the office concluded that charges were not warranted. Cummins went out of his way to exonerate Blunt.

   "The matter has been closed with no indictments sought or returned," Cummins' statement said. "Second, at no time was Governor Blunt a target, subject, or witness in the investigation, nor was he implicated in any allegation being investigated. Any allegations or inferences to the contrary are uninformed and erroneous."

   The investigation was referred to the Arkansas office last January after the U.S. attorney's office in St. Louis stepped aside. That office is headed by U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway, a former speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives.

   In Kansas City, federal authorities had a conflict of interest. The wife of then-U.S. Attorney Todd Graves had been awarded a contract to run one of the motor vehicle offices.

   The offices, which often generate six-figure incomes for the operators, are typically given to political cronies of the governor. But Blunt went further, closing Missouri's 11 state-run offices and handing those operations over to political supporters. In addition, many of those operators contracted with management companies linked to Republican Party operatives.

   Cummins said his office usually does not comment on investigations, but he was making an exception this time because the investigation had been reported by the media. The investigation was disclosed in The Kansas City Star last April. But authorities had refused to confirm its existence until today.

   Cummins acknowledged that he was taking an extraordinary step.

   "Normally, a United States Attorney's Office does not comment on or even confirm the existence of any investigation unless or until formal charges result," Cummins' statement said. "Inquiries into the dealings of public officials are not uncommon, but those inquiries are generally and necessarily conducted in complete secrecy. This is, in part, to protect both the integrity of the government’s investigation and the presumed innocence and reputation of any party touched by it.

   "There are, however, exceptional circumstances where it becomes appropriate to disclose certain information," Cummins stated. "Department of Justice policy provides for the limited release of information in matters that have already received substantial publicity. Department policy also provides for the possibility of notification to individuals once a matter has closed.

   "Earlier in the year, the existence of the investigation was disclosed to the media and has since become a topic of substantial public interest and discourse in the State of Missouri. In light of that unfortunate disclosure and the publicity it spawned, it is appropriate to confirm certain facts."

Posted by Kit Wagar

Cozying up with Fox

   Talk about odd pairings.

   Republican Gov. Matt Blunt and Democratic Mayor Francis Slay of St. Louis are scheduled to appear on Fox News Channel's show, "The Big Story with John Gibson" between 4:30 and 5 p.m. today. Gibson is broadcasting from Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis.

   No word on what they'll be talking about. But both pols appear to be doing their best to suck up to the conservative network.

    The gov's office says in a news release that Slay and Blunt will issue proclamations declaring Tuesday, Oct., 3, 2006, as “Fox News Channel Day” in St. Louis and in Missouri, respectively, to commemorate the cable news network's 10-year anniversary. 

Posted by Kit Wagar

McInerney says nope to prosecutor gig and other Torch tidbits

   Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat McInerney was the early front-runner to be the next Jackson County prosecutor to replace Mike Sanders, who is expected beat in November less-financed foes. McInerney had the backing of important folks on the courthouse's second floor and even had the endorsement of at least one district court judge. He had the necessary telegenic presence, the experience and the Democratic connections. The Buzz was that Chief Deputy Jim Kanatzar would get the consolation gig of county counselor, where he could ably continue keeping Sanders out of hot water. Now, Kanatzar is the No. 1 possibility with a bullet.

   Torch Dinner hostest-with-the-mostest Beth Gottstein saw fit to place KC Buzz Blog next to McInerney. And the obvious question had to be asked. And the Blackwell Sanders partner forthrightly admitted without any Hillary Clinton puss-footing around that he was content at his current gig (read: ka-ching!) and has no interesting in moving his shingle to the courthouse again. So McInerney is out as a prosecutor candidate, but like most everyone else he wonders who will wind up on the blue-ribbon selection committee.

  Buzz Blog even moseyed over to the Sanders table to try and get a scoop from Women's Caucus VP Georgia Sanders while her hubby was off kibitzing with KC Councilman Terry Riley and others. She swore no decision on the prosector has been made (Mike would die if he knew what she did confide!).

  But other decisions were made last night before, after and during the Westin gathering. Expect to see Congressman Emanuel Cleaver politicking on behalf of Missouri House candidate Chris Moreno in his race against Republican incumbent Will Kraus.

   Cleaver got stuck in DC but sent his ever gracious and lovely wife Dianne to speak in person on his behalf. (He also sent taped comments that talked about the influence in his life of strong women and a precocious granddaughter as well as funny comments about how mean his three sisters were to him as a child.)

   Missouri Auditor Claire McCaskill got the first standing ovation last night. A late-arriving from Wichita Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius also was well received, particularly when she offered up as an unexpected auction item dinner for six with her and the First Dude at the Governor's Mansion. Speaking of auction items, this is what happens when former Jackson County employee/former KC school board member Sandy Mayer allows hubby Bob to go to the Torch Dinner by himself. He successfully bid $1,000 for lunch with Her Honor, Mayor Kay Barnes.

   Barnes was wearing a lovely cream and apricot jacket (sans flower! and she wasn't one of the many people wearing stickers promoting the stem-cell initiative). The outgoing mayor (in perhaps her swan song?) spoke about past leaders, future leaders and being assured that the future is in good hands. Which all in all could have been the theme of a night where progressives partied like it was 1999 and certainly hope it will be again come the morning of Nov. 8.

Posted by DeAnn Smith   

Forecast: Sunny

A study issued Thursday by the sponsors of Amendment 2, the stem cell research protection measure, predicted that passage of the measure would be an economic boon to Missouri.

The study was done by Brian Long, a public policy consultant and a former state budget director, and Joseph Haslag, a University of Missouri economist with a long list of credits, including articles published by the Federal Reserve banks of St. Louis, Kansas City and Dallas.

The analysis cost the amendment's sponsors at least $50,000. Reports filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission show that Long and Haslag were each paid $25,000 on May 25.

Sixteen weeks later, out pops a "what if" study assuming voters let scientists conduct all such research allowed by federal law. It looked at theoretical cures for Parkinson’s disease, strokes, heart attacks, spinal cord injury and juvenile diabetes. If a treatment becomes available 15 years from now and reduces the total costs for those five afflictions by even 1 percent, Missourians’ health-care costs would be reduced by more than $150 million over the following 10 years, the study said. If treatments become available in 10 years and reduce costs by 10 percent, Missourians would save more than $2.4 billion in the following 15 years.

Posted by Kit Wagar