TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalFormer Missouri lawmaker gets 21 months in prison for misusing campaign funds
ST. LOUIS — Former state Rep. Courtney Curtis was sentenced Wednesday to 21 months in prison for misusing campaign funds for personal expenses and also was ordered to repay $47,867.
Curtis, 39, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in November to three counts of wire fraud and admitted defrauding campaign donors by using approximately $47,000 for personal expenses in 2016 and 2017. He then filed false campaign finance reports to cover up his crimes.
Federal sentencing guidelines recommended 15 to 21 months in prison, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith asked for a sentence in that range.
Curtis’ lawyer, John Stobbs, asked for six months of house arrest and probation, saying Curtis was well-respected in the community and worked hard in the Legislature, but was not adept at managing campaign money.
Read more: https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/former-missouri-lawmaker-gets-21-months-in-prison-for-misusing-campaign-funds/article_2406dca3-3de4-51e3-92a6-a36dadfa9960.html
Missouri House formally condemns Dred Scott decision
JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri House voted Wednesday to officially denounce the Missouri Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision.
In a resolution adopted on a 152-0 vote, the chamber followed the lead of a similar Senate action, formally condemning the high court’s 1852 decision denying Scott and his wife’s suits for freedom.
The Scotts sued for their family’s freedom in 1840, given that the family had been enslaved for several years in states that had abolished slavery before returning to Missouri.
A circuit court ruled in the Scotts’ favor, but the state’s Supreme Court overturned the decision, writing that slave states had no obligation to acknowledge the laws of free states.
Read more: https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/missouri-house-formally-condemns-dred-scott-decision/article_85aa25d5-621c-5f16-8376-ccf6dd8694a2.html
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Lawmakers call for local utility relief fund in wake of cold snap
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A bipartisan group of legislators is calling on Gov. Mike Parson to establish an emergency relief fund for local utilities in the wake of February’s cold snap.
Rep. Jeff Porter, who penned a letter to the governor that garnered the signatures of most of the Missouri House and seven senators, said the legislature hoped to secure help for constituents as they reckoned with the fallout of the extreme weather event and the resulting rise in natural gas and electricity prices. The letter requested a $50 million loan fund allowing citizen-led utilities impacted by the storm to borrow for up to five years without interest.
According to Porter, surrounding states have already begun implementing similar programs.
“The cold snap in February was bad for a lot of people,” Porter said. “There was a lot of price gouging or market manipulation going on at a very critical time, taking advantage of a situation and a captive audience. … It was time for me to step up to the plate, and I got 113 signatures in the House hoping we could do something for our constituents.”
Read more: https://themissouritimes.com/lawmakers-call-for-local-utility-relief-fund-in-wake-of-cold-snap/
How white politicians use dog whistles to divide us -- and what white folks can do about it
St. Louis has earned a progressive moniker over time: We have Democratic-majority governing bodies, high-profile progressive leaders, and innovative, progressive initiatives. However, St. Louis has long been — and continues to be — one of the most segregated cities in the country. This deep divide is visible in our neighborhoods, schools, and elections.
The weekend before the recent St. Louis primary election, I went door-to-door with my team at NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, talking to voters across the city about the upcoming election. During one of my conversations, I asked a middle-aged white woman in South St. Louis if we could count on her support for Tishaura Jones for mayor. She told me that, actually, she liked Treasurer Jones the least of the three candidates. When I asked why Jones was her last choice, she answered: “Because I think she has wild hair, and I don’t like to look at it.”
This comment stunned me, not just because it’s preposterous to choose your mayoral candidate based on their appearance (for years, research has shown women candidates are judged more for their appearance) but because of her comfort in sharing with me, a stranger, a judgment so clearly rooted in racism. There is no question that comments about a Black woman’s hair have nothing to do with her hair.
But this isn’t about one comment. This comment is a manifestation of the racist rhetoric perpetuated throughout the election by white candidates and local media. It’s indicative of what we as white progressives have encouraged and allowed.
Read more: https://themissouritimes.com/how-white-politicians-use-dog-whistles-to-divide-us-and-what-white-folks-can-do-about-it/
Missouri lawmakers move to ban vaccine passports -- but what are they?
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri lawmakers took the first step to ban so-called vaccine passports for travel this week.
An amendment attached to a transportation bill from Sen. Lincoln Hough prohibits Missouri organizations from requiring COVID-19 vaccine documentation in order to access transportation systems, such as on airplanes, buses, cabs, or trains. The amendment was adopted along party lines, and the bill was later perfected and sits on the calendar for third reading.
Members of the Senate Conservative Caucus celebrated the inclusion of the amendment on the bill.
“[T]here are few more un-American ideas than denying the free movement, assembly, and speech of American citizens based on their status in one class or another (in this case, vaccinated or not vaccinated). The continued politicization of the COVID environment has led to a rise in folks (mainly government) finding new ways to infringe upon your rights,” Sen. Bill Eigel, who offered the amendment, said on social media. “The ‘vaccination passport’ is just the latest in the line of bad ideas!”
Read more: https://themissouritimes.com/missouri-lawmakers-move-to-ban-vaccine-passports-but-what-are-they/
She Pleaded Guilty in St. Louis' Wildest Heist. Now She's in Trouble in Texas
One of the central figures behind a notorious $6.6 million St. Louis heist is in trouble again. This time, however, the criminal charges against Latunya Wright don't involve hiding bundles of cash stolen in a carefully planned caper, but allegations she flipped out on a disgruntled customer at the tax preparation business she opened in Houston.
In 2012, Wright was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison on a charge of conspiracy and transporting stolen property from an August 2, 2010, robbery. That day, four gunmen emptied the vault of the Grand Center headquarters of ATM Solutions, stole an armored van and escaped with millions.
According to the FBI, the four robbers had driven the loot directly to Wright's home, and she later helped stash the cash in her attic and moved millions more to a storage locker in north St. Louis County. (Ultimately, only half of the stolen cash was recovered, and much of it appears to have been re-stolen by other parties connected to the original bandits.)
After her stint in federal prison, Wright had seemingly left her St. Louis history in the past. She moved to Texas, where she founded MZBIZ Tax Services. It was in her business on March 25 where she allegedly struck a woman in the head with a gun.
Read more: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2021/03/31/she-pleaded-guilty-in-st-louis-wildest-heist-now-shes-in-trouble-in-texas
Dallas Woman Sentenced for Fatal Butt Injection That Killed St. Louis Woman
A Dallas woman who acted as an off-the-books plastic surgeon has been sentenced to five years in prison for performing a fatal butt augmentation on a Florissant woman.
In 2015, 49-year-old Nitica Lee injected Daysha Phillips, 22, with silicon during an illicit procedure in a room at a Drury Inn near St. Louis Lambert International Airport. Phillips suffered a silicone pulmonary embolism, dying four days later on July 30, 2015.
Charges of first-degree involuntary manslaughter were issued in St. Louis County against Lee in November 2015, but authorities say she was on the run for years, sometimes in Mexico. Dallas police finally took her into custody last July, almost exactly five years after the deadly injection.
St. Louis County prosecutors negotiated an agreement that potentially shaved two years off the seven-year maximum in exchange for her guilty plea.
Read more: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2021/04/02/dallas-woman-sentenced-for-fatal-butt-injection-that-killed-st-louis-woman
Senate filibuster stalls Graves nomination to University of Missouri curators
The Missouri Senate spent about three hours Thursday debating the controversial nomination of former state Republican Chairman Todd Graves to a seat on the University of Missouri Board of Curators without getting the appointment to a vote.
Listeners who stayed with the entire debate heard a history of the university and each campus, discussions of what is lacking in the current board and that the current administration of President Mun Choi has the respect and affection of lawmakers from both parties.
Senators also discussed the Katy Trail, political party platforms and the cost of health care.
Those classic elements of a filibuster, combined with an urgency to get home for the Easter weekend, led Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, to end the debate about 2:30 p.m.
Read more: https://missouriindependent.com/2021/04/01/senate-filibuster-stalls-graves-nomination-to-university-of-missouri-curators/
Missouri House plan to reject Medicaid expansion faces uncertain fate in the Senate
Republicans in the Missouri House finalized their plan to block funding for voter-approved Medicaid expansion on Thursday, giving final approval to its version of the state’s budget and sending it to the Senate.
What happens next remains unclear.
House Democratic Leader Crystal Quade said she’s confident the Senate will restore the $1.9 billion in Medicaid funding that Missouri Gov. Mike Parson included in his proposed budget.
And indeed, Sen. Lincoln Hough, a Springfield Republican and vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told the Springfield News-Leader on Wednesday that the Legislature has no other choice but to fund expansion.
“It’s in the state constitution,” he said, “the voters approved it and we’re going to find a way to fund it.”
Read more: https://missouriindependent.com/2021/04/01/missouri-house-plan-to-reject-medicaid-expansion-faces-uncertain-fate-in-the-senate/
7 Texas Officers Fired Following Death of Black Jail Inmate
MCKINNEY, TEXAS (AP) — Seven officers involved in the in-custody death of a Black jail inmate in Texas whose family members say may have been suffering a mental health crisis have been fired, a sheriff said.
The detention officers violated sheriff's office policies and procedures leading up to the death of Marvin Scott III, Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner said in a news release Thursday. An eighth officer resigned.
Scott, 26, was arrested March 14 at an outlet mall in Allen on a marijuana possession charge, authorities have said. Allen officers took Scott to a hospital because he was reportedly acting erratically. Scott was released and police took him to the county jail.
While at the jail, Scott began to exhibit “some strange behavior,” Skinner said at a March 19 news conference. Detention officers placed Scott on a restraint bed, used pepper spray and covered his face with a spit mask. Scott became unresponsive at some point and later was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2021-04-02/7-texas-officers-fired-in-jail-inmate-death-investigation
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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Current location: Bryan, Texas
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