June 19, 2018

Ex-state senator gets 18 months for fraud

FORT SMITH -- Former state Sen. Jake Files (R) was sentenced Monday to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution for offenses that included obtaining state General Improvement Fund money for a ball-field project and then using it for his own purposes.

In a 90-minute sentencing hearing, Western Arkansas Chief U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III emphasized the theft of public money by an elected official in a position of public trust and the damage Files' actions had caused in destroying the public's confidence in elected officials.

"To me, this is an egregious violation of public trust," Holmes said.

He said Files' position of public trust separated him from others who have committed white-collar crimes, even though the $26,945.91 in taxpayer money Files has admitted taking is less than what others whom Holmes has sentenced have stolen.

Holmes ordered Files to pay $83,903.47 restitution for the $26,945.91 in state General Improvement Fund money he obtained for the River Valley Sports Complex ball-field project and for the $56,957.56 in bank loans he received by pledging collateral he didn't own.

Read more: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/jun/19/ex-state-senator-gets-18-months-for-fra/

June 19, 2018

Officials: Doctor worked at Arkansas VA hospital while impaired; misdiagnoses found, including in

Officials: Doctor worked at Arkansas VA hospital while impaired; misdiagnoses found, including in case in which patient died


FAYETTEVILLE — At least one death appears to have resulted from a missed diagnosis by a veterans hospital pathologist who worked while impaired, according to the first findings in a review of almost 20,000 cases that will take months, Veterans Department administrators and members of the Arkansas congressional delegation said Monday.

"We are treating this like a national disaster," Kelvin L. Parks, interim medical director at the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks, said during a Monday morning news conference.

The pathologist, whose name was withheld, was dismissed because of his impairment, Parks said. The doctor began work at the hospital in 2005 and was one of two pathologists at the center.

Thirty pathologists from around the state and region volunteered to review the impaired doctor's cases, he said. Pathologists who are not from the Veterans Department will review at least half the cases. The 30 pathologists will review the highest-risk cases first.

Read more: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/jun/18/officials-doctor-worked-arkansas-va-hospital-while/

June 19, 2018

St. Louis jury orders Rams to pay $12.5M to former NFL running back Reggie Bush for 2015 injury

ST. LOUIS • A St. Louis jury has awarded millions of dollars to a former NFL running back who suffered a severe knee injury in a game at the Edward Jones Dome in 2015.

The Los Angeles Rams were ordered to pay Reggie Bush $4.95 million in compensatory damages and $7.5 million in punitive damages.

The jury found the Rams 100 percent liable for Bush's injury. He had also sued public agencies that own and operate the Dome, but they were dismissed from the suit by a judge last week after arguing the football team had control of operations at the facility on game days.

"I'm very happy with the verdict," Bush told the Post-Dispatch after the verdict. "The people spoke and decided very fairly."

Read more: https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/st-louis-jury-orders-rams-to-pay-million-to-former/article_ebbc8c19-2c12-547b-afdd-adbef0bca526.html

June 19, 2018

Democrats say Parson should fire his COO, cancel contract that is a 'shady deal'

JEFFERSON CITY -- Missouri Democrats on Monday called for Gov. Mike Parson to fire his chief operating officer and cancel a state contract awarded to the COO's former employer.

Parson responded Monday evening through his spokesman by defending the state's bidding process and the agency that granted the contract in question.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Sunday that on June 7, the state’s Office of Administration awarded a $2.7 million contract to New York-based McKinsey & Co.. The company's job would be to assess Missouri’s Medicaid program to identify any fraud, waste or abuse.

McKinsey & Co. is the former employer of Drew Erdmann, who last year accepted the position of COO, which was created by an executive order issued by former Gov. Eric Greitens. Missouri's executive branch had never had a COO before Greitens created the position.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article213386204.html

June 19, 2018

Kansas Democrat apologizes for raising money off two deputies' deaths

A Kansas congressional candidate apologized Monday for sending out an email about the deaths of two Wyandotte County sheriff’s deputies that led to a fundraising page.

Brent Welder, who is vying for the Democratic nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, sent out a campaign email Saturday that sought to link the deaths of two deputies in Kansas City, Kan., to the larger gun control debate and to use it as an opportunity to criticize the incumbent Republican.

Deputies Patrick Rohrer and Theresa King were shot while transporting a suspect near the county courthouse on Friday. The investigation is ongoing, but investigators think the suspect may have obtained one deputy’s gun and used it to kill the two deputies.

Welder noted that his campaign office, which is near the courthouse, went into lockdown after the shooting.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article213405709.html

June 19, 2018

Parkland shooting survivors draw large crowd at Kansas event meant to spur youth vote

Before a crowd of roughly 1,500 people in Kansas City, Kan., Parkland survivor Cameron Kasky recounted Monday night what terrified him most when a gunman entered his Florida high school and killed 17 of his peers earlier this year.

“It was not the confusion. The most terrifying feeling that I felt was that I knew what was happening. It was a mass school shooting. We had seen these,” said Kasky, who noted that he was born after the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.

“People of my generation had grown up on them,” he said.

Kasky was one of four survivors of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to participate in a panel about gun control at the Reardon Convention Center, part of a national tour by the March For Our Lives movement focused on swing districts ahead of the 2018 midterms.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article213279664.html

June 19, 2018

Illinois Man Attacks Daffy Duck at Six Flags, Alcohol May Have Been Involved

Photo: Martin Lewison


It's duck season after all at the Six Flags in Eureka, where an Illinois man reportedly attacked an employee wearing a Daffy Duck costume earlier this month.

KMOV reports that a 23-year-old man from Caseyville, Illinois assaulted the employee, a 19-year-old who was probably already having a rough enough go of it, what with having to wear a mascot costume in the St. Louis summer heat and all, on June 3 at approximately 8:50 p.m. Eureka police say that the man grabbed the costume by the bill, attempted to pull the employee to the ground and threatened to "beat his ass."

Shockingly, alcohol may have been involved, according to police, who say the suspect smelled like booze.

The Leader reports that there were no injuries. The man from Caseyville admitted to police that he grabbed the bill of the costume, but claims he thought that was allowed because he saw other people doing it.

The man was arrested on suspicion of assault and will have to appear in Eureka Municipal Court.

Elmer Fudd could not be reached for comment.

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2018/06/13/illinois-man-attacks-daffy-duck-at-six-flags-alcohol-may-have-been-involved

June 19, 2018

Obama Group Puts Ann Wagner on Its Election Hit List

U.S. Representative Ann Wagner (R-Ballwin) may have yet another reason to be worried about this midterm election: The Obama team is gunning for her seat.

Missouri’s second congressional district, which Wagner represents, is one of 27 to appear on Organizing for Action’s new midterms hit list, Politico reports. The district, composed mostly of St. Louis’ southern and western suburbs, is the only one in Missouri to land such a spot.

Organizing for Action is a progressive political organizing group that rose from the remnants of Barack Obama’s old campaign. While the group previously focused on working with elected officials to affect change, this year, it will be more directly involved in campaigning, with the hope of electing representatives on board for Organizing for Action’s goals related to health care, the environment and economic fairness.

Of the 435 congressional districts constituting the House of Representatives, the 27 selected by Organizing for Action staff share a handful of key characteristics. Each is located in an area where the group already has a presence, yet is not one of the swing districts already garnering national attention and resources.

Read more: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2018/06/15/obama-group-puts-ann-wagner-on-its-election-hit-list

June 19, 2018

Air Force Boots Tabbie Duncan After Racist 'N----r Hunting' Video

She already lost her waitressing job, and now the Air Force is booting a Jefferson County waitress who joked with friends about going "n****r hunting" in a viral video.

Twenty-year-old aspiring model Tabitha "Tabbie" Duncan had recently enlisted as a reserve Airman, but her newfound notoriety has nixed that, the Air Force Times reported. In an email to the newspaper, Lt. Colonel Chad Gibson of the Air Force Reserve Command described the video as "intolerable." Without specifically naming Duncan, Gibson said the service was in the process of releasing her.

Duncan was recorded on SnapChat as she rode on a truck, rolling down a dirt road in the dark. In less than fifteen seconds, she and her friends spit out enough N-words to make Jeff Sessions blush.

Here's part of the exchange that we previously posted.

Narrator: "So we going n****r hunting today or what?"

Another idiot in a baseball cap: "We're going n****r hunting."

Narrator: "We're fucking n****r hunting right now, uh?

Then Duncan chimes in: "You get them n****s."

Read more: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2018/06/15/air-force-boots-tabbie-duncan-after-racist-n-r-hunting-video

June 19, 2018

Greitens' private impeachment attorneys will not receive state compensation

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri taxpayers won’t actually be on the hook for more than $150,000 in legal fees for two attorneys hired solely for potential impeachment proceedings.

On June 14, 2018, the Missouri Office of Administration declined to pay Ross Garber and Edward Greim. Sarah Steelman, head of the Office of Administration, sent the two attorneys identical letters denying them state compensation for legal services they provided to then-Governor Eric Greitens.

The two attorneys said they were hired by Greitens to represent the governor’s office in its official capacity. Greitens also had attorneys representing him in his personal capacity.

In letter to Steelman earlier in the week, Rep. Jay Barnes that “taxpayer defense of elected official subject to impeachment proceedings was expressly and soundly rejected by the Framer of the 1945 Missouri Constitution.”

Read more: https://themissouritimes.com/51801/greitens-private-impeachment-attorneys-will-not-receive-state-compensation/