July 12, 2020

State's virus cases climb 1,061 in day

Arkansas' count of coronavirus cases rose by 1,061 Saturday, setting a record for the number of cases added in a single day.

The state's cumulative case count increased to 27,864. The death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Department of Health, rose by six, to 319.

The number of Arkansans hospitalized with the virus increased by 10, to 412. Eighty-four of the patients were on ventilators, a number that hadn't changed from a day earlier.

"The record number of new cases is very concerning and may be the result of the July 4th celebrations," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a statement.

Read more: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/jul/12/states-virus-cases-climb-1061-in-day/?news

July 12, 2020

Oklahoma governor says he remains opposed to mask mandate

OKLAHOMA CITY — Despite rising numbers of confirmed cases and hospitalizations due to COVID-19 infections in Oklahoma, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said Thursday he remains opposed to mandating that residents wear masks.

“I’m going to protect the freedoms in Oklahoma,” said Stitt, who rarely wears a mask in public, even when he’s around groups of people. “I’m not comfortable with mandating masks. It’s not something that I would do.”

Stitt also said he wouldn’t take steps to stop local ordinances requiring people to wear masks in public, which have been implemented in Stillwater and Norman.

In Oklahoma City on Thursday, Archbishop Paul Coakley announced a new requirement to wear masks or face coverings at all public masses and church gatherings. Parishioners were previously encouraged to wear masks, but it wasn’t mandatory.

Read more: https://www.swtimes.com/news/20200710/oklahoma-governor-says-he-remains-opposed-to-mask-mandate
(Fort Smith Times Record)

July 12, 2020

Jonesboro food company says it was ruined by former Craighead county clerk's financial misdeeds

A new lawsuit adds more allegations of financial misdeeds against Kade Holliday, the Republican who resigned as clerk of Craighead County after being charged with stealing $1.6 million in public money.

The suit is by Total Healthcare LLC, doing business as Twisted Foods, and Rose Hankins. The company sold customized meals. Holliday and his management company are defendants.

The suit says when the company was formed in 2015, Holliday was given 30 percent of the business instead of salary in return for providing accounting and managerial expertise.

After Holliday’s arrest, Hankins checked her company’s records and discovered the company had been plundered by Holliday diverting company money to personal accounts. (This is what he’s alleged to have done with Craighead County accounts. He’s also been accused of taking $15,000 to $20,000 from a local business group for which was de facto treasurer. )

Read more: https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2020/07/11/jonesboro-food-company-says-it-was-ruined-by-former-craighead-county-clerks-financial-misdeeds

=====

Another allegation of missing money involving former Craighead County clerk

KAIT-TV reports another instance of missing money involving Kade Holliday, who resigned recently as Republican county clerk of Craighead County after being charged with diverting $1.6 million in public money to personal accounts.

The Northeast Arkansas Leadership Business Council reported to the sheriff’s office that it had checked its bank account after Holliday’s arrest and found it contained $6. Council President Jeff Morris said $15,000 to $20,000 was missing. He said Holliday kept the council’s records as de facto treasurer. He thinks the council was a victim of Holliday.

https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2020/07/08/another-allegation-of-missing-money-involvingformer-craighead-county-clerk
(no more at link)

Geez, another crooked Republican--what a shock!

July 12, 2020

Black, brown faculty air grievances with UA Little Rock chancellor

Members of the Black and Brown faculty committee at UA Little Rock met virtually with UA Chancellor Christina Drale today to address what they see as systemic racism that keeps their salaries lower than white faculty and stymies their advancement. Many have filed individual complaints; they have decided to come together to make a case so that the university cannot say that suspected incidents of discrimination are isolated.

Among the many other talking points: While the number of minority students is increasing, the number of Black and Brown faculty is declining. Several Black and Brown faculty have had to appeal to obtain tenure or promotion, and their scholarship is unfairly scrutinized and discounted. Black and Brown faculty they share disproportionately in the burden of minority mentorship and their work in that area is discounted in considerations for tenure and promotions. A Racial Climate survey shows distrust of administration by Black and Brown faculty. Federal discrimination laws are ignored.

During the one-and-a-half-hour Zoom meeting, attended by more than 200 staff and faculty, Drale acknowledged such problems as an all-white cabinet (which at least now includes women, she noted), the need for training and education about diversity that starts at the top, the need for a change in policies that “outlive this moment” of widespread protest of racism in the country, that fact that student evaluations of their teachers are harsher on black and brown faculty (and women, too, Drale noted), and that the diverse student body needs to see themselves reflected in the faculty.

However, Drale said she was unaware of the issue of pay disparity. Dr. Brian Mitchell, an assistant professor of history at UA Little Rock, responded that that issues raised by the Black and Brown Committee, including the pay disparity, had been presented to the administration last semester and “we have received not specific reply to those concerns and issues.” Mitchell said there are few Black and Brown faculty who say they’ve experienced no discrimination, and that they feel isolated and ignored. “There is a snowball of problems within the university and I don’t feel the university is addressing them at all.”

Read more: https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2020/07/10/black-brown-faculty-air-grievances-with-ua-little-rock-chancellor

July 12, 2020

Coronavirus 'collateral damage' hits U.S. rural power providers

CROPSEY, Ill. — When the coronavirus pandemic left Ron Mueller without a market for the 3,200 piglets that his hog-breeding operation cranks out weekly and facing huge bills, his local electricity provider offered to cut the Illinois farmer some slack.

Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative (EIEC), which powers Mueller’s farm and serves farmers, small businesses and residents across 10 rural counties, was willing to delay his bills as he scrambled to make ends meet.

“I want to pay my bills,” said Mueller, who had been forced to euthanize nearly 5,000 piglets in late March but still refused EIEC’s offer. “If I can’t afford to feed them (the pigs), I’ll just quit feeding them.”

Others in the area have been unable to avoid falling behind. From March to April, EIEC’s number of 90-day past-due accounts jumped by 50%.

Read more: https://www.stltoday.com/business/local/coronavirus-collateral-damage-hits-u-s-rural-power-providers/article_bf797a58-eaf3-5e17-a75f-444c0b552b40.html

July 12, 2020

Steve Stenger's Moneyman John Rallo Asks for Coronavirus Release From Prison

The man who bribed former St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger wants out of federal prison, because he says the coronavirus puts him at risk.

John Rallo is just seventeen days into his seventeen-month sentence after pleading guilty a year ago to three counts of theft of honest services/bribery. Since his plea, he has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and has had surgery to remove his thyroid, his attorney writes in a court filing.

In a May 21 letter to the warden of the federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, the 54-year-old Rallo pleaded to be allowed to serve his sentence on home confinement because his health is failing.

"As such, I am among those with the highest risk of death or serious illness from COVID-19," he writes. "Yet, as an incarcerated person, it is impossible for me to follow the CDC's recommendations to protect myself and others from exposure to this highly transmissible disease."

Read more: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2020/07/09/steve-stengers-moneyman-john-rallo-asks-for-coronavirus-release-from-prison

July 12, 2020

Kirkwood High School Alumni Allege Years of Sexual Abuse

Trigger Warning: The following story includes accounts of sexual abuse, which may be upsetting to some readers.

Sexual assault allegations against multiple former Kirkwood High School teachers have exploded during the past several days in alumni social media groups.

It began with a Facebook post on Tuesday, prompting several former Kirkwood High School students to come forward to share their stories of abuse, some describing events that date back to the early 1980s.

Katie Pappageorge's post on July 7 set off the chain of events that has led multiple survivors to speak out about stories of grooming, manipulation, abuse and assault they say they suffered at the hands of at least three different faculty members. The Riverfront Times is withholding the names of the former educators because no charges have been filed. We would normally withhold the names of sexual abuse victims as well, but Pappageorge and two women interviewed for this story have given the RFT permission to publish their names and share details of their allegations.

In her account, Pappageorge describes long-running abuse by a drama teacher, beginning during her freshman year when she was just twelve years old (she skipped two grades of elementary school). The abuse continued into her junior year, until the teacher quietly resigned at the beginning of the second semester, she says in an interview. Pappageorge posted the allegations to the Kirkwood High School Alumni Facebook page. An administrator of the page deleted the post shortly after it went live, but it has since been restored.

Read more: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2020/07/10/kirkwood-high-school-alumni-allege-years-of-sexual-abuse

July 12, 2020

Greitens files paperwork keeping campaign alive through 2024

Former Gov. Eric Greitens' campaign filed paperwork with the state Wednesday indicating he plans to run for an unspecified statewide office in 2024.

That doesn't necessarily mean he's actually running for anything.

For now, Greitens' filing with the Missouri Ethics Commission mostly means his campaign can continue to raise and spend money as it has since he resigned in disgrace two years ago.

Lately, the campaign's been mostly spending. From April 2019 through March 2020, it spent more than $400,000, much of which went toward legal bills. It also covered advertising, travel costs, pay for a campaign worker and office supplies.

Read more: https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/politics/2020/06/10/ex-missouri-governor-eric-greitens-files-paperwork-keep-campaign-alive-2024/5337804002/
(Springfield News-Leader)

July 12, 2020

Democrats accuse ex-Speaker, 'compatriots' of harassing House staffer on Twitter

Two Democratic lawmakers are calling on a former House speaker to put an end to the “cyberbullying” of a legislative aide.

In a statement sent to reporters Friday, House Minority Leader Crystal Quade of Springfield and Rep. Martha Stevens of Columbia accused former House Speaker Tim Jones (R) of harassing Stevens’ aide in tweets last year and coordinating with another Twitter user to continue this summer.

Quade and Stevens said they thought they took care of the problem last year after Jones accused the assistant, Madeline Friedmann, of operating a Twitter account criticizing him on taxpayer time.

They reached out to House administrators for help, they said, and Jones deleted the tweets.

Read more: https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/06/missouri-democrats-ex-house-speaker-tim-jones-stop-cyberbullying/5386459002/
(Springfield News-Leader)

July 12, 2020

Galloway brings in $1.1M in Q2 fundraising with no in-person events, campaign says

In her quest for governor, Auditor Nicole Galloway hauled in more than $1.1 million in the last quarter with no in-person fundraisers amid the global health crisis, her campaign said Monday.

Galloway, the Democrat who is taking on Gov. Mike Parson in the 2020 gubernatorial contest, brought in $1,128,479 for the quarter that began in April and went through the end of June.

“Momentum in the race for Missouri Governor has swung sharply in Auditor Nicole Galloway’s direction, and these numbers bolster the case,” Chris Sloan, her campaign manager, said in a statement. “Because of the investments we’re making now in online voter engagement, we are in a strong position to keep the momentum going through election day.”

“It is more clear now than ever that Missouri is eager for a new beginning and a new governor that will bring change on health care and an economic recovery that leaves no working family behind,” Sloan said.

Read more: https://themissouritimes.com/galloway-brings-in-1-1m-in-q2-fundraising-with-no-in-person-events-campaign-says/