March Missouri State Senate

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McCaskill to announce plans to stymie base-closing bills
Senator concerned about impact on communities

6:12 AM, Mar. 21, 2012



Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., plans to tell top defense officials today that she will work to kill any base-closing
legislation in this Congress, according to John LaBombard, her spokesman.

McCaskill plans to make clear her opposition to a new round of base closings at a hearing before the Senate
Armed Services subcommittee on readiness and management support, a panel she chairs.

Top defense officials are scheduled to testify at the session.

McCaskill, who is up for re-election this year, believes she can use her post at the helm of that subcommittee to
put the brakes on the Obama administration’s push for two new rounds of BRAC–Base Closure and Realignment
Commissions.

But other lawmakers could go around her subcommittee to push a bill forward.

Congress must approve legislation to create a new base-closing commission, which would then conduct a non-
partisan, independent review of military installations make closure and consolidation recommendations.

The White House is pushing for a new round of base-closings as a way to achieve billions of dollars in savings to
the defense budget, as mandated by the debt-reduction agreement Congress passed last summer. McCaskill
supported that plan, and she has generally portrayed herself as a fiscal hawk.

But LaBombard said McCaskill has questions about how much the last round of BRAC, in 2005, actually saved.
And she’s concerned about the impact of base closings on communities in Missouri and elsewhere.

“Claire is not only standing up for Missouri’s military installations and the jobs that come with them — she’ll be
making a forceful argument that the case hasn’t been made that more base closures will benefit American
taxpayers,” LaBombard said. “Before the Pentagon starts closing more bases here in America, Claire believes it’s
common sense to take a thorough look at the billions of dollars that could be saved by closing some of the 1,000
military installations overseas, many of which are relics of the Cold War.”

Both Whiteman Air Force Base and Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri are generally considered to be in a strong
position to survive any base closing commission recommendations, although there are no guarantees.

LaBombard acknowledged that McCaskill could not stop another senator from offering an amendment or a bill to
create a new base commission on the Senate floor. But he said her position as chair of the subcommittee would
deal a significant blow to any base closing bill.
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Even without McCaskill’s opposition, the fate of the White House’s proposal was in doubt. Other lawmakers,
including Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville, also have said they would fiercely oppose any base closing bill.
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Local leaders take issues to D.C.
Jimmy Myers
St. Joseph News-Press
On Twitter: @SJNPMyers

POSTED: 10:12 pm CDT March 20, 2012

As Congress considers a $500 billion cutback on defense, local leaders have 142 million reasons to drum up
support for the Missouri Air National Guard’s 139th Airlift Wing.
Employing 376 people and infusing an estimated $142 million into the local economy, the National Guard at
Rosecrans is on a list of priorities for a local delegation, which plans to speak with Sens. Claire McCaskill and Roy
Blunt, and Rep. Sam Graves, today (they began their meetings Tuesday). This is the 14th year of the St. Joseph
Metro Chamber’s Washington, D.C., Fly-In, where critical issues in the area are taken up by local leaders during
their visit to the nation’s Capitol.
Steve Johnston, director of the Community Alliance of St. Joseph, said the defense cuts have caused some
concern, especially because the Air Guard is such a vital component in the community.
“We want to lift up the Air Guard, if you will,” said Mr. Johnston, “and talk about their importance ... this is
something we really want to hit home on.”
The group also will address the senators and Mr. Graves about funding for the Hillyard Technical Center
expansion. The project received $237,500 from Congress four years ago, but the cost for the expansion is more
than $1 million. Mr. Johnston said the expansion is an important player in the region’s life sciences and animal
health corridor.
“It’s a very important link in work-force development of companies like Boehringer Ingelheim, that continue to
grow and expand in St. Joseph,” he said.
The Fly-In is not what it used to be. The quest for earmarks has changed to a request for competitive grants. Mr.
Johnston said the St. Joseph community has been the recipient of around $38 million in earmarks.
“We have used that money very wisely and been very frugal with any dollars coming from Washington into our
community,” said Mr. Johnston, who was in Washington on Tuesday. “But we’re not coming to D.C. with our
hand out.”
The delegation is also discussing the Missouri River levee system, EPA and storm water/wastewater
infrastructure, transportation issues including the King Hill/Stockyards Expressway and bus facilities, health care,
overfunded and underfunded mandates, and over-regulation. “Even though we don’t have earmarks, we feel like
this is an important trip,” Mr. Johnston said.
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KC leaders meet with the White House on jobs
March 20

David Goldstein

The Kansas City Star


More than two dozen Kansas City area civic and business leaders met with White House officials today about
ways to help the economic climate in the region.

Led by Mayor Sly James, they sat down with the White House Business Council to talk about issues like job
training, encouraging entrepreneurship and providing opportunities for veterans.

Among the delegation were representatives from local businesses, the health care industry, community
development groups and the high-tech industry.

The meeting is one of a series of 40 economic education and brain storming sessions the White House is holding
with local officials from around the country. Obama administration officials said they want cities to know that
businesses are increasingly looking for skilled workers and job training funds are available to local communities
to help develop them.
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Schweich decides against running for U.S. Senate
In Backroom

By Jason Rosenbaum, special to the Beacon

2:04 pm on Tue, 03.20.12

State Auditor Tom Schweich will not run for the U.S. Senate this year, ending speculation that he would join an
already crowded Republican field.

Schweich released a statement on Tuesday stating that he will continue his work as state auditor -- “a job which I
enjoy, and which allows me to make a positive contribution to the people of Missouri every day,” he said.

“I will not enter the U.S. Senate primary,” Schweich said. “The decision was entirely a personal one. We did no
polling or statistical analysis. Instead, I determined that it would be best to fulfill my term as I previously
indicated I would.”

Had he joined the Republican race to take on incumbent U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, Schweich would have had to
go up against three other candidates: former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman, U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Wildwood,
and businessman John Brunner.

Schweich went on to say that his entry into the contest would have made it difficult to defeat McCaskill, a first-
term Democrat.

 “I further determined that my entry into the Senate race would make the GOP primary situation much more
contentious, and would, therefore, not increase the chances of defeating Claire McCaskill in November,”
Schweich said.

Notable Republicans, including former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, had encouraged Schweich to get into the
contest. And Schweich's campaign treasurer for his 2010 auditor bid even filed papers with the Internal Revenue
Service to form a “527” organization.

Schweich was elected to the state auditor’s office in 2010, defeating incumbent Susan Montee, a Democrat.
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Schweich demurs on bid for Senate despite backing

BY BILL LAMBRECHT • stltoday.com | Posted: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 12:10 am |


WASHINGTON • State Auditor Tom Schweich's decision against a late entry into the race for the GOP Senate
nomination leaves the three-candidate field intact, with the competitors aware that some of Missouri's most
influential Republicans are nervous about the prospects of defeating Sen. Claire McCaskill in November.

In an announcement that caught the state's political establishment by surprise, Schweich said Tuesday that he
had decided to remain in his present job and avoid a contentious primary battle that could work to McCaskill's
advantage.

Until Tuesday, Schweich and his key backers had appeared receptive to the open letter signed by former Sen.
John Danforth, fundraising powerhouse Sam Fox and other party stalwarts. The letter urged him to declare his
candidacy by the March 27 deadline, asserting there was "no doubt that you are the candidate best qualified to
represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate."

On Friday, Schweich's campaign treasurer, Joe Passanise, sent out a release trumpeting a poll showing McCaskill
trailing potential opponents in November, Schweich among them. The release called Schweich "a new face in the
Missouri Republican Party, exactly the type of person that would benefit our state in the United States Senate."

But by Tuesday, Schweich had backed away. He thanked those who encouraged him and described his decision
to remain in his job of 14 months as "entirely a personal one."

"I further determined that my entry into the Senate race would make the GOP primary situation much more
contentious and would, therefore, not increase the chances of defeating Claire McCaskill in November," he said
in a statement.

In an interview before his official announcement, Schweich said he did not make up his mind until Tuesday
morning.

Besides sticking to his commitment to stay in his present job, Schweich said, he worried about "the discord and
acrimony ... and all the damage that could have resulted" from a four-way race leading up to Missouri's August
primary.

The announcement leaves the field with former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman of Rolla, U.S. Rep. Todd Akin of
Wildwood and St. Louis businessman John Brunner — and all likely vying for Schweich's endorsement.

Schweich said in the interview that he "hasn't decided what to do about the current field."
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A Schweich candidacy would have altered the dynamic of Missouri's closely watched contest, with control of the
U.S. Senate potentially riding on the outcome.

If Schweich had prevailed in the primary, it would have set the stage for a fall campaign between an auditor and
a former auditor that focused heavily on themes of accountability. That is much different than the contest likely
to take place between McCaskill and those competing now for the backing of conservatives in Missouri's
Republican party.

Steelman said in a statement that Schweich "will continue to be a leader in the Republican Party and I am
grateful for his dedication to Missouri and to our country. I look forward to gaining his support."

Brunner spokesman Todd Abrajano said that he and Schweich spoke on the phone. Abrajano said he didn't
believe Schweich's candidacy would have changed the type of campaign that his candidate is waging — that of an
outsider.

"John is the only person running who has never been in politics before, who has 33 years of real world and
manufacturing and business experience that he brings to the table," he said.

While Schweich was pondering the race earlier this month, Steelman and Brunner had issued carefully worded
statements. Akin, on the other hand, publicly criticized Danforth and others for insulting those already in the
race.

Akin said Tuesday that he "took exception" to Danforth's suggestion that the current field was not strong. And he
said of Schweich's announcement: "Even though he's known and well thought of, he hasn't been campaigning
like everybody else. He would have had a lot of catching up to do."

Schweich had grown close to Danforth after serving as his chief of staff when Danforth was U.S. ambassador to
the United Nations and, before that, when he was Danforth's top aide during the Special Counsel investigation of
the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Texas.

"I had the idea that Schweich is very special," Danforth said on Tuesday. "I was for him, but wasn't against
anybody else."

Danforth said he and the 17 other Republicans who signed the letter earlier this month "tried to convince him
that there were reasons to change his mind. And then he thought about it and just stuck to his original
commitment" to remain as state auditor.

Danforth said he lacks "a clear view right now" as far as endorsing anyone else in the field.

"We always have a tough state and we have an incumbent to run against," he said. "But, on the other hand, I
think we have the right message and it will be a matter of articulating it in a clear way. I think we'll be in pretty
good shape."

Schweich earned the rank of U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan in George W. Bush's State Department, overseeing
anti-drug activities around the world, some of them in dangerous territory.
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Nonetheless, in a season where the government is viewed as an adversary in many political campaigns,
Schweich's work in Washington likely would have drawn criticism. But Schweich said the prospect of defending
himself against attacks did not enter into his decision.

"I had no qualms about entering a tough race," he said. "I put on a bulletproof vest and left my family to attack
terrorism."
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Schweich won't enter Mo. GOP Senate race
11:32 PM, Mar. 20, 2012



JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich said Tuesday that he would not enter the crowded
Republican field of candidates hoping to unseat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in November.

Schweich, who had been publicly considering running for a couple weeks, said in a statement that he hadn’t done
any polling or statistical analysis about the Senate race, instead describing the decision as a personal one and
referencing a pledge he made while campaigning for auditor in 2010 to serve a full four-year term.

“I determined that it would be best to fulfill my term as I previously indicated I would,” Schweich said. “I further
determined that my entry into the Senate race would make the GOP primary situation much more contentious,
and would, therefore, not increase the chances of defeating Claire McCaskill in November.”

The August Senate primary already includes three prominent Republicans — former State Treasurer Sarah
Steelman of Rolla; U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, of suburban St. Louis; and St. Louis businessman John Brunner.

Earlier this month, Schweich’s campaign treasurer set up a political committee entitled “Schweich for US Senate”
which would have allowed money to be raised and spent while Schweich tested the waters for a Senate
campaign.

A group of 18 Republican donors, businessmen and politicians — led by former U.S. Sen. John Danforth and
fundraiser Sam Fox — released a public letter nearly two weeks ago encouraging Schweich to jump into the
Senate race. The coalition contended that none of the existing Republican Senate candidates could match up
against McCaskill as well as Schweich could in the November general election.

Schweich, a former State Department official under President George W. Bush, had initially considered running
for U.S. Senate in 2010 before deferring to Roy Blunt and instead running for state auditor. This year, Schweich
had again said he was seriously considering the Senate race. He said Tuesday he consulted family, friends and
supporters before opting against it.
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Emerson to give keynote at Lincoln Day event
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Daily Dunklin Democrat

Plans for the annual Lincoln Day Banquet for Dunklin County were recently announced by Steve Wallace,
chairman of the event.

Once again, U.S. Representative JoAnn Emerson will be the keynote speaker, with Rick Crawford, Senator Rob
Mayer, and State Representative Kent Hampton also on the program.

The banquet will be held in the American Legion Building in Kennett on Friday, March 23, beginning at 6:30 p.m.,
with a social visit. Dinner will be served at 7 p.m., and the program will begin at 7:30 p.m.

For more information and tickets call 573-888-2580 or 572-276-2049. Tickets are $25 per person.
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St. Louis park hit by pro-Occupy graffiti
FROM STAFF REPORTS stltoday.com | Posted: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 2:01 pm


ST. LOUIS • Graffiti that appears linked to a confrontation between Occupy protesters and police at Compton Hill
Reservoir Park last week has appeared at the park.

The graffiti, which includes phrases like "CLASS WAR," and "COPS, PIGS, MURDERERS," was sprayed on buildings,
walls and statues at the park on Grand Boulevard just south of Interstate 44.

Paint on a door labeled "park police" reads "ONLY THE BLOOD OF THE RICH WILL STOP OCCUPY."

Police have not released any information about the graffiti incident yet.

The park was the site of a confrontation Thursday night between Occupy Midwest protesters in town for a
regional conference and police trying to enforce a park curfew. More than a dozen protesters were arrested. Two
of them were injured.

A police car window was smashed in the incident. No officers were hurt.

The home of Eddie Roth, public safety director for the city, was also hit by graffiti sometime late Sunday night or
early Monday morning. The words, "Blood on your hands" was spray-painted on the front steps of Roth's house
in the 3600 block of Flad Avenue. Police said Roth's steps were hit by vandals on Jan. 1 or 2 as well. That time,
the steps were spray painted with the words, "We never forgive - Occupy."

Susie Chasnoff, 60, of University City, a participant in Occupy St. Louis, says the acts of vandalism were not official
actions by the Occupy St. Louis movement.

"I am not condoning it," she said. "I frankly don't know who is doing it, but clearly it is an attempt to express
anger and frustration. It speaks to frustration that people feel over a hopeless situation with the police."

In an emailed statement, Roth said he and his family are "annoyed" about the vandalism at his home but grateful
to have received many "thoughtful expressions of concern."

Roth said he doesn't think the vandalism "is representative of the Occupy movement in St. Louis, which is one of
the reasons we have tried to keep it low-key. But it does point out the need for the Occupy participants who are
passionate but responsible to push back against the few who are intent on being destructive."

John Maxwell, president of Compton Hill's Water Tower and Park Preservation Society, said Tuesday he has
spoken to a representative from the Occupy movement who apologized and said the movement does not
condone such behavior.

He said graffiti at the park is not a new problem.
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"This is the first time we've really had political statements," Maxwell said of the graffiti. "Our graffiti up until now
has been gang-related."

Maxwell said a city vandalism clean-up crew is expected to remove the graffiti as quickly as possible, probably
before the end of the week.

"I'm bothered by it, but it's not something I'm going to lose sleep over," Maxwell said.

The painted words "CLASS WAR" on the brass Naked Truth statue will have to be removed carefully so as not to
damage the patina, or protective coating, Maxwell said.

The statue was undergoing restoration and that will continue once the paint is removed, Maxwell said.
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‘Occupy’ Activists Accused of Tagging St. Louis with Graffiti
Michael Calhoun

March 20, 2012 6:34 AM



ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – Occupy protesters have apparently left their mark in St. Louis.

Mayor Slay posts to Facebook say that city Director of Public Safety Eddie Roth’s home has twice been marked
with Occupy graffiti.

Some of the protesters, gathering here from across the Midwest, blame Roth for Thursday night’s violent
encounter with police, and they’ve spread his name on Twitter.

Roth says “we are fine — annoyed but not worried.”

Meantime, a utility box near Tower Grove Park has “OCCUPY!” spray painted on it. There’s also a handwritten
note taped to the box which says, “Occupy St. Louis did not condone this spray painting and will be having it
removed A.S.A.P.”
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Freedom Inc. administrators fined for mishandling finances
By STEVE KRASKE

The Kansas City Star


Posted on Tue, Mar. 20, 2012 07:01 PM

The Missouri Ethics Commission has fined the former secretary of a prominent Kansas City political club for
pocketing potentially thousands of dollars in club funds.

In addition, the former president of Freedom Inc., Craig Bland, was fined for signing club checks he was not
authorized to sign. And former treasurer Carl Evans was penalized for failing to keep accurate records.

The former secretary, Velda Cook, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But last week she signed
commission documents admitting probable cause existed that she had violated the law.

She was fined $2,600 for “conversion of contributions to personal use” and $749 for co-signing Freedom Inc.
checks she was not authorized to sign. That fine will grow to $7,482 if she commits other violations within two
years.

Bland and Evans also could not be reached for comment.

Numerous Kansas City Democratic officials declined comment on what amounts to another setback for the east-
side organization, which is gearing up to commemorate its 50th anniversary.

The latest enforcement action, made public in documents released late Monday, comes about five years after
the Federal Election Commission fined Freedom $45,000 for its involvement in Emanuel Cleaver’s 2004 race for
Congress.

At the time, the FEC said Freedom was registered as a state political committee, but had not registered to engage
in federal races, such as Cleaver’s campaign for the 5th Congressional District seat, which he wound up winning.

Clinton Adams, a lawyer who represents Freedom, said that Bland resigned as president in January. He would not
comment on whether Bland’s resignation was connected to the ethics charges.

Adams said a three-person committee —Gayle Holliday, the wife of former Freedom leader Harold Holliday Jr.,
state Sen. Kiki Curls, a Kansas City Democrat, and former city councilman Charles Hazley — is now overseeing
Freedom’s operations.

Gayle Holliday said Freedom was trying to transition to new leadership and anticipated an election of new
officers within three or four months. She said the club, which reported $1,374 in its bank account as of Dec. 31,
remained viable.
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“We’re just trying to put our structure back together,” she said. “It was kind of lagging a bit.”

Holliday said Bland resigned because of an “overload of responsibilities” and that “he just couldn’t keep up with
all the things going on.”

A former Missouri lawmaker, Bland was fined $3,070. But the commission said if Bland paid 10 percent of that, or
$307, and did not commit other violations within two years, the remainder of the fine would be dropped.

A similar arrangement was made for Evans. His initial fine was $556, but the total would grow to $5,556 if he
commits more violations.

According to commission documents, the ethics probe focused on 14 payments in 2008 and 2009 totaling $7,262
from Freedom’s political fund, “some of which respondent Cook converted into personal use.”

Among them were numerous incidents in which Cook provided invoices in response to commission subpoenas
that contained references to credit-card payments that never appeared on Cook’s credit-card statements.
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Spence seeks to downplay his wealth by focusing on his past
in latest TV spot
In Backroom

By Jo Mannies, Beacon political reporter

1:10 am on Wed, 03.21.12

St. Louis County businessman Dave Spence, a Republican candidate for Missouri governor, may be using some of
his own millions to finance his campaign – but he wants to the public to know that he didn’t start out in life with
all that money.

That appears to be one of the aims of his new TV ad, his third, which begins airing today. It opens with Spence
standing on the middle-class street in Overland where he grew up.

The ad highlights his teen years “cutting grass, sweeping floors,’’ and his attendance at Ritenour High School. (He
graduated from Kirkwood High School.)

The ad doesn’t mention Spence’s recently announced list of legislative endorsements, Republican rival Bill
Randles or the Democrat who is their chief target: Gov. Jay Nixon, who is seeking re-election.

The only issue that Spence’s new ad deals with is economics, and Spence’s chief portrayal of himself as a creator
of “hundreds of jobs.”

He bought Alpha Packaging, then a small plastic-packaging business, in 1984 and sold most of the interest to a
private equity firm in 2010. By then, Alpha had expanded to annual revenues of about $200 million, with 800
employees

Although it’s his third ad, this ad is more like the traditional first ad that a candidate often airs to introduce him
or her to the public.

Even Nixon, who has been in public office more than 20 years, has deployed feel-good biographical spots –
notably one in 2008 that showed him driving around his home turf in Jefferson County, talking into the camera.

Such an ad is aimed at humanizing a candidate, and giving the viewer a sense of what makes that person tick.

"Our latest television ad really shows the Dave Spence that the people of Missouri are connecting with as he
travels the state and meets them in person,” said campaign manager Jared Craighead.

“When Dave first announced his candidacy, people focused on the end result of his incredible success in
businessand creating jobs, but the real story that everyday people want to understand is how he got to where he
is today. And that is a story of hard work, determination, and truly living the American Dream.”
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Biographical spots also tend to be the least controversial ads, unless a candidate of his campaign misrepresents
something about their background. In this case, there's no mention of his time at Mizzou.
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'Your Votes Count' may defer initiative if legislators show
'more deference' to the public
In Backroom

By Jo Mannies, Beacon political reporter

5:41 pm on Tue, 03.20.12

Leaders of an effort to make it more difficult for the Missouri General Assembly to overturn the results of
initiative petition drives say they might drop their latest campaign if state legislators would show a bit more
“deference’’ to the public.

Dane Waters, campaign director for Your Votes Count, said that the campaign is continuing to collect signatures
for its initiative-petition effort – a proposed constitutional amendment to require a three-fourths vote in both
the state House and the Senate, or another vote by the public, to repeal or amend any voter-approved initiative.

Activists need roughly 160,000 signatures to get the proposal on this fall’s ballot. Signatures must be turned in by
May 6.

But Waters confirmed that lawyers and the campaign leaders – including state Rep. Scott Sifton, D-Affton, and
former Lt. Gov. Joe Maxwell, a Democrat – have tried to see if there might be common ground that could result
in a compromise.

If an agreement is reached, Waters said, the initiative petition drive might be put on hold.

“This has never been a campaign to bash legislators,’’ Waters said. “There’s always a possibility that we would
revisit the campaign, if the legislature would make it clear that they understood they needed to give greater
deference to the voters on issues they care about.”

The initiative-petition effort has been prompted by legislators’ changes to 2010’s Proposition B, which imposed
restrictions on puppy mills and was narrowly approved in a statewide vote. Rural legislators were incensed by
some provisions and got some changed in 2011.

But backers also cite earlier legislative overhauls, which include approving concealed-carry four years after
Missouri voters rejected it, and eliminating campaign-donation limits, which had been approved the voters in the
early 1990s and eliminated by the General Assembly (with support of then-Gov. Matt Blunt) in 2007.

State Rep. Tim Jones, R-Eureka, said in an interview earlier this week that he hears comments from voters
concerned that more than 40 initiative petitions currently are being circulated.

But Jones noted that only a handful get enough certified signatures to get on the ballot. And he predicts the
same will be true this year as well.
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Lembke files for re-election in 1st Senate District, won't be
challenging Schmitt
In Backroom

By Jason Rosenbaum, special to the Beacon Jo Mannies, Beacon political reporter

12:34 pm on Tue, 03.20.12

State Sen. Jim Lembke, who had been publicly pondering a challenge to fellow Republican Eric Schmitt, instead
filed today to run in his redrawn 1st District in south St. Louis County.

The new 1st will be far more Democratic-leaning than the current one.

Lembke, R-Lemay, said in an interview that his decision stemmed from an encouraging meeting he had Monday
night with state Senate Republican leaders, who assured him that his re-election bid in the 1st "will be a top
priority."

"They're going to have targeted races,'' Lembke said, and he wanted to make sure the 1st was one of them. The
new 1st will take in parts of Webster Groves, Rock Hill and Maplewood -- not necessarily GOP country.

Two Democrats – former Reps. Sue Schoemehl, D-Oakville, and Michael Vogt, D-St. Louis – already have filed to
run for the seat.

Lembke said he plans to spend a lot of time "knocking on doors'' in the new parts of his district.

His optimism about his re-election chances also stem from the fact surveys indicate he has strong name ID,
Lembke said.

His campaign took a picture of Lembke formally filing, shortly after 10 a.m. this morning.

Along with Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, Lembke was one of the chief critics of the new state Senate
map adopted by a bipartisan commission. While Lembke's seat was made more Democratic, Cunningham’s
district was moved to Kansas City. She has told the Beacon that she is still considering her options.

As for Lembke, his other option had been to challenge Schmitt – who has amassed a huge financial stash for his
re-election bid in the 15th District in central St. Louis County. Schmitt currently has no Democratic or Republican
opponent.

Lembke won election to the 1st District in 2008 by a very narrow margin, beating former state Rep. Joan Barry, D-
Oakville. He has made waves in the Missouri Senate by championing changes to the Missouri nonpartisan court
plan, as well as temporarily blocking extension of unemployment benefits.
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Mar 20, 7:21 PM EDT




Mo. Gov. Nixon releases $1.6M in budget cuts



JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Gov. Jay Nixon's administration confirmed Tuesday that it released $1.6 million
previously trimmed from the current year's budgets for social service programs, firefighter training and the state
Senate.

Nixon budget director Linda Luebbering said $1.2 million was released for domestic violence shelters, crisis care
services for children and Area Agencies on Aging. Another $200,000 was released each for firefighter training and
the operations of the state Senate.

Luebbering said the budget cuts were reversed earlier this month. The Columbia Daily Tribune first reported
Tuesday about the budget restorations for the social services programs.

The Democratic governor cut $172 million while approving the Missouri budget that took effect this past July.

Nixon released $471,000 for the state's 10 Area Agencies on Aging, $400,000 for crisis care services for children
up to 17 years old who are at risk for abuse or neglect and $356,000 for grants to more than 70 domestic
violence shelters. The governor in August also restored part of his funding cuts for those social services
programs, and they now will receive the full amount budgeted by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

The funding released this month restores the entire cut to firefighter training and half of Nixon's $400,000 cut for
the state Senate.

Luebbering said the budget moves are not part of a broader effort to restore Nixon's other spending cuts.
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House budget proposal comes with no higher ed cuts
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 | 10:40 p.m. CDT; updated 11:33 p.m. CDT, Tuesday, March 20, 2012
BY Jordan Shapiro/Missouri Digital News

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri's House gave initial approval to the state's $24 billion operating budget Tuesday with
level funding for higher education and cuts to health care for people who are blind.

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City, said the House should be proud of the
budget they passed.

"We have produced another balanced budget for the state of Missouri," Silvey said.

Missouri started the budget process with a $500 million shortfall from last year because of the expiration of
federal stimulus funds and a decrease in the federal government's reimbursement rate for Medicaid costs.

The cuts left some Democrats calling for more revenue as the budget was debated.

Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said this budget reflected a choice between higher education and social services
programs caused by a reluctance to raise taxes.

"We are making false choices because we have not addressed the revenue stream," Lampe said.

Silvey said the House did the best they could with a certain amount of money.

"A lot of people in this chamber wish we had more money, but the fact of the matter is that we don't ... we have
to deal with the now," Silvey said.

Gov. Jay Nixon originally proposed a 15 percent cut to public universities from the last fiscal year in his budget
plan. The House was able to reverse those cuts with money from a national mortgage settlement, an action
Nixon proposed, and cuts to state welfare programs.

One of the major cuts used to boost higher education came from a program called the Supplemental Aid to the
Blind. The program pays the health expenses for 2,800 people who are blind and make too much money to
qualify for Medicaid. Blindness is the only condition to have such a fund. The program costs $28 million per year,
or $10,000 per person.

Democrats made one attempt to restore money to the program for the blind. Lampe offered an amendment to
take $2 million away from a program to drug test welfare recipients and put those funds into the program to help
the blind.

In 2011, Nixon signed a bill requiring Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients to take a drug test if
they were suspected of using controlled substances by a social worker.
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"This is our opportunity as a body to turn around somewhat on the cuts to the blind," said Rep. Chris Kelly, D-
Columbia.

The amendment was defeated with a bipartisan vote. Silvey said the people in the program for the blind would
now be treated like any other person with a disability and would still receive an additional $700 a month from
the Blind Pension Fund, which is paid for with the only statewide property tax.

While the House gave initial approval to the budget with the cuts to the program for the blind, Senate President
Pro Tem Rob Mayer, R-Dexter, said the Senate does not approve of cutting funds for the program. Nixon also has
publicly campaigned against the cuts and released a statement calling the program's elimination "just plain
wrong."

Silvey said the governor's rhetoric on the cuts to the program for the blind were "inflammatory" and said the
effects of eliminating the program have been "wildly exaggerated."

Silvey and Kelly added at least $6 million in another fund that provides services to the blind during the budget
committee mark-up process. Some of those funds are contingent on the passage of a bill eliminating a sales tax
exemption for newspapers.

Democrats also offered an amendment to allow the Department of Social Services to accept a $50 million grant
to upgrade the state's computer system to determine Medicaid eligibility. Silvey said this amendment was an
effort to "pave the way" for the implementation of the federal health care in Missouri by upgrading computers to
accommodate a health insurance exchange.

"This would enact Obamacare through the back door and call it a computer upgrade," Silvey said.

Kelly supported the amendment and said this was the "greatest tragedy we are not doing this year." He said
there is nothing in the grant's regulation that requires the state to set up a health exchange, which allows people
to compare prices of different insurance providers. The exchange is mandated in the federal health care law's
Affordable Care Act.

The amendment to accept the grant upgrading the computer system failed by a vote of 92 to 58, along mostly
party lines.

The $24 billion total for Missouri's fiscal year 2013 budget is $1 billion more than the fiscal 2012 budget. This
number, however, does not reflect an increase in state spending. Silvey and the House Budget Committee
removed most of the "estimated" appropriations from the budget and inserted more accurate numbers of
government spending.

"It increases transparency for what we were already spending," Silvey said.

In previous years the estimated figures, usually used for federal grant money, only accounted for $1 in the state's
total budget. Now, those numbers reflect the actual amount of money the state department spends, leading to
the appearance of a $1 billion total increase.
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The budget needs one more vote in the House before it is considered by the Senate. The budget must be sent to
the governor's desk by May 11.
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Mo. House debates budget
BY ELIZABETH CRISP • stltoday.com | Posted: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 10:30 pm |


JEFFERSON CITY • The Missouri House has given initial approval to a $24 billion spending plan that would
eliminate a long-standing health care program for blind Missourians.

House members worked past 9:30 pm. Tuesday, reviewing bills that will serve as a framework for the state
budget for the coming year.

The budget is expected to come up for final approval on the House floor Thursday, then the legislation will move
to the Senate for review.

In a discussion that stretched for more than five hours, House members made only a few tweaks to the Budget
Committee’s proposals.

If approved, the spending plan would take $28 million from a health care program for blind people who do not
qualify for Medicaid and put that money toward higher education. About 2,800 people are currently on the
health care program.

At the beginning of the debate, Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, called the budget situation “horrible” and urged
lawmakers to be more open to looking for opportunities to increase revenue.

“Not only do we have less money in the state budget, but we have a situation in which we have higher education
funding against (health care),” she said.

The House proposal would fully fund higher education and give an additional $5 million plus $1 increase to
elementary and secondary education.

Gov. Jay Nixon’s budget recommendation included a $5 million increase for K-12 but would have cut higher ed.
Nixon, a Democrat, has said he will fight to protect the blind health care program.

Democratic Rep. Terry Swinger, an optometrist from Caruthersville, said he has “a dear friend” who is blind who
has asked him repeatedly about threats to the program.

“When this first came up she called me and said, ‘Will this happen? Will this health care be taken away from
me?’” he said.

He told her he didn’t think the Legislature would eliminate the program, he said.

Now, he hopes the Senate will be able to restore the funding.

“There are many, many reasons to do it,” he said.
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The blind population has a 70 percent unemployment rate.

“It’s nearly impossible to get health care coverage when you’re blind,” Swinger said.

Many would be left with no where else to turn other than nursing homes or emergency rooms for basic health
coverage, he said.

Budget Committee Chair Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City, said he would prefer a program that is “means tested.”

The blind health care program is available to people who have to much income to qualify for Medicaid, but there
are some restrictions. Recipients cannot have more than $20,000 in assets (excluding the homes they live in), and
they cannot have sighted spouses who work.

A single blind or disabled person would have to make less than $9,495 a year to qualify for Medicaid.

Silvey noted that there are no programs to provide similar coverage beyond Medicaid for people with any other
disability.

“You’ve got one particular program that treats one disability so different than everybody else,” he said.

If the blind program is eliminated, “You would simply be treated like any other disability,” he said.

Still, the budget proposal makes way for a transitional program for blind individuals who are “on the bubble” –
unable to qualify for Medicaid but not still in need of aid, he noted.

Nixon said he would not support any cuts to the program.

“Basically, none” of the people who rely on it have other alternatives for health care coverage, he said after a
rally last week.

Silvey said he would listen to other suggestions for how the program should be funded but it will not be at the
expense of higher education.

“I’m done with that,” he said.

Despite the cuts in some areas, the House's $24 billion budget proposal includes a 2 percent raise for state
employees who make less than $70,000.

Silvey said he thinks that it’s important for the state to provide raises because of how low state employees’
salaries are.

“In many cases they are among the lowest in the country,” he said.
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Sales tax proposal to develop Arch grounds still has many
hurdles
In Region

By Jason Rosenbaum, special to the Beacon Jo Mannies, Beacon political reporter

1:25 pm on Tue, 03.20.12

House Majority Leader Tim Jones is pushing back against assertions that a proposal providing voters in the St.
Louis area a chance to raise sales taxes to improve, among other things, the St. Louis Arch grounds was done
clandestinely.
While the Eureka Republican has expressed support for a parks sales tax, St. Charles County Executive Steve
Ehlmann has sharply criticized it and Gov. Jay Nixon remains non-committal.
A public-private partnership, The City + The Arch + The River 2015, has led the efforts to renovate the Arch
grounds by the monument's 50th birthday in 2015. Most attention has focused on federal and private funds for
the $578 million project. A plan to increase the sales tax marks the first time local taxpayers have been asked to
contribute to the project.
The proposal – placed on as an amendment to a bill in the Missouri House dealing with local sales taxes – would
allow the St. Louis Board of Aldermen and the county councils in St. Louis County and St. Charles County to put a
sales tax increase on that ballot. Rep. Anne Zerr, R-St. Charles, sponsored the amendment. The bill passed the
House in early March by a vote of 133-17.
Ryan McClure, the communications director of City Arch River, said that 60 percent of the proceeds would to the
Great Rivers Greenway, while 40 percent would go to local parks.
The money going to Great Rivers Greenway, he said, would be used for “enhancements” on the Arch grounds
and developing trails throughout the region.
“Great Rivers Greenway [is] set up in a way where it can work with any local government agency in their
jurisdiction,” McClure said. “The way the legislation is set up, it’ll also be able to work with any U.S. government
jurisdiction, so that would mean the National Parks Service. The park services are allowed to accept money from
agencies like (Great Rivers). And it would be more enhancements on the Arch grounds, not maintenance.”
McClure said the sales tax increase would generate about $11.5 million a year for the Arch grounds if voters in all
three jurisdictions approve the measure. He said about $15 million would go toward local parks.

Mixed reactions from officials

The legislature often passes bills allowing local governments to put tax increases on the ballot. But in a statement
to the Beacon, St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann said this plan amounts to a “bailout” of the federal
government.
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 “We knew that this proposal would be brought to the General Assembly, and we expected the bill to be filed and
for the public to be given an opportunity to be heard in a committee hearing,” Ehlmann said. “Instead this was
inserted into a bill on the floor of the House and passed with no public hearing. And from what have been told,
there was no discussion.”
St. Charles County spokesman John Sonderegger said Ehlmann has been talking with St. Charles’ lawmakers
about the legislation, adding that the former state senator is “not in favor of the bill at all.” Neither Senate
Majority Leader Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, nor state Sen. Scott Rupp, R-Wentzville, returned messages for
comment on the bill.
But Jones said the measure passed “in the form of an amendment debated on the House floor." He added he was
“bemused’’ by the press coverage that implied secrecy about the provision.
Jones said the matter was openly debated on the floor, and members were well aware of what they were voting
on.
“I don’t see the ‘cloak and dagger’ element,” he said. “There was no secrecy whatsoever to the measure.”
Jones said he supports the tax proposal since the Arch and its grounds represent “our key tourism area” that he
said must be maintained and improved.
Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer, R-Dexter, said he hasn’t taken a close look at the proposal. While he said
that he’s supported bills in the past that allowed local jurisdictions to vote on sales taxes, he added, "At this
point, I really don’t have a sense of what the Senate might do with that bill.”
“I haven’t had the opportunity to study that provision,” he said. “So at this point, I couldn’t even tell you where I
might be personally on that provision.”
Of course, the proposal could change significantly even if it passes the Missouri Senate. And it would still need
Nixon's approval.
 “I know the measure; it was not discussed too much when it was one of the provisions in the House,” Nixon said
last week at the Boys and Girls Club. “We’ll see what happens when it gets over to the Senate.”
Nixon noted that the Missouri Department of Transportation had “worked hard” to get funding for a “lid,"
covering the depressed Interstate 70 highway lanes and connecting downtown to the Arch. That aspect of the
project was noted numerous times during a ceremony last year at the Old Court House.
 “We’ve worked hard on those dollars and we’ll continue to get that done,” Nixon said. “Whether this is the right
method for long-range planning, I don’t know. We’ll look at it as we move into the last eight or nine weeks of the
session.”

St. Louis County is 'critical'

McClure said the proposal doesn’t require approval from all three jurisdictions to go into effect. If St. Louis and
St. Louis County voters approve the sales tax and St. Charles County voters rejected it, the plan could go still go
forward with a smaller amount of money.
But Tom Irwin, the executive director of Civic Progress, said getting St. Louis County voters to approve the
proposal is essential. Even if St. Charles County and St. Louis voters pass the proposal, without St. Louis County
the tax wouldn't generate enough revenue.
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Mac Scott, a spokesman for St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley, said Dooley thinks the project is “of
regional and national importance.”
“It’s very important,” Scott said. “He’s glad that if things progress positively, this will be something that the
voters will be able to decide.”
Some wonder if the sales tax proposal could provide a dedicated funding stream to St. Louis County parks. Parks
funding has been a major source of contention between Dooley and the St. Louis County Council.
Several council members, including Councilman Steve Stenger, D-Affton, have stated they would oppose any tax
increase. Asked if the local parks issue could jeopardize the proposal if it goes before the St. Louis County
Council, Irwin said, “I honestly don’t know.”
“I have an extraordinary amount of respect for the county executive and the members of the St. Louis County
Council, many of whom I know pretty well,” Irwin said. “And what that really means is that … we’ll have the
opportunity to make the case. But ultimately they get to decide. We harbor no illusions about this being an easy
path. We know it’s a difficult task.”
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Senate debates security at Missouri Capitol
Jason Hancock

The Kansas City Star

JEFFERSON CITY Legislation that would require the installation new video surveillance cameras to monitor
hallways around the Missouri Capitol was debated for more than an hour in the Senate Tuesday, although a vote
was not taken.

The bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Robin Wright-Jones of St. Louis, came in response to a pair of threats
against lawmakers earlier this year. Currently, cameras are strategically placed at various entrances and around
the governor’s office. But there are no cameras monitoring the long hallways inside the Capitol where legislative
offices are located.

Lawmakers, employees and visitors enter and exit through numerous unlocked doors without passing through
any visible security measures. Armed Capitol Police patrol inside and outside the building.

Wright-Jones said security issues not only effect lawmakers, but also visitors to the Capitol from around the state
-- including school groups.

"I want this building to be open to the public, since the Capitol truly belongs to them," Wright-Jones said. "But
you can't walk into many public buildings without going through some type of security. I think we need to do
something to ensure the safety of everyone here."

Visitors to the state Capitols in Iowa and Kansas are funneled through metal detectors and X-ray scanners. At city
hall in Kansas City, visitors are limited to one of three entrances and must pass through metal detectors.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, more than half of state capitols across the country
use metal detectors.

Brent Brown, chairman and CEO of the security firm Chesley Brown International, criticized security at the
Missouri Capitol last month in an interview with The Star. He said most doorways should become “exit only” and
metal detectors and cameras need to be installed.

Sen. Kevin Engler, a Farmington Republican, slammed Wright-Jones' bill and urged lawmakers to oppose it. He
said it is not prudent to spend money on additional Capitol security while the state is facing a budget shortfall,
pointing specifically at a House proposal that would cut funding for a health care program for the blind.

"I've always felt perfectly safe here," Engler said.

Several other senators voiced opposition to the bill, and after a little more than an hour Wright-Jones requested
debate end before a vote was taken.
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Sen. Jolie Justus, a Kansas City Democrat, said she hoped Tuesday's debate would spur additional conversation
down the road about how to improve security at the Capitol, regardless of the success of Wright-Jones' bill.
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Missouri House passes bill that would allow Columbia hotel
tax increase
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 | 5:29 p.m. CDT; updated 9:24 p.m. CDT, Tuesday, March 20, 2012

BY Laura D'Angelo

COLUMBIA — If the Missouri General Assembly passes a bill allowing the city to place an increase in the city
lodging tax on a future ballot, the Columbia City Council probably will be in no rush to do so.

City Manager Mike Matthes and Mayor Bob McDavid have floated the idea of increasing Columbia's tax on hotel
and motel rooms to 7 percent, up from the current 4 percent, and using the extra revenue to pay for a better
terminal building at Columbia Regional Airport.

The idea would be subject to voter approval. Columbia Public Communications Director Toni Messina, however,
said the tax question probably won't appear on a ballot until the city arranges flights to more destinations.

The Missouri House of Representatives passed House Bill 1431 earlier this month. The bill originally focused on
extending a tax exemption for the sale of jet fuel until 2023. Rep. Stephen Webber, D-Columbia, shepherded an
amendment through the House that authorizes Columbia to seek a higher lodging tax.

"I think the important thing is that (voters) realize that they have the control of this," Webber said. "If we
authorize it, and the voters say no, then the voters say no."

The state Senate has yet to take any action on the bill. Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, also emphasized that if
the bill is approved, Columbia voters still would have the final say.

"It's not the General Assembly telling them what they have to do; It's giving the municipality the ability to take it
to the people," he said.

City officials announced on March 2 that Delta Air Lines Inc. would begin offering daily flights between Columbia
and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on June 7, while continuing two flights per day to and from
Memphis International Airport. Messina said the city isn't finished looking for destinations.

"We're continuing to hunt for more places to fly to, and I think once we get maybe another two or even three
more destinations, it will be time to see how well the terminal is serving the flying public and then make a
decision about putting (the lodging tax) proposal on the ballot," Messina said.

"We certainly want to be able to attract more businesses to the area, and one of the things that is really
important to businesses is their ability to get quick air service to the destinations they need," Messina said.

Representatives of the local lodging industry have opposed the idea of a higher tax on hotel and motel rooms,
saying it could drive away customers.
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Messina said there is a lot of room for potential growth in the number of travelers now that MU has joined the
Southeastern Conference.
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Ethics commission dismisses complaints against city police
union official

BY JAKE WAGMAN • stltoday.com | Posted: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 10:45 am |

ST. LOUIS • The top official of the city's police union did not violate any lobbying regulations while attempting to
influence the Legislature on local control issues, the state Ethics Commission has ruled.

In a letter posted on the commission's website Monday, the agency said it had dismissed a complaint against Jeff
Roorda, business manager for the St. Louis Police Officers Association.

Roorda was a steady presence in Jefferson City last year as the officers' association, in a reversal of their previous
stance, urged passage of a bill that would have transferred power over the police department from the state to
City Hall.

The complaint against Roorda pertained to the association's support of SB 23, the Senate local control bill
sponsored by St. Louis Democrat Joe Keaveny.

According to the Ethics Commission, Roorda had been accused in a complaint of failing to register as a lobbyist as
he pushed for the bill, and failing to report lobbyist expenditures made on behalf of legislators, as the law
requires.

But whoever filed the complaint — the Ethics Commission letter doesn't say — did not do their homework.

Under Missouri law, union officers are exempt from lobbyist registration.

The Ethics Commission also writes that a review of documents from the police officers association revealed no
spending on lawmakers "for the purpose of attempting to influence the passage of SB23."

The complaint against Roorda offers some insight into the Ethics Commission complaint process. There has been
no action on SB23 since May, meaning it might have taken as long as 10 months for the under-staffed watchdog
group to research an ultimately baseless complaint.

Who would have a grudge against the police officers' association is unclear. However, Roorda, an ex-police chief
and former state lawmaker, may have some adversaries of his own.

The Barnhart Democrat will be on the ballot again in 2012, attempting to get back in the state House after losing
his seat in a strong Republican year in 2010.
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KC school district taking over Afrikan Centered campus
By MARÁ ROSE WILLIAMS

The Kansas City Star


Kansas City Public Schools said Tuesday that it would take control of the Afrikan Centered Education Collegium
Campus at the end of the school year, ending a long, up-and-down relationship with the program’s leaders.

ACE supporters and parents vowed to fight the decision.

“We are committed to making sure that we are here in the fall as the Afrikan-centered collegium campus,” said
Ajamu Webster, chairman of the ACE board.

The district said it would not renew its contract with Afrikan Centered Education Task Force Inc. because the
arrangement has become “financially, operationally and practically unfeasible.”

Instead, the district will run the program under a new name: African-Centered College Preparatory Academy.

“This has nothing to do with the academics at ACE; it has to do with the finance piece,” said Eileen Houston-
Stewart, a district spokeswoman.

The district said it was sending letters Tuesday to current program students and parents. The school will continue
to operate at the former Southeast High School campus, and ACE staff members “will be encouraged to apply for
employment with KCPS as those positions are posted,” the district said.

As a contract school, the ACE campus is a public school whose students are considered part of the district, but
the school controls its staffing and curriculum. The African-centered model covers the same college-prep-
oriented standards as other district schools but with an emphasis on African culture and perspective.

ACE leaders met Tuesday night with more than 100 parents in the auditorium of the Upper Campus building at
3500 E. Meyer Blvd.

Leaders repeatedly mentioned that the Kansas City district lost its accreditation in January and told parents they
should “push back” against the district’s move.

“I don’t want someone who is not able to manage other schools to come in here and turn this school into what
their other schools are,” Audrey Bullard, dean of the Afrikan-centered campus, told the gathering.

“After 24 years of us running a successful African-centered education movement in this city, the Kansas City
School District wants to come in here and say that they can do it better,” she said. “What can they do for your
children?”
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Webster called for parents to sign petitions and circulate them in the community to tell state Education
Commissioner Chris Nicastro that they support a state takeover of the Kansas City district.

He said a contingent of African-centered education advocates would be in Jefferson City today to talk with
Nicastro and push for a state takeover.

Under current law, the district has until June 2014 to regain accreditation, be taken over by the state or be
dissolved. Legislative proposals in Jefferson City could speed up that timetable.

“All of us together are a mighty force and we are going to let them know how we feel,” Webster said, and the
room erupted in applause.

After parents participated in a chant, ACE board member Linwood Tauheed said, “It is that spirit that will prevent
them from running over us. They can’t run their own business.”

Parents said they were angry about the takeover decision.

“I think this school is doing a great job,” said Letha Byers, who has two children at the ACE campus. “I think that
the district should explore what they are doing here and expand it to their other schools not try and take this one
over.”

Others said they didn’t want their children attending a school operated by the district.

“That is why I drive all the way from 6th and Brooklyn, because I didn’t want my daughter going to a Kansas City-
run school,” said Alexandria Sharp-Johnson. “If they take it over it won’t be the same school.”

ACE Task Force officials and the Kansas City district had been in contract negotiations since late last year. District
officials said ACE has been aware of the contract breakdown since December, when interim Superintendent
Steve Green first told ACE its contract would not be renewed.

After pressure from several community members speaking on behalf of the program, Green said the district
might be willing to maintain the contract but only if the district had financial control.

The leadership change marks the latest upheaval in the tenuous relationship between district officials and
advocates of African-centered education. Supporters had struggled since the 1980s to establish a K-12 program.

ACE initially found success in J.S. Chick Elementary School. In 2007, ACE opened as a magnet school campus at
the former Southeast High and two neighboring schools.

New disputes arose, particularly after then-Superintendent John Covington announced in 2010 that ACE would
have to consolidate from three buildings into one as part of his massive round of school closings.

The district worked out a deal, giving the African-centered program autonomy to manage its finances on a per-
pupil basis, and the program opted to continue using three buildings.
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Earlier this year, ACE took the district to court over what it claimed was an unmet $1 million contractual
obligation in per-pupil payments and in financing special education and food service. But a Jackson County jury
this month ruled in favor of the district.
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St. Louis Public Schools get offers for vacant buildings for
sale
BY ELISA CROUCH • stltoday.com | Posted: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 12:05 am |


ST. LOUIS • St. Louis Public Schools has begun selling and accepting offers from a wide range of groups interested
in transforming vacant school buildings from neighborhood eyesores into functioning facilities.

On Tuesday, the school district closed on the Garfield School at 3200 Texas Avenue, selling it for $350,000 to
Peter and Paul Community Services, according to the nonprofit organization, which has plans to turn the former
elementary school in Benton Park West into apartments for the chronically homeless.

And in recent weeks, the school system has put under contract or sold six other empty buildings, including
Gardenville School at 6651 Gravois Avenue, which officials have agreed to sell to Concept Schools, a nonprofit
charter school operator. The company operates Gateway Science Academy, a charter elementary and middle
school in south St. Louis, and intends to renovate the Gardenville building into a K-12 school, starting this fall
with K-5, a company representative said Tuesday. Concept will buy the building for almost $1.2 million, he said.

In recent years, St. Louis school officials have come under increasing pressure to sell the district's 40-plus vacant
school buildings rather than hold onto them in hopes that some day the district's enrollment would rebound.

As students have left for the suburbs — and more recently to charter schools — the district's student population
has fallen from its peak of 115,543 in 1967 to about 24,000 this year. In the last eight years, 43 city school
buildings have been vacated, leaving about 68 occupied.

In Jefferson City last month, state Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, asked Rick Sullivan, head of the school
district's Special Administrative Board, why more of the empty buildings aren't being sold to charter schools. The
school district reversed its policy against selling buildings to charters in 2009. But until the district accepted
Concept's offer to buy Gardenville — after initially rejecting lesser offers from the charter school organization —
the school system had not knowingly sold any of its buildings to charters.

"If you're not using them, it sure would behoove you all financially to allow another public school to use those,"
Cunningham said, during a legislative hearing on the status of St. Louis Public Schools.

"Buildings are on the market for sale," Sullivan responded, "but many are finding these buildings don't serve their
purpose. We're being aggressive as we can in selling them."

Last spring, Superintendent Kelvin Adams said, "To do nothing is not an option" in regard to the empty buildings.
Shortly thereafter, the district's real estate brokers at Hilliker Corp. began holding tours of the empty schools
looking for buyers.
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"We've brought in developers from out of town, from in town, shopped them any way we can," said Peter
Newton, a Hilliker broker.

As a result, the old Scrubbs Elementary, 4611 South Grand Boulevard, has been sold to an organization with
plans to use it as an Asian cultural center and Buddhist temple, Newton said.

Also under contract is the old Central High School — the dilapidated building at 3616 North Garrison Avenue that
has become the target of vandals and looters over the years but now may become a multifamily development.
The Mark Twain School, at 5316 Ruskin Avenue, is also under contract for use as affordable housing, according to
the school district. The contracted sales amount was not disclosed. Baden School, 8724 Halls Ferry Road, is under
contract for use as a community center. And finally, the Dunbar Branch, 3018 Brantner Place, is under contact for
use as a community health center.

According to St. Louis Public Schools, a closing date for the buildings under contract is planned for the end of
summer.
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Rate increase would be Ameren's fifth in six years
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
By Melissa Miller ~ Southeast Missourian

Luther Haynes has tried and tried to lower his electric bill. He installed a new energy-efficient furnace for his
Cape Girardeau home. He switched to compact fluorescent light bulbs. He unplugged everything that he wasn't
using.

Instead of lowering his bill, he's watched it continue to increase.

Every month, since 2008, he updates a spreadsheet tracking his energy usage and Ameren Missouri rates per
kilowatt-hour. He's watched his usage go down, while his total bill kept going up.

When he heard of the investor-owned utility's latest proposal to increase rates by 14 percent, he was enraged.

If Ameren's $376 million rate request is approved by the Missouri Public Service Commission, it will be the fifth
increase in six years.

"I say that it's time for the Ameren Missouri company to have a wage freeze from the upper management to the
CEO," Haynes said.

Haynes isn't alone. Over the past few years, scores of customers have expressed their ire at Ameren's frequent
requests for rate increases.

The PSC has granted Ameren the following base rate increases since 2007:

August 2007: $42,788,000

March 2009: $161,709,000

June 2010: $229,600,000

August 2011: $173,225,000

Ameren contends the latest rate increase is needed to cover higher fuel costs, infrastructure improvements to
help prevent power outages, higher costs for energy-efficiency programs, and increasing costs to meet
renewable energy requirements and provide employee benefits, according to its website.

The Public Service Commission has 11 months to review Ameren's request and will hold public hearings in July
and August around the state, said Kevin Kelly, spokesman for the PSC, which regulates investor-owned utilities in
Missouri.

Among those companies, Ameren has the lowest residential cost per kilowatt-hour, according to PSC data.
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Ameren's current rate is 8.67 cents per kilowatt-hour but would go up to 9.94 cents if its proposed rate increase
is approved. Other investor-owned utility rates include Empire District Electric Co., based in Joplin, Mo., at 10.57
cents per kilowatt-hour and Kansas City Power & Light, at 10.04 cents.

Ameren is near the bottom among Southeast Missouri utility companies when it comes to rates as well.

SEMO Electric Cooperative, based in Sikeston, Mo., charges less than Ameren, with a rate of 8.3 cents per
kilowatt-hour. The city of Jackson's rate is slightly higher than Ameren, at 8.9 cents per kilowatt-hour. Citizens
Electric Corporation, based in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., is the highest in the region with a rate of 10.02 per kilowatt-
hour.

Citizens Electric is preparing to raise rates in May by one-third of a cent per kilowatt-hour. Its base charge will
also go up $1 per month. The company's last rate increase was in May 2010.

Rates for electric cooperatives, like Citizens Electric and SEMO Electric, aren't regulated by the Missouri Public
Service Commission. They are set by the cooperative's board of directors, who are elected at its annual
shareholder meeting.

"Since power supply is our greatest cost, projected generation costs for the next year are the driving force when
establishing rates," said Barb Casper, spokeswoman for Citizens Electric.

About 80 percent of every dollar her company spends goes toward purchasing power, she said.

Citizens gets its power from Wabash Valley Power Association, a not-for-profit generation and transmission
cooperative based in Indianapolis, Ind. Wabash Valley Power Association provides power to 27 cooperatives in
Missouri, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio.

Jackson is one of few utilities that has lowered its rates in recent years, according to Don Schuette, director of
electric utilities for the city.

While the city-owned utility can produce its own electricity, for the past several years it has been buying power
through the Missouri Public Energy Pool, a coalition of more than 30 cities that contracts to purchase bulk
electricity.

"Right now you can buy it cheaper than we can produce it, so the wise thing to do then is buy the power,"
Schuette said.

Following a cost-of-service analysis in 2010, the Jackson Board of Aldermen restructured its electric rates --
switching from three rates based on usage ranging from 13.4 to 9.4 cents per kilowatt-hour to a flat rate of 8.9
cents. The lower rate took effect in February 2011 and did not change for 2012.

As a whole, Missouri was ranked 14th based on average residential electric rates, according to the U.S. Energy
Information Administration in 2010. The state's average rate was 9.11 cents per kilowatt-hour.
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Environmental regulations to reduce air pollution, upgrades to aging infrastructure and increasing fuel costs are
all making electricity more costly to produce.

While electric customers are paying more, natural gas customers have seen significant savings over the last
several months.

Natural gas futures have dropped 44.8 percent in the past year, according to the New York Mercantile
commodities exchange. Both residents who use natural gas for heating and cooking and manufacturers of
plastics and chemicals have benefited from lower gas prices as a result of new drilling techniques allowing
companies to tap supplies they were previously unable to access.
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Mo., Ill. attorney general offices sue tax preparation
business
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
By Erin Ragan ~ Southeast Missourian

Missouri and Illinois are cracking down on a national tax preparation chain known to target low-income
individuals, alleging violations when it comes to refunds and hidden fees.

Attorneys general in both states have filed lawsuits against MoneyCo USA, also known as Mo' Money, which
operates tax preparation offices in 17 Midwestern and Southern states and Washington, D.C.

A lawsuit filed March 6 by Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster claims MoneyCo USA failed to distribute IRS
refunds to consumers and committed various other violations of state law. A similar case is in Illinois, where a
suit filed March 13 alleges Mo' Money charged hidden fees and filed returns with false information and no
authorization from taxpayers. News releases from both attorney general offices warn taxpayers to watch out for
common scams.

The Missouri suit includes allegations against the parent company and two St. Louis franchises. All of the
company's offices in the state are in St. Louis or surrounding areas, apart from an office at 630 Good Hope St. in
Cape Girardeau.

The Cape Girardeau office was closed Tuesday, and repeated calls to the office number were automatically
forwarded to a cellphone voicemail box that was stated to be full. A check with the Cape Girardeau business
license office found no license on file for the business, but a representative said seasonal tax preparation offices
sometimes get licensing from the state and aren't always required to apply for a license through the city.

No complaints have been filed with the county prosecuting attorney's office or Cape Girardeau police in
connection with MoneyCo USA's local office. Koster's office did not return a call Tuesday.

Alan Kridelbaugh, a certified tax fraud examiner and certified public accountant with Begley, Young, Unterreiner
& White in Cape Girardeau, warns against the use of tax refund anticipation programs through companies that
could have employees with a history of scamming consumers and little to no education on filing tax returns.

"Electronic filing has really opened up the door to make it easier for a lot of people to commit tax fraud," he said.
"And there are some things out there that can make an even bigger mess."

Kridelbaugh is currently helping a client who went to another tax preparer who turned in their tax forms with
$40,000 in itemized deductions when the taxpayer should have only qualified for a standard deduction. Those
scams are possible, he said, when tax preparers don't ask permission to submit itemized deductions, but do it
anyway and have the resulting refund money directed to their account.
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"There is an option on a form that allows a refund to be split between accounts," he said. "It could mean there is
$1,500 going in your account, and $2,000 going into another account that belongs to the tax preparer."

Keeping a signed copy of IRS form 8879 that will always match what the IRS has on file can help prove a refund
went to more than one account, Kridelbaugh said. Many times when this scam is committed, people won't know
for a while.

"They'll never figure it out unless the IRS contacts them and does an audit," he said.
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Southeast Missouri above state average for solving
homicides
Posted: Mar 20, 2012 6:40 PM CDT


(KFVS) - How easy is it to get away with murder in the Heartland? Highway patrol numbers from 2009 and 2010
put Missouri in line with national averages, around 60 percent solved.

Web extra: Murder statistics

Missouri Crime Index
Crime data


But how good are investigators in southeast Missouri? According to local authorities and major case squad
leaders, southeast Missouri is well above the average for solving homicides.
Why? It could be because both the people of our communities and our local authorities say they can't stand an
unsolved murder.
"Our rate is around 93 percent," said Lt. David James of the Cape County Major Case Squad.
Lt. James says the squad solved 41 cases since forming in 1983.
"We have a lot of community involvement," said Lt. James. "A lot more people come forward to help police."
Lt. James says people coming together contributes greatly to their efforts. he says the Jacque Waller case is a
perfect example. Yet it's one of three cases that remains unsolved.
"A lot of cases just take time," said Lt. James. "The CSI effect has had a lot to do with public opinion about how
fast a case should be solved."
In New Madrid County, Sheriff Terry Stevens says the Southeast Missouri Major Case Squad based in Sikeston,
New Madrid and Scott counties worked 12 homicides in 2001. Only one remains unsolved.
"I can think of a case where we worked 48 hours and went into the third day because we feel like that's just what
you have to do," said Sheriff Stevens. "I'm never surprised to the point that I think these things can't happen
here."
Sheriff Stevens believes hard work goes into solving cases here because many authorities are passionate about
serving their hometown communities. He says that's why he will stop at nothing to bring closure to cases in New
Madrid County, like the Scherer homicide of 1998.
"Are we closer than we were ten years ago, very much so," said Sheriff Stevens. "We however are not on the
verge of taking anybody into custody. I wish we were."
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MISSOURINET

Schweich won’t run for U.S. Senate in 2012, doesn’t know
what 2014 will bring (AUDIO)
March 20, 2012 By Jessica Machetta

State Auditor Tom Schweich will not seek election to the U.S. Senate … at least not this year.

He was elected to his first political office only 14 months ago. Before that, he served as a lawyer, ambassador and
cheif of staff for former Senator Danforth after the Branch Davidian seige. (See bio here.)

He says when he was elected as State Auditor, he made a promise to serve his term and said he would not leave
the office early to run against incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill.

“I think it’s best to keep that promise,” he says.

He also says he doesn’t feel joining an already crowded primary would strengthen the GOP’s position on
defeating her.

Schweich says he doesn’t yet know what the future might bring or what he’ll look forward to in the 2014 election
cycle, when his term is up.

“I get a lot of satisfaction out the job of being a state auditor,” he says, “ just as I did being a federal pros, just as I
did being a diplomat. Right now I’m pleased with what I’m doing, but I don’t know what the future might bring.”

Schweich was asked by Danforth and other key republican leaders to run for McCaskill’s seat. It’s an offer that …
at least for now … he’s said no to.


    AUDIO:
Jessica Machetta reports (1:07)
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House advances budget with few changes, blind cuts not
restored (AUDIO)
March 21, 2012 By Mike Lear

If funding is to be restored to a supplemental pension program for more than 2,800 blind in Missouri, it will likely
have to happen in the Senate.

House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey (photo courtesy, House Communications)

The House spent more than five hours debating the 13 bills that make up the $24 billion Fiscal Year 2013 budget
on Tuesday. In the few changes that were made, the $28 million dollars in the supplemental program for the
blind was not restored.

Representative Sara Lampe (D-Springfield) offered an amendment to take more than $1.1 million from drug
testing for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients and put it toward the blind program, but that was
defeated.

House Republicans opposed the amendment and it was defeated. Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey (R-
Kansas City) said, “It’s often said in the appropriations process that if you lose the fight on the policy, you can
always go after the money and de-fund it … This appears to me to be a second crack at defeating something that
was overwhelmingly approved and signed by the Governor.”

Other amendments had been drafted that would have restored the funding for the blind by other mechanisms,
but none were offered.

Among changes that were made…

An amendment was adopted to take $3 million out of a fund in the budget for the Department of Corrections
that some lawmakers said was being misused.

Representative Rodney Schad (R-Versailles) offered the amendment. He said that money was supposed to be
used to support vocational enterprises in the corrections system, buying things like farm equipment and seeds
and maintaining buildings, but that’s not what it’s been used for.

“We have spent $305,400 on uniforms and clothing, $303,000 for custodial supplies, $781,000 for clothing
supplies, $53,000 for laundry and linen supplies, $2,040 for personal care items. Nowhere in the statutes is that
allowed.”

Schad says his amendment will require all funds generated by Missouri vocational enterprises stay in that fund.

Mamtek reaches the budget debate
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Another amendment was adopted that stemmed from the failed Mamtek project in Moberly.

Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City) offered the proposal to shuffle around $50,000 of federal money in
the Department of Economic Development’s budget to create a position, who would be responsible for making
sure it is conducting due diligence investigation into applicants for tax credit benefits.

Barnes, who headed up the House Committee that studied the Mamtek deal, said he doesn’t believe the
Department will create such a position on its own. “They haven’t necessarily taken the responsibility for the
shortcomings involved in Mamtek that I would have hoped they’d take.”

The House is expected to vote on the budget on Thursday.


    AUDIO:
 Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey’s statement closing budget debate on the House Floor, 6:05
    AUDIO:
 Representative Sara Lampe’s statement opening budget debate on the House Floor, 2:43
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Capitol security debated (AUDIO)
March 20, 2012 By Bob Priddy

About six weeks after a half-dozen state lawmakers found orange gun sight cross-hair stickers on their office
nameplates, an effort has started to increase capitol security.

The person who put the stickers on the nameplates has not been found. Senator Robin Wright-Jones of St.
Louis, one of those who got one of the stickers, says the incident shows security cameras should be mounted in
the hallways and the state should be able to hire a private security company to supplement capitol police.

But other senators warn against over-reacting. And one, Senator Tim Green of Spanish Lake, thinks the present
capitol police force can adequately handle building security. He says private security people just walk around
and when there’s trouble, the call capitol police.

A private company ran metal detectors in the capitol for months after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the east. But
those operations later shut down because the state couldn’t afford them.

Jones has put her bill aside before getting it to a vote


     AUDIO: debate 29:23
    AUDIO: debate part 2 19:39


    AUDIO: debate, part 3 20:27
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BLOG ZONE

Schweich Backs Off GOP Senate Primary Bid
Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich flirted with, but backed away from running for the Republican nomination
for the US Senate.
"After several days of consultations with family, friends, and supporters, I have decided to continue my work as
Missouri Auditor – a job which I enjoy, and which allows me to make a positive contribution to the people of
Missouri every day. I will not enter the U.S. Senate primary", he said in a statement.
Schweich made the announcement through a statement Tuesday afternoon.
Several weeks ago, Schweich started speculation he was going to enter the primary. Several supporters, with
Schweich’s blessing, filed paperwork with the Internal Revenue Service to start raising money for his campaign.
The move triggered speculation that the current GOP Senate field of Rep. Todd akin, John Brunner and former
State Treasurer Sarah Steelman was not strong enough to take on Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill.
A recent poll shows McCaskill trailing all potential Republican opponents, including Schweich.
Schweich’s potential entry also sparked some angry words within the state GOP.
Today, Schweich indicated part of his decision to stay kit may be based on party unity.
"I further determined that my entry into the Senate race would make the GOP primary situation much more
contentious, and would, therefore, not increase the chances of defeating Claire McCaskill in November."
Unless there is another surprise before the late March filing deadline, the field of Akin, Brunner and Steelman
seems set for the August primary.

http://20poundsofheadlines.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/schweich-backs-off-gop-senate-primary-bid/
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Schweich gets cold feet
By DAVID CATANESE | POLITICO

3/20/12 3:18 PM EDT

The candidate Jack Danforth labeled as "the best qualified to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate" is taking a
pass on the race.
Republican Auditor Tom Schweich will not become the fourth contender in the fluid campaign to challenge Sen.
Claire McCaskill this fall.
He had been urged by a coterie of major donors and GOP players to enter the race.
In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Tuesday, Schweich said he worried that having a fourth candidate
"would add to the discord and acrimony and only increase chances of Claire McCaskill beating our nominee, and
that might well have been me."
That leaves former state treasurer Sarah Steelman as a marginal front runner in the fight for the GOP nomination
against businessman John Brunner and former Rep. Todd Akin. A Schweich candidacy could've been a boost to
Steelman's candidacy, pitting her as the sole woman against three St. Louis-area men.
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Missouri Budget Project Says It’s Now Bone on Bone
The head of the Missouri Budget Project, Amy Blouin says the budget Passed by the Missouri House today now
has some key state programs
Fighting each other for scare state money.
“The Missouri House gave first round approval to the state’s budget today, demonstrating the untenable fiscal
position of the state. With a more than $500 million revenue shortfall projected for the next fiscal year, budget
negotiations pit funding for higher education against funding for Medicaid for blind Missourians and funding for
K-12 Education was funded below statutory requirements for the third year in a row," Blouin said in Tuesday
statement.
Blouin’s Budget Project says the state’s taxes may be too low now for decent economic growth in the immediate
future.
"
Tax revenues as a portion of the economy are at their lowest levels in 30 years, and the state won’t achieve pre-
recession purchasing power for another 17 years," she said.


http://20poundsofheadlines.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/missouri-budget-project-says-its-now-bone-on-bone/
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Missouri Council for the Blind Launches Radio Campaign
Against House Budget ChairmN
The Missouri Council for the Ind is targeting House Budget Chairman Kansas City Rep Ryan Silvey.
Silvey is the Council’s target for a set of radio commercials because of his support for budget cuts for the state’s
blind population.
"It doesn’t get much lower than cutting medical services from poor, blind folks, but for some reason Rep. Ryan
Silvey has gone there," said Denny Huff, President of the Missouri Council of the Blind.
Here is the script:
ANNOUNCER:
WHILE THE POLITICIANS IN WASHINGTON ARE BUSY FIGHTING WITH EACH OTHER, WE DO.
THINGS DIFFERENTLY HERE IN MISSOURI.
IN JEFFERSON CITY, DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS WORK TOGETHER TO BALANCE THE
BUDGET, KEEP OUR TAXES LOW AND HELP POOR, BLIND MISSOURIANS GET THE BASIC
MEDICAL SERVICES THEY NEED.
BUT ONE STATE REPRESENTATIVE HAS GONE WAY OFF THE DEEP END. HIS NAME IS RYAN SILVEY.
REPRESENTATIVE SILVEY IS PUSHING AN EXTREME PROPOSAL TO ELIMINATE MEDICAL SERVICES FOR
THOUSANDS OF POOR BLIND FOLKS.
WHY? BECAUSE SILVEY SAYS NEEDY BLIND PEOPLE SHOULDN’T BE TREATED
DIFFERENTLY.
IS HE SERIOUS?
IF SILVEY’S PLAN PASSES, THOUSANDS OF BLIND MISSOURIANS COULD BE FORCED TO
CHOOSE BETWEEN MEDICAL SERVICES AND FOOD.
THAT’S JUST PLAIN WRONG.
THIS MATTER IS UP FOR DEBATE NOW. CALL REPRESENTATIVE SILVEY AT
573-751-5282.
TELL HIM GOING AFTER THE BLIND IS WRONG – WE’RE BETTER THAN THAT AS
MISSOURIANS.
PAID FOR BY THE MISSOURI COUNCIL OF THE BLIND"
 http://20poundsofheadlines.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/missouri-council-for-the-blind-launches-radio-
campaign-against-house-budget-chairmn/
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Bob Barker urges state lawmakers to oppose senate bill
regarding animal abuse

BY DEB PETERSON • stltoday.com | Posted: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 5:45 pm |

ANIMAL WATCH: Bob Barker, longtime animal activist and host of TV's "The Price is Right," is urging Missouri
lawmakers to block a senate bill that would require farm employees to turn videotapes of suspected animal
abuse to law enforcement officials within 24 hours.

Barker, who is working with PETA to prevent the passage of so-called "ag gag bills," said in a letter that was sent
to Missouri's senators that the bill "aims to stop undercover investigations on factory farms."

Barker, 88, identifies himself in the letter, dated March 16, as an alumnus of Drury University in Springfield, Mo.
His family moved to Springfield when Barker was a child and he graduated from high school there in 1941. He
also got his first media job there at KTTS (FM 94.7) radio.

Barker's letter, on letterhead from Bob Barker Productions Inc., Beverly Hills, Calif., says witnesses of abuse
would be reluctant to come forward to reveal what they have seen.

"This bill would prevent undercover investigators and whistle blowers from documenting these abuses, which are
systematic, routine, and inherent in the factory-farming industry, not just isolated incidents on a single day,"
Barker's letter says.

Barker added that evidence of repeated, routine animal abuse is "crucial to helping law enforcement build a
strong case against animal abusers."

He concludes by saying state lawmakers "must realize that consumers are demanding better treatment of
animals used for food" and do not want illegal acts within the agriculture industry to be covered up.

"Please show consumers that Missouri has nothing to hide by opposing S.B. 695 (the bill)," Barker wrote.

Click here to see a copy of Barker's letter to Senate president pro tem Robert Mayer, R-Dexter.
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EDITORIALS … & Letters to the Editor
March 20, 2012


Phill Brooks, columnist: Governors propose, legislators
dispose
By Phill Brooks Globe Columnist

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — There’s an old Washington adage going back at least 100 years that “the president
proposes, Congress disposes.” In states across the country, that adage has been translated into “governors
propose, legislators dispose.”

That adage provides an interesting perspective for evaluating the progress as Missouri’s Legislature returns from
spring break at its halfway point for the 2012 session.

The adage is based on the conclusion that the legislative process is not designed to initiate new policies. It
reflects an idea attributed to our Founding Fathers that the actual purpose of the legislative branch is to slow
down and refine initiatives proposed by the executive branch.

With only a few exceptions, that adage has proved true with Missouri’s General Assembly during my time
covering this process. The big policy initiatives that became law started with the governor.

There have been a few exceptions, but they have tended to be single-topic issues that sometimes have been
political wedge issues. Abortion restrictions stand out as the biggest exception to the adage that I’ve seen.

A variety of factors have been cited for this inability of the Legislature to initiate policy.

Probably the greatest factor is that the Legislature is not a monolithic institution controlled by one person. It’s a
collection of political factions in which legislative leaders must make compromises to get into positions of power.

Even when the same party controls the House of Representatives and Senate, agreement is not assured. We saw
that last fall with the Legislature’s gridlock during the special session. The House made tax breaks for business
expansion its top priority. The Senate made its top priority scaling back special interest tax credits.

The right to filibuster in the Senate further frustrates the ability of the Legislature to initiate and pass a strong
package of significance without outside pressure from a governor.

One could argue that in the first two months of 2012, Missouri’s General Assembly has made a stunningly clear
statement of policy initiative in one area.

It’s business, but it’s not the tax breaks for business that split the two legislative chambers last year. Rather, what
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has emerged as the Legislature’s top priority is a package of nontax issues involving business.

Campaign finance restrictions, fixing the state’s education funding system, judicial calls for revisions in criminal
sentencing, energy conservation, including the nuclear power plant controversy, and consumer protection issues
are among the major issues in this year’s legislative session that have taken a back seat to restricting lawsuit
awards against business.

Measures that have moved quickly through the Legislature include restricting worker discrimination lawsuits
against employers, restricting lawsuits against employers for occupational diseases and changing the method of
calculating lawsuit awards that likely would lower damage awards when a business loses a liability lawsuit.

There are a couple of reasons why this business package has advanced so quickly.

First, Republicans hold a super majority in the Legislature that makes it easier for them to get their way. And on
the business issues they are advancing, there is little dispute among Republican members.

Secondly, it is a bit misleading to portray this as a legislative initiative. Rather, it comes from business
organizations. In a fashion, that business coalition has played the role of governor, initiating the details of the
legislative theme and holding the Legislature’s feet to the fire to get something passed.

Finally, business is unified on these issues. To understand how important that is, take a look at what’s happening
with the “right-to-work” issue to prohibit requiring union membership or union fees to get a job.

That issue does not have unified business support and, unlike the other business issues, “right-to-work” has
stalled in the Legislature despite backing from the Senate’s top GOP leader.

But as one of my colleagues has argued, the advancement of this business package might not represent an
exception to the adage.

He argues that the business measures clearing the Legislature are relatively minor, that they do not affect large
numbers of Missourians.

Rather, he describes these business measures more as tweaking existing law.

On the other hand, there has been limited legislative progress on one of the biggest problems facing the state —
a broken school funding system and unaccredited school districts in the state’s two largest metropolitan areas.

Without a clarion call of specific proposals from the governor, the Legislature appears a bit stymied on what to
do. But the 2012 legislative novel is only half-written. There will be two months left to finish the story when the
Legislature returns from spring break this week.
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Editorial: Missouri makes progress in improving high school
graduation rates

Posted: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 12:10 am


Here's a bit of good news: In a national study released Monday, Missouri was among 12 states cited with making
significant improvement in high school graduation rates between 2001 and 2009.

"Grad Nation," an alliance of organizations, individuals and communities using a variety of programs to improve
graduation rates, reported that the national rate has increased by 3.5 percent, from 72 percent to 75.5 percent in
2009. Missouri's 2002 graduation rate was 76.8 percent. In 2009, it was 83.1 percent. The state graduated 4,775
more students in 2009 than it did in 2002.

Illinois did not fare as well, improving its graduation rate by only 0.6 percent in the years studied. In 2009, Illinois'
graduation rate was 77.7 percent. Illinois was among 13 states cited by the study as needing to be "the most
aggressive in accelerating their graduation rate by 2020."

The benefits of higher graduation rates are obvious, as are the perils of high dropout rates. In today's economy, a
high school diploma is no guarantee of success, but it's an essential first step.

"The dropouts from the Class of 2011 would have generated up to $154 billion in additional earnings over their
lives had they graduated from high school," the Grad Nation study estimates. "Higher educational attainment
lowers costs to taxpayers. Moving just one student from dropout status to graduate status would yield more
than $200,000 in higher tax revenues and lower government expenditures over his or her lifetime. Graduating
half of one class of dropouts would save the U.S. taxpayer $45 billion in that year."

The report singled out Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri for special praise. The St. Louis-based group
uses a so-called early-warning system called "ABCToday!" to track attendance, behavior and classroom success to
identify students who may need special mentoring. It's the kind of hands-on, community-based effort that yields
solid results.

Grad Nation's goal is a national graduation rate of 90 percent by 2020. So far Wisconsin is the only state that has
reached that level. Missouri is well within striking distance. Illinois has some work to do.
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Missouri pioneers community-based mental and medical
health services
In Health

By Robert Joiner, Beacon staff

7:50 am on Tue, 03.20.12

If Hopewell Center decides to add a slogan to its name, the words would probably be a variation of those made
famous by Harry Truman: The revolving door stops here.
For years, poor people suffering from a combination of mental and physical health conditions have had few
options beyond walking through the door at an emergency room or finding a bed in a nursing home until the
crisis eases.
Now come unique services through Hopewell and People's Health Centers. Both are among Missouri pioneers in
integrating mental and physical health services to help people remain in the community rather than in
institutions.
"We're very excited about this because for years we've been moving in this direction," says Wendy Orson, vice
president of clinical services at Hopewell, 1504 South Grand Boulevard. The center merged about two years ago
with People's Health Centers. Following the merger of the two programs, Dwayne Butler was appointed CEO of
both.
Orson says the trend is for health-care providers to pay more attention to the relationship between physical and
mental health in a patient's well-being.
"Someone comes into a behavioral mental health organization, and we'd just look at their mental health," Orson
says. "Or the individual might have gone to a primary medical care organization, like People's to get medical
treatment, but nobody recognized the signs that this individual had a mental illness that also needed to be
addressed."
One of the worst nightmares in the old approach, she says, was that patients being treated for mental and
physical disorders might be taking prescription drugs "that might not go well together, and nobody was paying
attention."
Hopewell and People's are pioneers in what's known as the health-care home model of integrated care. "Before,
we were treating just part of the client," Orson says. "But now with health-care homes, we can make sure that
nothing in the medical is interfering with the behavioral and nothing in the behavioral is interfering with
medical."
The upshot, she says, is that various practitioners treating the same patient in different parts of the region "can
work as a team to wrap around (services for) each individual and make sure that their needs are met and that
their quality of life is improved."
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Missouri isn't known for innovative medical approaches to care for its needy, having set its Medicaid threshold so
low that people have to be dirt poor to qualify. Yet the state stands out on the health-care home front by
developing a program that allows more people to remain in their homes and get a continuum of care. These
residents used to rely heavily on emergency rooms or end up in nursing homes because they lacked convenient
transportation, help with taking medications, transportation to a dialysis center and other support services.

Savings sought and found

Missouri's motive isn't purely altruistic. It worries about the bottom line. The state has had to cut health-care
expenses to balance its budget. Missouri initially identified about 18,000 Medicaid recipients who were imposing
high cost on the system, each consuming an average of $20,000 in medical services annually. In other words, this
relatively small number of patients was taking a $360 million bite out of the Missouri Medicaid system each year,
consuming services for conditions that might have been preventable or certainly would have been cheaper to
treat in community facilities, such as Hopewell or People's.
Last fall, two state agencies -- the Department of Mental Health and he Department of Social Services --
persuaded the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to fund a two-year pilot program for better
coordination of services to these individuals, with mental-health facilities like Hopewell taking the lead. Orson
says Hopewell is handling about 600 of the state's clients. About 1,100 are targeted for services through People's,
she says.
The clients served by People's are part of about 17,000 chronically ill residents that the state wants to serve
through federally qualified health centers, such as People's, as well as rural health clinics, and hospital-affiliate
primary care clinics.
State officials say the health care home project is feasible because the federal government underwrites 90
percent of the Medicaid cost to run it. Normally, the federal government picks up 64 percent of Missouri's
Medicaid cost, with the state covering the remaining 36 percent.
Orson notes that individuals in the program at Hopewell have both a serious mental illness, such as bipolar
disorder, schizophrenia or serious depression, along with a chronic medical condition, which might range from
diabetes, to high blood pressure to heart disease.

Treating the whole person

Typical of the basic care is that provided recently to Marie H. Smith, an elderly woman who dropped by Hopewell
for metabolic screening that's crucial to keeping people out of emergency rooms. Providing the screening was
Maile Jarrette, a nurse care manager who moved to St. Louis a few years ago after graduating from UCLA. Her
office on an upper floor of the Hopewell building is airy and brightened by lots of sunshine from windows looking
down into South Grand and the St. Louis University Medical School complex.
Smith's screening session involved a few quick procedures, including a tiny pin prick on a finger to draw blood.
The procedures help Jarrette make an early detection of diabetes, increased cholesterol and elevated blood
pressure. In a matter of minutes, Jarrette read the results and explained them to Smith, who was soon on her
way.
Orson says the program marks an innovation in health-care delivery, providing patients with nurse care
managers, such as Jarrette, who not only help monitor a patient's medical condition, but help coordinate the
patient's services with hospitals and primary-care providers.
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Beyond nurse care managers are Hopewell internists who review each case and might provide "doctor to doctor
communication" to coordinate the care, Orson says.
"We want to make sure the left hand knows what the right hand is doing."
Beyond Jarrette are home visitors or community support workers who make sure the clients are taking their
medications, and that their food, shelter and other needs are being met.
"The idea is to create a climate so that people don't have to go to the emergency room and they don't have to go
to nursing homes," Orson says.
"We just really try to enhance the quality of their lives. A lot of times behavioral health is masking physical needs.
We want to treat the whole person."
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Our Opinion: Invited, but not welcomed, at GOP party
News Tribune editorial



Cole County’s Republican caucus fell somewhere between open house and invitation-only event.

As a result, a number of “guests” felt unwelcome, ignored and disappointed.

Cole County’s episode wasn’t the only muddled caucus in Missouri.

Chaos and confusion reigned at a number of events, resulting in law enforcement being summoned, arrests for
trespassing and a premature adjournment.

Missouri in 2000 began using a presidential primary — the political equivalent of an open house — to replace the
caucus system, notoriously characterized as “party leaders gathering in smoke-filled rooms to select nominees.”

In 2002, lawmakers moved the primary from the first Tuesday in March to the first Tuesday in February, so
Missouri could have more influence on the national parties’ candidates.

This year, however, the February date ran afoul of national rules attempting to limit early primaries.

Lawmakers subsequently failed to reschedule the primary to a later, acceptable date.

To avoid punitive measures in the form of loss of delegates, the state GOP announced the primary results would
be non-binding, and March caucuses would be held.

Saturday’s caucus in Cole County invited participation from registered voters willing to declare and document
themselves as “good and faithful Republicans.”

A number of participants, however, contend they were treated like unwelcome intruders at a closed,
predetermined process missing only the proverbial smoke.

Republican organizers counter the complainants did not familiarize themselves with the caucus process and
arrived unprepared.

Although copies of the rules were available, the 30-50 copies were insufficient for the estimated 265 participants.

Saturday’s caucus became another divisive, muddled chapter in Republican efforts to recapture the White House.

Inviting guests, but not making them feel welcome and included, is no way to unify a party already fractured by
conflict among candidates and philosophies.
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Editorial: Missouri Guard needs outside help to fix
discrimination problem

By the Editorial Board stltoday.com | Posted: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 12:15 am


In October 2008, 13 black members of the Missouri Army National Guard — many of them officers — wrote to
the NAACP alleging institutional discrimination against women and minorities.

One month later, Guard Sgt. Nathan Wooten, a member of the military honor guard, left a funeral in Columbia to
attend a neo-Nazi rally and book burning.

The black lieutenant colonel who came to this newspaper to make the NAACP complaint public was run out of
the Guard on trumped up charges about a year later.

And Mr. Wooten? He used the Macon armory as a recruiting base for the anti-Semitic National Socialist
Movement until last Friday, when the Guard finally fired him.

What a damning juxtaposition.

Guard officials say that Mr. Wooten, who was an active member of an anti-Semitic extremist group in violation of
Army regulations, had been under investigation. But it took an investigation by the Post-Dispatch's Phillip
O'Connor and intervention by state Sen. Bill Stouffer, R-Napton, to force the Guard to act, despite previous
complaints by Mr. Wooten's colleagues and the Anti-Defamation League.

The Missouri Guard's poor history in dealing with minorities suggests the timing of Mr. Wooten's firing was no
coincidence.

For too long, the Guard has known that it has a problem discriminating against both minorities and women. More
often than not, it has failed to take serious steps to deal with the issue.

In the case of Mr. Wooten, who was allowed to peddle his hate while being paid by the government, the Guard
dragged its feet in the same way it did when black soldiers who were being passed over for promotion in favor of
less qualified white males brought their complaints forward.

In both cases, the Guard's top leaders, including adjutant generals and their chiefs of staff, circled the wagons in
an attempt to avoid bad publicity rather than simply do the right thing. And the result was the same. Rank-and-
file soldiers were sent a message: Don't complain.

This is an institutional problem. It goes back more than a decade. In 2000, Capt. James Tate filed an equal
opportunity complaint with the Guard over racism directed his way. That complaint led to a national
investigation led by the National Guard Bureau of the U.S. Army and Air Force.
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The investigation found a culture of discrimination. It found a failure by the Missouri Guard's top officers to
investigate complaints. Four Guard officers were punished as a result and the Guard's record of promoting
minorities improved, at least for a time.

Similarly, some of the minorities and women who complained in 2008 later were promoted. But the underlying
problems, the "diseased culture," as one Guard officer described it to us, continued to fester.

Part of the problem is that the Missouri Guard serves two masters. Its top general is appointed by the governor.
As such, the Guard is part of a political system that seeks to protect its own. The Guard also is a part of the
regular Army; occasionally state needs come into conflict with federal ones. The chain of command sometimes is
bifurcated, creating confusion.

When it comes to discrimination, though, the law is clear: Guard employees must be protected. Racism cannot
be allowed to fester. It must be stamped out. The Guard's culture must create an opportunity for all Missourians
to succeed.

In this regard, several times now, the Missouri Guard's command staff has failed miserably.

In 2000, in 2008 and again in 2012, rank-and-file Guard members complained about discrimination in their midst.
In each case, investigations were mishandled and delayed. In each case, it was the "whistle-blowers" who
suffered before those responsible for the offensive activity were held accountable, if at all.

This is a travesty.

For more than a decade now, the Missouri Guard's racial problems have been as obvious as the German state
flag that flies outside Mr. Wooten's Macon home.

That flag sends a message to neighbors. The Guard's failure to properly deal with complaints of discrimination
and racism does the same thing.
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Greene County caucus 'sham' for citizens
5:38 PM, Mar. 20, 2012

As a first-time attender at the Greene County caucus [Saturday], I have to say I wonder, if indeed, our
government is for “We the people ... .”

My husband and I both left feeling very disenchanted with the entire process. It felt disorganized and out of
control. It appeared to both of us that one faction was intent on purposefully dragging out the proceedings by
their requests for amendments, explanations, votes, etc. only to come back after considerable time had been
spent on them to withdraw them. Then as far as the “delegates” went, it appeared to be nothing but a joke. After
many, many people volunteered and signed up to be delegates, and a consensus could not be reached on the
floor, it appeared that the entire thing was simply a sham — because apparently the delegates were
predetermined, i.e. who do you know, how much volunteer time you’ve done, etc. The regular “people” were
apparently not even considered.

Then you come to the slates — where there again, all the backroom deals and divisions had already been done.
So, the “people” who had given up pretty much their entire day to sit through all of this to participate in our
government procedures, weren’t able to cast a truthful vote for the candidate of their choice. There were four
active candidates in two slates. One slate included a majority for one candidate, with a small group of delegates
for another; and the other slate which was the X candidate, but in reality even that candidate had the minority of
delegates on his own ticket while the majority went to another!

I want to participate in my government. We are a proud military family with two members of our family at war
within the last several years. Our sons have literally fought for our right to participate in our government freely
and without fear. However, I have to say that this process was nothing but extremely frustrating, and yet was
merely a microcosm of what takes place in Washington. Is it any wonder that people are so frustrated by politics,
and then instead of fighting to give the power back to the people where it belongs, simply throw their hands in
the air and completely disconnect from the entire process?

Well, please don’t. We won’t. As frustrating as it is — this is what we have for now. So get out there and work.
Get yourself educated on the issues, the candidates and their platforms. Then go out and do something.
Volunteer, talk it up. Walk your neighborhood. Do something! You are fortunate enough to live in the greatest
country on the face of the earth! What are you doing to keep it that way?
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Guest commentary: Don't ditch the caucus system
By Chad Flanders and Christopher Jones stltoday.com | Posted: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 12:00 am


Missouri now looks to surpass Iowa as the poster boy for getting rid of the caucus system. As you may recall,
Iowa initially reported that Mitt Romney narrowly won the Iowa Caucus straw poll for Republican candidates, but
later announced that, in fact, Rick Santorum prevailed. There have been similar problems with the results of the
presidential caucuses in Maine and Nevada.

But now comes Missouri, which seems to be having problems even getting people together to actually deliberate
and vote, never mind tabulating the results. In St. Charles County, the caucus meeting last weekend was shut
down without any delegates to the district and state conventions being awarded, in part because there was
violent disagreement over the rules governing the caucus. Party officials are saying that the St. Charles caucus
will be rescheduled, but they are not sure when — and in what form it will be.

Numerous other Republican caucuses in Missouri reported yelling and shouting and high tension, with more than
a few allegations that representatives from one or another campaign were trying to hijack the process. Some
caucuses haven't even met yet, which means we won't have results anytime soon.

Does this mean that caucuses are a bad way to select delegates? It would appear so, but we are not so sure that
getting rid of caucuses wouldn't be like throwing out the baby with the bath water. Having a caucus isn't a bad
idea in principle, and if the parties make clear rules. A caucus can even be preferable to the alternative, a
straight-up primary.

Caucuses, at their best, are places where the party faithful can get together and deliberate about who their
candidate should be. They aren't private, anonymous affairs, like primaries or general elections. Moreover,
caucuses tend to reward face-to-face campaigning and solid organization, the kind of things we used to expect
campaigns to be about. This year's Iowa Caucus, its confusing results to the side, was actually a pretty good
example of this: Santorum did retail politics, and ended up wildly surpassing expectations.

Sure, caucuses can be messy and a little "crazy" as one county caucus chairman described them. But that's
inevitable when you get together a large number of diverse, motivated people. Things can get a little out of
control. We'd even say that this is part of what democracy is all about. Not all primaries should just be mini-
versions of the general election.

Of course, Missouri has already had a primary this year, but because of Republican national party rules about
when and what type of primaries could be held before a certain date, that primary didn't award any delegates.
So the primary functioned merely as a beauty pageant, and the caucuses became the places where delegates
would actually get picked. This, no doubt, contributed to some of the confusion last Saturday. Were attendees at
the caucuses just supposed to ratify the results of the preference poll, or should they start all over?

But the events in St. Charles County and elsewhere were symptoms of a larger problem. The Republican Party
didn't establish any uniform statewide rules for running the local county and township caucuses, and instead left
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each individual caucus to make its own rules for how to run the caucus and select delegates at the caucus
meeting (or, in the words of the party, "to decide on a procedure for voting on delegates and alternatives").

For example, each caucus could determine whether to elect each delegate to the district and state conventions
individually or by slate, or to impose requirements on delegates such as binding those delegates to a particular
candidate or to the results of the earlier primary. While local control is sometimes desirable, in this case, it led
either to chaos or (worse) a small, well-organized group railroading everybody else.

So there are problems with caucuses if you don't clearly spell out the rules ahead of time, and especially in years
— as in this year — in which there is a greater than expected turnout and in which many are attending a caucus
for the first time.

But these problems in principle are fixable if parties have rules that each caucus has to follow, or if the state
required parties to have uniform caucus rules. Active participation in democracy is something we should
welcome and encourage, even if at times it gets a little crazy.
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'We the people' understand loan issue better
4:48 PM, Mar. 20, 2012



This is not personal. Neither I nor any member of my family has ever taken out a payday loan and I cannot
foresee any circumstances under which that would happen. I do not know former state Sen. Gary Nodler but
when I read his column in last Wednesday’s paper, saying that those of us who are trying to rid this state of
predatory lenders (as all of the states around Missouri already have) are uninformed, using misinformation and
representing a special interest group, well, that requires a response.

The only special interest I am trying to serve is the interests of the poor who are being fleeced by predatory
lenders who are charging sometimes more than 1,900 percent interest on loans. I do not own a payday loan
business, as some of our state legislators do. I have never received donations (www.followthemoney.org) from
the payday loan business as certainly Nodler and many other Missouri state legislators have.

With remarkable condescension, Nodler suggests that “we the people” need to leave such things in the hands of
our elected officials who understand the issue better than we do.

Frankly, I doubt very seriously that Nodler knows as much about this industry as I do but, I suspect, he is very well
aware of that. It is not that those of us who want to more tightly regulate this horribly abusive industry are just
too dimwitted to understand, it is that we understand entirely and we refuse to bow to the special interests that
put people like Nodler into political positions of power. This is a contest between the interests of millions of poor
people and a very much smaller number of business owners who are exploiting the very weak regulations in
Missouri and they are using their political influence to keep those laws weak.

If you want more hard data, go to Missouri CaseNet and plug in the name of any of the payday loan businesses
that have donated to Nodler’s campaign coffers and you will find the names of thousands of Missouri citizens
who have been victimized by this abusive industry. These are the names of your relatives and neighbors whose
cars have been taken from them, who have been evicted from their homes and have not been able to support
their families.

Legislation has been introduced in every session of our legislature for more than a decade but special interests
have kept that bill bottled up in committee, keeping it from ever getting a fair vote on the floor of the house. The
only reason that there is a petition drive going on now is because legislators refused to represent the people of
Missouri and instead have defended an abusive loan industry. They know exactly what they have been doing and
now they are crying “foul” because we are working to close down an indefensible industry that has stayed alive
only through political donations.

Shame on you, former Sen. Gary Nodler, for having the temerity to suggest otherwise in your column.
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DAVID ROSMAN: Senate resolution puts religious freedom in
Missouri at risk
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 | 6:00 a.m. CDT; updated 8:39 a.m. CDT, Wednesday, March 21, 2012
BY DAVID ROSMAN

Allow me to start this conversation by saying that though I realize that the separation between church and state
is not absolute, its importance cannot be denied. By keeping government out of religion, this separation also
keeps religion out of government.

This is where some have a misconceived belief that the United States was founded as a Christian nation or that
religion should interfere with government. The research for my book “A Christian Nation?” found no evidence to
prove that religion was a mainstay neither for the original colonization nor for the writing of the Declaration of
Independence, Articles of Confederation or the Constitution.

In these documents, “God” is mentioned once, but as “Nature’s God,” not a Jewish/Christian/Muslim God.

“Religion” is mentioned three times: once in the Articles of Confederation concerning mutual defense (Section
III), in the Constitution concerning qualifications to hold office (Article VI, Clause 3) and in the First Amendment.

“Lord” is mentioned once.

Jesus, Christ, Christianity, Christian, Jewish, Jew, Islam and Muslim do not appear.

So what does this have to do with Missouri’s Senate Joint Resolution 47? The summary of the bill states: “This
proposed constitutional amendment, if approved by voters, would modify Article IX, Section 8, ... (by instead
providing) that nothing will prohibit the enactment of legislation pertaining to any education program,
funding, or other support to benefit children attending any Missouri public or nonpublic elementary or secondary
school, so long as the legislation complies with the requirements of the First Amendment to the United States
Constitution.”

There are many problems with this action, even without the religious overtones. One of the most important is
that private and parochial schools are exempt from the Missouri Assessment Program tests, so there is no
legitimate method of measuring performance. If the state is licensing the programs to educate our children, why
are these programs exempt from the one avenue to make sure our children are educated to the standards that
publicly schooled children are held?

As important, there is the lack of any concern by our legislators that by allowing government fund to religious
schools, the government of Missouri is messing with religion — something even constitutional purists can see if
they would only open their eyes. If the tea party, libertarians and other conservative groups want to live the
Constitution as originally written, SJR 47 is a clear violation of the First Amendment.

As we decry the perception that our public schools are failing, we must ask ourselves, “Why?”
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Maybe it is because the public school system is held at a higher standard.

Maybe it is because those under the Gray Dome continuously underfund K-12 education, causing buildings to
crumble and teachers to purchase supplies with their own money that the public education system should
supply.

Maybe it is because public education will not and should never teach creationism as a science. In a philosophy or
a religion class, yes, but never as a science.

Maybe it is because the religious, conservative movement wants to indoctrinate our children in their religious
beliefs and stop them from learning about critical thinking and listening — to stop them from asking those
questions that religion cannot answer.

The religious overtones of this and other voucher programs are overwhelming. Our students are falling behind in
mathematics and the sciences — real sciences. Foreign students coming to Missouri’s colleges are better
equipped to tackle these subjects than our homegrown students.

It is my opinion that Americans have become afraid of the sciences, afraid of free thought and of questioning
articles of “faith.” It is my opinion that those of religion, especially conservative Christians (not all, but a vocal
minority), are afraid that science will destroy their religions and sects and that their interpretations of their
scriptures will be found false.

We cannot and should not allow SJR 47 to pass the Senate vote. As of Monday, SJR 47 is scheduled as No. 19
under “Senate Bills for Perfection.” By the time you read this, the resolution will have either passed or failed the
vote.

It must be the latter. If not, religious freedom in the state of Missouri will be put at risk.

If not, religion could have a free hand in indoctrinating our children to the Christian faith outside the will of their
parents.

If not, we will be throwing the education system back to the Dark Ages, when religion was king and the sciences
were on the executioner’s block.
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Your Opinion: GOP caucus participant expresses displeasure
#1
Sue Goedde, Jefferson City

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Dear Editor:

I attended the Cole County Republican caucus. I expected a democratic, fairly-run event where people, some
attending a caucus for the first time, could actually vote for their candidates. We had been told that our votes in
the primary didn’t count, but that we would have the opportunity to share in the process of determining the
Republican presidential candidate at the caucus.

Ron Paul supporters were there, fresh-faced and eagerly engaging those in line to register. Virtually every person
in charge wore a Romney sticker. At such a voting forum, it was unthinkable that a Republican leadership would
take such a biased approach prior to the selection process.

I guess I was too naive to believe that we citizens would have an opportunity to vote for our candidates and
select the candidate-specific representatives to vote for us at ensuing meetings.

The slate was predetermined. It was only after voices, raised in disbelief, anger and frustration, were able to
garner a vote, that non-Romney supporters received 15 minutes to secure 70 names for an alternate proposed
slate. But the Romney-controlled county committee pushed through its preordained slate of district and state
delegates, most notably Cole County Republican bigwigs.

The Santorum and Paul delegates, even if their numbers were close to half of those in attendance, secured no
delegates.

I lived through Mayor Daley’s heavy-handed control of Chicago’s politics; I would never have believed that Cole
County Republicans would have sunk so low, and at what cost? Patriots not being allowed to vote? Watching an
elitist core of party faithful manipulate the rules?

Romney’s supporters were organized; they knew the rules and the tricks of the trade. We newbies just showed
up, trusting that we would be treated with respect and given a fair chance. The hierarchy spoke, voted and left.
The rest of us were left dismayed, wondering why freedom, openness, and opportunity to express our concerns
and support our candidates had been subjugated to the three-hour rental agreement on the school and the
overriding imperative that Romney get it all, no matter what.

We all want Obama gone, but there is a right way and a wrong way of working with people. Everyone needs to
be heard. Compromises can be made. Hopes can be kept alive. People can still feel empowered no matter the
outcome. You guys failed big time. This is not how you win an election.
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This is how Obama gets re-elected.
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Your Opinion: GOP caucus participant expresses displeasure
#2
Dear Editor,

I would like to express my extreme disappointment with the Republican caucus process as it played out in Cole
County on Saturday. I am a lifelong Republican, but this was my first (and hopefully, last!) experience at a caucus
as opposed to a primary.

It was obvious to me that some exclusive group of Republicans with “connections” got together ahead of the
caucus, drew up an entire slate of delegates and alternates who were to be voted up or down as a bloc with
“yea” or “nay,” none of whom were introduced to us and none of whom was required to give any indication of
which candidate they would support at the convention.

We were not privy to the process by which this pre-selected group of delegates was chosen, nor to information
about who chose them or why. It was quite obvious that all those voting for the pre-formed delegate list were
conspicuously wearing “Romney” stickers. Is this the Republican establishment at its finest?

According to a story in the News Tribune on Sunday, Callaway County actually allowed delegates to be
nominated at the caucus and those candidates were able to make their case before a vote was taken. What a
concept!

Those of us who tried to slow things down and at least attempt to put together an alternative list of delegates
were mocked for not being familiar with the rules (which were very hard to find online) and, remarkably, there
were only 30 printed copies available for 273 voters in attendance! It was a complete failure for all who value the
rights of each registered voter to have a voice in the election process.

To the Republican Party of Missouri, we must bring back the primary! Or do you prefer to have the upper hand in
a carefully contrived caucus?
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Your Letters
Your letters, March 21, 2012

Sidewalk to nowhere

This letter is in response to the sidewalk that the City Council approved at the council meeting on March 5. The
city is going to spend $128,000 on a sidewalk in front of the city sewer plant on Missouri Highway 752
(Stockyards Expressway). Council member P.J. Kovac had it pulled for discussion before the vote. There isn’t
another sidewalk that will connect to it for at least one mile.

Highway 752 passes through an industrial area. There is absolutely no pedestrian traffic on that highway! I realize
the city has a code that says when you build a new business or remodel that they require you to put in a
sidewalk, but somewhere there has to be some common sense. Are we really going to require businesses to
install a sidewalk along U.S. Highway 169, North or South, or along that short stretch of State Route K on the
edge of the city limits?

We have much more pressing projects to spend that kind of money on, like federal mandates to update our
sewer system. The city has not only wasted a lot of money, now they will have to pay a city employee to clear the
snow off a sidewalk that will get very little use, if any.

It’s time to start spending taxpayer money wisely!

Ben Burtnett St. Joseph

‘Great work’ in Congress?

Sen. Claire McCaskill made a media appearance recently, lamenting the retirement announcement of moderate
GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. Our good senator blamed extreme polarization as the reason for things not
getting done and said something to the effect that people being able to take moderate positions was almost
essential to “all the great work we’ve done in Congress.”

A well-known commentator challenged Sen. McCaskill to go to any library and produce any book about great
moderates in American history. I should like to go one better than that and ask the good senator to elaborate
upon what she meant by the great work done in Congress.

So much spending has been done on apparently anti-productive efforts, so much debt has been piled up that the
country has lost its AAA credit rating, with trillion-dollar deficits stretching as far as the eye can see. Barring a
major shake-up in the government, the deterioration of the nation’s — and people’s — finances is the only
possible outcome. This probably isn’t the “great work” to which the good senator was referring.

It has been almost three years since the Senate has passed a budget plan. That’s over half the time our
wonderful Sen. McCaskill has spent in the Senate. Her taxpayer-funded salary through this time, as I understand
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it, has been about $174,000 per year. Every other senator draws the same taxpayer-funded amount, except for
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who receives a little more than that.

In those nearly three years in which they have not passed a budget, then, we have paid Sen. McCaskill and her
colleagues about a half-million dollars each. That must be the work to which she was referring in her media
appearance. A half-million dollars over three years for not doing the job? That really is “great work” there ... if
you can get it!

William Peck St. Joseph
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Letters to the editor, March 21
Posted: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 12:00 am, STL Today

Many issues surround transfers from city schools to county schools

I am student teaching in the St. Louis Public Schools in a high school English classroom. The issues surrounding
the Turner vs. School District of Clayton are broader than just shipping students to better schools. On one side,
you have students desiring a better education in a better district, and that is respectable. But the majority of
students are going through school and completing it as is. I understand but the desire and need for better
standards within SLPS, but assuming that the solution is as simple as shipping students to different districts is far
from acceptable. This problem brings in race, finances, culture, etc. It is not as simple as shipping students
elsewhere. Each student shipped out of SLPS means less money for an already-struggling school district.

The culture of the school is another hurdle. Schools in St. Louis County and the city of St. Louis are different. They
are surrounded by a different culture and operate under different cultural assumptions. Shipping thousands of
students to the county means overcrowded county schools instead of overcrowded city schools — after which
the slow and painful failure of SLPS is sure to happen once it loses nearly all of its funding.

The questions remains to be answered: Can the county schools handle the influx of thousands of students, and is
that a real solution to the issue of our failing city schools?

Patrick Kramer • St. Louis

Like building a wall

Regarding "On tour, Sebelius touts health care bill here" (March 20): If the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act is so good, why do they feel the need to hard-sell it? Why the need to force-feed it?

It reminds me of the communists building a wall in East Germany to stop people from fleeing that "communist
paradise."

Jay Alvarez • St. Louis

Nothing to emulate

Maureen Dowd's comment in "Don't tread on us" (March 15) that Republican men "wrestle American women
back into chastity belts" seems to be taking yet another punch at the Catholic Church's position on birth control
and the constitutional right of the Catholic Church not to be forced to violate the tenets of its faith. This issue has
been intentionally misconstrued as a women's reproductive rights issue. It is a deeply held belief of the Catholic
faith and deserves the same respect that would be afforded any other religious group.

Ms. Dowd's condescension about a bill requiring an ultrasound and her admonitions regarding the invasiveness
of the procedure do not hold up well to argument. An abortion is an invasive procedure to the woman and the
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unborn child. Does that child not deserve to have someone look at his face before ending his life? Both mother
and child deserve to have the ultrasound.

Ms. Dowd's reference to former U.S. Sen. "Rick Santorum's Taliban views" deeply offensive. The Taliban's acts of
violence and aggression toward women should not be mocked or marginalized. Her word choice regarding Mr.
Santorum's deeply held Christian beliefs are an affront to Catholics and the views of the Catholic Church. It might
serve Ms. Dowd to give more thoughtful consideration to her word choices. We all deserve respect and
consideration as human beings for our beliefs, religious and otherwise.

Ms. Dowd cites Hillary Clinton's remarks that "America needs to set an example before the entire world." A noble
idea perhaps, but the denigrating remarks in Ms. Dowd's most recent column are not anything we would want
others to emulate.

Nancy Kiburz • Kirkwood

Before and after birth

Regarding Colleen Carroll Campbell's column on abortion, a letter writer said, "There is virtually no way to prove
scientifically at what point a fertilized egg becomes a human being." Wrong.

Human life doesn't begin; it is continuous from one generation to the next. At no time in the process of
conception is there non-life. A living sperm penetrates a living egg and cell division begins. It is a human embryo,
and has been scientifically proven to be a new person. Studies show it has inherited its DNA from both parents.
The studies also show it is distinctly different and separate from both parents. In fact, if there are any siblings,
this new person's DNA is more like that of a sibling's DNA than that of either parent.

The question should be about when a new person comes into being. Science has given us the answer: when the
sperm penetrates the egg and cell division begins. The fertilized egg contains everything it needs to grow through
every stage of human life until death.

Think about this: You began as an embryo with your own unique DNA inherited from your parents. They may not
have given you a name before birth, but it was you your mother carried to term. Your embryo existed and it was
a human embryo. That's what makes you a human being, before and after birth.

John L. Downes • Kirkwood

To the last drop

Last week, the Senate voted to defeat a bill to include tax credits for vehicles running on natural gas. The
opposition said it would interfere with free-market forces. No one mentioned that oil companies are well
subsidized.

In February, the House voted to defeat an amendment offered by the Democrats to keep Keystone energy
products in the United States, but it voted to expand oil and gas drilling in sensitive areas without requiring
increased safeguards for the environment.
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Is this the elusive plan the Republicans have for lowering gas prices?

Apparently, their strategy includes protecting oil companies, forgetting about the environment and neglecting
alternative-energy development. This strategy will keep us dependent on oil until we use up the very last drop.

Like so many policies these days that are not necessarily good for our country, the basis can be found by
following the money,

Glorianna L'Ecuyer • St. Lous

What Stern didn't see

Regarding "St. Louis falls short in shock jock's view" (March 17): It's too bad that Howard Stern only drove around
limited parts of the city and downtown. That is such a tiny part of St. Louis.

Many of the great venues and institutions are farther west. Where does he think all that talent that blew the
judges away came from? It was tacky to put down the Arch. All the great national monuments in Washington,
D.C., stand alone. Mr. Stern needed a better St. Louis tour guide.

The downtown areas of most U.S. cities have their unattractive areas, even beautiful San Francisco, where a few
blocks from the upscale Union Square shopping area homeless people wander the streets. They also pee in the
fountains in the nicest neighborhoods.

It always surprises me when St. Louis is put down. It shouldn't be. We have many great entertainment venues,
restaurants and things to do here. People on the coasts think there is nothing to do here. When they come, we
need to show them where to go. There is so much happening in this metropolitan area that I can hardly make up
my mind which things to do.

Norma Deen Juracsik • Clayton

Stale jokes

Regarding "St. Louis falls short in shock jock's view" (March 17): Someone from the great city of St. Louis should
inform Howard Stern and his sidekick, what's her name, that the stale jokes about the Arch are as old and tired as
Mr. Stern and what's her name.

N. Martinelli • St. Louis
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Letters | Wednesday, March 21
Kansas City Star

Rigging elections

I am curious how all these people complaining about having to show a picture identification card to vote are able
to get their medications. I have to show a picture ID to get cold medication and several other prescriptions at the
pharmacy. You have to show a picture ID to get a medical procedures done as well as other things.

I believe people complaining about having to get a picture ID are interested in rigging elections.

Dan Coffey

Kansas City

KC left in bike dust

Thanks to Mike Hendricks for his March 19 front page story, “Route for cyclists getting big boost,” on yet another
superb effort by our neighbors west of State Line Road to promote safe, dedicated bicycling paths in the area. If
only my leaders in Kansas City and Jackson County had the same smarts.

Unfortunately, the geniuses at Kansas City Area Transportation Authority can’t even keep the madly popular
Trolley Track Trail open for its piddling six-mile route. Because of some mumbo-jumbo about a mythical old mine
(never mind that streetcars once ran over it, and none tumbled into an old mine), the trail’s southern end is
always barricaded — though not a lick of work ever gets done on it.

So we’ll keep heading to Johnson and Wyandotte counties to bike, and there we’ll spend our money to support
the businesses that support safe biking. I only wish I’d bought my house over there.

John Peterson

Kansas City

Santorum presidency?

The Republicans in Missouri and Kansas did well to select Rick Santorum for their presidential candidate. He has
the best chance to defeat President Barack Obama in November, providing the 15th, 19th and 26th amendments
to the Constitution can be repealed in time.

Alan Hurlbut

Wichita

SNAP offers support
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The coverage of the recent clergy sexual abuse crisis in Kansas City and Bishop Robert Finn’s handling of it has
said little about the adult survivors who were victimized as children. Who is meeting their needs, addressing the
trauma they still experience? Who helps them cope with the painful reminders every time a new accusation
against a priest is made?

I believe the answer is SNAP, or Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

I’m an ally of SNAP because the organization has worked extensively to support and assist adult victim survivors.
People in SNAP aren’t the ogres that Catholic dioceses and bishops make them out to be.

I know that I am at odds with the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in this regard, and I regret that lawyers for
Bishop Finn and the diocese lawyers here and in St. Louis have targeted SNAP with the apparent hope of
destroying the organization. If SNAP is destroyed or made impotent by these legal maneuvers, many victims will
be victimized again because they will be without support and assistance that actually meets their needs.

We must speak out in support of SNAP and the ministry it offers victims.

Sister Jeanne Christensen

Kansas City

Lower drinking age

In Mexico, the legal drinking age is 18. This helps them bring in a huge amount of high school spring-break teens,
who want to party without worrying about getting caught.

So I’ve got just a little proposition to help fix some of our own economic problems: We should just lower the
drinking age to 18, helping us keep this vacation money in our own economy.

High school students won’t have to worry about the expensive plane ticket to Mexico or the Bahamas. Instead,
they can cheaply travel to a nice coastal beach and stay longer, spending more money on the necessary party
items.

I think it’s a win-win for everybody.

Michael Schugart

Overland Park

Change in America

With the change in administration we hear more and more of the following words: Mandate. Executive order.
Bypass Congress. Fair share. More funding. Spend. More debt.
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First lady Michelle Obama accurately predicted, “President (Barack) Obama will not let you settle back into your
comfort zone.”

Is this the change America wants?

James F. Westhues

Overland Park

Bring U.S. troops home

Iran has reportedly told Israel not to attack its nuclear facilities and has warned of dire consequences if it does. It
pains me to say this, but Israel had better heed Iran’s warnings, because America no longer has the spine or
backbone to defend its allies.

This is partly because of an administration that would rather apologize for the burning of the Qur’an, rather than
insisting on justice for the killing of American officers execution style by two Afghan police officials.

How is it that every time a Qur’an is burned or a Muslim is killed, the Muslim world goes into a tail-spinning
uprising, yet if our soldiers and Christians get killed and our Bibles burned, who cares?

If President Barack Obama and his generals are going to apologize to them, I say bring our troops home. They’re
dying for a lie.

Jack Gossard

Paola, Kan.

Vote for better leaders

With all the gridlock in Congress, the people of America can and should make an important statement to the
leaders in Congress. If the voters in the United States would vote out the leaders in the November elections it
would send shock waves that would get these sacred cows and bulls thinking more about what’s good for
America and not what they want for their party.

I urge all voters to band together and vote against the top leaders in the House. Start with House Speaker John
Boehner and all of the following leaders: Eric Cantor, Nancy Pelosi, Kevin McCarthy, Steny Hoyer, Jeb Hensarling,
James Clyburn, Tom Price and John Larson.

This would be like cutting the head off a snake. Maybe the remaining members and newly elected would get the
message that we are all fed up with them playing politics and not doing what’s best for the country.

I hope that the voters in these states will take notice and put party aside and vote these people out. We should
do the same for the leaders of the Senate when their elections are due.
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Dave Kobe

Overland Park

Overvalued social issues

Any politician who harps on social issues such as abortion, contraception and gay marriage and avoids real
dialogue about the financial and health care issues looming large over our nation loses my vote.

Doris A. Duke

Overland Park

Corporations’ greed

I bought a pair of Brahma hiking boots from Wal-Mart about one year ago. They were manufactured in China
with leather uppers and synthetic soles, which disintegrated after very little use. I only wore them eight or 10
times in that one year.

Then about a month ago, I bought a pair of casual shoes with the Starter logo. I noticed if I walked in small
puddles of water or snow, my feet and socks were saturated, and my feet became ice cold. The synthetic soles
were split, and the sides of the soles, which were glued in the production of the shoes, were coming apart.

People should boycott poorly manufactured footwear. The people of our country need quality-made shoes like
“made in America” instead of putting poor-workmanship products on the shelves of stores.

Our corporations are overseas to obtain cheap, unqualified labor because of the companies’ insatiable greed.

Unions always had qualified laborers who took pride in their products, which would be guaranteed in the United
States. Greed of the wealthy corporations is evidently more important than pride and workmanship today
because of the almighty dollar.

Terrance R. Hawbaker

Atchison, Kan.

Feral cat problem

There’s a leash law in Independence, which means cats as well as dogs should be on a leash or in a cage if they’re
outside. If you have a cat that you let roam, please have it neutered.

I have two nice young ladies helping me catch the cats in my yard. When caught they’ll be taken to be neutered.
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I hope the kittens can be tamed and go to homes where they’ll be loved and cared for. The older cats will be
returned to the neighborhood as they don’t survive if taken out of their environment — but at least they won’t
be multiplying.

Many animal shelters have a small fee for neutering. The expense, however, is much easier to deal with than a
yard full of cats.

Did I mention that the mother cat is now in heat? This means unless the female is caught and neutered I’ll have
another batch of kittens.

Please neuter your pets. Don’t let them become a problem, requiring tax money to solve it. It’s not fair to the
animals to be put out to survive on their own.

Rai Freels