Former Blues hockey player Mike Danton is asking to be released from jail, according to a report from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. According to the article, Danton doesn’t believe that the plea agreement entered last year is being upheld by the Justice Department. Danton admitted to a plot to have his agent killed and received a seven-and-a-half jail sentence. A part of the deal included a request to be transferred to his native Canada, where he would serve the bulk of the sentence. He remains jailed in New Jersey. Danton believes the Justice Department isn’t acting quick enough to fulfill that request.
Report Criticizes Missouri Over Lack of Spending on Tobacco Prevention
November 30, 2005 By
The Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids has released its annual State Spending report looking at how individual states are spending the multi-billion dollar tobacco settlement money. The rankings of the fifty states and the District of Columbia place Missouri at the bottom – tied with Michigan, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C. According to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, Missouri is spending no money from the settlement with the tobacco companies for tobacco prevention – absolutely nothing! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations call for Missouri to spend between $32.77-Million and $91.36-Million from the multi-billion dollar settlement with “Big Tobacco.”
Related web sites:
Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
Twain
November 30, 2005 By
He was born in the small Missouri community of Florida, and later wrote, The village contained a hundred people and I increased the population by one percent. It is more than many of the best men in history could have done for a town….There is no record of a person doing as much – not even Shakespeare. But I did it for Florida and it shows that I could have done it any place – even London, I suppose. Mention the names John Briggs, Tom Blankenship, and Laura Hawkins, and no one will be familiar with them. They were the originals on which Samuel Clemens based his stories of Joe Harper(one of Tom Sawyer’s gang), Huck Finn, and Becky Thatcher. The roots of Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain extend deep into Missouri. He was four when his family moved from Florida to Hannibal. He spent fourteen years there and carried those years into his writing the rest of his life.
Honorary Degree Sought for Black Student Barred From MU Law School
November 29, 2005 By
The faculty at the University of Missouri Law School is asking the University to give an honorary degree to a student the law school refused to admit almost 70 years ago. The student was Lloyd Gaines, a Black man whose rejection triggered a major civil rights lawsuit that forced the University to admit him or to set up a separate law school for Blacks. When the state set up the separate school for Blacks, Gaines challenged that action in court, too. Law School Dean Larry Dessem says Gaines deserves the attention. Lloyd Gaines never went to law school. He disappeared in Chicago in 1939. Nobody ever admitted knowing what happened to him.
Missouri Closely Watching Abortion Case Before U.S. Supreme Court
November 29, 2005 By
A challenge to a New Hampshire abortion law is being argued Wednesday before the U.S. Supreme Court, and could have ramifications in Missouri. The Court is hearing arguments over New Hampshire’s law that requires 48-hours’ advance parental notification before a minor gets an abortion. Missouri has a law that requires parental consent for a minor’s abortion. Noted abortion opponent Senator Jon Loudon of Chesterfield believes Missouri’s law will only be helped, no matter which way the Court rules. Loudon says since Missouri’s law is more strict, requiring consent of parents, a favorable ruling for New Hampshire’s notification law would only prop up this state’s position. He believes the only way New Hampshire’s law would be struck down is on a technicality, still supporting the parental involvement part of both laws.
