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Big Internet Gambling Settlement

December 19, 2007 By

Three of the biggest names on the internet have agreed to a huge internet gambling settlement after being sued by a Missouri prosecutor.

Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo are paying more than 31-million dollars to resolve claims they promoted illegal gambling. The federal prosecutor for eastern Missouri, Catherine Hanaway, says the settlement should put a dent in the internet gambling business because it cuts off a major part of the advertising for gambling sites.

She says the federal government started prosecuting companies in 1998 for accepting advertising for illegal internet gambling. Settlements with these three companies and with other companies earlier total more than 70-million dollars.

More than 13-million dollars of the 31 million dollar settlement will be spent on public service advertising by Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo on their sites, informing visitors online gambling is illegal under federal law and illegal in most, if not all, states. Hanaway says college-age or younger people will be the main focus of the advertising campaign.

The companies do not contest…or admit…getting payments from on-line gambling businesses. Han away says civil settlements such as these are carefully worded to avoid further litigation.

 

Download Bob Priddy’s story (:57 mp3)

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Top Senate Democrat Wants PSC Investigation

December 19, 2007 By

The top Democrat in the State Senate has asked the Senate leader to convene hearings on the Public Service Commission in wake of reports that PSC members have had private meetings with utility executives prior to official action.

Sen. Maida Coleman (D-St. Louis) says the Senate has an obligation to follow-up reports that PSC Chairman Jeff Davis and others had private meetings with an Aquila executive about its proposed merger with Kansas City Power and Light. During a hearing on the merger, an e-mail from Aquila CEO Richard Green became part of the public record. In the e-mail to the Aquila board, Green says Davis is eager to push the merger through, quickly, to prove that "he can push deals through" in Missouri. The e-mail came well before the merger proposal was made public.

The State Public Counsel, which represents consumers before the PSC, has stated that the private meetings between PSC members and utility executives give a strong appearance of impropriety. Davis came under political fire for his action. He has since recused himself from the case.

Coleman has met with Davis, who told her the PSC plans its own hearings on the matter. Coleman says she will still pursue a Senate investigation of the PSC. She says she has assured Davis she won’t be conducting a witch hunt, but feels the Senate is obligated to provide oversight since it approves the members of the PSC. Coleman says the actions of the PSC have to be "above board", that their integrity never has to be questioned.

Great Plans Energy Incorporated, which owns Kansas City Power and Light, plans to present a revised proposal next month to the PSC. The proposed merger with Aquila totals $1.7 billion. 

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)

Filed Under: Legislature Tagged With: ,

Ambitious Bridge Program in Jeopardy

December 19, 2007 By

An ambitious plan by the Missouri Department of Transportation to repair or replace 800 of the state’s worst bridges appears in jeopardy.

The State Transportation Commission has chosen Missouri Bridge Partners as the apparent "best-value" bidder and has agreed to continue negotiations with the company. State Transportation Director Pete Rahn says substantial issues remain to be resolved; obstacles such as how the project will be financed as well as who assumes risk and responsibly. Details of the negotiations are confidential.

Rahn concedes, "There’s no guarantee that these negotiations will culminate in a contract."

The program approved in a special legislative session this year seeks to fix the state’s worst bridges within five years and give maintenance responsibilities to the contractor. MoDOT proposes to pay for the contract by leveraging its federal bridge replacement funds. Under the plan, the bridges would be fixed during the first five years. The contractor then would assume the responsibility to maintain the bridges for the next 25 years.

Rahn says he hopes to wrap up negotiations by the middle of January. Rahn says he is optimistic, but not wholly optimistic the negotiations will be successful. 

Filed Under: Transportation Tagged With:

Sources Say Missouri Set to Choose Forsee as President

December 19, 2007 By

Sources at the University of Missouri indicate the new University President will be Gary Forsee, the former head of Sprint-Nextel. The Board of Curators is meeting tomorrow morning in Columbia. An announcement has been scheduled for early tomorrow afternoon. A spokesman for the university would only confirm that there would be a news conference after the meeting tomorrow. He would not confirm that the curators had chosen Forsee as the next president.

A highly placed source has told the Missourinet that Forsee has been chosen. Forsee abruptly left Spring-Nextel in October.  He’s a graduate of the University of Missouri-Rolla. Forsee headed Sprint-Nextel for four years and oversaw Sprint’s buyout of Nextel in 2005.  But the stock price dropped by more than one-fourth after the buyout as the new company dealt with several problems and saw its subscriber base decline.

Forsee will succeed Elson Floyd, who left last spring to become president of Washington State University in Pullman.                                                               

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: ,

Blunt’s Political Arm Gives Back Money, With a Suggestion

December 19, 2007 By

Governor Blunt’s political arm is returning money raised in excess of the campaign contribution limits, limits retroactively enforced by a State Supreme Court ruling.  Missourians for Matt Blunt has begun to return donations with a suggestion; that the donor funnel the money to the Missouri Republican Party. That money could, in turn, be redirected by the party back into Blunt’s re-election campaign.

Blunt shrugs off suggestions that the suggestion to donors might have an ulterior motive. He notes he has raised money for the party in the past and will continue to do so. When pressed on the issue by a reporter at a Capitol news conference, Blunt merely states that he’s hopeful donations to the Missouri Republican Party are put to good use, adding that he does not control what the party does with the money it receives.

The State Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a state law that lifted the campaign contribution limits. It made the ruling retroactive. Candidates have to return excess money unless they can prove to the Missouri Ethics Commission that to do so would create a hardship. Missourians for Matt Blunt had raised more than four million dollars before the ruling. It is returning all but 1-and-a-half million dollars. The Supreme Court ruling wiped out Blunt’s sizeable money lead over his top Democratic challenger, Jay Nixon, reducing both campaigns to about the same amount.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,
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