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McCaskill expects "gotcha" debate on healthcare

September 30, 2009 By

 Missouri’s junior senator thinks there will be a healthcare reform bill passed this year, but not without some games of "political gotcha" during Senate debate.

The Senate Finance Committee has rejected two public option proposals but Senator McCaskill thinks the more moderate of the two could have a chance during floor debate. She says the moderate proposal offered by New York’s Charles Schumer could be added during debate by the full senate.

She expects partisan politics to color much of the debate, predicting so many "political posturing amendments" that the thought of them makes her head hurt.

She thinks the senate will spend a lot of time on affordability to make sure the final bill does not create an insurance plan that millions of people cannot afford., And she says the cost of the entire plan will be much-discussed.

McCaskill says numerous groups are trying to work together to find middle ground. And she doesn’t think special interests are as influential as they have been because much of the work is being done senator-to-senator.

Upload McCaskill comments (2:15 mp3)

Filed Under: Health & Medicine

Nixon officials attempt to explain E. coli flap

September 30, 2009 By

Nixon Administration officials attempt to explain why contamination at the Lake of the Ozarks wasn’t reported promptly even as the governor orders an investigation of the Department of Natural Resources.

Nixon_Administration_news_conference.jpg Officials within the Nixon Administration denied they knew about contamination at the Lake of the Ozarks until a month after readings were taken. Then a transcript of an interview with former DNR spokeswoman Susanne Medley became public, revealing she had told top Nixon aide Jeff Mazur about elevated E. coli levels early on.

Mazur says he didn’t pass the information along to others in Nixon’s office.

"I did not," Mazur tells reporters both gathered in the governor’s office and on a conference call. "I didn’t feel as though I had anything to share. I didn’t have any numbers. I didn’t have any paper. I didn’t have tangible results. It was made clear to me that these were results on which there wasn’t sufficient information for any conclusions to be drawn."

Mazur terms the Medley meeting on May 29th a "heads up" and claims he didn’t actually see results until four weeks later.

"She gave me a heads up that they had initial results," Mazur explains. "This was in late May, May 29th, May 28th. I saw the release, it must have been June 24th or 25th, I can’t remember which date it was. It was the day before the release ultimately was issued."

The Springfield News-Leader reported earlier that Medley revealed her discussion with Mazur to the staff of a Senate committee reviewing the DNR’s decision to delay release of the contamination report. The newspaper obtained a transcript through a Sunshine Law request. Medley resigned just prior to talking with committee staff. In the interview, Medley said she told Mazur about the elevated E. coli levels during a telephone conversation and supplied periodic updates about the test results to Mazur. The Kansas City Star also reported on the interview.

Governor Nixon complains that DNR gave him faulty information. Nixon has ordered an investigation of the department and has suspended DNR Director Mark Templeton, a suspension Templeton accepts.

"I said that I passed the information from people in my department to the governor’s office," Templeton says. "Accountability is appropriate."

Deputy DNR Director Bill Bryan has been appointed acting director. Nixon has asked him and Department of Corrections Inspector General Chris Pickering to conduct a thorough investigation and to punish those responsible. Department of Insurance spokesman Travis Ford has been assigned duties as DNR communications director in the interim.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (1:25 MP3)
Nixon Administration officials discuss E. coli issue with reporters (45 min. MP3)

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation Tagged With: , , ,

New program aims to find forever homes for teens in foster care

September 30, 2009 By

A federal grant will help the St. Louis area get more foster kids into forever homes.

If the "Extreme Recruitment" program to get children, mostly teens, into permanent homes works in the St. Louis area this year, it could become a template for other locations in the state next year.

Carmen Schulze with the Missouri Coalition of Children’s Agencies says the $2 million federal grant provides for five years of funding for extra manpower needed to place more kids.

The push is to find family members, no matter how far away, who will provide a safe, permanent home for teens in foster care.

Schulze says the need for permanent homes exists throughout the state. St. Louis was awarded the grant because of strong agency partnerships already in place there.

If this program is successful this year, it’s expected to expand into other parts of Missouri next year and beyond.

On the TV show "Extreme Home Makeover," crews build an entire house over the course of a week. That’s the idea behind the new "Extreme Recruitment" program — to get as many foster children possible into permanent homes in a short period of time.

Agencies involved include the Adoption Exchange, Children’s Home Society, Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition, Missouri Children’s Division, Missouri Coalition of Children’s Agencies, Missouri Institute of Mental Health, St. Louis Region Performance Based Contractors.

Specifically, Extreme Recruitment seeks to connect youths age 10 and older, who have been in foster care for at least 15 months with kin or other supportive adults who can provide a sense of identity and belonging. Children’s service workers want to do it within 12 to 20 weeks versus the typical 12 to 24 months, according to the Children’s Division of Missouri Department of Social Services.

The program formally kicks off Thursday, Oct. 1.

"Efforts to locate potential adoptive relatives for African American children, sibling groups and youth with emotional, developmental or behavioral concerns will be a primary focus of the project. In most cases, parental rights will have been terminated, but it is not a requirement," the agency states.

Extreme Recruitment hopes to reach a minimum of 150 children, connect 90 percent of them with kin or other supportive adults and move 70 percent of them into permanent adoptive homes. Extensive evaluation will occur and data will be collected from the partnering agencies over the course of the five-year project.

Jessica Machetta reports [Download/listen MP3]

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

Nixon suspends DNR director, says he was given bad information

September 30, 2009 By

Governor Nixon has suspended Department of Natural Resources Director Mark Templeton and ordered an investigation as to why DNR withheld information that the Lake of the Ozarks was contaminated with E. coli bacteria.

Nixon announced the suspension and that he has ordered an investigation of DNR during a telephone conference call prior to an event in Branson. Nixon stated DNR provided him with faulty information about the actions it took after samples taken at Lake of the Ozarks beaches on May 18th and 27th uncovered E. coli levels five times higher than normal. Nixon claimed the false information led him to make inaccurate statements about the incident during interviews with the news media.

The governor’s office has been embroiled in a controversy over contamination at the lake since it became public that DNR delayed public release of the E. coli report for four weeks. The office had denied knowing anything about the contamination until June 23rd. A Senate committee review of DNR action, though, revealed that a top Nixon aide, Jeff Mazur, knew about the elevated E. coli levels in late May.

Nixon told reporters gathered on the conference call and in his Capitol office that he has learned DNR had not been forthright with his office a day before announcing a major water quality initiative at the Lake of the Ozarks. Nixon said that DNR told his office it had closed the beaches with elevated E. coli levels, though it hadn’t.

"This is quite simply unconscionable," Nixon told reporters. "It is nothing short of an outrage and my reaction is sheer disappointment and disgust."

Nixon said he relied on a document supplied to him by DNR several times to answer questions in public. He said that caused him to unwittingly pass along false information.

"That is inexcusable," Nixon stated. "It should never have happened and I sincerely regret having unknowingly shared information that was not true."

Officials in Nixon’s office say the status of Templeton has not been decided. He has been placed on administrative leave without pay for two weeks. Nixon has appointed DNR Deputy Director Bill Bryan as acting director and ordered him to conduct an investigation of the failure to close state park beaches contaminated with E. coli and to hold accountable those responsible. The Department of Corrections Inspector General, Chris Pickering, has been ordered to assist Bryan in the investigation. Travis Ford, spokesman for the Department of Insurance, will serve as spokesman for DNR in the interim. DNR spokeswoman Susanne Medley resigned shortly before telling staff with a Senate committee that she had informed a top Nixon aide about the elevated E. coli levels in late May.

"The fact that beaches which should have been closed were not closed makes me angrier than words can describe," Nixon said in concluding his remarks. "The fact that officials of the DNR would provide me with faulty information which I then shared with you (reporters) and with the public is very simply a violation of the department’s duty."

Download/listen Gov. Nixon on DNR investigation. (6:30 MP3)

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Hold the phone! Time to do the right thing

September 30, 2009 By

The Missouri athletic department sold 25 cell phones at a surplus auction this summer.  Mike Bellman of Columbia paid $190 for the phones, then found out information wasn’t deleted like text messages, contact numbers and e-mails from people like Gary Pinkel, Mike Anderson and Mike Alden. 

Now Bellman wants $3,000 as he tries to sell them as a collector’s item off eBay.  Bellman would require the buyer to sign an affidavit pledging that the information in the phones would not be used to embarrass the university.  He did not accept the University’s offer to refund the phones or allow them to erase the info.

This goes back to a story that was in the Columbia Daily Tribune from Janese Heavin.  I’ve got a big issue with this, but try to see both sides of every story.  I bring in my buddy Steve Walsh to talk about this story and his analogy is perfect and in the end we both think Bellman needs to give the phones and/or the information back to the University without trying to profit off of it.

Listen to the Press Box Podcast

Filed Under: Press Box, Sports Tagged With:
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