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Social Services Dept. workers begin coalition to advocate for themselves (AUDIO)

October 31, 2011 By

Department of Social Services Employees are saying their administration isn’t representing their needs when it comes to requesting money for staff. Children’s Service Division case worker and President of the Missouri State Workers’ Union Bradley Harmon says there’s been a hiring freeze in the Division since 2009, and the number of case workers for the Family Support Division are dwindling. He says this puts more pressure on workers, and means a lesser quality of care for recipients. But he says the Department’s administration doesn’t see this as a problem.

But Harmon says the best practices standard for case workers is about 300 cases each. He says in recent hearings, caseworkers talked about having more than a thousand cases at a time in St. Louis and Kansas City. These case workers are helping people with services like food stamps and medicare.

AUDIO Allison Blood reports Mp3 [1:03]

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Legislature

Comma could determine whether Nixon’s budget cuts were constitutional

October 31, 2011 By

When Strunk and White’s rules of grammar are used to open up arguments in a courtroom, you can bet it’s going to come down to splitting hairs. At issue is a comma, which separates two clauses in the constitution.

Darrell Moore (standing), representing Auditor Tom Schweich, presents his arguments to the court. The Governor's attorney, Chip Edwards (front) listens. (Photo courtesy Julie Smith / Jefferson City News Tribune.)

That’s what happened today in the court hearing of Schweich versus Nixon, a case in which the state auditor says the Governor does not have the authority to whithhold funds from other departments in order to give them to another.

The suit comes on the heels of $170 million dollars cut from the budget by Governor Nixon … who said they were necessary to pay for the devestation caused by flooding in Southeast Missouri and tornado damage in Joplin.

Auditor Schweich’s attorney, Darrell Moore, tells the judge the Governor has misinterpreted the constitution.

Nixon’s legal counsel, former Supreme Court Judge Chip Robertson, counters that this case threatens the very powers vested to a Governor to make sure the state’s financial house is in order. He says what’s at stake is the ability for the governor to make sure the state’s budget is balanced within the appropriations provided by the General Assembly.

Regardless of good intentions, State Auditor Tom Schweich had said Governor Nixon is not authorized to re-apportion state funds to pay for disaster recovery. Nixon had said the shift was justified because the budget line for disaster relief contains an “E” next to the dollar amount — indicating it is an estimate that can be expanded to unlimited amounts to cover needs.

About that comma –

The argument centers on the Missouri Constitution section that states, “The governor may control the rate at which any appropriation is expended during the period of the appropriation by allotment or other means, and may reduce the expenditures of the state or any of its agencies below their appropriations whenever the actual revenues are less than the revenue estimates upon which the appropriations were based.”

The second clause of the sentence does appear to give the governor the power to withhold portions of the budget when state revenues fall below projections, but those projections are typically in line with actual revenues.

Nixon’s attorney says this year is different because the withholdings were made under a separate power, a power stated by — look before the comma – the first half of that constitutional statement.

The case was heard in Judge Jon Beetam’s courtroom in Cole County. No decision has been handed down, but regardless of what that decision is, the case is expected to go to a court of appeals.

 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Legislature, News, Politics & Government

Bolivar man found guilty in stabbing death of 19-year-old

October 31, 2011 By

Attorney General Chris Koster’s office reports a Benton County jury has found 26-year-old John Michael Loomis guilty of first degree murder and armed criminal action in the 2007 stabbing death of 19-year-old Christopher Cornell of Bolivar.

Witnesses testified that Loomis pepper sprayed Cornell and then hit him with a bottle over a drug debt dispute. Later that night, the defendant and his fiancée cleaned up the victim’s blood and put his body in his pick-up truck.

Cornell’s body was found in the bed of the truck at a Bolivar apartment complex two days later, covered with trash and furniture. Cornell had eleven deep lacerations to his head, had been shot numerous times in the head with a pellet gun, and his throat had been slashed.

Loomis will be sentenced in January — He faces life in prison without parole.

Filed Under: Briefs

Search for missing Baby Lisa enters fifth week

October 31, 2011 By

The search for the missing infant from Kansas City continues. The former attorney for baby Lisa Irwin’s family, Cyndy Short has been dismissed from the case, saying she can’t work with the new high-profile New York attorney the family hired. Over the weekend the NYC man who calls himself a private investigator,”Wild Bill” Stanton came to town and took the baby’s parents to an “undisclosed location.” Short says she doesn’t know why.

Now operating as a “concerned citizen” Short plans to work her 17-member team pro-bono till we have an answer.

Ray Read with affiliate KCMO contributed to this report.

Filed Under: Briefs, Crime & Courts, News

Another harsh winter likely on the way (AUDIO)

October 31, 2011 By

It’s typical of Missouri weather to be uncertain and change quickly because we sit right in the middle of two systems. This winter’s outlook poses more of that uncertainty, but can go only one of two ways. If you didn’t like last winter, brace yourself for what climatologists are predicting for this winter.

“Its really interesting, it’s similar to what we saw last year, it was a La Nina winter last year,” University of Missouri Extension Pat Guinan says. He says La Nina has different effects on the north than it does on the south. Where Missouri lies means we could get the spill over from either region … or both.

But, Guinan says La Nina isn’t really to blame for last year’s bitter cold and record snow-fall amounts … it’s a different trend from the North — Arctic Oscillation. Much of what winter brings Missouri this year depends on how weather patterns form in the Arctic region, and even though the state has seen two harsh winters in a row, Missourians should brace for a possible third.

Guinan says La Nina has been here for a while, and it’s going nowhere soon. It’s going to stick around through the winter and possibly through next spring.

Climatologist Pat Guinan winter outlook [Mp3, 2:27 min.]

Filed Under: News, Weather
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