May 18, 2013

House Republican leader talks Tilley resignation, veto session

The resignation of Steven Tilley as Speaker of the Missouri House comes as Republicans could try to overturn vetoes on as many as seven bills in the September veto session.

Majority Floor Leader Tim Jones (photo courtesy, Missouri House Communications)

Majority Floor Leader and the likely eventual Speaker, Tim Jones, says he and Tilley discussed whether Tilley’s resignation would hurt the chances of securing any of those overturns.

“We ended up coming to the conclusion that with the bills that are going to be likely available for debate and override, that they’re either going to pass with a clear supermajority or an override is not going to be attainable. It’s not going to come down to one vote.”

Jones says Republicans are looking hard at two House bills for possible override attempts, on bills that passed by large margins.

“The auto tax bill that was sponsored by Representative (Ryan) Silvey. Representative Silvey is advocating very strongly for that to be overridden. There was one other bill that had 108 votes during the session. That was Representative Tom Long’s bill related to child custody. I spoke with Representative Long. He’s going to mull that over and decide whether or not he would like to move forward on that bill.”

See Silvey’s Bill, HB 1329

Jones says five to seven Senate bills could be the subjects of possible override attempts, including SB 749 dealing with health insurance rights.

Tilley says he anticipates being elected speaker at the veto session in September, and again after new lawmakers are sworn in, in January.

Missouri State wins first exhibition soccer match

In its first of three exhibition matches this fall, the Missouri State men’s soccer team came from behind for a 2-1 victory at Tulsa. Tulsa’s Cristian Mata put the Hurricane offense on the board before halftime in the 41st minute, but the Bears rallied in the second half.

In the first half, the Bears registered five shots with two on goal, while Tulsa took their 1-0 lead into the break with three shots. The three shots were all that the Bears’ defense would allow in the game, holding the Hurricane without a shot in the final 45 minutes.

Sophomore Brandon Besong scored in the 67th minute. Junior Cole Alexander, one of the Bears’ top goal scorers from 2011, played a long ball from junior Jarred Clarkand was able to get around the goalie and scored into an open net for the gamewinner with less than five minutes remaining.

MSU will continue to gear up for the regular season with an exhibition match on the road at conference foe SIU Edwardsville on Friday, August 17.

Jay, Kelly lead Cardinals past D-Backs

Jon Jay celebrates his homer in the dugout. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

Cardinals rookie starting pitcher Joe Kelly has the second best ERA among club starters, but Tuesday night may have been his last start with the return of Jaime Garcia coming soon. If that’s the case, Kelly is certainly making the decision tough for Mike Matheny as he pitched 6.1 innings and allowed just two runs for his third win of the season, an 8-2 final, over Arizona.

Matt Holliday hit his 23rd homer of the year to spot Kelly a 2-0 lead, and Jon Jay hit a solo homer in the sixth, following a great leaping catch at the wall in the fifth. Jay went 2 for 4 with two RBIs and raised his average to .375 since moving to the lead-off spot. Jay is 12 for 32 with two doubles, a triples and two homers since moving to the top of the order.

Kelly lowered his ERA to 3.41, behind Kyle Lohse’s 2.72 ERA.  Garcia is progressing in the minor.  He threw eight strikeouts and three walks, throwing 93 pitches in five innings for Triple-A Memphis in his fourth rehab start Tuesday night.

Guthrie tosses a gem against the A’s

Jeremy Guthrie allowed only three singles in seven innings, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland A’s,5-0 on Tuesday night. Guthrie struck out a season-high eight, and ran his scoreless streak to 15 innings, the longest streak of his career. He has given up just eight hits and struck out 14 in his past two starts, wins over the A’s and the Chicago White Sox.

Guthrie, 5-12 overall, is 2-3 in five starts with the Royals, since he was picked up in a July 20 trade with Colorado for left-hander Jonathan Sanchez.  The A’s failed to get a runner past second base and were shut out for a major league-leading 14th time. Alex Gordon and Eric Hosmer delivered run-scoring singles in the Royals’ five-run fifth inning that also featured sacrifice flies by Chris Getz and Billy Butler.

Court says no to executions till drug approved (AUDIO)

The state’s top lawyer thinks the state supreme court is sending the wrong message by refusing to set execution dates for a half-dozen prison inmates. 

Attorney General Chris Koster and his predecessor, Jay Nixon, have asked the court to set execution dates for 19 inmates.  Last May, Koster specifically asked for dates for nine, saying they had run out of appeals.  But that was the same month the corrections department settled on Propofol as the drug of choice for executions.  More than 20 inmates have filed a lawsuit saying the drug will cause suffering during their executions and violate constitutional bans on cruel and unusual punishment.

The supreme court has told Koster it’s premature to ask for death dates until the inmates’ lawsuits are resolved.  He thinks the court should have set the dates as a way to pressure lower courts into ruling on the inmate suits. 

Then-Attorney General Jay Nixon asked the court in April, 2006 to set a date for inmate Jeffrey Ferguson, who killed a 17 year old girl in 1989.  That’s the oldest request pending before the state supreme court.  Missouri has about four dozen men on death row.  The state has executed only two inmates in the last five years.