Search Results for: scans

Researchers say MRI scans effective in catching early Alzheimer’s

August 30, 2013 By Mike Lear

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis say they have found another way to detect Alzheimer’s disease early.

Two methods of early detection of Alzheimer’s are moving closer to being approved for clinical use. One requires an injection, and the other, a lumbar puncture or spinal tap. Washington University researchers say they have shown that brain scans could be just as effective and less invasive.

Associate Professor Beau Ances says in fact it involves a resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan, which is a type of MRI scans that allow a person to just sit back and relax.

“All we’re doing is asking the individual to lie quietly, keep their eyes open and just be naturally thinking there and we can see functional connections within the brain.”

The scan tracks the rise and fall of blood flow in different regions as patients rest in the scanner. The resting data can be used to assess connections between regions of the brain to look for signs of Alzheimer’s.

Ances says fact that the scan allows an individual to be relaxed is significant.

“If you have someone that is, say, significantly more impared, it would be hard for them to do a functional task because they may get a little bit worked up, but as long as they can just it quietly in the scanner and they don’t move a lot, we can see similar kinds of functional networks without them doing any tasks.”

He says catching Alzheimer’s early can allow treatment to slow its advance.

“We may be able to stave off the progression for a number of years and that would have a huge economic benefit to society, as well as help these individuals in treatment.”

Ances says it will be some time before the method could be used in practice, but he thinks it will become the preferred option for patients.

“If you ask people what would you like to have … unless you have a pacemaker, certain kinds of metal or if you’re claustrophobic, it’s pretty easy to do.”

The findings have been published in JAMA neurology.

State lawmaker: DOR scans a violation of law, Governor’s office behind them

July 25, 2013 By Mike Lear

The Chairman of a House Committee investigating whether Missouri law was violated in regard to the federal Real I.D. Act says it was, and says there is a connection to the Governor’s office.

Stoddard County Prosecutor Russell Oliver (left) questions a witness testifying to the Bipartisan Investigative Committee on Privacy Protection, as chairman Stanley Cox (right) listens.

A Missouri law enacted in 2009 opted the state out of the federal Real I.D. law. The Bipartisan Investigative Committee on Privacy Protection has focused on a new license procedure that included the scanning and retention of personal documents supplied by applicants for Missouri drivers’ and non-driver’s licenses and concealed carry permits. The committee’s chairman, Representative Stanley Cox (R-Sedalia), says that process violated state law.

“They say they didn’t have a purposeful design but they did things that were specifically authorized by not only Real I.D. directly, but also by the private agency that sets the standards and rules of it. If you put all that together, they were certainly implementing Real I.D. in many ways.”

The scanning and retention of documents has been discontinued except in some cases, such as for a commercial driver’s license.

The Committee’s members have asked numerous representatives of the Nixon administration, under oath, questions about whether Governor Nixon himself was behind the alleged implementation of Real I.D. Cox says none of them are talking.

“Certainly I believe that more than the Department of Revenue knew this. I think the Governor’s Office knew it. We just have to reach conclusions about who made the decision and I guess people are maybe going to have to draw their own mind when they look at the facts.”

The Committee will hold one more hearing in August. Cox says he wants to dig deeper into the fraudulent issuance of identifications to about 3,500 illegal immigrants from the St. Joseph License Bureau that resulted in nine indictments in January 2012. He says he’s run into a roadblock with the Revenue Department, though.

Policy Director to Governor Jay Nixon, Jeff Harris, testifies to the House Bipartisan Investigative Committee on Privacy Protection. Harris and five others were the targets of subpoenas by the House last month but did not appear. Those subpoenas were blocked by a judge.

“I had sent an open meetings request and they said they can’t give me any information about it because it’s an active, ongoing investigation.”

Cox says he’d be surprised to learn that the investigation is still ongoing.

“Based upon information we’ve received from a very reliable source, I think that investigation is long since ended. There’s been at least one federal prosecution, there was a guilty plea about a month ago … a sentencing of an individual up in St. Joe … and I don’t think there are any other investigations, but if there are we need to know the status.”

The Committee also has gotten to talk to all the individuals it subpoenaed last month that didn’t show up, after being advised not to honor those subpoenas by an attorney for the governor’s office. Cox says they attended the hearing voluntarily, but says they were not very cooperative.

“Generally not particularly forthcoming in regard to whether the chief executive had any clue about what was going on in the Department of Revenue, and they certainly all deny that anything that they did was a violation of he state law.”

Asked where Cox sees a definitive connection between the implementation of Real I.D. and the Governor’s Office, he says that will be detailed in the committee’s findings and report.

“I think the committee members generally have some inclination that the implementation of Real I.D. was in fact the goal of this administration.”

Cox also wants to call at least one more witness to talk about the Governor’s involvement.

“I haven’t picked the person’s name. Somebody in the Governor’s office.”

Bill ending controversial document scans signed into law

July 1, 2013 By Mike Lear

The Revenue Department can no longer scan personal documents from applicants for drivers’ and non-driver’s licenses, under a bill signed into law by Governor Jay Nixon.

Senator Will Kraus (photo courtesy; Missouri Senate)

Senate Bill 252 also orders the Department to by the end of this year purge its computers of all copies of those scans made since September. Some scans will continue in instances specified under the legislation, however, such as for commercial driver’s licenses. The bill took effect immediately upon being signed by the Governor.

Revenue Department representatives have twice testified under oath to legislative committees that if the Governor signed that bill, such scans would cease.

The sponsor of that bill, Senator Will Kraus (R-Lee’s Summit), says that doesn’t put all the issues regarding those scans to rest, however. He says state lawmakers will continue investigating why those scans were started in the first place and whether they were part of an effort to comply with the federal Real I.D. Act. A 2009 state law exercised Missouri’s option not to participate in Real I.D.

“That issue’s probably not going to go to bed because I think there is a number of people who would like to understand why our Department of Revenue would tell the federal government we were going to be in compliance with a law that we in the state of Missouri … and this governor signed … [a state law] that says we are not going to follow the federal law on Real I.D.”

Revenue Department employees have testified that the scans were started as part of a new, third-party system for issuing driver’s and non-driver’s identification that they say would help to combat fraud.

House committee questions effectiveness of scans in fighting fraud

June 28, 2013 By Mike Lear

A House Committee investigating the Revenue Department’s handling of Missourians information has looked back on a fraud case involving the St. Joseph license office. Nine people in Missouri were indicted in January 2012 for a conspiracy thought to have provided more than 3,500 fraudulent IDs to illegal immigrants, with the St. Joseph office its hub.

The Bipartisan Committee on Privacy Protection has asked the Revenue Department’s Special Agent in Charge, David Wickerham, if he thinks the Department’s new licensing process that includes the scanning and retention of personal documents, could help fight such fraud. He says it would not because in that case, actual documents were being used by the perpetrators.

“As it relates to St. Joe, scanning the documents would not have prevented anything.”

The Department’s head of motor vehicle licensing, Jackie Benboom, says the scanning practice could make catching and prosecuting people who submit fraudulent documents easier than the earlier system.

“For over-the-counter you could have an individual come in and submit their documentation and they walk out with their driver’s license in their hand … with central issue, it allows the Department to take a look and review those documents prior to, and instead of handing the document to the individual and then walk out the door and we have to chase it and may never get it back again, you’re able to actually stop the license from being mailed out to the individual.”

That committee has wrapped up two straight days of hearings in the Capital in Jefferson City.

Committee announced to continue investigation into document scans, retention (VIDEO)

May 6, 2013 By Mike Lear

House Speaker Tim Jones has announced the formation of a new investigative committee that will look into the Nixon Administration’s handling of personal information from Missouri license and concealed carry permit applicants.

House Speaker Tim Jones (at podium) announces the committee flanked by several Republicans, including Committee members Gary Fuhr (left of podium), Omar Davis (right of podium, blue shirt and tie) and Russ Oliver (far right, red tie) (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Jones says Governor Jay Nixon still has not acknowledged the importance of the issue.

“The public’s trust has been violated. We must get to the bottom of this scandal.”

Jones says he is organizing and forming the Bipartisan Investigative Committee on Privacy Protection. Its members so far are: County Prosecutors Russ Oliver (R) of Stoddard County and Mike Fusselman (R) of Randolph County, Sheriffs Stuart Miller (D) of Audrain County and Oliver “Glenn” Boyer (D) of Jefferson County, Former General Counsel and Director of the Department of Revenue Omar Davis, and former state representative and retired FBI agent Gary Fuhr (R). More members could be announced later.

Jones is directing the committee to issue a report by September 1 detailing its findings, whether any state laws or protocols were broken or ignored, and its suggestions for new laws or protocols to prevent similar incidents.

Jones also addressed the filing of the Sunshine Request by the Office of Administration into an attempt by someone in the House to access the list of concealed carry permit holders that had been made available online to a special agent with the Social Security Administration. Jones says that attempt was made as part of the House’s ongoing investigation, to make sure that web portal was no longer active.

(Video courtesy; Jonathan Lorenz, Missouri House Communications)

House Republican reaction to CCW scans carries into budget, legislation

March 28, 2013 By Mike Lear

House Republicans are moving to stop the scanning of source documents provided by applicants for driver’s and non-driver’s licenses and concealed carry permits.

Representative Todd Richardson (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

That includes a change to the House’s budget proposal. Representative Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff) was successful in moving to strip $156 thousand from the Office of Administration’s information technology budget, that goes to pay for those scans and their handling.

Richardson told the House the change would protect Missourians.

“As the Department testified in our committee, the inability to scan and retain these documents will not in any way change their ability to issue a driver’s license, however it will prevent the Department (of Revenue) from creating a database that by the end of the year may have as many as 1.7 million documents. Documents that they don’t need, and documents that don’t do anything to improve the security of our driver’s license issuance process.”

The House also adopted an amendment offered by Richardson that put in the budget $1 each to fund the scanning and retention of those documents, and for the purchase of a related photo validation system. He says that will keep the Department from finding another way to pay for those processes.

“To put a further line item in … that says, ‘Under no circumstances can you spend more than $1 for scanning or for photo validation.’ Which means whether they have a grant, whether they have another line item of General Revenue, whether there’s highway money, whether there’s money from another department, the Department or Revenue can’t spend more than $1 on on those services.”

The House Budget Committee already pulled $85,000 from the Department of Revenue over dissatisfaction with the Department’s explanation of the scans.

A House Committee has also endorsed Richardson’s legislation, HB 787, that would strengthen state law barring scanning and retention of those documents, and require copies the Revenue Department has, be destroyed.

“Anybody that’s recently gone into a licence bureau and had their documents scanned as part of issuing a license, the documents that were scanned and are now being retained by the Department are required to be destroyed.”

An change to that bill also specifies that the Department cannot require the scanning of source documents from applicants for concealed carry permits, and would have the Department issue separate cards for those permits. Currently concealed carry endorsements are put on driver’s and non-driver’s licenses.

The Department told a House committee it is scanning and retaining the documents in an effort to weed out fraud. Richardson doesn’t buy that.

“I don’t believe that justification to be a good one because we’re only canning 50 out of 20,000 documents a week. 99.8 percent of these documents never get scanned, and so we’re creating a big huge database full of personal information that’s potentially at risk for, in my view, no benefit.”

The House is likely to vote today on whether to send its budget proposal to the Senate.

UPDATE: Revenue Department official answers questions about concealed carry permit scans

March 7, 2013 By Mike Lear

The Revenue Department has offered an explanation for its license offices scanning personal information from concealed carry permit applicants.

Representative Todd Richardson has filed a bill meant to clarify and strengthen Missouri laws on the retention or dissemination by the Revenue Department of personal information from license applicants. (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

A lawsuit was filed in Stoddard County over its license office scanning those documents. A judge then granted an order putting a temporary halt to those scans. Some GOP lawmakers say the scans alone violate state law, and some allege information is being sent to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The issue has been raised to Revenue Department Deputy Director John Mollenkamp at a hearing of the House Budget Committee. St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Elizabeth Crisp tweeted some of his remarks on the matter.

Mollenkamp told the Committee that he understands no information is being sent to the federal government. He says scanned information is being sent to a third-party vendor because printers used for licenses are too expensive for the state to own, and says other documents scanned are being sent to the state data center in Jefferson City.

Mollenkamp says more details will be released at Monday’s hearing.

Representative Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff) has filed a bill to prohibit the Department from keeping copies of such documents, but he says it’s not clear yet what change needs to be made in law.

“Whether there exists a gap in the law that we need to fix is really the point of my legislation. Privacy rights are an incredibly important right that we have as Missourians and I don’t want a state department unnecessarily collecting people’s private information, and I certainly don’t want them collecting that private information and shipping it off to an out-of-state, for-profit company.”

Representative Casey Guernsey (R-Bethany) says an anonymous source working with a Revenue Department license office in his district has told him the information is going to the Department of Homeland Security. He says he thinks that state law is “plenty clear” in prohibiting the scans, and any dissemination to the federal government.

“In 2009 I was in the legislature and we passed [a law] specific to these situations … it is abundantly obvious the intent of the legislation, not to mention the language that we put in statute to prevent this sort of thing from happening.”

See our earlier stories on the scanning of concealed carry application documents.

Full-body scans coming to Lambert Airport

October 7, 2010 By Brent Martin

Be prepared to reveal more than usual on your next flight out of St. Louis.

Full-body imaging machines are coming to Lambert Airport. The first one arrives Friday. More will follow. The Transportation Security Administration says the machines use low-level X-ray beams to screen passengers for metallic and non-metallic threats. Privacy advocates have criticized the technique as akin to electronic strip-searches.

MRI Scans on Premature Infants Can Predict Future Problems

August 16, 2006 By admin

A Washington University pediatrician at St. Louis Children’s Hospital has found that performing MRI scans on pre-term infants’ brains assists dramatically in predicting the babies future developmental outcomes. Doctor Terrie Inder is among a group of physicians who found the scans were able to determine abnormalities in the white matter and gray matter of the brains. She says this helps doctors and parents determine a course of treatment if any problems exist. Doctor Inder says this technology has been available for a long time, but it was believed babies would not hold still long enough for MRI scans to be done safely. She says the scans can be done safely once the babies have been fed and put to sleep, resulting in great looking brain images.

Longtime State Senator Will Kraus appointed to Missouri Tax Commission (AUDIO)

August 2, 2017 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri Governor Eric Greitens (R) has appointed a veteran lawmaker to the State Tax Commission.

former State Sen. Will Kraus (photo courtesy of the Missouri Senate)

Greitens has appointed Will Kraus, R-Lee’s Summit, to the Missouri Tax Commission.

Kraus served three terms in the Missouri House, from 2005 to January 2011. He served seven sessions in the Senate, after being elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014.

Kraus resigned from the Senate on Monday.

“I’m very excited to get the ability to continue my service to Missourians in this new role,” Kraus says.

Kraus tells Missourinet he’ll advocate for taxpayers.

“There’s several things the Commission does,” says Kraus. “There’s a number of entities that are assessed at the State Tax Commission level. Telecommunications is one that I can think of.”

The Commission hears taxpayers’ appeals from local Boards of Equalization, and also handles the statewide assessment of the property of railroads, airlines and pipelines.

Kraus served 13 years in the Legislature and would have been forced out by term limits next year.

He enjoyed serving in the General Assembly.

“In particular my time in the Missouri Senate, I believe that we’ve been able to accomplish many great things including the very first income tax rate cut in almost 100 years,” Kraus says.

That was Senate Bill 509, which lowered the state’s income tax rate from six to five-point-five percent. The Legislature approved it over the veto of former Governor Jay Nixon (D).

In 2013, Kraus sponsored a bill authorizing Missouri’s circuit courts to create veterans treatment courts. Nixon signed that legislation.

And Kraus also sponsored a photo ID bill, which the GOP-controlled Legislature approved in September 2016 over Governor Nixon’s veto. Missourians then approved a photo ID constitutional amendment last November.

Kraus ran for Secretary of State last year and was defeated in the August Republican primary by Jay Ashcroft.

Kraus served in the U-S Army as a Platoon leader in Iraq and still serves in the Missouri National Guard.

His appointment will have to be confirmed by the Senate. A special election for Kraus’ former Senate seat will be held in November.

Click here to listen to Missourinet news director Brian Hauswirth’s full interview with former State Senator Will Kraus, which was recorded on July 31, 2017: