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Federal prosecutors memo reveals Stenger conversations, conduct in corruption case, connections to Better Together

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Federal prosecutors recommend a “significant prison sentence” for former St. Louis County executive Steven Stenger. Stenger’s sentencing is next week, August 9.
The assistant U.S. Attorney recommends that a sentence of 37 to 46 months’ imprisonment.

“Anything less would ignore the extent of defendant’s criminal conduct and the substantial harm defendant’s conduct caused to the public,” prosecutors argue in their memo to the court.  According to St. Louis Public Radio, Stenger’s attorney will release his own memo to the court before sentencing.

The prosecutors’ filing reveals Stenger’s conversations about his relationship to campaign donor and “Better Together” backer Rex Sinquefield.

Read the memorandum from the Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri: Government Sentencing Memo in Stenger Case

Lawmakers, lobbyists to revisit issues for 2020 Missouri legislative session

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Missouri Senate from staff entrance

Long before the new Missouri Legislative session begins in January, lobbyists, lawmakers and activists begin to rally around their respective bills. Here are a few that may live to see another day (or live in another version) in Jefferson City in 2020.

“Stop the Grainbelt Express use of eminent domain” is not the official title of House Bill 1062 but that’s the idea of it. Frankford Rep. Jim Hansen wanted to curtail the Grain Belt Express (or any privately held company) from evoking eminent domain to get to the land it needs to run electrical transmission lines through the state. In this case, wind power is crossing from Kansas to the East Coast via approximately 780-mile overhead, direct current (DC) transmission line. After the Missouri Public Service Commission voted unanimously that the project is in the public interest, the state agriculture industry and many affected landowners went to lawmakers to stop the project, even holding a rally at the Capitol with Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe.

Why did it fail?

The bill met resistance in the Senate as rural communities, businesses, and municipal utilities also reached out to their lawmakers, seeking the $12.8 million in savings for electricity offered by the Grain Belt Express in Missouri. Democrats and Republicans wanted to see struggling small towns get the extra cash. The company says the project is a $500 million investment. Wind energy proponents see this project as critical in reaching the East Coast with clean, cheaper energy.

What’s next?

Bill sponsor Rep. Jim Hansen says there is another plan in the works. But the bill in this version is not likely to come up again. Meanwhile, the Grain Belt Express owners say they “look forward to working directly with Missouri communities and landowners.” The criteria for granting the power of eminent domain could emerge again in some form.

Prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP)

Missouri continues to hold out as the only state in the U.S. without a statewide database to monitor controlled substance prescriptions, to the frustration of top Republican (and Democrat) leaders.  They see it as an effective tool in fighting the national opioid epidemic.  U.S Senator Roy Blunt agrees, calling for it in his speech to the General Assembly this spring.

Why did it fail?

Senate and House members in the small but strategic Conservative Caucus equate the database with an invasion of privacy that can also be exploited by hackers.

The St. Louis Post also explains the bill’s struggles.

What’s next?

Republican Representative Holly Rehder tells Missourinet she’ll file the bill once again in January. In the meantime, more counties and states are working with St. Louis County’s voluntary PDMP.

Pro Tem Schatz is disappointed lawmakers didn’t approve prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) legislation this year. He’s already looking ahead to 2020. “But I will tell you that we will come back next year and I have three more years in this chamber (Missouri Senate). And I will work every year until we get that thing accomplished,” Schatz says.

 

Legalizing sports wagering in Missouri will continue to come up since the U.S. Supreme Court last year allowed sportsbooks across the country.  Most of the sportsbook bills introduced in the 2019 session allow Missouri-based casinos to host online betting online.

Why did it fail?

State Sen. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, sponsor of Senate Bill 44 has been working on this issue for three years and says there are still disagreements about casinos paying fees to sports leagues and requiring the use of sports league official data instead of a third-party chosen by casinos.  (See also SB 327, SB 222, HB 119)

What’s next?

Hoskins will refile the bill which uses part the state’s revenue (in the tens of millions) to improve public infrastructure around sports venues to improve the safety and fan experiences. However, he’s open to compromise to lure sports betting out of Nevada and into Missouri.

“We do have a lot of sports betting going on here already, but it’s not regulated and it’s not legal,” Hoskins says.

 

Film Tax Credits could bring in millions to Missouri, but they have not been used since 2012, when the incentive to the movie industry expired. The bill got some debate in both the House and Senate in 2019, as lawmakers lamented money lost to Georgia (no limit to tax credits) while on-demand film companies like Netflix are spending billions on new content. Read more here.

Why did it fail?

Tax incentives face a fight from the six-person Conservative Caucus in the state Senate fundamentally opposes rewarding private companies with taxpayer money.  Despite that, film credits were overshadowed by a much larger tax credit bill brought in by Governor Parson in the final weeks of the session in order to land a GM automotive manufacturing expansion in Wentzville.

What’s next?

Senate bill sponsor Denny Hoskins says he’ll try again. He’s a member of the Conservative Caucus, but says he’s tired of film projects (set in Missouri) going to other red states–bringing jobs, tourism and local spending in return for a cap of $5 million from the state.

 

B-Corporation designation is a special distinction for community-minded companies who want to attract like-minded investors (ex. Patagonia, Etsy). In order to be a “Benefit Corporation,” however, these businesses have to put their money where their mouth is, dedicating resources and money to a specific mission and creating financial transparency. There are no costs to the designation, but being a B-Corp protects company leadership from being sued for putting mission over profits or stockholders.

Why did it fail?

Missouri Right to Life added restrictive language to every B-corp bill this session, according to lawmakers on both sides. The group’s concerns are unclear and requests for comment from Missourinet have been unanswered.  Missouri’s Constitution restricts research tied to abortions.   The lead lawmaker for this bill is Republican Senator Lincoln Hough of Springfield. Democratic Senator Jill Schupp who supports the bill calls the MRL action a “poison pill.”

What’s next?

Companies are asking legislators, the Department of Economic Development and Governor Mike Parson to rally around the bill this coming session. One of those is Brewer Science in Rolla, which makes electronic components for computer chips.

“What it really does in terms of telling startups and high technology companies such as Brewer Science that you want to come to Missouri this is a great state to do business with. We’re a low-tax, low-regulation state, and we want to give you all the benefits more than 35 other states do being a Benefit Corporation, ” Brewer’s chief legal officer told Missourinet.  With the construction of the NextGen Precision Health facility for the University of Missouri System, high-tech life science research companies will want to come to this state, he contends.

“Kansas has this bill, Arkansas has this bill, Illinois has benefit corporation legislation. This is not something that we want to be out of, particularly where there’s no negatives: nobody ever has said anything negative, that this wasn’t a good bill and positive for Missouri. The only issue was the opposition from one interest group,” Gerson said.

Rep. Bruce Franks resigns July 31, to leave Missouri

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St. Louis Representative Bruce Franks officially resigns at the end of this month. The black activist leader who emerged out of Ferguson protests says his mental health is at stake.

“Battling anxiety, depression, mental health issues, especially in the black community, that’s something that’s been a stigma and it’s been frowned upon in our communities to seek help,” Franks told Missourinet and fellow lawmakers.

Not only is Franks leaving the legislature, but he says he is leaving Missouri.

He spoke with Missourinet when he announced his resignation. Read, listen to his interview here.

“I knew what I was signing up for when I came, it’s just everything stacked on top of each other is really what aided to my mental health deteriorating the way that it did.

He said he will continue to work between different communities.

“To kind of bridge a gap between urban and rural areas, Republican and Democrat, because I think it’s important. I think it’s important to build those bridges even if nobody walks across them, somebody eventually will,” Franks said.

Franks said on Facebook, “I love my city but I can’t heal from trauma and survive in the epicenter any longer,” “I’m not running away from it I’m choosing to change my environment to be the best version of me. ”

Franks, who was first elected in 2016, is in his second House term. He was the only Democrat to chair a Missouri House committee this session.

State Rep. Bruce Franks, D-St. Louis, briefs Capitol reporters about criminal justice reform efforts on February 11, 2019, as House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, (right) listens (photo courtesy of Benjamin Peters at House Communications)

 

In Kansas City, presidential candidate Buttigieg praises Veterans Community Project, says country is still struggling to support the troops (AUDIO)

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Democrat for President Pete Buttigieg joined Jason Kander in Kansas City to learn more about the city’s Veterans Community Project (VCP) . Kander, a Democrat and veterans’ activist, is now working on taking the service for homeless former service members nationwide.

The night before, he entertained a thousand people at a campaign fundraiser in Kansas City and announced he has raised more than any other presidential candidate in his party in the second quarter — more than $25 million.

Buttigieg, in a press conference, praised the group formed and run by former service members, saying it’s services are necessary, “not as a gift but as the country’s way of keeping a promise. You’ve got Americans who pledged to put their life on the line, not necessarily even knowing what that would mean and many of whom now face challenges, some of them as a direct consequence of their service to the country.”

The services of VCP include providing tiny houses for homeless veterans and walk-in support services for “every type of veteran facing every type of problem.”

During his only stop in Missouri Wednesday, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, took questions about his candidacy and his plans to help veterans. He touted a community support group for veterans in his city that he says taps volunteers who are “experts in their own communities” to help.

“This does not have to be driven from Washington,”Buttigieg said. “The question is how can federal policy be a wind at their back.”

Listen to an excerpt of the press conference (9:50)

Thanks to KCUR for press conference audio.

University of Missouri System building “NextGen” research hub to accelerate disease treatment, cures

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Today the University of Missouri System symbolically broke ground on a $220 million construction project to be called “NextGen Precision Medical Institute.” This collaboration center is designed to tap into research at all campuses to study and treat diseases quickly–and share those findings with colleagues and companies.

University of Missouri Chancellor Alexander Cartwright describes the project as a “world-class teaching and research facility that is worthy of MU. Our flagship, land grant mission will now have the resources that match anywhere in the world.”

That’s a large concept that, in fact, relies on a precise and often personal approach to treating patients. According to the National Institutes of Health, precision medicine is “an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person.”

Missouri U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, chair of the Senate committee that oversees health, education and labor, is an outspoken supporter of federal NIH funding. He says the center will study Alzheimer’s and dementia, is the most expensive diseases for American taxpayers and patient families.

“The taxpayer cost is about $265 billion, that’s very close to half of the entire defense budget,” Blunt told Friday’s gathering. “And if something doesn’t change, we’d be by 2050 — just with Alzheimer’s and dementia — at twice today’s defense budget, looking at $1.2 trillion.”

According to the school, the approximately 265,000-square-foot, five-story facility will provide space for more than 60 principal investigators, about half of whom will be newly recruited in areas such as engineering, medicine, veterinary medicine, animal sciences, and arts and science. It will be located on the MU campus near University Hospital at the northwest corner of Hospital Drive and Virginia Avenue.

The state legislature allocated $10 million for the construction; the rest will come from the Veterans Administration, federal grants and private funding.

The university health system’s relationship with the nearby Truman VA hospital will be another source of growth. President Choi says, “The VA hospital that allows our researchers at both Missouri S&T as well as MU to work with medical doctors and explosives experts to understand concussion, PTSD as well as traumatic brain injuries–these are topics that are top of mind for citizens and veterans in this state.”

Cartwright listed the unique assets of the Columbia campus as well as special studies at its three other state campuses, including the most powerful university research reactor in the U.S.

Engineering Dean Elizabeth Loboa

At Missouri S&T, a researcher is treating cancer at the nanoparticle level; at UMKC, bio-informatics and big data target rare diseases; at UMSL, neurological research studies effects of disease on the brain and mental health; at UM-Columbia, genomic research in other species helps decode diseases in humans.

MU-Engineering Dean Elizabeth Laboa is a major force behind the Precision Medical Institure project. She calls today’s groundbreaking “a new beginning”

“For this space, every day will be a beginning. Every day will bring with it the opportunity to identify new treatments for cancer, neurological disorders and vascular diseases and to use precision medicine to deliver world-class healthcare right here at home,” she said.

 

 

Former Missouri Gov. Holden honored for global efforts, asks Congress to preserve State Department funding (AUDIO)

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Former Missouri Governor Bob Holden was honored in Washington, D.C. with the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition’s “Leading Globally Matters Locally” award for his efforts to champion U.S. diplomacy and development programs that strengthen markets for his home state.

Holden, who served from 2001-2005, says he is most proud of “helping to build the connections between our business community and other business communities, helping to build the cultural relationships that are so important, the educational relationships I think lay a foundation for business success,” he told Missourinet.

The coalition members are former state, national, business, military, and diplomatic leaders who continue to build partnerships across the world. Holden, from the tiny town of Birch Tree, Missouri works to create international relationships at the local level: city-to-city, business to business.

Holden, a Democrat, works closely with another former Missouri governor, Republican Kit Bond in the leadership coalition.

“It’s global in nature, it’s bipartisan in nature,” he says.

This week, Holden and more than 300 current and former elected officials lobbied Congress to protect funding for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, which the Administration has proposed cutting by 24 percent. Holden says State Department and foreign aid spending make up one percent of the federal budget.

Holden says that this funding for international development hits home.

“For Missouri, 85-percent of the money that is going through foreign aid involves small businesses. It is over 700,000 jobs within our own state that are benefitted by this,” he told Missourinet.

Holden says the point of building global relationships is building a competitive edge for the U.S.

“Ninety-five percent of the consumers in this world live outside the United States. If we want our business to be successful, we can’t allow other countries and other businesses in other countries to be the only ones selling the products.”

Tariffs or the threat of tariffs make it harder to grow markets, Holden says.

“We want to make sure we are treated fairly, but at the same time, putting up the actions that I see coming out of the government today on increasing tariffs on products I don’t think is in our own self-interest.”

He says even the tense relations with China calls for diplomacy. Listen to that part of Holden’s interview with Missourinet’s Ashley Byrd.

I-29 open again north of St. Joseph: “It’s not going to be a perfect interstate, but it is open” (KFEQ)

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I-29 has reopened north of St. Joseph even with floodwaters lapping at its shoulders in southwest Iowa.

Interstate 29 has reopened north of St. Joseph even with floodwaters lapping at its shoulders in southwest Iowa.

Area Engineer Adam Watson with the Northwest District of the Missouri Department of Transportation says MoDOT was waiting for word from Iowa before allowing through traffic to take I-29 again.

“It’s not going to be a perfect interstate, but it is open,” Watson tells listeners to the KFEQ Hotline. “There will be areas where there will be head-to-head traffic or you might even have to be under highway construction or rehabilitation where they’re doing the repairs still, but they were able to open it and as soon as they gave us word we were able to open up our section.”

Read Brent Martin’s story at affiliate KFEQ 

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright to deliver lecture at Westminster College in September

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Westminster College in Fulton is adding to its long list of world and U.S. political dignitaries who have addressed the school and its National Churchill Museum communities.

Madeleine K. Albright, the first female U.S. Secretary of State

Madeleine K. Albright, appointed the first female U.S. Secretary of State in 1997 by President Bill Clinton, will deliver the 59th John Findley Green Foundation Lecture this September on the Westminster campus. Albright will speak to the Westminster college community Thursday, September 19.

Some of the other prestigious Green Foundation lecturers in Westminster’s history are British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,

President of the U.S.S.R. Mikhail Gorbachev, President of Poland Lech Walesa, President Harry S. Truman, President Gerald Ford, Vice President George H. W. Bush and Secretary of State James A. Baker.

“This is a tremendous honor to welcome a world leader of Dr. Albright’s stature to Westminster,” says Westminster President Dr. Fletcher Lamkin

“I have asked that her lecture further articulate her ideas about democracy’s future prospects, and how humanity might once again break down the walls that divide us, and join together, in a spirit of hope, to confront the challenges that lie ahead.”

Albright’s lecture will be the highlight of Westminster’s 12th annual Hancock Symposium, two days of lectures, panel discussions, and presentations on one particular subject of global importance.  Her latest book, Fascism: A Warning was published on April 10, 2018 and debuted at #1 on the New York Times’ best-seller list.

Albright’s other accomplishments include:

  • chair of Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm, and Chair of Albright Capital Management LLC, an investment advisory firm focused on emerging markets,
  • professor in the practice of diplomacy at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service,
  • chair of the National Democratic Institute, president of the Truman Scholarship Foundation and a member of the U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Policy Board,
  • served as member of President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Council and White House staff, and served as Chief Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Edmund S. Muskie,
  • chosen by President Obama to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in recognition of her contributions to international peace and democracy,
  • served as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations,
  • wrote New York Times bestselling books: Madam Secretary: A Memoir (2003); The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs (2006); Memo to the President: How We Can Restore America’s Reputation and Leadership (2008); Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box (2009); and Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 (2012).

 

Westminster College was the site of Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech