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Three Missouri GOP members support U.S. House resolution condemning Trump for Syrian troop withdrawal

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The U.S. House overwhelmingly passed a measure Wednesday to condemn President Donald Trump for taking U.S. troops out of northern Syria. Congresswomen Vicky Hartzler and Ann Wagner and Congressman Sam Graves joined Missouri Democrats Emanuel Cleaver and Lacy Clay in supporting the bipartisan resolution.

President Donald Trump speaks at the Project Safe Neighborhoods conference in Kansas City on December 7, 2018 (photo courtesy of Joyce Boghosian at the White House)

In total, 129 Republicans joined all 225 House Democrats in voting for the resolution. Sixty voted to support Trump. Three Republicans and one Independent voted Present.

Trump’s move has led to Turkey’s invasion into northern Syria and for America’s Kurdish allies to fend for themselves, creating rare bipartisan criticism. The invasion is also likely to fuel a humanitarian crisis through the killing of masses of Kurds and their efforts to escape the fighting.

Hartzler, a member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, issued this statement:

“While I sympathize with President Trump’s concerns over losing American lives in the region, we cannot allow our allies to be attacked by Turkey, nor can we allow bad actors such as Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, or a resurgent ISIS to take a foothold in the region,” said Hartzler.

The Kurds have been guarding imprisoned ISIS members.

During a recent appearance of Missourinet affiliate KWOS in Jefferson City, Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer defended Trump.

“It’s disappointing in one way from the standpoint, you’re right, the Kurds are going to be left hanging in the wind here I’m afraid,” says Luetkemeyer. “But, he (Trump) doesn’t want to get us involved to the point where we wind up going into a war we can’t win.”

Trump says it’s time to end America’s “stupid, endless wars.”

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Missouri soldier wounded by explosive in Afghanistan

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Sgt. Ian Ives (Photo courtesy of Missouri Military Academy’s Facebook page)

A southern Missouri soldier has been injured in Afghanistan. Missourinet affiliate KXEO in Mexico reports Sgt. Ian Ives of Cuba stepped on an improvised explosive device on Saturday. According to the Missouri Military Academy’s Facebook page, Ives will likely lose an arm, part of his face and be partially blind.

While he was being transported to Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, Ives was detained in Germany for emergency surgery.

Ives is also a 2011 graduate of the Missouri Military Academy in northern Missouri’s Mexico.

By Aimee Higgins of KXEO in Mexico

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Hartzler: “Withdrawing from Syria is a mistake”

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President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. soldiers from northern Syria has sparked rare bipartisan backlash, including from West-central Missouri Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler. Trump’s move has led to Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria.

Missouri Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler speaks at Columbia’s Truman VA Hospital on October 18, 2017 (Brian Hauswirth photo)

Hartzler, a fellow Republican and member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, says the U.S. is abandoning the pro-democracy Kurds who have died fighting with America to defeat ISIS.

“If we just step away from them after they have partnered with us – they’re going to be slaughtered,” Hartzler tells Missourinet affiliate KSSZ in Columbia.

The Kurds have been guarding imprisoned ISIS members. Turkey’s attack is also likely to spark a humanitarian crisis through the killing and displacement of masses of Kurds.

Hartzler says Trump made a mistake by withdrawing the troops and says America has a history of keeping troops in parts of the world to promote democracy.

“Why not allow those 50 to 100 American troops to still be there and help provide that stability,” asks Hartzler. “We’ve got far more than that still Germany and Japan.”

Trump says it’s time to end America’s “stupid, endless wars,” but military officials argue that the U.S.’s presence would keep Iran and Russia, both influential inside Syria, in check.

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Thursday’s Missouri House hearing on alleged illegal slots expected to draw crowd

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The Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Missouri Prosecutors Association will testify Thursday in Jefferson City before a House gaming committee investigating the issue of alleged illegal slot machines.

State Rep. Dirk Deaton, R-Noel, speaks at the August 22, 2019 Missouri House Special Interim Committee on Gaming hearing. State Rep. Robert Ross, R-Yukon, is behind him. (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

A large crowd is expected to attend the House Special Interim Committee on Gaming hearing, which begins at noon at the Statehouse.

The committee will hear testimony from Missouri State Highway Patrol Lieutenant Justin McCullough and from Missouri Prosecutors Association legal counsel Steve Sokoloff.

During the committee’s last hearing in September, Missouri Lottery Executive Director May Scheve Reardon testified that illegal slot machines are hurting public education in the Show-Me State. She says the I-44 corridor has many of them, and told lawmakers about one Lottery sales representative whose territory goes from St. James to Lebanon.

“Down that I-44 corridor in six months, her route alone was down $800,000. That’s an estimated $3.2 million sales lost for six months,” Scheve Reardon testified on September 5.

Alleged illegal slot machines can be found in bars, restaurants, gas stations and convenience stores.

Committee Chairman Dan Shaul, R-Imperial, tells Missourinet that illegal slot machines cost Missouri education at least $50 million last year. He says the illegal machines “are everywhere” in the state and in his district in eastern Missouri’s Jefferson County.

“But I think what we have to worry about is not what happened last year, it’s what’s going to happen next year because this is not a plateau. We are going to continue to see the loss,” Chairman Shaul told Missourinet after the September hearing.

Missouri Gaming Commission Executive Director David Grothaus testified in August that any illegal gaming machines used in Missouri negatively impact casinos and the state Lottery, reducing taxes and funding for education and veterans. Grothaus has called for the state to develop a coordinated effort to stop illegal slot machines.

Grothaus notes there’s one pending criminal case in western Missouri’s Platte County, in the Kansas City area.

Thursday is also your first opportunity to testify before the committee, and House officials have encouraged those who want to testify to call ahead. The hearing is expected to last for two to three hours.

Anyone who wants to testify Thursday should call E.J. Fleischmann in Chairman Shaul’s office. That number is (573) 751-2504.

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Albright: from Waynesville resident to first female U.S. Secretary of State

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The nation’s first female Secretary of State spent time Thursday in Fulton recounting her journey from a newspaper reporter in Rolla to the nation’s highest diplomatic post.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright lectures at Westminster College in Fulton on September 19, 2019 (photo courtesy of Westminster Twitter page)

But the biggest part of Madeleine Albright’s speech was her warning that democracy “appears to be in retreat”, and her criticism of President Donald Trump (R).

Dr. Albright, who served as Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton (D) from 1997-2001, spoke to a capacity crowd of more than 1,500 at historic Westminster College. She tells the audience that President Trump “has become a source of comfort to anti-democratic forces across the globe.”

“The president has picked fights with Europe over trade, climate change, Iran and NATO instead of rallying our democratic allies to push back against Russia and compete together against China,” Albright says.

She says President Trump “touts a world in which each country is only out for itself.”

“It is a world in which the strong strut, the weak submit, and people everywhere may be divided into patriots and subscribers to, and I quote, ‘the ideology of globalism,’ whatever that may be,” says Albright.

Dr. Albright is also warning about Russia, saying Vladimir Putin’s “clear intent” is to divide the transatlantic community and cause NATO to collapse from within.

She served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1993-1997.

She also recapped her long career journey from a newspaper reporter in Rolla to becoming Secretary of State. Dr. Albright tells the audience she moved to southern Missouri’s Waynesville after college, where her husband was in the Army at Fort Leonard Wood.

Albright worked for the “Rolla Daily News”.

“Where I wrote obituaries and articles for the society page, reported on an occasional sports story, and even interviewed people who had seen a UFO,” Albright says, to audience laughter.

She also notes she sold classified ads in Rolla. She says her favorite read “Cemetery plot, owner must move, will sell at sacrifice.”

Westminster College is where former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his famous “Iron Curtain” speech in 1946.

Previous Westminster Green Lecture speakers have included Presidents Harry Truman and Gerald Ford and Vice Presidents George H.W. Bush and Hubert Humphrey.

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Standing-room only crowd expected for Thursday’s Albright speech in Fulton

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A capacity crowd of at least 1,500 people is expected Thursday afternoon for former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s lecture at Westminster College in mid-Missouri’s Fulton.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright speaks Thursday afternoon in Fulton (undated photo courtesy of Westminster College in Fulton)

Her speech begins at 1:30 p.m, and she’s expected to speak for about an hour.

Dr. Albright served as President Bill Clinton’s (D) Secretary of State from 1997-2001, the first female Secretary of State in American history. She also served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1993-1997.

As the 64th Secretary of State, Dr. Albright advocated for democracy and human rights across the globe.

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

In 2012, President Barack Obama (D) honored Dr. Albright with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

She is currently the chair of global strategy firm Albright Stonebridge Group. Her latest book, titled “Fascism, a Warning” was published in April and debuted at #1 on the “New York Times” bestseller list.

Dr. Albright’s lecture will be the final part of Westminster’s 12th annual Hancock Symposium, a two-day event that includes lectures, panel discussions and presentations.

The theme of this year’s symposium is “Breakthrough.” It ties-in with the Breakthrough sculpture that’s on the Westminster campus in Fulton. The sculpture is adjacent to Champ Auditorium, where Dr. Albright will be speaking.

The Churchill statue at Fulton’s Westminster College (2017 file photo from Missourinet’s Ashley Byrd)

This is the 30th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall.

Previous Green Lecture speakers at Westminster have included former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1946), former President Harry Truman (1954), President Gerald Ford (1977), Vice President Hubert Humphrey (1967), Vice President George H.W. Bush (1986), former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1996) and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev (1992).

The 1946 Churchill event was the famous “Iron Curtain” speech. Then-President Harry Truman joined Churchill that day. The 1946 speech drew about 30,000 people to Fulton.

Fulton Police Chief Steve Myers tells Missourinet that his officers will be providing security for Thursday’s event, as they do for all VIPs who visit Westminster.

The Green Foundation Lecture began in 1937, and was established by a gift from Eleanor Green to honor the memory of her husband, St. Louis attorney John Findley Green. He graduated from Westminster in 1884 and served on the Westminster Board of Trustees for 27 years.

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Veteran’s home loan benefits hiked to fund other veterans’ services, “slippery slope” says Missour-based lender

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The nation’s largest VA-backed mortgage lender has gone to battle over recent congressional increases to veterans’ fees for home loan benefits.

Chris Birk, Director of Education for Veterans United Home Loans

In an Op-Ed recently published in The Washington Post and The Kansas City Star, Chris Birk, Director of Education for Veterans United Home Loans warns that a recent hike in mortgage fees and another bill to extend that increase will “make it more difficult and even riskier for some Veterans to get a VA loan.”

The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act became law in June and H.R. 3504 passed the U.S. House by voice vote and is awaiting a Senate committee hearing. Missourinet has been contacting members of the state’s congressional delegation about their stance on the latest bill; so far there have been no responses. Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler’s communications director on Aug. 28, “We are looking into this now.”

Both measures are designed to provide fellow veterans with hard-earned support and benefits, but Birk argues, “Extending these fees would force VA borrowers to pay more than $750 million to use their home loan benefit over the next seven years, with most of that money going to programs that have nothing to do with housing. The Congressional Budget Office projects the two bills will produce a combined $160 million government windfall.”

The fee revenue is there for the government to repay lenders and recoup losses if veterans default on their loans, but that rarely happens. A Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Delinquency Survey this year shows that veterans using VA loans have the lowest foreclosure rate in the United States.

“Duty and order and obligation are so ingrained in military borrowers and the VA does such a tremendous job in helping to service these loans and keep veterans in their homes, that more money comes into those coffers than goes out in those claims losses. This is a well that Congress has come back to time and again and we see a pattern emerge over time where this fee, which is enshrined in law, is raised for a certain number of years with the proviso that it will be pulled back,” Birk says.

With the possibility of rising interest rates and seven years of increased fees, Veterans United commissioned an independent study to gauge those impacts on future borrowing.

The researchers summarized, “A rising rate environment coupled with continued increases of the VA Funding Fee would hurt waves of military buyers and communities that depend on the economic impacts of housing. As many as 365,000 Veterans and military families would be priced out of using their home loan benefit if rates and fees keep rising.”

Birk posits that VA benefits of all types should not be subject to Congress’s “pay-as-you-go” budget rules:

“They’re paying it to make sure their brothers and sisters are taken care of, are getting the benefits and care that they deserve. Asking those tough questions about should we be funding veterans benefits on the backs of other veterans, how do we approach expanding care are paying for them — are important questions that we need to be asking. I think we lose sight of that slippery slope we’ve been on now for more than a decade.”

 

Hawley vows to be ‘bulldog’ about new Missouri veterans’ clinic opening delay

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Missouri U.S. Senator Josh Hawley wants to know why a new veterans’ clinic at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis is not open for business. The $366 million project was expected to open in 2017. During a stop in southern Missouri’s West Plains, Hawley tells KWPM he’s been fighting with the VA about the site.

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri

“A lot of taxpayer money has been spent on this facility. After years of construction and spending, still not open for veterans. We’ve just got it sitting empty there and they won’t tell us why,” says Hawley. “I mean, we need answers. Our veterans deserve answers. Taxpayers deserve answers and they deserve the best possible care that we can give them. My job is to be a bulldog on this and to make sure they get it.”

St. Louis television station KMOV reports a letter the VA sent to Hawley’s office says the building has about 1,400 safety and quality issues that must be patched up. The department gave the station a different story. It said construction is “progressing” and is largely complete but is currently undergoing several routine updates required. The VA said the clinic should be opened in mid-to-late 2020.

This is not the only time the VA has been severely behind on its construction schedule. Several media reports cite a VA hospital in the Denver suburb of Aurora opening five years behind schedule and $1 billion over budget.

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(AUDIO) Missouri World War II Army veteran honored at annual military event

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Hundreds attended the 10th annual Military Appreciation Day on Sunday at the State Fair in west-central Missouri’s Sedalia. Several uniformed soldiers showed up, along with veterans, family members, friends, Lt. Governor Mike Kehoe, National Guard Adjutant General Levon Cumpton and several patriot guard motorcycle riders.

Military Appreciation Day 2019 at the Missouri State Fair

Among those recognized at the event was a 98-year-old World War II veteran from Jefferson City. Charles Foster served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1945 to honor his best friend, Charles Thompson.

“Then he was killed at Pearl Harbor,” says Foster. “Immediately I wanted to enlist.”

Foster served in a variety of Army jobs, including as a B25 bomber crew chief and on the front lines. Foster exited his fox hole once. He says that was a big mistake.

“When a piece of shrapnel hit my helmet, I thought it was going to break my neck. It didn’t get me – it just got my helmet. I didn’t have any trouble staying in the fox hole after that,” Foster laughs.

Foster has war wounds, including shrapnel in his skull and he’s worn hearing aids ever since. He was awarded three bronze star medals for his courage.

Foster stumbled into his final military position after some of his comrades were passed out in the kitchen from drinking too much alcohol. None of the kitchen crew was coherent enough to feed a bunch of hungry soldiers.

Foster rolled up his sleeves and got to work whipping up a meal that ended up being the talk of the base, particularly his peach cobbler. Despite his initial objection, Foster ended up leading the kitchen crew and becoming a mess hall sergeant until he finished his military service in 1945.

To hear the full interview, click below.

Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan to be honored in north Missouri (AUDIO)

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A post office in northern Missouri will be renamed for a Navy SEAL from Macon County who died in a 2010 helicopter crash while serving in Afghanistan.

An undated photo of Navy SEAL Adam Olin Smith, who died in Afghanistan in 2010 (photo courtesy of United States Postal Service)

The United States Postal Service (USPS) will hold a dedication ceremony Friday morning in Bevier for Adam Olin Smith, who grew up in the small town of about 700. U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, says Smith always wanted to be a Navy SEAL.

“You know this is somebody that was a hero, a leader, he was 26 years old, he was a Navy SEAL, graduated from Bevier High School,” Graves says.

Smith grew up in Bevier with his three brothers and seven sisters. Bevier is west of Macon.

Congressman Graves sponsored the 2018 bill to rename the Bevier Post Office after Smith, and it was signed into law by President Donald Trump. Graves will speak at Friday morning’s ceremony, which begins at 11 at the Bevier city park.

“It’s a testament to his legacy there in Macon County, and it’s an honor to dedicate it with his family and friends,” says Graves.

Graves, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, tells Missourinet the public is invited to the ceremony. He’s hoping for a big turnout.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s full interview with Congressman Sam Graves, which was recorded on August 7, 2019:

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