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Missouri Congresswoman on Russia’s Twitter trolling: America needs to wake up

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Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (R-Missouri)

West-Central Missouri Republican Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler says Russia is exploiting U.S. squabbles through its social media intervention. During a House committee hearing this week, Hartzler spoke about a report that Russian Twitter trolls and robots increased the panic during Mizzou’s 2015 campus protests and elsewhere by putting out fake information tweets and inflammatory statements.

“I think as Americans, we need to wake up,” said Hartzler. “This is what our adversaries are doing across the world, whether it be Russia or China.”

Hartzler, whose district includes Mizzou, said Americans should rally against the new type of warfare the country’s enemies are waging. She described the activity as egging it on.

“It’s like when someone gets in a fight and there’s someone in the back of the room saying ‘Yeah, punch him! He’ll think you’re weak,’” she said.

An Air Force Colonel’s report said the social media account tied to Mizzou’s unrest pretended to be from Columbia but was traced back to Russia.

The anti-racism protests led to the resignations of Mizzou’s president and chancellor and left a mark on the school’s enrollment figures.

Hartzler also chairs the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Brad Tregnago of Missourinet affiliate KSSZ in Columbia contributed to this story.

Northwest Missouri Rep: Greitens has broken the confidence of the people

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State Representative Allen Andrews of Northwest Missouri’s Grant City is among the state’s lawmakers digesting the news of Gov. Eric Greitens’ indictment. Andrews says he was in a meeting with the governor’s staff when the indictment was announced last week.

Rep. Allen Andrews (Photo courtesy of Tim Bommel, House Communications)

On Thursday, a St. Louis City grand jury indicted Greitens on a felony invasion of privacy charge. The 12-member panel found probable cause to believe Greitens violated a statute when he allegedly took a photo of his undressed mistress without her permission, and then transmitted the image.

Andrews, a Republican, says whether Greitens is found guilty, he has “broken the confidence of the people.”

“Regardless of the outcome, the citizens of Missouri deserve to have a governor who they feel confident in placing their trust,” Andrews says.

The alleged crime happened in 2015 when Greitens was preparing a run for governor. The indictment does not include the woman’s accusation that the governor threatened to blackmail her if she spoke of their affair.

The governor’s attorney has asked for the charge to be dismissed and Greitens calls the indictment politically-motivated.

Under Missouri state law, a potential impeachment process of the governor would begin in the Missouri House of Representatives.

“As the details of the investigation continue to unfold, House Leadership is in the process of examining the facts of the indictment and will determine the next steps from this point,” Andrews says.

A statement from House Speaker Todd Richardson, R- Poplar Bluff, Speaker Pro Tem Elijah Haahr, R-Springfield, and Majority Floor Leader Rob Vescovo, R-Arnold, says they will “carefully examine the facts contained in the indictment” and determine whether the governor can lead while a felony case moves forward. It says the group will create a legislative panel “to investigate these serious charges.” They did not go as far to say whether impeachment proceedings will occur.
Greitens’ attorney has hired a lobbyist – presumably to fight a potential impeachment.

According to news reports, State Rep. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, says a letter is circulating among Republicans urging Greitens to resign.

Brent Barnett of Missourinet affiliate KMA in Shenandoah, Iowa contributed to this story.

Hawley to release results soon in Missouri Governor’s Office text messaging inquiry

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Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley says his office will release soon results of its inquiry into the Governor’s Office’s alleged use of secret text messaging software. Hawley’s office is examining fellow Republican Governor Eric Greitens’ staffers reportedly using the tool for business purposes – raising a legal argument about potential open records violations.

Missouri Governor Eric Greitens (Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI)

“We are very close to concluding the Confide app review and we will have that for you as soon as possible,” says Hawley.

The Kansas City Star first reported in December that the governor had a Confide account connected to his personal cell phone, along with his chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, director of cabinet affairs, legislative director, deputy director of legislative affairs, policy adviser and press secretary.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Greitens has modified his office’s policy and has banned staff from using such software on government or personal phones to conduct business – a move that fellow Republican Hawley supports.

“This is a welcome development, I think. We’ll have more to say about that when we issue our report,” he says.

Last month, a Cole County judge declined to issue a restraining order that would prohibit the Governor’s Office from using text-destroying apps.

Two eastern Missouri attorneys are suing Greitens’ Office alleging a conspiracy to violate open records and records retention laws by using such software that also prevents text messages from being saved, copied or forwarded.

Missouri House member wants to boost penalties for convicted card fraudsters

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State Rep. Tim Remole (R-Excello)

The Missouri Legislature will be asked to require thieves who are convicted of stealing credit and debit card information to spend at least one year in prison. State Rep. Tim Remole, R-Excello, tells Missourinet affiliate KWIX in Moberly a recent hacker who stole his card information prompted him to file the legislation.

“People who come in and get into someone’s account, they’ll take small amounts. Like in my instance, they bought two gift cards for $95 apiece. If they do catch these people, they’re just looking at misdemeanors,” Remole says.

Current law lets those convicted of stealing under $750 off with a misdemeanor.
Remole wants any amount stolen to be classified as a felony.

“If someone hacks into somebody’s account, it’s stealing, it’s fraud and there’s a lot of things that goes into it. It makes it very inconvenient for people to have to go to their bank, shut their card down,” he says.

Remole filed the legislation nearly two weeks ago.

By Bob Ehle of Missourinet affiliate KWIX in Moberly

Southwest Missouri county adds text messaging capability at 911 center

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Springfield’s 911 call center can now receive emergency texts from people who can’t call in for help. Director Zim Schwartze says she still wants people to call 911, but for those who can’t speak or hear, this is another option.

Southwest Missouri county adds text messaging capability at 911 center

Emergency text messaging is offered in 16 of Missouri’s counties. Springfield-Greene County 911 Emergency Communications Department has formally implemented “Text-to-911” capabilities for rare cases when people are unable to communicate audibly via telephone.

“It was important to prepare and bring this capability to our area to add another way to contact 911, especially for the speech and hearing-impaired community,” says Zim Schwartze, director. “When a response is needed from police, fire, or emergency medical ambulance personnel, you can now text ‘911’ and your message will be delivered into our phone system. We will be able to text a response and determine what assistance you need.”

Schwartze, who’s the former Columbia 911 center director, says that voice 911 calls are still the preferred method of receiving emergency calls so the telecommunicator can talk with the person. The slogan “Call if you can, text if you can’t” is exactly what Schwartze wants the community to remember. Other tips include knowing your location, being brief, using plain language, and avoid abbreviations so the telecommunicator clearly understands what is occurring.

Nearly 22,000 emergency calls come into the Springfield-Greene County 911 Emergency Communications Department monthly, with 82% originating from mobile devices. Nationwide, the number of wireless devices being used has increased dramatically. In turn, the percentage of wireless 911 calls has increased steadily, up from 58% a decade ago in the Greene County area. Recognizing this increasing number of wireless calls led the department to implement “Text-to-911” capabilities for the area.

In 2017, the 911 Telecommunicators in the Operations Center fielded 501,692 total phone calls (emergency and non-emergency) with just over half as 911 emergency calls.

To date, Missouri is the only state that does not collect any fees or tax money from wireless usage to help fund 911 dispatch centers. Several state 911 organizations continue to work towards a goal of passing statewide legislation regarding wireless funding. This legislation hopes to help many dispatch centers who struggle with appropriate funding for 911 services and assist the 16 counties that do not have any 911 call-taking equipment in place.

By Nancy Simpson of Missourinet affiliate KSGF in Springfield

McCaskill report questions $9 million drug maker/pain management group relationships

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A report released by U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, says the top five opioid manufacturers gave nearly $9 million in five years to 14 pain management groups. She says the organizations have often “amplified messages favorable to increased opioid use”. McCaskill says several of the groups profiled received most of their outside contributions and grants for certain years between 2012 and 2017 from opioid makers – creating a bias or an appearance of a bias.

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri

According to McCaskill, the under-investigated dimension of the connections between the pharmaceutical industry, the medical community, government, and the public ultimately has generated a national public health crisis.

“The pharmaceutical industry spent a generation downplaying the risks of opioid addiction and trying to expand their customer base for these incredibly dangerous medications and this report makes clear they made investments in third-party organizations that could further those goals,” she says. “These financial relationships were insidious, lacked transparency, and are one of many factors that have resulted in arguably the most deadly drug epidemic in American history.”

Her findings include groups like the American Academy of Pain Medicine, U.S. Pain Foundation, Washington Legal Foundation, and Academy of Integrative Pain Management.

“These organizations have names that make one think that they are honest brokers in this space, that they are merely advocating good public policy, and good public health,” she says.

McCaskill says many of the groups have also lobbied against policy changes meant to reduce addiction. She says the Washington Legal Foundation criticized 2016 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) prescribing guidelines that recommended limits on opioid prescriptions for chronic pain as procedurally flawed and tainted by bias. According to McCaskill, the Washington Legal Foundation received $500,000 from Purdue Pharma between 2012 and 2016. She says most of the groups profiled in her report strongly criticized these guidelines.

According to news reports, several of the organizations say the donations did not influence their work and make them bias.

Manufacturers targeted in her report were Purdue Pharma, Mylan, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Depomed, and Insys. It also says additional payments of $1.6 million from the drug makers were made to physicians affiliated with these groups between 2013 and the present.

Due to their classification under the U.S. tax code, she says the advocacy groups have no obligation to disclose their donors publicly – creating a “troubling lack of transparency”. McCaskill is drafting legislation that would require these organizations to release their funding details.

Read the full report by clicking here.

Missouri university, medical center, military base partner for Traumatic Brain Injury research

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FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo.–According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year 2.2 million people visit the emergency room with a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

It’s one of the reasons why Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is partnering with Phelps County Regional Medical Center and the U.S. Army at Fort Leonard Wood to conduct research on how to prevent and treat TBI’s.

The research is part of an agreement called the Acute Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium where a group of 80 researchers across the state will develop ways on how to prevent, detect, and treat TBI’s.

Each year, 80,000 soldiers go through training at Ft. Leonard Wood. Out of those 80,000, there’s no question that the intense training will lead to traumatic brain injuries.

“You blow things up, you roll things over, you do hand to hand combat, and take people to the ground. You have a higher opportunity for some kind of concussive event to occur. We know that’s going to happen, don’t know how many of those happen each year,” says Kent Thomas, executive director of Leonard Wood Institute.

So one of the things that Thomas and Barry White of Phelps County Regional Medical Center are doing is facilitating researchers who can better detect TBI’s.

“Right now, if you get hit on the head, one of your sergeants has got to take you to the hospital or medical aid station so they can do an evaluation on you,” says Thomas.

Over at Missouri S&T, technology is being developed to provide a solution to the inconvenience. Casey Burton, director of medical research at Phelps County Regional Medical Center, explains how urine samples would help.

“Behind me, we have a mass spectrometer that we use to look at hundreds of biomarkers simultaneously,” says Burton. “We can take these hundreds of biomarkers, look at urine samples collected at Ft. Leonard Wood and pick out the best 10 or 20 that work for detecting traumatic brain injury. We can then translate that biomarker panel to the “P-scan” technology.”

“Myself and my students work together to build an instrument called a “P-scan”, says Dr. Yinfa Ma, a chemistry professor at Missouri S&T.

It’s through that “P-scan” which chemistry professor Dr. Ma can determine the level of brain damage right there on the training field.

“This is really convenient and simple and it’s not invasive. You can really get data on the training ground basically take about 10 minutes and find data already and can tell you whether a soldier has a real severe injury or not injured. Up to this point, really have no early detection for TBI biomarkers in the field,” says Dr. Ma.

“How great would it be if we could identify that a concussive event has happened and immediately treat it so then the impact is far lower than the way we would normally do things,” says Thomas of the Leonard Wood Institute.

“It’s a little bit scary at this point, but I think we’re the first ones to ever do this. I don’t know of another entity that is studying exclusively TBI’s and I’m not sure of one that’s on a military installation at this point,” says Phelps County Regional Medical Center’s White.

Missouri S&T is also testing explosives on the campus mine to determine it’s impact on the brain and how damage can be prevented. Dr. Catherine Johnson, assistant professor of explosives engineering explains.

“Accurately model what’s happening in the field and hopefully in the long term is really to either prevent, get our soldiers out of situations that might result in a traumatic brain injury. Really what we’re doing is looking at all different scenarios that might be the biggest contributor to traumatic brain injury so either through reflections off of walls or just open air. We can mimic all that,” says Dr. Johnson.

There’s no exact timetable on when the research will be implemented. It still needs to be approved and funded by various entities like the National Institute of Health and Army Research Laboratory.

Brea Douglas of Missourinet media partner KOLR-TV contributed this story

Missouri’s U.S. Senators work to thwart nearing federal shutdown

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Congress has until midnight to pass a federal budget deal or face a government shutdown. According to Politico, White House officials are urging federal agencies to prepare for a lapse in government spending.

Missouri U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt

Missouri U.S. Senators Roy Blunt, R, and Claire McCaskill, D, continue working with their chamber on an agreement. Blunt’s office says the deal includes a two-year extension of funding for community health centers totaling $7.8 billion – an increase of $600 million. Blunt has championed the reauthorization of community health centers funding and McCaskill has co-sponsored the measure.

“More than half a million Missourians, many of whom are uninsured or on Medicaid, rely on community health centers for quality, affordable health care,” says Blunt.

Additionally, the legislation contains an additional $165 billion in defense funding over two years and an additional four years of funding for a children’s health insurance safety net program often called CHIP.

McCaskill says she’s also pleased the plan comprises of $6 billion to combat America’s crisis with addictive prescription drugs, $20 billion in funding for rural infrastructure projects and $90 billion in disaster aid.

“These are resources that will save lives, strengthen our military and boost jobs,” she says.

The agreement calls for boosting federal spending by about $300 billion and raising the debt ceiling until March 2019. The holdup in that chamber appears to be coming from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). He wants an amendment vote to keep Congress under strict budget caps, as well as stripping the debt limit from the package. Senate GOP leaders reportedly still think they can negotiate with Paul.

If the Senate passes the budget package, the House is having its own difficulties. Conservative opposition is making Republican leaders reach out to Democrats. The measure does not include changes to immigration policy that would end uncertainty for 1.8 million immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children – a provision that Democrats have been fighting for.

Republican aides have told the national media that GOP leaders have begun discussing a one- or two-day continuing resolution to avoid a shutdown.

Are Hawley’s decisions a sign of Confide inquiry results into Missouri Governor’s Office?

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Attorney General Josh Hawley says fellow Republican Governor Eric Greitens’ social media accounts are not public records. The Kansas City Star reports that the governor does not have to hand over information from his personal Twitter and Facebook accounts, including private messages and names of blocked users.

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

Meanwhile, Cole County judge Jon Beetem has rejected a request to issue a temporary restraining order against Greitens and his staff from using a mobile app called Confide to instantly delete text messages after they are viewed. Last month, two St. Louis area attorneys filed a lawsuit accusing Greitens and his staff of engaging in an ongoing conspiracy to violate Missouri’s open records laws by using the app called Confide.

The Star reports that the judge goes on to say “there are a whole bunch of open questions here we’re going to need to sort this out.” Beetem has scheduled a March hearing for further arguments.

In December, Hawley opened an inquiry into the Governor’s Office about its alleged use of mobile software that is designed to automatically destroy text messages. Hawley, who is running for U.S. Senate to unseat Democrat Claire McCaskill, announced the inquiry following public pressure from Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton, and others.

Missouri Governor Eric Greitens (Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI)

At the press conference to announce the inquiry, Hawley said he considers work-related communication an open record, regardless of whether it’s an email or text message on a private or state-issued device.

Then there’s an investigation by Hawley’s office finding no open government records violations by State Auditor Nicole Galloway’s office. Hawley, a Republican, launched an investigation in December after conservative-leaning group Missouri Alliance for Freedom accused Galloway, a Democrat, of failing to provide text messages from her state-issued phone.

Do decisions by the attorney general about the governor’s social media records and auditor’s texting communications indicate the outcome of the governor’s secret texting controversy? Time will tell.

Missouri flu cases climb by 1,300 from previous week

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The number of lab-positive flu cases in Missouri has jumped by 1,300 from the previous week. According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the state’s season total has reached more than 66,000 cases with the influenza A strain continuing to far outweigh the others. Influenza A is a kind that is generally responsible for a higher volume of flu cases.

Photo courtesy of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Seventy-four influenza-associated deaths and 121 deaths involving pneumonia and influenza have been reported to the Bureau of Vital Records. The figures bring the season-to-date total to 888 pneumonia and influenza associated deaths statewide.

Fifty-four outbreaks of influenza or influenza-like illness and six influenza or influenza-associated school closures have been reported this season.

Northwest Missouri leads the state with 3,100 flu cases and eastern Missouri follows with 2,500 in the latest figures.

Safeguards health officials recommend include:

*Avoid close contact with sick people.

*Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after touching shared objects or surfaces such as door knobs, light  switches, remote controls, shopping counters, debit card readers, etc. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub.

*Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.

*Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.

*Clean and disinfect commonly touched surfaces.

*Stay home while you’re sick and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.