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Major League Baseball to testify Thursday at Missouri Capitol (AUDIO)

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A representative from Major League Baseball will testify Thursday before a Missouri House gaming committee in Jefferson City about sports wagering legislation.

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

Jeremy Kudon of Major League Baseball is traveling from New York to Jefferson City to testify before the House Special Interim Committee on Gaming. Committee Chairman Dan Shaul, R-Imperial, tells Missourinet that he expects an informative presentation.

“MLB will be here (the Missouri Capitol) on November 7th and they’ll talk about their role in sports betting, and what they’d like to see and what they’ve done in other states,” Shaul says.

Gaming executive Chris Krafcik of San Francisco-based Eilers and Krejcik Gaming testified before the committee in October that legalizing sports betting at Missouri casinos and via mobile devices would generate about $289 million annually in revenue.

Multiple gaming executives testified in October that they want to make sure that legalized sports betting in Missouri is easy to use, secure and is fair for the consumer.

State Reps. Robert Ross, R-Yukon, and Cody Smith, R-Carthage, filed sports wagering bills in 2019, but the bills died because of a lack of consensus in the Legislature. Representative Ross, who serves on the interim committee, tells Missourinet he plans to file a similar but improved bill for 2020.

The “St. Louis Post-Dispatch” has reported that at least 18 other states and the District of Columbia allow residents 21 and older to bet on collegiate and professional sports.

Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming, which operates the Ameristar Kansas City and St. Charles casinos, testified last month for legislation to legalize sports betting in Missouri. Boyd Gaming’s Ryan Soultz tells lawmakers Missouri is losing tax revenue to other states, citing customers in the Kansas City area.

“We’ve heard from some customers that are making the drive up to Iowa for football Saturdays and football Sundays because we don’t have a sports book here,” Soultz testifies.

The House Special Interim Committee on Gaming meets Thursday at noon. This is the committee’s final hearing. They plan to submit a report to the full House by December 1.

Click here to listen to the full interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and House Special Interim Committee on Gaming Chairman Dan Shaul, R-Imperial, which was recorded on October 24, 2019 at the Statehouse in Jefferson City:

Copyright © 2019 · Missourinet

August sentencing date set for Missouri businessman involved in grain scheme

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A northwest Missouri businessman and former school board member faces a potential lengthy federal prison sentence, for a $142 million grain fraud scheme.

61-year-old Randy Constant is a prominent businessman and is also a former Chillicothe School Board member.

Federal prosecutors in Iowa say Constant pleaded guilty in federal court in December to one count of wire fraud. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Morfitt tells Missourinet Constant is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge C.J. Williams in Iowa on August 16.

Constant faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Morfitt says Constant admits the grain fraud scheme is more than $142 million. Constant misled customers into thinking they were buying certified organic grain when it was not organic.

Prosecutors also say Constant admits falsely telling customers the grain he sold was grown on his certified organic fields in Nebraska and Missouri. Prosecutors say the certified organic fields were sprayed with unauthorized substances.

As part of his December plea, Constant agreed to forfeit about $128 million in proceeds from the fraudulent scheme.

Three Nebraska farmers who pleaded guilty to the scheme will also be sentenced on August 16 in Cedar Rapids. Morfitt says the three farmers, who are from Overton, Nebraska, also pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.

Both the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the FBI have investigated the case.

Copyright © 2019 · Missourinet

Missouri man marks anniversary of his historic free speech case

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Reported by O. Kay Henderson, Radio Iowa

A Missouri man has marked the 50th anniversary of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that came four years after he wore a black armband to school.  John Tinker, who now lives in Fayette, created a free speech case that is still cited today.

John and Mary Beth Tinker with current Des Moines area high school students. Photo by O. Kay Henderson

In December 1965, Tinker, his sister Mary Beth, along with a friend, wore black armbands to high school in Des Moines to protest the Vietnam War. John Tinker said black armbands have been worn as a symbol of mourning for centuries.

“It’s a silent, non-disruptive symbol and so we thought it fit what we were trying to do very well,” Tinker said.

The Tinker siblings and their friend were sent home and threatened with expulsion for wearing the armbands. The parents of the three teens sued on their behalf and four years later the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District that a student’s right to free expression doesn’t end “at the schoolhouse gate.”

“It declared that students in the public schools are persons under the law and are endowed with their First Amendment rights,” Tinker told Radio Iowa.

Tinker and his sister were featured in a day-long event at the State Historical Society of Iowa in Des Moines on Friday. More than 200 Iowa students attended. There was a national live stream discussion with students in other states as well.

“Having stood up for what we believed way back then about the war in Vietnam and having the courts vindicate us — I think that helps the students today understand that if they’ve thought about an issue and if they feel strongly about it, that they do have the right to speak out about it,” Tinker said, “and I encourage them to do that.”

Tinker and another high school student were 15 years old when they wore black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War. His younger sister, Mary Beth, also wore an armband to school. She was 13 and in junior high.

The Tinkers will speak at Iowa State University tonight, at the University of Iowa Tuesday evening and at Drake University Wednesday evening.

Five states join Missouri in challenge of California egg law

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Missouri is not going it alone in challenging the State of California’s egg law.

Attorney General Chris Koster has announced that five states have joined in his suit against California alleging that it is unconstitutionally trying to regulate farming practice outside its borders. Those states are Nebraska, Alabama, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Iowa.

With Missouri, those five states produce more than 20-billion eggs per year, 10-percent of which are sold to consumers in California.

California voters in 2008 passed Proposition 2 that, beginning next year, would regulate the size of the enclosures that house egg-laying hens. To avoid a potential competitive advantage to that state’s own egg producers, the California State Assembly passed a bill requiring producers in other states to comply with that law in order to sell eggs in California.

The six states’ suit asks the federal court to rule that California’s legislation violates the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. Koster says that clause prohibits any state from enacting legislation that regulates conduct wholly outside its borders, protects its own citizens from out-of-state competition, or places undue burdens on interstate commerce.

In a statement Koster says he welcomes those five states joining the effort.

“This case is not just about farming practices,” Koster says. “At stake is whether elected officials in one state may regulate the practices of another state’s citizens, who cannot vote them out of office.”