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Missourinet

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ACLU to file suit to recognize gay marriages in Missouri

February 11, 2014 By Jessica Machetta

The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri will file litigation in Kansas City to seek recognition of gay marriages by the State of Missouri. Press conferences will be held in Kansas City, Jefferson City, St. Louis and Springfield, where same-sex couples will speak out about their suit to be recognized.

Gay marriage has been in the spotlight in Missouri recently as eight Republican lawmakers try to impeach Gov. Jay Nixon because of his executive order requiring the Department of Revenue allow same-sex couples married legally in other states to file their Missouri taxes jointly. GOP legislators say Nixon is violating the constitution.

House Speaker Tim Jones is not heading up the effort to impeach Nixon, but is supportive of the legislation. The measure has not yet been assigned to a committee, the first step in the legislative process.

In the past year, the U.S. Supreme Court’s struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, which had prohibited federal recognition of same-sex marriage, and the Missouri Supreme Court has denied survivor benefits to same-sex couples.

Patrol Cpl. Dennis Engelhard was killed in the line of duty in 2009 when he was struck by a vehicle while investigating an accident on Interstate 44 in Eureka. Although he had listed his spouse, Kelly Glossip, as a beneficiary on his documents filed with the Highway Patrol, the state denied payment because they were not married. The ACLU sued the state on Glossip’s behalf, and lost.

Gay rights have also made headlines this week in Missouri as MU football player Michael Sam made the announcement that he was gay, the first player to come out as he begins his professional career.

While there have been other athletes who have come out about their sexuality, Sam is the first player to open up as he begins his quest to start a professional career.  If Sam were to make an NFL roster, he would become the first player to publicly announce that he is gay.

“I’m not naïve,” Sam said. “I know this is a huge deal and I know how important this is. But my role as of right now is to train for the combine and play in the NFL.”

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, News Tagged With: gay, Nixon, same-sex marriage, Supreme Court, taxes

Supreme Court to decide if KC Royals mascot was negligent in hot-dog throwing incident (AUDIO)

September 17, 2013 By Jessica Machetta

A Royals fan who claims he suffered a detached retina when Sluggerrr the Mascot hit him in the face with a hot dog has taken his suit all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court.

SluggerrrSports fan John Coomer is suing the Kansas City Royals for $25,000 on a claim of negligence. His attorney, Robert Tormohlen tells the Supreme Court Sluggerrr knew better, and had been trained on how to “throw the hot dogs lightly,” and “was well aware that if he winged a hot dog at someone, he could seriously injure that person.”

Judge Richard Teitelman asks if Coomer should have anticipated the risk, seeing that Coomer has been to more than 175 games. Judge Laura Denvir-Stith continued that line of questioning, pointing out that sports fans attend games not only for the game itself, but for the spectacle that comes with it.

The incident was reported in 2009; a jury ruled against Coomer in 2011, saying Coomer assumed the risk of a hot-dog-related injury when he bought his ticket to the game. Tormohlen says there’s a difference between a hot dog and a t-shirt … he says the foil-wrapped dogs are essentially four-and-a-half ounce projectiles.

According to court documents, the suit alleges that “Sluggerrr lost control of his throw or was reckless with his throw, and threw the hotdog directly into the Plaintiff.”

 

Kansas City Royals Baseball Corporation attorney Scott D. Hofer said the trial court correctly responded to Coomer’s claims. He said Coomer acknowledged that he saw the motion of the throw, people cheering in his section and looked away.

“In this day and age, the 21st century, there’s no way you don’t know that these types of activities were taking place,” Hofer says.

The Supreme Court will hand down an opinion at a later date.

AUDIO: Jessica Machetta reports (1:22)

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, News, Sports Tagged With: Baseball, Kansas City Royals, Sluggerrr, Supreme Court

ACLU, Congressman Clay, PROMO say Supreme Court decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act is a historic victory for civil rights (AUDIO)

June 26, 2013 By Jessica Machetta

The American Civil Liberties Union says the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act is a historic move in the advancement of civil rights.

The ACLU of Eastern Missouri in St. Louis says the decision states very clearly that the federal government will no longer discriminate against lesbian and gay couples for unfair treatment under the law. ACLU executive director Jeffrey Mittman says the Supreme Court acknowledges that states that recognize the rights of two people who are in love to make a responsible commitment to one another should be granted those same rights under the federal government.

St. Louis area Congressman Lacy Clay says the decision is a historic turning point that advances full equality for all.

“The high court has affirmed that equal protection under the law applies to every American,” Clay says.

West Central Missouri Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler disagrees. She says marriage should be between a man and a woman, and that children need a mom and a dad.

“Today the Court got it wrong,” she says. “The activist ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act ignored the votes of a bipartisan majority of Congress. This alarming precedent disempowers Congress from making national policy with respect to marriage. We must work to defend the rights of Americans to make marriage policy. We should work to promote the truth of marriage between a man and a woman. It is wise public policy upholding the reality that every child needs a mom and a dad, and society benefits when they do.”

President Obama says he applauds the decision.

“This was discrimination enshrined in law,” Obama says. “It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people. The Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country is better off for it. We are a people who declared that we are all created equal – and the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”

“This ruling is a victory for couples who have long fought for equal treatment under the law; for children whose parents’ marriages will now be recognized, rightly, as legitimate; for families that, at long last, will get the respect and protection they deserve; and for friends and supporters who have wanted nothing more than to see their loved ones treated fairly and have worked hard to persuade their nation to change for the better,” he says.

He says he’s directed the Attorney General to work with other members of his Cabinet to review all relevant federal statutes to ensure this decision, including its implications for Federal benefits and obligations, is implemented swiftly and smoothly.

 

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says Defense Department officials will move forward in making benefits available to all military spouses.

“The Department will immediately begin the process of implementing the Supreme Court’s decision in consultation with the Department of Justice and other executive branch agencies,” Hagel says. “The Department of Defense intends to make the same benefits available to all military spouses — regardless of sexual orientation — as soon as possible. That is now the law, and it is the right thing to do. Every person who serves our nation in uniform stepped forward with courage and commitment. All that matters is their patriotism, their willingness to serve their country and their qualifications to do so. Today’s ruling helps ensure that all men and women who serve this country can be treated fairly and equally, with the full dignity and respect they so richly deserve.”

Obama adds that “when all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free.”

AUDIO: Jessica Machetta reports (1:06)

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, News, Politics / Govt Tagged With: ACLU, Clay, gay, Hartzler, LGBT, military, Obama, Supreme Court

Schweich denies he filed suit against Nixon’s disaster withholdings for personal reasons, blasts Post Dispatch editorial (VIDEO)

August 30, 2011 By Jessica Machetta

Auditor Tom Schweich is blasting an editorial in the St. Louis Post Dispatch that says his lawsuit over the Governor’s budget withholdings to help Joplin rebuild is based on personal vendetta.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ66YUd995E

Schweich says the Post ignores the media’s responsibility to present the facts clearly to the public. He quotes…

“That ‘Mr. Schweich wants the courts and public to believe his budget is more important than helping a city rebuild from one of the worst natural disasters in our state’s history…'”

“That is blatant dishonesty,” Schweich fires back. “It is corrupt, it is dishonest, it is libelous, it is false and it is a tremendous disservice to the people of Missouri who have to read junk like that when the Post Dispatch knows darn well just reading the lawsuit that is not what this lawsuit is about.”

Governor Nixon has cut about $150 million dollars from the state budget for disaster recovery. Schweich says Nixon does not have the authority to make that unilateral decision and has filed a lawsuit to stop him.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Legislature, Politics / Govt Tagged With: budget, Joplin, lawsuit, Missouri, Nixon, Schweich, Supreme Court

Chief Justice: too many non-violent offenders sent to prison (AUDIO)

February 9, 2011 By admin

Chief Justice Ray Price

State Chief Justice Ray Price has two messages of lawmakers in his State of the Judiciary address: the same messages he has delivered before.

Price, chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court, tells a joint session of the legislature Missouri is throwing too many non-violent offenders into prison.

“We continue to over-incarcerate nonviolent offenders, while we have failed to expand drug courts and other diversionary and re-entry programs to capacity,” Price tells legislators. “The result is a state that is not as safe as we want it to be and a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

Price says that Missouri has tried to incarcerate its way out of crime and illegal drug use. Price says the state has been tough on crime, but not smart on crime. He points out that prison population has grown from 612,000 in 1982 to 2.3 million today.

The Chief Justice says the failure of the strategy is apparent in the state’s recidivism rate. More than half of the people released from Missouri prisons returned within five years, according to Price. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, Legislature Tagged With: Supreme Court

Chief Justice urges legislators to consider alternatives to prison (AUDIO)

December 14, 2010 By admin

Legislators, looking for ways to cut the state budget, have been told that alternatives to prison might be the answer.

Estimates of the budget shortfall legislators might face in the 2011 session have fallen in the range of $400-to-700 million. Chairman of the House Interim Committee on Budget Transparency, Rep. Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City), estimates lawmakers will have to settle on $700 million in cuts to keep the state budget balanced for the next fiscal year. Silvey will be chairman of the House Budget Committee in the next session. He has been holding hearings with the special interim committee to get a jump on the dire budget talks ahead. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, Legislature Tagged With: budget, Supreme Court

Military funeral protest case before court differs from Missouri case (AUDIO)

October 7, 2010 By admin

A case before the United States Supreme Court could provide clues as to how state lawmakers could re-fashion a law that sought to regulate protests at military funerals.

US Supreme Court Justices have heard the arguments in the case of Snyder versus Phelps. The justices must decide whether to let stand a $10 million judgment awarded to Albert Snyder. Snyder filed suit against Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas after the congregation protested his son’s funeral. Matthew Snyder, a Marine, was killed in Iraq at the age of 20. Snyder claimed the protests invaded his privacy, caused emotional distress and violated his rights to free exercise of religion and peaceful assembly. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, Legislature, Military, Politics / Govt Tagged With: Supreme Court

Changes made to Missouri Plan (AUDIO)

September 30, 2010 By admin

Changes have been made to Missouri’s non-partisan court plan, the method used to select the state’s appellate judges and judges in certain judicial circuits.

Chief Justice Ray Price says the primary change will be to make public the interviews the Appellate Judicial Commission conducts with candidates. Also, the votes for the three successful candidates forwarded to the governor will be made public and the public will be encourage to nominate candidates.

Price asserts that the Missouri Plan of appointing judges is superior to direct elections, especially since the amount of money poured into judicial elections in other states has doubled the past ten years, with most of the money coming from big contributors. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, Politics / Govt Tagged With: Supreme Court

Chief Justice Price takes direct approach in State of Judiciary address

February 3, 2010 By admin

Chief Justice Price addresses joint session of legislature

Chief Justice Price addresses joint session of legislature

State Supreme Court Chief Justice Ray Price told state lawmakers that the Missouri court system cannot absorb any more budget cuts, that they must rethink criminal law and that politics must not become part of the process of choosing judges.

In a 40 minute State of the Judiciary address, Price spoke in blunt terms to a joint session of the General Assembly. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Politics / Govt Tagged With: Supreme Court

Drug court graduates say the program saved their lives

January 31, 2010 By admin

Andrea Berin talks with Missourinet's Brent Martin

Andrea Berin talks with Missourinet's Brent Martin

Drug courts have proven their worth to Missouri officials, but it is the graduates of the program that know its true value.

Ask Andrea Berin of St. Louis what impact drug court had on her.

“It definitely saved my life,” Berin tells the Missourinet. “Without it, I was doing nothing: homeless, jobless, on drugs, not really living.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Supreme Court

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