The motion, filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, is packed with excerpts from depositions of dozens of witnesses — including priests and nuns — and an affidavit from a former school board member at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary School, who said she complained about Monsignor Thomas O’Brien’s alleged inappropriate behavior to a former bishop, then resigned and pulled her son from the school in the 1980s because nothing was done about it.
After more than a decade of discussion, Mission is getting set to rebuild its main street, Johnson Drive. But some downtown merchants are anxious about parking, while others complain about costs and disruptions.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court against the diocese, Bishop Robert Finn and the Rev. Shawn Ratigan by the parents of a young northern Missouri girl, was settled for $600,000, attorneys for the girl’s family said. It is the diocese’s largest settlement in a single priest sex abuse case, they said.
The bill is one Senate roll call away from the November 2014 ballot. But with only two days left before the end of the legislative session, a filibuster has put its chances in doubt. If supporters of the bill — primarily construction companies and organized labor — truly want to raise the sales tax, Republican Sen. John Lamping said, they can put the question on the ballot themselves.
Jackson County prosecutors charged Timothy A. Phillips, 30, and Lacey A. Chaney, 27, each with first-degree child endangerment, abuse or neglect of a child and felonious restraint. The 9-year-old girl told authorities that she had been locked in the basement, with little food or water, as punishment for a school suspension. She had been denied use of the bathroom because she had allegedly infected her father’s girlfriend with a rash.
A simmering standoff between the Kansas House and Senate over taxes cooled Wednesday amid a compromise extending part of a controversial addition to the state’s sales tax. House negotiators offered to extend three-tenths of a penny sales tax that was approved in 2010 to help the state limp through a recession-driven dip in revenues.
Republicans contend that new driver’s license procedures, initiated after a fraud case in St. Joseph, invade the privacy of Missourians. They send Gov. Jay Nixon a measure to stop the scanning of birth certificates and other documents.
The Missouri Senate voted 32-1 in support of a bill allowing the State Board of Education to immediately intervene in an unaccredited school district. Current law mandates that the state wait two years before taking action. Kansas City Public Schools has been unaccredited since Jan. 1, 2012.
The City Council’s Finance and Ethics Committee supports new rules that require more frequent disclosure of gifts and that call for an ethics compliance officer. The full council votes May 23 on the new ethics code.
Police arrested Abigail C. Millican, 20, in connection with warrants filed by prosecutors last week. She remained in jail Wednesday in lieu of a $100,000 bond.
Critics pounced immediately. “Why don’t they just outlaw drinking?” one bar owner said. But the National Transportation Safety Board says it would save lives. It’s just a recommendation, and the decision to adopt the new threshold would be up to individual states. There is precedent for political muscle, though.
Those who test positive for a harmful genetic mutation have several alternatives for reducing their risk, experts say. Jolie chose three months of medical procedures to have her breasts removed and reconstructed. Jolie’s mother died at age 56 of ovarian cancer.
Missouri House members have passed the bill and the Senate seems receptive to the changes they made. But only three days remain in the 2013 legislative session, so time is running short. And the long wait to get it across the finish line has left some wondering whether passage will have any real impact in the Kansas City district.
The University of Kansas has struggled throughout the legislative session to win support for $10 million recommended by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback for a new building to train doctors at its medical school in Kansas City, Kan. At the same time, however, lawmakers eagerly embraced the governor’s proposal to fund a new adult stem cell research center for the university.
Bishop Robert Finn and the diocese couldn’t have aided and abetted the Rev. Shawn Ratigan in his possession of child pornography because they didn’t know about the images until the priest had completed his crime, a judge ruled. The civil trial is scheduled to open Monday.
Steve Roberts of Overland Park said he used the “N-word” “clinically” during a discussion of state history standards. Several black leaders in Topeka say it was unnecessary and inappropriate.
