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Missouri Supreme Court lets St. Louis, Jackson County challenge controversial gun law • Missouri Independent

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Missouri Supreme Court lets St. Louis, Jackson County challenge controversial gun law • Missouri Independent


The Missouri Supreme Courtroom dominated on Tuesday that St. Louis and Jackson County might problem the constitutionality of a legislation handed final yr barring Missouri police from imposing federal gun rules.

In a 6-1 choice, Missouri’s highest court docket despatched a case in regards to the Second Modification Preservation Act again to Cole County Circuit Courtroom. That’s the place St. Louis and Jackson County beforehand tried to steer a choose to dam the legislation with out success.

SAPA prevents Missouri police from cooperating with federal officers who try to implement gun legal guidelines or rules which might be seen as an infringement on the Second Modification proper to bear arms. It permits anybody who believes their rights have been violated to sue police departments for as much as $50,000.

SAPA has been broadly criticized by legislation enforcement all through the state who say the legislation complicates police work.

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The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms mentioned in a quick the legislation has brought on 12 Missouri legislation enforcement businesses to finish their partnerships with the bureau. The transient additionally acknowledged the Missouri State Freeway Patrol stopped collaborating in some federal investigations after the legislation was enacted. The Justice Division has additionally sharply criticized the legislation.

Throughout oral arguments in February, Missouri Solicitor Basic D. John Sauer mentioned the court docket didn’t want to listen to the case but as a result of St. Louis and Jackson County didn’t argue the constitutionality of SAPA within the Cole County Courtroom case.

The Missouri Supreme Courtroom dominated that St. Louis and Jackson County can argue whether or not SAPA is authorized, however should first have that argument in entrance of a Cole County choose earlier than the state’s excessive court docket will take into account the problem.

Decide Zel Fischer dissented, writing he would affirm the circuit court docket’s judgment to throw out the case and argued the challengers can problem the legislation by different pending lawsuits.

The Midwest Newsroom is an investigative journalism collaboration together with St. Louis Public RadioKCURIowa Public RadioNebraska Public Media and NPR.

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Missouri

Big GOP funders sending millions into Missouri's attorney general primary

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Big GOP funders sending millions into Missouri's attorney general primary


Missouri’s attorney general has sued Planned Parenthood and President Joe Biden, tried to force clinics that provide gender-affirming care to hand over their records, and pushed a liberal prosecutor to resign.

Despite those decidedly conservative moves, some prominent conservative groups from outside Missouri are spending millions ahead of the Aug. 6 primary to boost Andrew Bailey’s opponent, Will Scharf, a member of former President Donald Trump’s legal team. In the GOP-dominated state, the primary winner has a huge advantage in November’s general election.

The tumult demonstrates how important state attorneys general have become as they’ve taken on increasingly nationalized roles in addition to using the positions as springboards to run for governor or U.S. Senate. Both senators representing Missouri previously served as AG.

“It is part of the broader universe of AGs and where we’re at now in terms of the funding for these races,” said Paul Nolette, a Marquette University political scientist who studies state attorneys general and has observed them digging into issues such as abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. “That money makes it less likely for the AGs to break out of their commitment to their ideological poles and oftentimes culture war approach to issues.”

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State attorneys general are lawyers who represent the state government. AGs are appointed in some states but elected in 43. Some are their states’ top criminal prosecutors; all of them have major consumer affairs roles. They’ve long crossed party lines to protect consumers, such as with joint lawsuits against the opioid industry and tech companies.

AGs have become far more partisan in the past decade, however, with many — like Bailey — suing the federal administration over policies when the president is of the opposing party.

For instance, nearly every Republican AG has filed a lawsuit objecting to the Biden administration’s regulations mandating that transgender students be protected under a gender equality law. A group of Democratic AGs has begun legal filings in support of the regulations.

In this Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024 photo, Will Scharf speaks at the James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Center in Jefferson City, Mo. Scharf is seeking the Republican nomination for attorney general. Credit: AP/Jack Suntrup

The political operation around state AGs has gotten stronger, too. The Republican Attorneys General Association, which is dedicated to electing Republican AGs, became its own entity in 2014 after splitting off from a group devoted to electing GOP lawmakers and other state officials. Two years later, the Democratic Attorneys General Association, moved from Colorado to Washington, D.C., and added full-time staff.

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Now, the groups pour money into the most competitive races, often in the form of independent expenditures that pay for attack ads.

RAGA, which normally supports GOP AG incumbents, has stayed out of the Missouri primary. Some of the association’s biggest contributors, however, are backing Scharf. They’re doing so by making contributions to a Missouri arm of Club for Growth, a major funding power that focuses on aiding fiscally conservative candidates and which, in turn, is airing ads to boost Scharf and criticize Bailey.

The group has received $1 million this year from Leonard Leo, a political funding powerhouse who serves as co-chair of the conservative Federalist Society, and another $1 million from the Concord Fund, which is part of Leo’s vast network. The Concord Fund, previously known as the Judicial Crisis Network, is best know for trying to create a more conservative federal judiciary. It’s usually a major RAGA supporter, contributing more than $10 million to that group since 2020.

The fund backing Scharf has also received $1.4 million this year from investor Paul Singer and $500,000 from the national Club for Growth.

It’s not unheard of for national conservatives to try to oust an incumbent Republican AG. Two years ago, a separate arm of Club for Growth spent more than $280,000 on ads attacking longtime Idaho AG Lawrence Wasden in the Republican primary. His opponent, U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador, defeated him and went on to win the general election in November.

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Club for Growth PAC President David McIntosh last year praised Scharf for economic positions, such as promoting tax cuts.

Leo has not publicly explained the support of his network and his representative did not respond to interview requests.

But Scharf fits the mold of some of the Federalist Society-connected lawyers who have risen through the ranks of the government legal system with resumes that include elite law schools, clerkships with Republican-appointed federal judges and strong ties to the GOP.

He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, his law degree from Harvard University, clerked for two federal appeals court judges and has worked at CRC advisors, a conservative public relations firm chaired by Leo. In addition to being one of Trump’s lawyers, he has worked as an assistant U.S. Attorney in St. Louis, and worked on the campaign and later in the office of then-Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens. A representative for Scharf said he would be available for an interview but did not reply to later follow-up email, text and voicemail messages from The Associated Press.

“I’m surprised that Wall Street and coastal elites would want to buy an office in Missouri for a New Yorker,” Bailey said of Scharf in an interview. He said Scharf would be the kind of candidate that those funders could control.

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Bailey has spent nearly his entire career in Missouri. The Army veteran received his undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Missouri, worked in the state attorney general’s office, and was an assistant county prosecutor and a state government lawyer before joining the office of Gov. Mike Parson, who eventually appointed him as attorney general.

Liberty and Justice PAC, an effort supporting Bailey, has also attracted major contributions. The biggest was $500,000 from Carolyn and Mike Rayner, St. Louis-area residents who are part of the family that owns the agribusiness firm Cargill, Inc.



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New group ramps up efforts to lure Chiefs from Missouri

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New group ramps up efforts to lure Chiefs from Missouri


TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Kansas legislators have intensified efforts to woo the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs by offering to let the professional football franchise shape a plan for using state bonds to finance a new stadium in Kansas.

Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins and Senate President Ty Masterson said in a statement Tuesday that the Legislature would consider the proposal during a special session set to convene June 18. They invited the Chiefs “to weigh in on” the plan in a letter May 23 to Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt, with the leaders released Tuesday.

Their actions came as a new Kansas nonprofit group, Scoop and Score, launched a campaign for bringing the Chiefs from Missouri to Kansas. The group started an online petition aimed at the Legislature, sent texts saying the Chiefs “deserve a permanent home in Kansas,” and registered 20 lobbyists to represent it at the Statehouse, including a former House speaker and some of the state’s most prominent contract lobbyists.

Kansas officials saw an opening in early April after voters on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area decisively refused to extend a local sales tax used to keep up the complex housing the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium, home to professional baseball’s Kansas City Royals.

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“Your insights and expertise are invaluable in shaping the success of this project,” Hawkins and Masterson said in their letter. “Your organization’s stature and experience in professional sports will help shape our understanding and ensure that this initiative aligns with the interests of all stakeholders involved.”

The lobbyists who registered to represent Scoop and Score included Ron Ryckman Jr., a Kansas City-area businessman who served as Kansas House speaker from 2017 through 2022. His former legislative chief of staff, Paje Resner, also registered, and she was listed as the group’s incorporator when it filed its articles of incorporation with the state on May 13.

Hunt told reporters in April that the Chiefs would take “a broader perspective” about the team’s future home after the vote in Missouri. The Chiefs had hoped to use their share of the local sales tax to help pay for an $800 million renovation of Arrowhead.

The plan favored by Hawkins, Masterson and other members of the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature would pay off bonds for a new stadium with sales and alcohol tax revenues generated in a designated area around the stadium. It would be similar to how the state and officials in Kansas City, Kansas, financed construction of NASCAR’s Kansas Speedway and an adjacent shopping and entertainment district.

“We are poised to make the Kansas City Chiefs even stronger,” Hawkins and Masterson said in their letter. “It also promises to be a victory for Kansas taxpayers and a game-changer for our state’s economy.”

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Some legislators were pushing a similar proposal to build new stadiums in Kansas for both the Chiefs and the Royals before lawmakers adjourned their annual session May 1, but the plan never came to a vote. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly called the special session to consider broad tax cuts after vetoing three previous tax plans, but legislators can consider whatever they want.

The earlier stadium-financing proposal faced opposition from Americans for Prosperity-Kansas, a small-government, low-tax group long against the use of such bonds and influential with Republicans. Critics have argued that using the bonds for big projects represents the state picking economic winners and losers instead of the free market.



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Alligator found after 10 days on the loose in Missouri – UPI.com

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Alligator found after 10 days on the loose in Missouri – UPI.com


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June 4 (UPI) — A small alligator that escaped from a petting zoo set up at a Kansas City, Mo., middle school was found outside the school 10 days later.

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Lakeview Middle School sent an email to faculty and the families of students revealing the 14-inch gator was found outside a back door at the school by custodial workers.

The alligator escaped May 23 from a petting zoo set up at the school by third-party business Thorni Ridge Exotics. The disappearance sparked a probe by the KC Pet Project, but the search was called off after a few days.

The alligator, which was found with its mouth still taped shut, is now in the custody of the KC Pet Project.

“It’s hard to say how he survived,” shelter spokesperson Tori Fugate told The Kansas City Star. “But, I mean, I’ve been told by people who care for alligators that they can go quite a while without having food. It’s more of, you know, they need heat, water and things like that.”

The KC Pet Project is caring for the alligator while officials work to determine whether it will be returned to the petting zoo or placed in a new sanctuary home.

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Officials earlier revealed that the proper permits had not been filed for the petting zoo, which was brought to the school to celebrate the end of the academic year.

Alligators are not legal to have in Kansas City.

Eric Smith, owner of Thorni Ridge Exotics, welcomed the news of Alex the alligator’s return.

“We never quit looking for him,” Smith told KCTV.

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