JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KFVS) – Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) introduced the Educational and Career Opportunities for Public Safety Act of 2024.

The bill tackles the recruitment and retainment crisis affecting local law enforcement agencies across the country and seeks to support them. The EdCOPS Act of 2024 offers education benefits to police officers and their dependents.

“As crime rates rise and law enforcement agencies experience staffing shortages, Congress must ensure that states have the resources they need to attract and retain high-quality police officers. This bill would do just that by investing in the men and women in blue who keep our communities safe,” said Hawley.

“As the son of two police officers, I have a personal appreciation for the work local law enforcement do every day to keep us safe,” said Kelly. “With the EdCOPS Act, we’re supporting this crucial work by providing them with academic and career opportunities so they can reach their full potential while serving their communities. This investment will retain valuable officers and help recruit new ones, making our state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies stronger.”

According to a 2023 Police Executive Research study, police agencies are seeing an officer exodus that exceeds replacement rates. According to the study, agencies saw 50% more resignations from officers in 2022 than in 2019, and total sworn officer staffing has dropped nearly 5% over the past three years.

The EdCOPS Act would ensure that a public safety officer who has served for eight years and commits to serving four more for a single employer would be eligible to receive financial assistance to attend a higher education program. Eligible public safety officers can also transfer unused education benefits to their dependents.

Copyright 2024 KFVS. All rights reserved.

Saadiya Fratila, director of business administration for the College of Arts and Science at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has been named assistant vice chancellor for business operations and strategy at Missouri University of Science and Technology. Fratila’s appointment begins July 1.

In this role, Fratila will spearhead revenue-generating initiatives across various operational facets, including print and mail services, events and hospitality management, and parking operations. With a keen eye for strategic development, she will craft and execute a forward-thinking vision aligned with the university’s overarching goals. Additionally, Fratila will oversee the campus’s business administration function, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness, while also managing dining and retail contracts. She will report to Alysha O’Neil, vice chancellor for finance and operations.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing the positive impact Saadiya can have on business operations at S&T given her extensive background in higher education and broad international experience,” O’Neil says.

Fratila holds an MBA and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Peshawar, Pakistan. Her career includes experience with international humanitarian organizations, such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), where she specialized in post-conflict and post-disaster regions across South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Fratila joined MU’s staff a decade ago, most recently serving as the director of business administration for the College of Arts and Science since 2020. In this role, she has provided strategic fiscal guidance to the college dean, covering a broad spectrum of areas, including strategic planning, finance, budget planning, human resources operations, information technology, facilities, renovations, capital expenditures, real estate and faculty recruitment.

“I am excited to join an exceptionally proficient business team at S&T,” she says. “Envisioning abundant potential and opportunities, I anticipate a journey filled with growth and achievement. Challenges will undoubtedly arise, yet I view them as essential milestones on the path to success. My aim is to cultivate trust through unwavering integrity, nurturing an environment conducive to growth and steering towards a future defined by excellence and impactful change.”

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.