Free Republic

A federal appeals court on Tuesday reversed former Nebraska congressman Jeff Fortenberry's three felony convictions, agreeing with Fortenberry's argument that the trial should not have taken place in California. Fortenberry was convicted by a federal jury in Los Angeles in 2022 on one count of concealing conduit campaign contributions and two counts of lying to federal agents, all felonies. The charges stemmed from Fortenberry allegedly accepting an illegal campaign donation from billionaire Nigerian businessman Gilbert Chagoury at a 2016 fundraiser and then lying about the donation during later interviews with FBI agents. On Tuesday, a panel of three judges with...

ST. LOUIS – The Missouri Department of Social Services has reopened a case involving young kids with disabilities after it was discovered the state may have cut corners in the investigation. The allegations of physical restraint with zip ties were made against a teacher in mid-Missouri. FOX 2 is not identifying the teacher or school district they work for because the state originally found they did nothing wrong. In an email obtained by us, State Rep. Cheri Toalson Reisch (R) formally requested the Missouri Department of Social Services reopen the investigation into the allegations, days after FOX 2’s investigation aired...

SEDALIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The Pettis County Clerk announced Wednesday morning about 1,200 absentee ballots were lost in the mail recently. A post on the Pettis County Elections Office Facebook page said more ballots were sent out and voters should receive a new ballot on Wednesday. Pettis County Clerk Nick La Strada said his office delivered the ballots to the post office on Sept. 21. Absentee voting started in Missouri last week. County clerks in Cole and Boone counties have already received many ballots. Some ballots were submitted on Thursday and Friday, however, La Strada said his workers received calls over...

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) In a letter to the community Friday, Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services Director Stephanie Browning called systemic racism a public health emergency. "Systemic racism disproportionately affects the stress and burden of illness experienced by Black, Indigenous, Latinx and other people of color," Browning wrote. "These minority groups are more likely to experience higher rates of diabetes, heart disease and obesity." Browning said the health disparities are apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic across the country. "In Boone County we are also seeing this trend," Browning said. "As of June 4, 28.4% of our COVID-19 cases were Black individuals,...

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Chuck Graham, a former state representative and senator from Columbia, passed away overnight on Monday. Graham's wife, Kate Graham, said on Facebook that the former legislator and advocate for people with disabilities died from an apparent heart attack. Chuck Graham was 55 years old. Graham served in the Missouri General Assembly from 1997 to 2009 as a Democrat from Columbia. He served four terms as a state representative in what was then House District 24. He was elected to the Missouri State Senate in 2005. Graham used a wheelchair to get around following a car crash when...

denial_20190222214439 A federal judge rejected Planned Parenthood's request Friday for the court to block a state regulation that the organization says is preventing it from getting a license to perform local abortions. Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains filed the renewed motion for a preliminary injunction in its case against the state of Missouri in December. The clinic's license to perform abortions expired in October after a federal judge declined to renew it.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft's office has launched an investigation into whether Attorney General Josh Hawley used public funds for campaign purposes. The American Democracy Legal Fund, which requested the investigation last month, provided a letter from Ashcroft's office dated Thursday confirming the investigation. "Pursuant to section 115.642, RSMo, this office will commence an investigation into the alleged offense," Ashcroft's deputy legal counsel, Khristine Heisinger, wrote in the letter. The statute referenced in the letter outlines the Secretary of State's Office complaint and investigation process. State law prohibits the use of public funds for campaigning. Ashcroft's office...

According to the indictment, Holmes and Balwani encouraged doctors and patients to use the company’s blood testing services even though the defendants knew Theranos was not capable of consistently producing accurate and reliable results for certain blood tests, the department said in a statement.

CAPE GIRARDEAU — A southeast Missouri man who has served nearly two decades in prison after being convicted in a woman’s death should be released because his constitutional rights were violated during his trial, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The court’s ruling potentially ends a lengthy and contentious case that began when David Robinson was convicted in the August 2000 killing of Sheila Box, who was shot to death in her SUV after leaving a Sikeston bar. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. “My prayers have been answered,” Jennette McCaster, Robinson’s mother, told...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Gov. Greitens has been indicted on felony charge for invasion of privacy. You can read the entire indictment release by the Circuit Attorney of the City of St. Louis below:

A North Carolina police department is conducting an internal investigation after an officer was caught on camera incorrectly telling an Uber driver that it's illegal to record a traffic stop. Jesse Bright, a defense attorney who also works as an Uber driver, was stopped in Wilmington on Feb. 26 after he brought a customer to what officers described as a "known drug house." Bright explained he was an Uber driver and that he didn't know the passenger. But one officer could be heard on the tape telling Bright to turn off his cell phone video recorder, then threaten to take...

JEFFERSON CITY — Senate Republicans on Wednesday twice used some muscle to pass bills over Gov. Jay Nixon’s objections, approving controversial gun and voter identification bills in the annual veto session. A motion to shut off debate, rare anytime in the state Senate, had been used only once in September veto sessions since they were initiated in 1974. That was in 2014, when lawmakers approved a 72-hour waiting period to obtain an abortion. On Wednesday, it was used on both the gun measure and the voter identification bill. The Missouri House also passed both bills. The gun measure eliminates the...

Report: Mizzou head coach prohibits players from legally owning handguns. Missouri head coach Barry Odom Missouri football coach Barry Odom has instituted a team policy that prohibits his players from owning handguns, according to Matthew Stevens of The Montgomery Advertiser.Stevens reports that Odom does not want his players owning handguns, even if they're obtained legally, while they are members of the Mizzou football team.However, Odom clarified that guns used for hunting are separate from the team policy. While many schools prohibit handguns on campus, Mizzou football seems to be the only program that specifically prohibits owning a handgun as a...

COLUMBIA - The Missouri State Public Defender's office assigned a legal case to Gov. Jay Nixon in an open letter on August 2. In the letter, Michael Barrett, the director of Missouri's public defender system, calls out Nixon for vetoing Senate Bill No. 37, which Barrett said would have "provided caseload relief to an overburdened system." He added Nixon has "repeatedly cut funding for an indigent defense system that continues to rank 49th in the U.S. with a budget that the consumer price index indicates has less value now than it did in 2009." In protest of declining funding for...

The mother of a woman who police say was killed in a collision by an undocumented immigrant is supporting Donald Trump, despite voting for Barack Obama in the last two presidential elections. Michelle Root told The World-Herald that Trump’s campaign workers had reached out to her a couple of weeks after her daughter was killed. Sarah Root, 21, died on Jan. 31, a day after her graduation from Bellevue University, when Eswin Mejia drove drunk and slammed his truck into her car, Omaha police have said. Mejia, 19, is from Honduras and came to the country illegally. He posted $5,000...

A University of Missouri professor is filing a lawsuit against the school for prohibiting guns on campus, in what is aimed to be one of the first tests of the state’s newly amended constitution that provides for “strict scrutiny” of gun restrictions. Royce de R. Barondes, who is an associate professor of law at the University of Missouri, is challenging the campus’ policy that “the possession of firearms on university property is prohibited except in regularly approved programs or by university agents or employees in the line of duty.”

A fight inside VFW Post 280 early Saturday morning stopped a hip-hop album release party and ended with four people shot during a flurry of gunfire. One woman who was shot required emergency surgery, Columbia police spokeswoman Bryana Larimer said in a news release. “Everybody was trying to figure out where to go to hide. It was chaotic,” said Kim Wischmeyer, quartermaster and canteen manager for the VFW Post at 1509 Ashley St. The post was back to business as usual for its Saturday breakfast and a Saturday evening dance. Wischmeyer said three glass doors were replaced and the building...

Three days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people of the same sex may marry one another, a flag went up outside the Alley bar at 1031 M St. It looked like an American flag, but it was the colors of the rainbow. And that made James "Tony" Cascio see red. "I found it highly insulting to deface our country's flag," said the 54-year-old Lincoln man who was working at a nearby construction site. "The fact that it's a gay bar has nothing to do with it," Cascio said Monday. "I went over and expressed my unhappiness. I even...

A Missouri inmate who killed a 19-year-old woman in 2001 after sexually attacking her and tying her to a cemetery tree was put to death Tuesday evening, after the U.S. Supreme Court and the state's governor declined to block his execution. The U.S. Supreme Court denied all appeals from 55-year-old inmate David Zink and Gov. Jay Nixon denied a clemency request. Zink was executed by lethal injection at 7:33 p.m., he was declared dead at 7:41 p.m., according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Two buyers of tax delinquent properties in sales rigged by then-Madison County treasurer Fred Bathon were sentenced Wednesday to prison for a federal antitrust violation... Bathon, elected to office as a Democrat, strategically seated top campaign contributors in front of auctioneers to drown out the bids of others in the room, officials said. In 2007, officials said, 99 percent of the tax liens went to bidders at the statutory maximum interest rate of 18 percent. The rates dropped sharply under Bathon’s successors..Bathon pleaded guilty earlier of an antitrust violation and was sentenced by Herndon to 30 months in prison, a...