Bayer Faces Lawsuit From Missouri Buyers Of Roundup

Two Missouri law firms have filed a potential class-action lawsuit against Bayer, alleging the company violated state law in not disclosing the health risks associated with the weed killer Roundup.

The lawsuit is different from others because it seeks purchase refunds, not compensation for personal injury.

A California couple who were landscapers won a $2 billion judgment from Bayer in May after claiming Roundup gave them cancer. Bayer, which bought Monsanto-maker Roundup last year, is appealing that ruling. Other suits are pending.

A spokeswoman for Bayer declined to comment on the latest lawsuit, saying it had not yet seen the filing.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/bayer-faces-lawsuit-missouri-buyers-roundup

2 Scott Air Force Base MPs Face Courts-Martial For Trafficking Drugs On Base And In Soulard

Their jobs were to protect Scott Air Force Base and those who live and work there.

But a search warrant affidavit stated that two security force members sold drugs out of a Soulard stash house and at the military base.

Senior Airman Kolby Carter now faces general courts-martial — the most serious level of court-martial — while Senior Airman Sheldon Timmermeyer faces special courts-martial.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Cohen unsealed a search warrant in the case last week. The search warrant was obtained by Air Force Office of Special Investigations Special Agent Shane Flannery. He asked the court to allow a search of Timmermeyer’s house in Soulard earlier this year.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/2-scott-air-force-base-mps-face-courts-martial-trafficking-drugs-base-and-soulard

New Book Chronicles First Lady Rose Cleveland's Love Affair With Evangeline Simpson Whipple

In the winter of 1889, former First Lady Rose Cleveland crossed paths with a younger widow named Evangeline Simpson while vacationing in Florida. The pair soon embarked on a passionate love affair, exchanging letters dripping with sensuality—Rose once wrote, “My Eve! Ah, how I love you! It paralyzes me. ... Oh Eve, Eve, surely you cannot realize what you are to me,” while Evangeline implored “my Clevy, my Viking, My … Everything” to “come to me this night”—traveling together to far-flung locales such as Europe and the Middle East, and even co-purchasing a property in the state where they first met. Upon Evangeline’s death in 1930, 12 years after her longtime partner’s passing in 1918, the two were buried side by side in their shared home of Bagni di Lucca, Italy.

As Gillian Brockell reports for the Washington Post, a new book titled Precious and Adored: The Love Letters of Rose Cleveland and Evangeline Simpson Whipple, 1890-1918, offers the first in-depth overview of the couple’s story, drawing on correspondence held by the Minnesota Historical Society to present an intimate glimpse into their 30-year relationship.

The letters, donated to the society by a descendant of Evangeline’s second husband, Bishop Henry Whipple, in 1969, were initially hidden from the public on the grounds that they “strongly suggest … a lesbian relationship existed between the two women.” Following complaints, however, the missives returned to public view and, over the following decades, were referenced in various historical accounts of the pair’s lives. Until now, Brockell notes, the writings have never before been published in their entirety.

Rose, sister of President Grover Cleveland, held the position of first lady for the first 14 months of her brother’s initial term. (Cleveland, who assumed office as a bachelor, is the only United States president to serve two non-consecutive terms; he served from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897.) According to the National First Ladies’ Library, she was a serious intellectual, publishing several books during her time in the White House and even was known to conjugate Greek and Latin verbs in her head while attending tedious public functions.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-book-chronicles-first-lady-rose-clevelands-love-affair-evangeline-simpson-whipple-180972472/

One Town's Hope Rests On Money and The Mighty Mississippi

The Mississippi River system is both an artery and a vein. It pumps ag products out of the heartland and into the world while bringing back fertilizer and steel to keep that economic engine purring.

But there’s too much water. Flooding is forcing boats and barges to wait for the river to drop. In the Quad Cities, bordering Illinois and Iowa, the Mississippi just dropped below flood stage for the first time in 96 consecutive days, crushing the prior 42-day record.

The stalled river traffic could be an opportunity, though, for a town that’s been slowly dying for years: Cairo, Illinois. It has no grocery store or gas station, but the town is trying to construct its way out of poverty while giving those barge companies a place to unload stranded cargo.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/one-town-s-hope-rests-money-and-mighty-mississippi

Kids In Missouri Are Losing Health Insurance At The Second Highest Rate In The Nation

In Missouri, children’s enrollment in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program fell nearly 10% over the last 14 months – the second biggest decline of any state after Idaho, according to a new report.

The report, by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, says neither the strong economy nor an increased number of children with employer-sponsored health coverage is sufficient to explain the decline.

Nationwide, about 828,000 fewer children were enrolled in the Medicaid and CHIP programs at the end of 2018 than in the previous year – a 2.2% drop.

In Missouri, the decline in 2018 was more than quadruple that, 9%. Additional drops in January and February translated to a total decline in Missouri over the last 14 months of 9.6%.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/kids-missouri-are-losing-health-insurance-second-highest-rate-nation

Josh Hawley Is Earning National Attention for All the Wrong Reasons

Senator Josh Hawley is making quite a name for himself.

Missouri's junior senator has gotten national attention for crusading against social media giants. Hawley has called them out for selling a "digital drug."

"The addiction is the point," Hawley warns. "Addiction is what Mark Zuckerberg is selling." He also blames the companies for suicides and loneliness and despair, adding, "They've given us an addiction economy."

And with a narrative reminiscent of those who argued television and rock & roll and video games were "ruining our children," he claims, "Maybe social media's innovations do our country more harm than good. Maybe social media is best understood as a parasite on productive investment, on meaningful relationships, on a healthy society. Maybe we'd be better off if Facebook disappeared."

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/stlouis/josh-hawley/Content?oid=31780514&utm_source=widget&utm_medium=home&utm_campaign=rightrail&utm_content=HomeThisWeek

Missouri's 'Jedi Disposal Act' Would Let You Pull a Darth Vader, Kind Of

It's a bummer that the Missouri bill nicknamed the "Jedi Disposal Act" does not, as the name suggests, legally recognize the Jedi's right to live on after death as blue ghosts.

Instead, Senate Bill 455, which is awaiting the signature of Missouri Governor Parson, would legalize open-air cremations — that is, burning the deceased on some kind of funeral pyre. As first reported by the Kansas City Star, the nickname stuck because lawmakers couldn't help but think of the Jedi funeral rites displayed after the death of Darth Vader, who is burned on a pyre at the end of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

The nickname represents an odd melding of a very specific Star Wars reference with the serious matters of funeral license regulation and a ritual with roots in Native American and Viking cultures.

It would also put Missouri on the funerary map. Presently, the only public open-air cremations performed in America take places in Crestone, Colorado, and are only available to county residents or land owners. A state-wide permitting system appears to be unprecedented, and the bill's sponsor, state Senator Jason Holsman (D-Kansas City), is quoted by the Star suggesting his bill "could end up spurring a cottage industry" for open-air cremation in Missouri.

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2019/06/17/missouris-jedi-disposal-act-would-let-you-pull-a-darth-vader-kind-of

Andrew Yang: Paying for a Universal Basic Income

Andrew Yang: Paying for a Universal Basic Income

Missouri Backtracks on Double Pelvic Exams for Abortion Patients

Missouri's top health official says that Planned Parenthood will no longer be required to perform pelvic exams on women 72 hours before they get an abortion, which had been coupled with a second pelvic exam on the day of the procedure. It's a requirement that M’Evie Mead, the director of Parenthood Advocates of Missouri, called "state-mandated sexual assault" at a press conference earlier today. Mead credited "tremendous outrage and criticism from the medical community" for the change.

On Wednesday, CBS News broke the news that Planned Parenthood doctors would defy the "unethical" state regulation, which meant women seeking abortions were actually subjected to two pelvic exams: one at the time of the state-mandated "informed consent" meeting, and the other 72 hours later on the day they actually got an abortion.

That state's policy, Mead said, had "harmed over 100 women" who underwent the two pelvic exams at Planned Parenthood before doctors there concluded that it was unethical to continue adhering to the state regulation. Now, the state is recognizing the doctors' resistance.

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2019/06/21/missouri-backtracks-on-double-pelvic-exams-for-abortion-patients