Graves: We must provide veterans with resources to battle PTSD

(From Sixth District Congressman Sam Graves)

Our armed service members face so many challenges when they return home from combat and work to readjust to life in America. But from physical injuries to trauma and everything in between, we have an obligation to do everything possible to provide them with the care they need to overcome those challenges.

One of the biggest trials for far too many vets and activity duty servicemen is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Usually associated with recurring nightmares, disrupted sleep and anxiety, PTSD is increasingly prevalent among soldiers and veterans. Those suffering from PTSD also face much higher instances of sleep apnea than the general population. And when it’s left untreated, sleep apnea can make the symptoms of PTSD even worse.

This month I introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives that will help combat high rates of PTSD and other complications facing U.S. veterans. H.Res. 825 seeks to reduce the connection between PTSD and sleep apnea, provide access to care for soldiers and veterans suffering from the condition, and further explore viable treatment options for PTSD.

With this resolution, I hope we can find solutions to this very real problem and begin providing our veterans with the resources needed to curb the effects of PTSD. Our soldiers bravely sacrifice so much to protect our freedoms, the least we can do is give them everything they need to lead healthy, successful lives once they come home.

Zimmerman releases two new commercials in attorney general campaign

Cleaver endorses Hensley for attorney general

(From the Teresa Hensley campaign)

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver III (D-MO) has publicly endorsed Democrat Teresa Hensley for Attorney General in the August primary.

"It is critical that we elect the most qualified candidate for the top law officer of Missouri. Teresa Hensley is that candidate," said Congressman Cleaver. "The Attorney General's office is far too important to turn over to career politicians who have barely practiced law or have right-wing extremist agendas. With Teresa's extensive experience and proven record, I believe she is the only Democrat who can win in November."

KOAM report: Joplin officials concerned Blasters about to skip town

For those who are looking for some actual investigative reporting on what is going on in this area, the choices are limited.

One reporter who has consistently provided investigative reporting has been KOAM's Jordan Aubey.

One example of that above-and-beyond reporting was the coverage of the departure of master developer Wallace Bajjali from Joplin. Aubey's digging dwarfed what was done by the area's newspaper of record, which seemed to do everything it could to avoid connecting the Texas firm with some of our leading citizens.

Aubey and KOAM were back at it again Monday with an investigative report on the cloudy future of the Joplin Blasters.

Using e-mails obtained from the City of Joplin through a Sunshine Law request, Aubey was able to reveal to viewers that city officials are concerned that this may be the last year the Blasters will be in Joplin.

The report also shows city officials are unhappy with the way the Blasters are taking care of Joe Becker Stadium. The tone of the e-mails, though Aubey does not say so, certainly make it look like Blasters officials are trying to provoke the city and put themselves into a position to skip town when the season is over.

The e-mails note that the Blasters have been getting rid of some of their best players and getting little in return.

Mercy McCune-Brooks administrator, former prosecuting attorney charged with DWI

Mercy McCune-Brooks Hospital Administrator Robert Scott Watson was arrested by the Joplin Police Department July 2 on a charge of driving while intoxicated.

According to online records, Watson, 55, was pulled over at 1:15 a.m. at the 9 mile marker on eastbound I-44.

The arrest occurred three weeks and two days ago, but at this point, the prosecuting attorney has not filed any charges.

An action filed in Jasper County Circuit Court July 7 indicates Watson refused to take a breathalyzer test.

Judge Joseph Hensley issued a stay order enabling Watson to be able to continue driving until a hearing is held. That hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. September 16. 

Watson was formerly Newton County prosecuting attorney.

Lawsuit accuses Joplin Police officer of punching woman, fondling her breasts

A Miami, Oklahoma woman claims that Joplin Police officer Seth Lugenbell punched her, kicked her, and fondled her breasts during while arresting her at Mercy Hospital January 31.

In a lawsuit filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Cassie Tritthart, Miami, accused Lugenbell of committing assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, violating her right to due process, using excessive force, and unreasonable search and seizure.

The City of Joplin is listed as a co-defendant for "negligent supervision and training" of Lugenbell.

The petition details Tritthart's version of events:

On or about January 31, 2016, Plaintiff visited Freeman Hospital West located at 1102 W. 32nd St., Joplin, MO 64804 (“Freeman Hospital”) with complaints of heart issues. 

At Freeman Hospital, Plaintiff was given medication, and released. Plaintiff began to feel nauseous, and thought she may faint, and decided to seek a second medical opinion regarding her heart complaints. 

Upon leaving, Plaintiff accidentally knocked over a few items in the waiting room at Freeman Hospital. On information and belief, Freeman Hospital nurse Steven Mitchell called the Joplin Police Department to report someone allegedly “vandalizing” the waiting room. Plaintiff’s mother drove Plaintiff to Mercy Hospital located at 100 Mercy Way, Joplin, MO 64804 to obtain a second medical opinion regarding her heart complaints.

At Mercy Hospital, Plaintiff began to change clothes in a private examination room at which time Defendant Lugenbell, without warning, barged into the private examination room while Plaintiff was undressing, and began to question Plaintiff. 

Plaintiff asked Defendant Legenbell why he was in her private examination room, and told Defendant Lugenbell that she would not speak without first consulting an attorney. Next, without warning, Defendant Lugenbell grabbed Ms. Tritthart by her left arm and threw her into the hallway, causing her face to slam violently into the floor. 

Defendant Lugenbell proceeded to punch and kick Plaintiff while she was on the ground, both before and after handcuffing her. 

After handcuffing Plaintiff, Defendant Lungenbell fondled Plaintiff’s breasts, causing her bra to raise up around her neck, where it remained during the entirety of her booking and subsequent holding at the Joplin City Jail, until she was released. 

Plaintiff was arrested and charged with (1) vandalism, (2) assault on a law enforcement officer, (3) resisting arrest, and (4) failure to comply with a request for information. 

Those charges are no longer listed on Newton County online court records.

The lawsuit was initially filed June 29 in Newton County Circuit Court and was removed to federal court at the request of attorney Karl Blanchard representing the City of Joplin and Lugenbell.

Links provided for top Turner Report/Inside Joplin posts for this week

The posts from the past that have dominated the weekly statistics for the past couple of weeks are gone, but this week's list is topped by the number two post in Turner Report history.

Since my critique of Donald Trump, Jr.'s Republican National Convention speech was published Tuesday, more than 37,000 visitors have gone to that specific post and the number continues to grow.

The Trump story was also posted on Daily Kos, where it has received more than 21,000 Facebook likes.

You never know which posts are going to take off.

The Turner Report

1. Donald Trump Jr. attacks teachers in convention speech

2. Judge decides in favor of Home Depot in Joplin Tornado lawsuit

3. Joplin man pleads guilty to sexually exploiting children

4. Joplin R-8 bills include Price expenses, Johnson deposition mileage. Rotary dues

5. Trump plagiarism scandal offers new excuses for our students

6. Doshier: Please let us spend $69,000 for more outside consulting

7. Beginning of superintendent search on tap for R-8 Board

8. Billy Long's FEC report disguises lobbyist contributions

8. The governor's race comes to Carthage- a look at the Lincoln Ladies Ice Cream Social

10. Northpark Mall owner sells two more malls, 11 in two years

Inside Joplin

1. Jasper County Sheriff's Office Arrests July 1-15

2. Jasper County Dissolution of Marriage Petitions

3. Joplin Police Department Arrests July 21-22

4. Joplin Police Department Arrests July 19-20

5. Joplin man injured in crash near Atlas

6. Newton County Dissolution of Marriage Petitions

7. Joplin Police Department Arrests July 19-20

8. Jasper County Sheriff's Office Arrests

9. Joplin Police Department Arrests July 20-21

10. Jasper County Sheriff's Office Arrests

Inside Joplin Obituaries

1. Terri Lortz

2. Willa Goostree

3. Piper Gottes

4. Paul Graskemper

5. Rubi Burris

6. Donald Montgomery

7. Rodney Overman

8. Betty Wilson

9. Imogene Tappana

10. Ronald VanWinkle

Doshier: Please let us spend $69,000 for more outside consulting

Just a year after deciding that $100,000 was too much to pay on an annual basis to have an outside consulting firm handle all of the Joplin R-8 School District's educational needs, it appears the district is headed down the same path again.

In documentation provided to the R-8 Board of Education before its 6 p.m. Tuesday meeting, Executive Director of Elementary Education Jennifer Doshier, who signed off on the Core Collaborative proposals that the board rejected last year, explains why Cognitive Coaching is the new miracle cure that will take care of all of the district's educational problems.

Doshier notes that for the bargain price of $69,000 the district can bring Cognitive Coaching experts to Joplin to train three cohorts and also train three people from the district who can serve as trainers in the future preventing the need for any future expenses.

Why is there a need to spend $69,000 for this training? Doshier explains that in the board documentation:

Cognitive Coaching is a process that enhances teachers'  cognitive processes and is an integral part of the empowerment piece that principals and teachers are requesting.

It would appear that Doshier needs training in how to write proposals in clear, understandable language, since her paragraph is only going to make sense to those who pretend to understand educational jargon.

It would also be interesting to get the names of the teachers and principals who think Cognitive Coaching is what is needed in the district. Are these the same teachers and principals who put on a Barnum and Bailey show for the R-8 Board last year on why they so desperately needed Core Collaborative?

(And it should be noted that the former R-8 Curriculum Director Sarah Stevens, the chief supporter of Core Collaborative, after being removed from that position and resigning, was hired by Core Collaborative.)

What do administrators and teachers learn when they attend Cognitive Coaching seminars such as the one for which $4,500 in bills is scheduled to come before the board Tuesday night?

According to the website for the seminars:

Please join us in Folsom, CA for this valuable seminar. Advanced Cognitive Coaching immerses you in a supportive and stimulating environment to provide refinement and depth of learning for those desiring to perfect and deepen their understanding of Cognitive Coaching^SM. 

Part 1 Participants will:

• refine and extend core coaching capabilities and skills
• develop skills with advanced forms of paraphrasing
• expand the possibilities of and applications for our identities as mediators
• develop an understanding of deep structure and processes for coaching for cognitive shift
• experience and practice the Calibrating Conversation Map

Part 2 Participants wilI:

• increase craftsmanship with the Problem-Resolving Map
• increase capacity for coaching for deep structure
• develop automaticity with the Pace
• experience mastery of the Lead
• develop skill in using the Outcome Structure with individuals and groups
• experience increased efficacy with all the maps and tools of Cognitive Coaching

The cost for the seminar was $750 per participant, indicating the R-8 District sent six people to California earlier this month.

The Thinking Collaborative website goes into more depth about Cognitive Coaching, but with plenty of jargon to spare:

The mission of Cognitive Coaching^SM is to produce self-directed persons with the cognitive capacity for excellence both independently and as members of a community. Research indicates that teaching is a complex intellectual activity and that teachers who think at higher levels produce students who are higher achieving, more cooperative, and better problem solvers. It is the invisible skills of teaching, the thinking processes that underlie instructional decisions, which produce superior instruction. Cognitive Coaching^SMis a research-based model that capitalizes upon and enhances teachers’ cognitive processes.

In the eight-day Seminars, participants learn how to:

• develop trust and rapport

• develop an identity as a mediator of thinking

• utilize conversation structures for planning, reflecting and problem resolving

• develop teachers’ autonomy and sense of community

• develop higher levels of efficacy, consciousness, craftsmanship, flexibility and interdependence

• apply four support functions: coaching, evaluating, consulting, collaborating

• utilize the coaching tools of pausing, paraphrasing, and posing questions

• distinguish among the five forms of feedback

• use data to mediate thinking

From Core Collaborative to Cognitive Coaching, the unqualified remnants of the C. J. Huff Administration still seem to be covering up a lack of  ability with the belief that highly paid outside consultants and new initiatives can convince the faculty (and the public) that an educational renaissance is right around the corner.

Beginning of superintendent search on tap for Joplin R-8 Board

The Joplin R-8 Board of Education will prepare for the search for a superintendent when it meets 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Memorial Education Building.

At its June meeting, after hearing presentations from three search firms, the board selected Ray and Associates of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the company that recently guided Kansas City in its superintendent search and in 2007 conducted the search for the Lindbergh School District that resulted in the choice of Joplin Superintendent Jim Simpson.

The board agenda indicates the discussion Tuesday night will be about the board's input into the process and information about the beginning of the search.

The board will meet in closed session at 5 p.m. to discuss legal and personnel matters.

The agenda for the regular meeting is printed below:

A. Call to Order

1. Roll Call

B. Pledge of Allegiance

C. Approval of Agenda - Action

D. Superintendent Search: BOE Input and Search Preparation - Info. (Dr. Ridder)

E. Reports

1. Board President's Report

a. Celebrations - Info. (Jeff Koch)

b. BOE Policy Committee Update - Info. (L. Banwart & J. Martucci)

c. BOE Data Analysis Committee Update - Info. (J. Koch, S. Dermott & L. Musser)

d. BOE Finance, Salary, and Benefits Committee - Info. (Dr. Fort & J. Martucci)

e. BOE Safety Committee - Info. (Dr. Fort & C. Sloan)

2. Superintendent's Data Report

a. FEMA Update - Info. (Paul Barr)

b. Health and Dental Care Insurance Reports - Info. (Paul Barr)

c. Financial Statements - Info. (Paul Barr)

F. Public Comments Regarding Agenda Items 

G. Consent Agenda - Action

1. Approve Minutes - Action (Pat Waldo)

2. Personnel Recommendations - Action (Brandon Webb)

3. Copy Paper Bid - Action (Paul Barr)

4. Bread Bid - Action (Dr. Sachetta)

5. Dairy Bid - Action (Dr. Sachetta)

6. Food and Supply Bid - Action (Dr. Sachetta)

7. Senior Photography Bid - Action (Dr. Ridder)

8. Declare Modular Classrooms at McKinley Surplus - Action (Dr. Sachetta)

9. Trash Service Bid - Action (Dr. Sachetta)

10. Local Tax Effort (LTE) Billbacks - Action (Mark Barlass)

11. Student Testing Fee for Practical Nursing Program - Action (Dr. Ridder)

H. Regular Agenda

1. Accounts Payable - Action (Paul Barr)

2. Telemedicine Services - Action (Paul Barr and Brandon Webb)

3. Cognitive Coaching - Action (Jennifer Doshier)

4. Meal Price Increase - Action (Dr. Sachetta)

5. Columbia Elementary Roof Replacement - Action (Dr. Sachetta)

6. West Central Elementary Roof Replacement - Action (Dr. Sachetta)

7. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt iReads - McKinley Elementary - Action (Mark Barlass)

8. Local Compliance Plan Implementing Part B of the IDEA - Action (Mark Barlass)

9. Policy Updates Second Reading - Action (Brandon Webb)

a. Policy IGAEB: Teaching About Human Sexuality

b. Policy JECA: Admission of Students

c. Policy JECC: Assignment of Students to Grade Levels/Classes

10. Plus/Delta - Info. (Dr. Ridder)

a. Plus: What did we do well

b. Delta: Opportunities for Improvement

I. BOE Announcements

J. Adjourn

Joplin R-8 bills include Price expenses, Johnson deposition mileage, Rotary dues

The Joplin R-8 Board of Education refused to approve a bill last month for airfare for Communications Director Kelli Price and her assistant, Whitney Warren, to attend the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA).seminar in Chicago, Illinois.

When the board meets Tuesday, it will consider a $355.36 bill for Price's expenses at that conference.

The airfare that was removed from last month's bills was listed under U. S. Bank, indicating that the item had already been paid by credit card. CFO Paul Barr said, "Administration approves removal of prepaid airfare of $656.40 bill that's for the July NSPRA Conference.

District taxpayers have had to foot the bill for NSPRA seminars for several years, while former Superintendent C. J. Huff became a national officer in the organization. 

As part of Huff;s severance agreement, the board agreed to pay $8,000 for his expenses to attend the July 2015 seminar in Nashville, where he made a presentation about Bright Futures USA.

The taxpayers also spent at least $1,078.55 for Price to attend the seminar.

The price, no pun intended, taxpayers are paying for public relations is not limited to the NSPRA junkets.

During the last weeks of his tenure at Joplin R-8 superintendent, Huff took care of favored employees, giving them different job titles and giving them sizable increases in pay, including two in the public relations area.

Price, who was already receiving a $48,053 salary that was far more than most of the teachers in the district receive, was given a  nearly $15,000 boost to $63,000, and a new title as communications director.

The money was taken from 15 teachers who were receiving $1,000 stipends to update the Facebook pages for their schools, an expense which also came under fire when it was announced.

Huff also gave a raise to Warren, who had been his events coordinator, boosting her salary from $38,475, which was already more than many district teachers were making, to $42,000 a year.Warren's title was changed to "communication specialist."

Other bills to be considered Tuesday include the following:

-$4,500 to LB Associates for training in Cognitive Coaching

-$140 to Daybreak Rotary of Joplin to cover the quarterly dues for Assistant Superintendent Kerry Sachetta

-$179.52 mileage reimbursement for Mike Johnson to give a deposition at the Polsinelli law offices in Kansas City for the P1 lawsuit.