No decision made after cult leaders' preliminary hearing

Judge Greg Stremel delayed a decision following today's preliminary hearings for Rev. Raymond Lambert and his wife, Patty, on felony charges involving ritual sex with children.
According to John Ford's article in the Neosho Daily News:

After more than two hours of testimony from two alleged victims, a Newton County judge has taken the case against two McDonald County church leaders accused of child sexual abuse under advisement.

Judge Greg Stremel said this afternoon he wanted to review a court transcript of testimony in a preliminary hearing for Raymond Lambert, pastor of the Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church.

KODE reports that Judge Stremel granted the defense request for a gag order preventing those involved in the case from talking to the media.

Carolina Turkeys finalizes purchase of Carthage Butterball plant

Carolina Turkeys, headquarters in Mount Olive, N.C. finalized the purchase of Butterball Turkey, including the Carthage processing plant, from ConAgra today.
The company will change its name to Butterball LLC, according to its news release.

Blunt donates Foley contribution to charity

KC Buzz Blog reports that Governor Matt Blunt will give the $1,000 campaign contribution he received from disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley to charity.
The blog fails to mention that the governor's decision came more than three days after Foley resigned for sending inappropriate e-mails to male House pages, and did not happen until The Turner Report revealed the information in a post that was picked up by the Fired Up Missouri blog.

Former Chief appointed to Sports Authority

Governor Matt Blunt announced the appointment today of former Kansas City Chiefs defensive standout Deron Cherry to a position on the Jackson County Sports Authority.
His appointment must be confirmed by the Senate, and is for a term that will expire in 2011.
According to the governor's news release:

Cherry, of Kansas City, is the managing general partner of United Beverage
Company. Cherry played for the Kansas City Chiefs from 1981 through 1992. He
was inducted into the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame in 1995. Cherry holds
a bachelor’s degree in biology from Rutgers University.

"Deron Cherry understands the importance of the Jackson County Sports
Authority as a former Chiefs player, businessman, and community activist,"
Blunt said. "This is a time of great change for the sports complex and Deron r>brings the right mix of personal and professional experience to help lead
this important commission into the future."

As with most of the governor's appointments, Cherry is also a contributor to his campaign. Missouri Ethics Commission documents show Cherry contributed $500 to Missourians for Matt Blunt on Dec. 28, 2005.

FBI to examine Foley e-mails

The FBI has launched an investigation into inappropriate e-mails sent by former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla. to male pages...and also into when House leaders knew about those e-mails.
The question southwest Missourians are interested in having answered is when Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt first knew.
Thus far, no information has surface that would indicate Blunt knew anything before last week, but except for the joint statement issued Saturday with Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader John Boehner, Blunt, who is majority whip, has said nothing.

Al Qaida plans to take Western contractors hostage, trade them for leader imprisoned in Springfield

The release of a top leader, who is currently in the federal medical prison in Springfield is the goal of Al Qaida leaders, according to an article posted today by UPI:

In a new audio tape, a voice believed to be Abu Hamza al-Muhajir calls on supporters to kidnap Westerners during the current holy month of Ramadan.

Some militant Muslims believe those who die in the pursuit of jihad during Ramadan are afforded special status in the afterlife.

Muhajir said the hostages could be exchanged for blind Egyptian Muslim cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, convicted in 1995 of plotting to blow up New York landmarks and now in a federal medical prison in Springfield, Mo.

Post-Dispatch offers profiles of Talent, McCaskill

As the election campaign enters its final five weeks, today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch offers profiles of Senator Jim Talent and his challenger, State Auditor Claire McCaskill.

The Talent profile features this nugget:

Among his Senate colleagues, Talent is known as astute, affable, and intense. He is driven and ambitious, but not splashy or sharp-elbowed. He's a policy wonk who avoids the Sunday talk shows and is rarely found at the center of any Washington media throng.

"He's very steady, reliable, thoughtful and practical," said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who often runs into Talent in the evenings at the Capitol Hill gym, where they make plans to go out for buffalo chicken wings at a nearby pizza place. "He's a guy who understands the parameters of what you can accomplish."
Tall and lanky, Talent, who will turn 50 this month, even wins praise from some Democratic colleagues.

In politics, "you see a lot of ceremony and posturing and phony baloney," but there’s none of that pomp with Talent, said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who teamed up with Talent on a transportation initiative. "He’s just very easy to work with."

The following passage is included in the McCaskill profile:

To win, McCaskill must woo rural voters, who sided with Republican Gov. Matt Blunt in 2004 and overpowered her margin in urban areas.

So she’s spending time in places like Springfield and Joplin, Poplar Bluff and Caruthersville. That’s where the radio airwaves are loaded with Republican spots painting her as anti-gun, pro-tax, close to environmentalists and soft on illegal aliens.

"They work very hard at making me Satan's sister,"; she quips.

Blunt to House Republicans: Pay up or else

The International Herald Tribune has a remarkable story concerning the methods both parties use to raise money for their national committees.

To move up the ladder in Congress, you must do more than win votes. You are, quite literally, expected to pay your dues.

If you are a rank-and-file member of the House, the amount is up to $100,000. If your ambitions are to preside over a powerful committee, the duty is $300,000. For a top party leader, the tally can climb beyond $600,000.

Make those checks payable to the Republican or Democratic Congressional campaign committees.

Whether or not they are in competitive races, lawmakers are asked to mount vigorous fund-raising drives to fill their own campaign chests. Then they dole to the party, which spreads the money to the most competitive campaigns in the country.

Republican members who were not up to date with their dues were called on the carpet during a meeting with Majority Whip Roy Blunt, Speaker Dennis Hastert, and Majority Leader John Boehner this week, the article said:

Arm-twisting is conducted privately, which is why Republican officials said at least five members were summoned this week for a meeting with Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois; the majority leader, John A. Boehner of Ohio; and the majority whip, Roy Blunt of Missouri.

Woodward book hits shelves

Ever since I read "All the President's Men," which I still believe is the best advertisement for investigative reporting that has ever been created, I have eagerly awaited Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's books.
Naturally, I was disappointed when I went to Books-A-Million in Joplin Saturday night and could find no trace of it on the shelves. Just as I was about to leave, I saw a young female employee wheeling a cart with a few dozen copies of a red-covered book. I took a closer look and saw that it was "State of Denial," Woodward's third book on the Bush presidency. I haven't had a chance to get far into it yet, since I have been spending most of my spare time this weekend doing some digging into campaign finance records, but I am ready to start in on it today.
For those who want a sampling of what the book says, it is excerpted in today's Washington Post.

Blunt, House leadership distance themselves from Foley

Majority Whip Roy Blunt, Speaker Dennis Hastert, and Majority Leader John Boehner issued a joint statement Saturday as they tried to do damage control over this week's resignation of Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., after ABC News revealed he had sent inappropriate e-mails to male pages:

Last night, Hastert, Boehner and Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said in a statement that Foley's communications with former pages are "unacceptable and abhorrent," and that his resignation "must now be followed by the full weight of the criminal justice system." The statement did not suggest how that might happen, but added that the three have "asked for the creation of a toll-free telephone number for House pages, parents, grandparents and staff to confidentially report incidents of concern."

The statement came after reports surfaced that Hastert was well aware of Foley's problems, and had been for months. At the moment, there appears to be no reason to believe that Blunt knew anything beforehand, but as noted in The Turner Report, Foley has been the recipient of more than $10,000 in cash and in-kind contributions from Blunt's Rely on Your Beliefs PAC, while Blunt's son, Missouri Governor Matt Blunt, received a $1,000 contribution from Foley in 2004.