Kansas Officials Press Feds for Biosecurity Lab
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas officials are pressing the federal government to move ahead with construction of a new biosecurity lab near Kansas State University. They're doing so even though a report Friday from the National Research Council said there's still no good assessment of how safely it would operate. The $1.14 billion lab would research deadly animal diseases. Kansas Senators Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran sent a letter Friday to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, demanding she release $90 million already approved for the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan. Kansas Governor Sam Brownback joined them, as did Missouri Senators Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill. The new report said that Homeland Security's assessment of the lab's safety was flawed in predicting little risj of an accidental release of a dangerous disease.
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Missouri Pastor's Lover Gets Eight Years in Spouse's Death
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) -- A Missouri woman has been sentenced to eight years in prison for helping to plan her husband's murder with the church pastor who was her lover. Forty-year-old Teresa Stone of Independence pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to commit murder. She was sentenced Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court. Her former pastor, David Love, is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty last year to second-degree murder. He admitted shooting Randy Stone to death at the victim's Independence insurance office in March 2010. Love's attorney, Molly Hastings, has said it was well known that Love and Teresa Stone had been having an affair. Love was pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Independence and delivered part of Randy Stone's eulogy. He moved to South Carolina not long after Stone's death.
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Prosecutors Seek Interview Records in Finn Case
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Jackson County prosecutors are seeking access to transcripts of interviews conducted by a Kansas City law firm investigating how the local Roman Catholic diocese handles reports of child sexual abuse. Attorneys for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph on Friday countered that records of interviews by the law firm of former U.S. Attorney Todd Graves are protected by attorney-client privilege. The diocese had commissioned the investigation. Bishop Robert Finn and the diocese are charged with misdemeanor failure to report suspected abuse to the state after learning of suspected child pornography on a prist's computer. Finn acknowledged learning about the photos in December 2010, six months before the Reverend Shawn Ratigan was arrested on state and federal child porn charges. Finn and the diocese face trial in September.