News Headlines

Missouri Court Decision Dings Carnahan
A Missouri circuit court today ruled against a group of citizens hoping to overturn the Show-Me State’s Congressional redistricting maps on the grounds that they did not meet state constitutional muster.

Judges wade into unprecedented redistricting thickets
The Missouri Supreme Court has struggled for 100 years to figure out exactly how to deal with the politically fraught and inherently messy yet constitutionally sensitive task that is redistricting. Time hasn’t made those issues any easier.

Report faults Catholic diocese in Ratigan investigation
For months after finding troubling images on a computer, the Catholic diocese tried on its own to deal with Father Shawn Ratigan.

As a result, a report released Thursday said, the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph went off track, bungling its own investigation and failing to even follow its own policies... (more)

Investigation finds diocese failed to follow policies
The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph failed to follow its own procedures and polices when reporting allegations of child sex abuse against the Rev. Shawn F. Ratigan, an independent investigation found... (more)

US Fidelis founders indicted
The bankruptcy settlement between the Atkinsons and their company's creditors didn't seek the return to company coffers of more than $1 million in criminal-defense retainers paid by US Fidelis on the Atkinsons' behalf. As a result, the brothers were represented at arraignment by lawyers specializing in white-collar defense. Nathan Garrett, of the Kansas City firm of Graves Bartle Marcus and Garrett... (more)

Diocese announces plan to deal with sexual misconduct
The Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese today announced changes that include the appointment of former U.S. Attorney Todd Graves to deal with recent alleged sex misconduct in the diocese... (more)

Former Chiefs player reaps reward in whistleblower case
A pharmaceutical distributor has settled a federal anti-kickback lawsuit by agreeing, in part, to pay $760,000 to former Kansas City Chiefs player Dan Saleaumua ... (more)

Nathan Garrett receives Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for past counterterrorism successes at the Department of Justice
Attorney General Eric Holder recognizes 303 Department of Justice employees for their distinguished public service today at the 58th Annual Attorney General Awards Ceremony. Fifty-five other individuals outside of the department are also honored for their work... (more)

Groups' Reflexive Rhetoric Ignores Facts
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and their ideological allies have called FBI searches of people suspected of supporting terrorist organizations in Chicago and Minneapolis "fishing expeditions" that trample the rights of innocent people... (more)

Hearsay: When information becomes evidence
During a stint in Dallas, then-federal prosecutor Nathan Garrett worked on the case against five men connected with the Holy Land Foundation. The men were convicted last year on charges they funneled more than $12 million to the Palestinian group Hamas... (more)

Ethics Commission under fire after 'scolding' by attorney general
The attorney general's office slapped the commission for what it called its flagrant neglect of freedom of speech rights in attempting to enforce a confidentiality statute... (more)

Ethics commission charges against whistleblower heard
A campaign consultant faced a Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission meeting Wednesday in Topeka on charges that he provided the press with details of a complaint he filed with the commission about a rival’s possible misuse of campaign finances... (more)