JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - A former state senator from St. Louis has been fined more than $270,000 by the Missouri Ethics Commission for violating numerous campaign finance laws.
A decision released Wednesday by the commission found that former Democratic Sen. Robin Wright-Jones used campaign money for personal expenses such as food and clothing. She also received vehicle mileage reimbursements both from the state and her campaign committee. The commission also found numerous instances where the campaign failed to report contributions and expenditures by deadlines.
St. Louis attorney Bernard Edwards Jr. represents Wright-Jones. He called the fine arbitrary and excessive and said the expenses for clothes, food and mileage were legitimately related to her political and official duties. Edwards says he plans to appeal the case to the state Administrative Hearing Commission.
UPDATED:
Schools in Wentzville are back to normal operations.
Earlier Wednesday afternoon the schools all went on "tightened security". Police initially said the schools were on lockdown, but students were allowed to move from class to class inside the buildings.
Just after 2PM the all clear was given.
Police say there was never a problem at the schools, but an issue in a neighborhood near the school.
A change at the top of a huge charitable organization in St. Louis.
Effective July 1, Gary Dollar will retire as the President and CEO of the United Way. Orvin Kimbrough will serve as the next president and CEO. Kimbrough has been serving as the Senior Vice President of Major Gifts since 2007.
Dollar leaves the United Way after 29 years of service.
Federal authorities are offering a reward for anyone who can help find the person who stole explosives in Troy, Missouri.
The Lincoln Count Sheriff's Office says the suspect stole two crates that contained 100 pounds of explosives.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the successful prosecution of the suspects in the case.
An accident has closed all lanes of EB I-270 at the Chair of Rocks bridge this afternoon.
A listener called in to say the accident involves at least three vehicles, including a semi-truck. Traffic is being directed onto Riverview drive to detour around the accident.
No word on any injuries from the accident.
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Police are searching for the car thief who got more than he expected when he took an idling car - a toddler in the backseat.
The 2-year-old is OK after the scare late Tuesday in St. Louis.
Police say a car was left running at an ATM. The child's father got out to use the machine and while he was gone, someone stole the car with the child inside.
Police found the car minutes later in an alley. The child slept through the whole ordeal.
Officers are looking at ATM video in an effort to find the suspect.
ST. LOUIS (AP) - A showboat that has been part of the St. Louis riverfront for decades in St. Louis and St. Charles could soon be headed for the scrap heap.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a nonprofit group has failed to raise the money needed to renovate the Goldenrod Showboat. The 104-year-old vessel has been in storage since 2003.
A court-ordered auction in Saturday at the location where the boat is docked near Kampsville, Ill. The auction seeks to cover nearly $70,000 in unpaid mooring fees and other costs.
Unless a buyer steps forward, the dock owner is expected to buy the boat and sell the furnishing and hull piecemeal.
Police have identified the man who died after an incident at a manufacturing plant in Florissant.
An employee at St. Louis Cold Drawn Inc on Pershall Rd found the victim lying on the ground near an electrical box. The man, identified as Mach Nguyen was taken to the hospital where he died.
This is being investigated as an accidental death and a cause of death will be released after an autopsy.
It appears Alton High School fell victim to senior pranks overnight. When custodians arrived at the school this morning, they discovered buildings and trees covered with toilet paper and graffiti. Out in front of the school, a sign was planted in the ground reading "For Sale By Seniors." No serious damage was caused.
As KTRS first reported Tuesday--the man accused of spying for the CIA in Russia has ties to St. Louis and has been expelled from Russia.
Ryan Fogle, a 2002 graduate of Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, was arrested in Moscow Monday by Russia's Federal Security Service, known as the FSB. His mother, Patty, who lives here in St. Louis, refused comment to the Wall Street Journal.
Russian authorities say Fogle was wearing a blond wig, carrying special technical equipment and a large amount of cash when he was arrested. U .S. Ambassador Michael McFaul was summoned today to the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, and left without saying anything to journalists. FSB officials say Fogle had been posing as a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow as a cover while trying to recruit a Russian counter-terrorism officer to spy for the U.S. The Russian officer specializes in Chechnya and Dagestan, the region where the Boston bombing suspects were born. Fogle was expelled from Russia yesterday (Tuesday). U.S. officials are declining comment.
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Earlier on KTRS:
TUESDAY, 5-14-13
The US diplomat from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow being detained in Russia attended Mary Institute Country Day School and graduated in 2002.
Ryan C. Fogle, the third secretary in the political section at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, was detained in the night hours stretching from Monday to Tuesday and subsequently released to U.S. diplomats, Russia's Federal Security Service—the FSB—said in a statement.
Fogle is accused of being an undercover Central Intelligence Agency officer attempting to recruit a member of the Russian intelligence services.
A photo provided by Russia's Federal Security Service to US news outlets claims to show St. Louis native, Ryan Fogle, an American diplomat that Russia has accused of being an undercover CIA officer attempting to recruit a member of the Russian intelligence services.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said "such provocative actions in the spirit of the "Cold War" in no way help to strengthen mutual trust. The ministry said Mr. Fogle had been declared persona non grata and Russia demanded his immediate departure in a meeting Tuesday with U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul.
According to FSB the statement, which accused Mr. Fogle of operating as an undercover CIA officer, the American diplomat was found with special technical equipment, a recruitment note written to a Russian citizen, a large sum of money and products designed to change a person's appearance.
"The U.S. intelligence community recently has made repeated attempts to recruit employees of Russia's law-enforcement bodies and special agencies, which have been recorded and monitored by [Russia's] counterespionage forces," the FSB said. The CIA declined to comment.
Russia's Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul for an urgent meeting to discuss Mr. Fogle's detention. Mr. McFaul declined to comment on the matter in a Twitter question-and-answer session Tuesday. The FSB announcement was released just as the previously scheduled session on U.S. support for Russian civil society began. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow also declined to comment.
Reached by phone at her home in St. Louis by the Wall Street Journal, Fogle's mother, Patty Fogle, said, "I have nothing to say."
The diplomatic incident comes less than a week after the White House and the Kremlin attempted to patch up a damaged relationship with a high-level meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The U.S., which has failed to "reset" its relations with Russia after repeated attempts, is seeking the Kremlin's help in ending the protracted war in Syria.
The detention of Mr. Fogle may throw a wrench in the White House's plans to rebuild trust with the Kremlin. It also comes almost three years after the U.S. exposed a network of Russian sleeper agents that included the redheaded Anna Chapman, who later returned to Russia to become a model and minor celebrity.
The recruitment note alleged by the FSB to have been recovered from Mr. Fogle was posted Tuesday in a photograph released by the FSB and published on the website of RT, a state-controlled Russian TV channel. The authenticity of the photos and note released by the FSB couldn't be independently verified.
Written in Russian that appeared to be that of a nonnative speaker, the note was addressed "Dear Friend" and signed "Your Friends." The FSB said the alleged spy offered the would-be recruit €100,000 and provided a picture of a stack of €500 bills it said were taken from the alleged spy.
The note released by the FSB promised $100,000 a year to discuss the would-be recruit's experience and "much more" if the recruit proved willing to answer specific questions of interest.
"In addition, for long-term cooperation, we offer up to $1 million a year with the promise of additional bonuses for information that will help us," it said.
The note instructed the would-be recruit to communicate with U.S. handlers via a G-Mail account accessed either from a public Wi-Fi network or an Internet cafe. State-run media also posted a series of photos released by Russian security services that purportedly showed Mr. Fogle's detention.
One appeared to show Mr. Fogle being handcuffed on the ground while wearing a baseball cap, a light-blue checked shirt and a dirty-blonde wig. The series of photos also included an image of what appeared to be Mr. Fogle's U.S. Embassy identification card and another of his official Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs diplomatic card. The diplomatic card was set to expire on April 29, 2014, three years after its issue date.
Another image shows a table strewed with the items recovered from Mr. Fogle's detention. On the table are two wigs, three pairs of glasses, three Ziploc bags filled with thousands of euros, a microphone, a knife and an RFID Shield, a sleeve that protects passports and credit-cards with computer chips from being read remotely.
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