After almost two hours of interviews and discussion Thursday, Kansas City Council members were right where they were four months ago — still lacking a new municipal judge.

“This certainly hasn’t gone how any of us thought it would,” Councilwoman Deb Hermann said.

Council members and Mayor Kay Barnes now will ask the Municipal Judicial Nominating Commission to resubmit the same three candidates as city attorneys work to persuade a federal judge to allow background checks on the candidates.

Three council members — Hermann, Bill Skaggs and John Fairfield — unsuccessfully pushed to go ahead and pick a judge pending the results of a background check on the successful applicant. But others said it was thorough and fair to conduct searches on all candidates.

The city school district has demoted the head of its transportation department over the revelation that a private bus company had failed to conduct complete criminal background checks on drivers.

Eric Pinkett Sr., a district employee since 1975, also will be suspended without pay for 10 days toward the end of the district’s fiscal year July 31 and then retire, The Columbus Dispatch reported Tuesday.

“He is being suspended for failure to perform job responsibilities in the events leading up to the cancellation of school” on Jan. 25, Mike Fulwider, spokesman for Columbus Public Schools, told the newspaper.

In the wake of the death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel, foster parents will soon face tougher screening in Hamilton County.

Under a plan approved by county commissioners Wednesday, more than a thousand foster parents will face daily criminal background checks.

Most of the little boys in the Atwood home are foster children, but in this house they are brothers, though they have different biological parents.

Denita Atwood has been a foster mom for seven years, and she has no problem with Hamilton County running a background check on her every day.

“I think if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn’t have a problem with it,” said Denita Atwood, foster parent. “The bottom line is that you are taking care of somebody else’s child.”

A database is aimed at helping officers reunite those who get lost with their families.

A new police database is designed to help people who suffer from dementia get back home safely if they get lost.

A computer log of information, police hope, will better connect people who suffer from dementia-related illnesses with their families.

“If the Return Home Registry works just once so police can reacquaint a person with their family in a safe and timely manner, that’ll make the program worthwhile,” said Sgt. Troy Gielish, who is administering the program.

Attorneys, counselor offer views, advice

Law enforcement officers continue to speculate on why Eric Johnson chose to steer a single-engine Cessna 150 into a house on the outskirts of Virgil I. Grissom Airport Monday morning.

Investigators have determined Johnson was distraught following a recent divorce and heated child custody battle.

Custody disputes are notorious for eliciting extraordinary emotions.

A Lansing woman’s death is deemed murder and her caregiver of 16 years is arraigned on three felony charges.

Ira Gudith, 49 of Lansing, is charged with Open Murder and first and second degree Vulnerable Elder Abuse in the death of 94-year old Margaret Robinson.

Robinson died in her home January 10 and investigators say Gudith killed her though they won’t say how or why because the investigation is ongoing.

He was arrested on domestic violence charges last week and arraigned on the murder and elder abuse charges Tuesday. He was not employed by a home care agency.

We are learning more about the District 150 teacher accused of having sex with one of her students.

Jodi Church was a special education teacher at Manual High School.

Authorities say the 26-year-old had sex with a 16-year-old student.

She’s been charged with criminal sexual assault.

District 150 officials say until the investigation is complete they will not release any more information.

Legislators are pushing forward with efforts to close the gun show loophole, but critics still say there’s no loophole to close.

A bill that would require all sellers at gun shows to conduct background checks passed out of committee Tuesday, but Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said it’s uncertain whether it will reach the Senate floor.

Gun control proponents say Washington law allows people to buy firearms at gun shows without going through a federally required background check, an oversight that could allow criminals to purchase guns.

According to a release sent to RAW STORY by the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, government officials were illegaly wiretapped by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in order to advance a public corruption investigation.

A 2002 complaint by FBI Special Agent Gilbert Graham alleges that an FBI task force on which he was serving used counterintelligence wiretaps primarily in order to spy on US government officials.

“It is the complainant’s reasonable belief that the request for ELSUR [electronic surveillance] coverage was a subterfuge to collect evidentiary information concerning public corruption matters,” the just released complaint shows.

Bail News Roundup - March 5, 2007

The AboutBail.com staff this week was not reading all great news. This week the media reported on two bail professionals doing wrong. All is not bleak, though. There are still the stories of bail professionals working hard to track down the bad guys:

Not Heart-Warming News
Lonoke Police Chief Jay Campbell, his wife Kelly Harrison Campbell, and a bail bondsman named Bobby Junior Cox are facing court after allegations of corruption against the trio have surfaced. The three are accused of taking prescription drugs from homes they entered in the line of duty. They are also accused of plotting to manufacture methamphetamine. The trial continues.

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