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JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri’s new attorney general, Andrew Bailey, pledged to lead his with a “steady hand and an unwavering quest for victory” in his first speech as the state’s most sensible police official.
Bailey, who was sworn in Tuesday, succeeds U. S. Sen. Eric Schmitt as attorney general; Schmitt was sworn in Tuesday as one of five new Republican members of the U. S. Senate. Schmitt replaced Roy Blunt, who retired.
After Schmitt’s election, Republican Gov. Mike Parson announced in November that Bailey, his attorney general, would head the attorney general’s office.
“The very design of our government is meant to provide a bulwark opposed to tyranny and centralized force,” Bailey, a Republican, said in his speech. “Our government is a government of special interests or cultural elites.
“Ours is a government of other people like me, who perceive the benefits of freedom,” Bailey said, adding that “his private history guides me and shapes who I am. “
Bailey said he was an Army veteran who led foot soldiers into battle. “I paid for my school with blood, sweat and tears,” Bailey said.
Bailey participated in an offensive operation in Iraq in the fall of 2015.
“My vehicle hit a roadside bomb,” Bailey said. “In a few moments, I checked my vehicle’s equipment to make sure there were no serious injuries.
“We knew the guy from the cause and my platoon and I stood up to the enemy and fought the ambush,” Bailey said. “This holiday reaffirmed the price of education and the need to lead with authority. “
“Our law, our freedoms are being defended,” Bailey said in his speech.
Bailey has become the third user to hold the position of governor of Attorney General Parson. Josh Hawley, elected attorney general in 2016, ran and won a Senate seat two years later. for the U. S. Senate in early 2021, just months after winning a full term as attorney general.
Parson, in comments to a crowd gathered at the Supreme Court building for Bailey’s inauguration, said he and Bailey “took this personal blood oath . . . He wouldn’t run for anyone else for a certain amount of time. “
“I need some stability in the attorney general’s office,” Parson said.
In comments to reporters, Bailey said he would stick to orders from the governor’s office and said Parson would have selected a “footman” for the job.
Bailey, 41, of the Rhineland, was hired as Parson’s general suggestion in 2021 after serving as an assistant for two years. Before joining the governor’s office, he was the most sensible attorney in the Missouri Department of Corrections.
An Army veteran who deployed twice after the Sept. 11 attacks, Bailey also served as an assistant district attorney in Warren County and assistant attorney general.
Bailey had never held an elected workplace before. Upon taking office, he will inherit a legal operation of 380 employees, $27 million for a salary of about $121,000. Records show he paid $119,600 last year.
He will oversee a workplace Schmitt used to show his political opposition to President Joe Biden. In addition to implicating the state in a lawsuit over the final results of the 2020 election, Schmitt sued Missouri school districts over policies designed to target students and teachers from the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus.
Bailey’s oath came as parties to the death penalty clash protested on the sidewalk of the Supreme Court building, which houses the attorney general’s office.
Protesters suggested the government halt Tuesday’s planned execution of Scott McLaughlin, 49, convicted of stabbing, strangling and raping an ex-girlfriend in St. McLaughlin. Louis.
McLaughlin has been in custody for months at Potosi’s men’s prison, living as a transgender woman, Amber.
Parson pledged to complete Bailey’s career for a full term in 2024.
In addition to touting Bailey’s legal credentials and enjoying the military, Parson said he was seeking stability in the workplace after the last two attorneys general, Schmitt and Hawley, announced their Senate campaigns shortly after taking office as attorney general.
Bailey is likely to face a challenge in the 2024 Republican primary.
Last month, Clayton’s attorney, Will Scharf, 36, filed an unspecified statewide application. He is a former Deputy U. S. Attorney. U. S. in St. Louis and served as director of policy under former Governor Eric Greitens.
Jack Suntrup• 573-556-6186 @JackSuntrup on Twitter jsuntrup@post-dispatch. com
UPDATE at nine a. m. on Wednesday with reaction of relative of homicide victim
Missouri on Tuesday executed by deadly injection a transgender inmate who stabbed, strangled and raped an ex-girlfriend 19 years ago.
The 49-year-old inmate had lived for about 18 months as a woman named Amber McLaughlin, but filed an appeal and signed a final brief Tuesday under an old name, Scott McLaughlin.
McLaughlin is the first transgender person to be blatantly executed in the United States and the third user executed since May in Missouri.
The state administered a deadly dose of pentobarbital at 6:39 p. m. and McLaughlin were pronounced dead a short time later, according to a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections.
In a final written statement, McLaughlin said, “I am a caring and concerned person” and apologized for “what I did. “
Two witnesses on behalf of Beverly Guenther, 45, of Moscow Mills, who stabbed with a meat knife in November 2003 after leaving her assignment in Earth City, attended Tuesday’s execution at the Eastern Reception, Diagnosis and Correction Center in Bonne Terre.
Guenther’s sister-in-law, Annie Wedepohl, witnessed the execution along with her husband, Al, who is Guenther’s younger brother. Wedepohl said: “For me, it’s commonplace. It’s a very human way. I think it’s too human for me. ” Annie Wedepohl, who is a nurse, described the procedure as “quick and quiet,” akin to seeing a member of a circle of family members sedated for surgery.
“I cried a little bit because I was thinking about Bev,” Wedepohl said. “I’m not crying for Scott. “
A non-secular adviser, the Rev. Lauren Bennett, supported McLaughlin’s execution, state officials said.
McLaughlin was convicted in 2006 of first-degree murder, rape and criminal act with a weapon for the death of Guenther, who was dumped near the Mississippi River in St. Louis.
In the end, St. Louis Steven H. Goldman sentenced McLaughlin to death, a resolution that can only be made through a trial in Missouri and Indiana if the jury stalls.
In 2016, a federally approved ruling dismissed McLaughlin’s death sentence and ruled, in part, that a jury form meant that an approved verdict might simply not know whether the jury thought the points justifying the death outweighed the mitigating circumstances.
But years later, the 8th U. S. Court of Appeals took over the U. S. Court of Appeals. The U. S. Supreme Court overturned that ruling and reinstated McLaughlin’s death sentence.
Then, in December, McLaughlin’s attorneys filed a clemency petition with Gov. Mike Parson, highlighting McLaughlin’s abuse, brain damage, fetal alcohol syndrome and suicide in his formative years as an adult.
None of this data was presented to the jury, the lawyers argued, “and it is still at an impasse, without agreeing that the death was justified,” the petition said.
On Tuesday, Parson rejected the request and the state would continue with the execution.
“McLaughlin terrorized Ms. Guenther in the last years of her life,” Parson said after the execution, “but we hope her family and loved ones can, regardless, have some peace. “
At 10:48 a. m. on Tuesday, McLaughlin won a definitive meal of a cheeseburger, fries, strawberry smoothie and M.
Shortly before 6:40 p. m. , witnesses were moved to the execution viewing area and the Missouri Attorney General reported that there were no longer legal impediments to McLaughlin’s execution.
McLaughlin was pronounced dead at 6:51 a. m. p. m. Se expects the frame to be cremated, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman said.
Wedepohl, Guenther’s sister-in-law, said she and her husband would lay flowers at Guenther’s grave on Friday to celebrate Guenther “because it’s over. “
“I’m a nurse and my friends need to know how I can be for the death penalty and look at this,” Wedepohl said. It took a long time to arrive. “
McLaughlin is the third user to run in Missouri in nine months, a strong buildup since recent years.
Carman Deck, who killed a Jefferson County couple in 1996, executed in May, and Kevin Johnson, who killed a Kirkwood police officer in 2005, executed in November.
Johnson’s family members, along with his daughter and grandson, joined an organization of about 50 anti-death penalty protesters outside the Bonne Terre prison Tuesday night, showing symptoms with statements such as “Stop State Killing. “A handful of Han transgender advocates also joined the organization.
Missouri is about to carry out the execution next month. Leonard Taylor, who shot and killed a 28-year-old woman and her three children in Jennings in 2004, is expected to die by fatal injection on Feb. 7.
Robert Cohen and Kim Bell contributed to this report.
Katie Kull • 314-340-8087
@KatieKull1 on Twitter
kkull@post-dispatch. com
ST LOUIS – Councilman Brandon Bosley insists he nearly fell victim to a car theft on the nearby North Side two weeks ago. The government is very safe.
The circuit prosecutor had charged Bianca Robinson, 40, with trying to take Bosley’s delayed car last month and threatening to shoot him, which brought Bosley’s report to police. But on Friday, prosecutors dropped the charges.
The progression raises new questions about what exactly happened between Bosley and Robinson on the night of December 22. The move also injects intrigue into Bosley’s re-election effort this spring into a community that covers high-profile parts of downtown, the nearby North Bank and the new National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency campus.
Bosley said Tuesday he would search the circuit attorney’s office.
“I’m a little speechless about why the rates were reduced,” he said.
He admitted that he may have misinformed some small main points to the police, but he kept his story and said the difficult situations in his testimony were politically motivated.
“Let’s face it,” he said. “It’s election time. “
A spokeswoman for the circuit attorney’s office said the case is still under investigation, but gave no details.
The Dec. 22 riots began shortly after nine p. m. , when a snowstorm swept through the region and caused temperatures to drop below freezing.
Bosley began telling his story in a Facebook video laden with profanity, even before police arrived on the scene. He said a woman approached him and asked for his keys and threatened to point a gun at him.
At the same time, he said, shots were fired from a nearby white car. He said he controlled to flee and call the police. But about a minute after the video, he bumps into the woman again. -Screen looking to steal motive force and being run over.
He drives towards her, is mendacity on the snowy street, asks if she has a gun and threatens to blow her head off with his gun if he shoots one.
Bosley eventually gets out of the car and starts helping her up, but retreats when he can’t if she has a gun. He gets back in his car and heads to a BP gas station on Madison Street and North Florissant Avenue, where he talks to a police officer.
Police later reported responding to an attempt at Madison and North 20th streets, outside Bosley’s 3rd Ward, around 9:15 p. m. They said they had discovered Bosley and Robinson and took Bosley’s statement. Armed robber grade and action, and discovered a knife in his pocket.
City attorneys filed a complaint the next day. But last week, police interviewed Bosley again about the incident.
And Bosley said police continually questioned his account of that interview, told Robinson he tried to ask Bosley a question instead of robbing him and insisting he drop the charges.
Bosley said detectives also told him the targets on the street did not fire.
He said he was also asked why Robinson would have to take his car, since she didn’t have a driver’s license or cash to fill the gas tank, and asked if he was the real attacker in the incident.
Bosley said Tuesday that he may not have correctly described his direction of escape, saying he turned right when he turned left, for example. He stood on the rest of his narration and said he was surprised by the detectives’ questions.
“What they did to catch me,” he said.
Bosley noted that he had opposed efforts to merge the city with St. County. Louis and warned that his followers need him.
Police referred questions about the case to the circuit attorney’s office.
Nancy Rice, who led the last major city-county merger initiative, Better Together, in 2019, said she didn’t know what Bosley was talking about.
“I can’t believe anyone has anything to do with this episode unless Brandon,” he said, adding that he hoped Bosley was OK.
State Rep. Rasheen Aldridge, Bosley’s top prominent opponent this spring, also poured bloodless water on comments of political subterfuge.
“I wouldn’t lower myself so much, and I won’t,” he said. “I think there will be a lot more opportunities for other people to see the differences between the candidates. . . And I plan to win justice. “
Councilman James Page and genuine real estate agent Ebony Washington are running for the position.
Austin Huguelet • 314-788-1651
@ahuguelet on Twitter
ahuguelet@post-dispatch. com
WASHINGTON (AP) — Unable to elect Republican leader Kevin McCarthy as the new speaker Tuesday, Republicans postponed the day in disarray as the party tries to regroup after a historic defeat after a long and messy start to the new Congress.
The wonderful end of day one shows that there is no simple way out for McCarthy, whose efforts to reclaim the hammer have collapsed in the face of conservative opposition. Needing 218 votes in the entire House, McCarthy received just 203 in two circulars, fewer than even Democrat Hakeem Jeffries in the GOP-controlled chamber. An even worse third round of voting, with McCarthy wasting 20 votes as night fell on the new House GOP majority, with tensions rising as all other issues stalled.
The House agreed to return at noon on Wednesday.
McCarthy had promised a “battle on the ground” for as long as it took to defeat his right-wing Republican colleagues who refused to give him their votes. first presidential candidate of the House in a hundred years who does not win the gavel with his majority party.
Without a speaker, the House would completely mold itself: swearing in members, appointing committee chairs, engaging in on-the-ground debates, and launching investigations into the Biden administration.
Republican Rep. George Santos, who is accused of lying about much of his record and accomplishments, arrived in Washington to be sworn in Tuesday but was delayed because Republicans were unable to elect a president.
Rep. Steve Scalise, R-second, spoke out against President Joe Biden’s timetable and suggested his colleagues stop protesting. “We can’t begin to resolve those messes until we choose Kevin McCarthy as our next speaker,” he said.
It was a chaotic start for the new Congress and pointed to a tangled path with Republicans now at the head of the House. A new generation of conservative Republicans, many of whom are aligned with Donald Trump’s agenda, needs to shake up business as usual. Washington and have pledged to prevent McCarthy’s rise without compromising their priorities.
“The other American people are watching, and that’s a smart thing,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who nominated fellow conservative Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio as an option for the speaker.
It was the time when the Conservatives had overtaken a reluctant Jordan, McCarthy’s rival-turned-ally, who had gone ahead to urge his colleagues, even those who supported Jordan, to vote for McCarthy.
“We want to join him, unite,” Jordan said.
Smiling regardless, McCarthy curled up briefly with the attendees, then seemed determined to leave to exhaust his colleagues. Earlier, he walked into the room, posed for photos and earned a standing ovation from many on his side of the aisle after being nominated via third Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who said the Californian “has what he needs” to lead the House.
But on the first ballot, a challenge posed temporarily through Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. , a former conservative leader of the Freedom Caucus, who nominated through a fellow conservative speaker. In all, 19 Republicans withdrew, denying McCarthy the majority he needed. while voting for others in protest.
Tempers strained, at least on the Republican side, as lawmakers rose from their seats in a lengthy in-person vote. Democrats were pleased to vote their own historic votes for their leader, Rep. Jeffries of New York.
On the first ballot, McCarthy won 203 votes, adding 10 for Biggs and nine for the other Republicans. In the second, 203 for McCarthy and 19 for Jordan. In the third ballot, McCarthy got 202 to Jordan’s 20. Democrat Jeffries won the majority, 212 votes, but no candidate won a majority.
After a noisy private GOP caucmon, a central organization of conservatives led by the Freedom Caucus and aligned with Trump, furious, called the assembly “defeated” by McCarthy’s allies and remained in his opposition.
“There’s a user who may have replaced all of that,” said Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa. , chairman of the Freedom Caucus and leader of Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election.
The organization said McCarthy rejected the organization’s final proposal for rule changes at a Monday night assembly on Capitol Hill.
“If you need to drain the swamp, you can’t put the biggest alligator in the exercise,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.
“He eagerly sent us back,” Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.
The next steps are uncertain. A festival of speakers last held in several rounds in 1923.
Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi closed the final session, departing from the new House leadership in her Democratic Party, to a standing ovation from other members.
This year’s stalemate contrasts sharply with the other aspect of Capitol Hill, where Republican leader Mitch McConnell will officially be the party’s longest-serving Senate leader in history.
Despite being a minority in the Senate, where Democrats hold a narrow 51-49 majority, McConnell could become a viable spouse as Biden seeks bipartisan victories. The Republican leader’s home in the state of Kentucky to celebrate federal investment in infrastructure for a major bridge connecting Kentucky and Ohio.
Washington Democrat Patty Murray has become the Senate’s first female interim president, replacing retired Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy. She will act as president of the Senate when the vice president is present.
Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Emergency crews searched the rubble of a building struck by Ukrainian rockets Tuesday, killing at least 63 Russian infantrymen stationed there, in a new blow to the Kremlin’s war strategy as Ukraine says Moscow’s tactics could change.
An Associated Press video of the scene in Makiivka, a city in Russia’s occupied eastern Donetsk region, showed five cranes and rescuers gargantic chunks of concrete under a transparent blue sky.
In the attack, which allegedly occurred last weekend, Ukrainian forces fired rockets from a US-supplied HIMARS multiple-launch system, according to a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry.
It is one of the deadliest attacks on Kremlin forces since the war began more than 10 months ago and an embarrassment that has prompted fresh complaints in Russia about the way the war is being fought.
Russian on Monday about the attack provided few additional details. Other unconfirmed reports point to a much higher death toll.
The Directorate of Strategic Communications of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Sunday that about 400 Russian infantrymen mobilized were killed in the construction of a vocational school in Makiivka and about 300 others were wounded. position “in the Makiivka region” and did not mention vocational school.
Satellite images analyzed through the public address system show the obvious consequences of the strike. A symbol on December 20 showed the building standing. One from January 2 showed her in ruins. Other days there was intense cloud cover, which caused the site to be seen through the popular satellite symbology.
Vigils were held Tuesday for those killed in the attack in two Russian cities, state news firm RIA Novosti reported.
In Samara, in southwestern Russia, citizens gathered for an Orthodox memorial service for the dead. The service followed with a minute’s silence and flowers were laid at a monument to the Soviet-era fallen, RIA reported.
According to unconfirmed reports in the Russian-language media, the patients were mobilized reservists from the region.
As the fighting lasts much longer than the Kremlin expected and bogs down in a war of attrition amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive subsidized with Western-supplied weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering tactics to regain momentum.
In a video released late Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country needed to defend itself against what it described as Russian plans for a new offensive.
“There is no doubt that today’s Russian bosses will gather everything they can to oppose the scenario on the battlefield or at least maintain their defeat,” he said. “We want to derail this Russian scenario and we are in favor. “
In comments a day earlier, Zelenskyy had claimed that the Kremlin planned to accentuate the use of Iranian-made explosive drones.
“We have data that Russia is planning a prolonged attack through Shaheds (explosive drones),” he said late Monday.
Zelenskyy said the purpose of breaking Ukraine’s resistance is to “exhaust our people, (our) air defense, our energy. “
For the Russian military, explosive drones are a reasonable weapon that also generates concern among the enemy. The United States and its allies have been arguing with Iran over Tehran’s role in allegedly supplying drones to Moscow.
The Institute for War Studies said Putin was running to bolster his strategy among key voices in Russia.
“Russia’s air and missile crusade against Ukraine is unlikely to generate the desired data effects through the Kremlin among Russian nationalists,” the think tank said Monday.
“Such a deep military will continue to complicate Putin’s efforts to appease the Russian pro-war network and remain the dominant narrative in the domestic data space,” he added.
Meanwhile, advances in drones in Ukraine have accelerated a trend that may also soon bring the world’s first fully autonomous combat robots to the battlefield. Experts say it may only be a matter of time before Russia or Ukraine deploy them.
However, Putin’s increased reliance on drones available lately would not help him achieve his goals, as Ukraine claims to have a higher success rate than weapons. However, part of the goal of using drones is to exhaust Ukraine’s air defenses.
In the first two days of the new year, which were marked by relentless nighttime drone attacks on Ukraine’s cities and electrical infrastructure, the country’s forces shot down more than 80 Iranian-made drones, Zelenskyy said.
Since September, Ukraine’s armed forces have shot down about 500 drones, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said in a television interview Tuesday.
In addition to exhausting resistance to the Russian invasion, long-range bombing targeted the network of forces to leave civilians at the mercy of the harsh winter.
In the latest clashes, a Russian missile fired overnight over the city of Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region wounded two people, Ukraine’s deputy chief of presidential office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said Tuesday.
The Russian military on Tuesday announced moves in Druzhkivka and Kramatorsk, also in Donetsk. The Ministry of Defense claimed to have destroyed four HIMARS launchers in the area. This statement can be independently verified.
A journalist from the French TV channel TF1 was live on TV screens when an explosion from one of the movements erupted behind him in Druzhkivka. A German journalist from the newspaper Bild was lightly wounded by shrapnel in the same attack.
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