EDITORIAL: Short takes on beheaded chickens, photo posers and a Powerball pullout

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)

June 17--Over the Moon ...

Missourians hadn't heard much from state Rep. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, since his 2015 resolution calling upon members of Congress to act with "manly firmness" in striking down the Affordable Care Act. But Moon got back on the board in a big way Monday.

The 58-year-old farmer-politician posted a Facebook video of himself as he beheaded a chicken on his Lawrence County farm. The video then shows him gutting the bird and holding up its heart.

The message wasn't entirely clear. There was a little pro-meat message in his remarks, and a little shot at Gov. Eric Greitens for calling lawmakers back into special session after saying they were on cushy summer vacations.

But Moon later made clear that he was unhappy with the anti-abortion bills Greitens wanted the special session to consider. They didn't go far enough to suit Moon, who wants Missouri to ban abortion altogether. That's the heart of the matter, he said. Get it? Heart? Never mind.

... and over Trump's right shoulder

Greitens openly declared war on lawmakers' summer vacations by calling them back for a second special session this week. But that hardly put a crimp in his own travel plans. While state legislators worked on measures to override a St. Louis anti-discrimination law and restrict abortion-clinic access, Greitens took off for Washington, where he posed for photos.

He positioned himself squarely behind President Donald Trump's right shoulder Thursday as Trump spoke about Wednesday's gun rampage in Alexandria, Va. Greitens' GOP critics in the Legislature sure have a lot of nerve, suggesting that he's positioning himself for a national office.

No Powerball for you

Sure, Illinois hasn't had a budget in two years. And colleges are being underfunded. And yes, social service agencies are closing down and vendors aren't being paid and there's $14.6 billion in unpaid bills, pension liability of $130 billion and state bonds are rated one notch above junk. But now Illinois' Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic Legislature have a real crisis on their hands: Unless there's a budget by July 1, the big lottery games are going to pull out of the state.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday that the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the Mega Millions and Powerball games, has told Illinois lottery officials that Illinois will be dropped because of the financial uncertainty.

This will come as a blow to many lottery fans, who'd begun avoiding the state's own lottery out of fear the state wouldn't pay off. Even at 292 million-to-1 (the odds against winning the Powerball jackpot), players figured the multistate games were better bets.

We'd say the odds against Rauner and the Legislature reaching agreement by July 1 are about the same.

Is bigger, better?

Lisa Veglahn, a parent in the Shawnee Mission school district where resource officers have been armed with eight semiautomatic rifles, succinctly summed up the concern.

"I don't fully believe one person with a bigger, badder gun is really going to make a huge difference in an active shooter situation in a school," she told a reporter for The Kansas City Star. Other parents in the Kansas school district that serves about 27,500 students just over the Missouri border questioned the expense of the rifles and being left out of the decision to buy them.

District resource officers have operated separately from municipal police since 1972 and are responsible for security across the school district. John Douglass, the district's director of safety and security, says resource officers need the enhanced firepower because of the rising threat of active shooter situations.

Douglass formerly was the police chief for Overland Park, Kan., which may explain his perspective. He added that the assault rifle "is a very serious weapon for some very limited circumstances." We hope those circumstances never occur, but we also understand parental concern about an arms race in their suburban school district.

Seeing isn't always believing

The resemblance between Richard Jones and another Kansas City-area man is astonishing, as if they were twins. Jones served nearly 17 years in prison for a 1999 robbery he insists he didn't commit. He spent much of his prison time trying to prove that there was someone else out there who looked just like him and who might be the person authorities were looking for when they arrested Jones.

A judge in Johnson County, Kan., southwest of Kansas City, freed Jones from prison last week after lawyers showed photo evidence of Jones' doppelganger. The other man, who goes by the name "Ricky," turned out to have lived near the crime site.

The judge determined no juror viewing the photos could have rendered a verdict without having reasonable doubt that he was the robber. Jones isn't exonerated, but at least he isn't in prison. Eyewitness testimony has been demonstrated repeatedly to be a highly unreliable indicator of guilt. The judge made the right call.

Maplewood goes green

Mighty little Maplewood, population 8,046 on a good day, isn't letting President Donald Trump's disdain for the nation's environmental future dampen the community's enthusiasm. The Maplewood City Council approved a resolution Tuesday committing the suburb to abide by the Paris climate accord.

The city will stick to a Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gases and work toward using 100 percent renewable energy. The resolution brings Maplewood in line with other cities represented in the Climate Mayors Network and focused on the economic and social components of climate programs.

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