Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Bob Lee, February 18, 1924 - October 31, 2003



 Bob Lee in Chancery Office, Landers Building, Springfield, MO, circa 1969

Robert Graham Lee, Sr., passed away unexpectedly on October 31, 2003 at Cox South Hospital. Born on February 18, 1924, Bob is survived by his wife of 56 years, Mary Lou, their ten children: Bob, Jim, Tom, Mary, Carol, Jane, John, Ed, Ellen, Joan and their spouses. Fifteen grandchildren and five great grandchildren also survive him.

A decorated World War II veteran who fought in the great battle of Pismo Beach, Bob was in the newspaper and publishing business all his life. A prolific reader and thinker, Bob authored numerous books, articles and pamphlets. He was an editor and publisher for The Queen’s Work, a Jesuit publishing house and Ligouri Publications, a Redemptorist publishing house. He was the founding editor of The Mirror, the Catholic newspaper for the diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau.

He did not want a list of his accomplishments (of which there were many) in his obituary. Instead he wanted everyone to know he loved his wife, he loved his children, he loved his grandchildren, he loved his great-grandchildren and he loved his friends, of whom there were many.

Bob was proud that all of his children believe, as he did, that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity, respect and kindness. He didn’t tolerate mendacity very well. He had a well-developed sense of humor.

After Bob retired, he and Mary Lou enjoyed traveling and their cabin in Rockaway Beach. Bob especially enjoyed the companionship of his good friend, Fr. Bob Landewe.

Bob donated his organs so that others might improve the quality of their lives.

A memorial mass for Bob will be celebrated at St. Agnes Cathedral, Springfield, MO, on Monday, November 3, at 1 p.m., followed by a celebration of Bob’s life at his daughter’s house. Directions will be given at the mass.

In lieu of flowers, Mary Lou wishes that donations in Bob’s name be made to The Kitchen, 1630 North Jefferson Avenue, Springfield, MO 65803. Bob was a good husband. He was a good father. He was a good friend.

He lives on in our memories.

"Are we having fun yet? Well, you shoulda been here last night."

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

A "Rose" for Billy Long, really I mean it.



When the Springfield News-Leader endorsed Billy Long last Sunday, (complete with grammatically incorrect usage of verbs in the headline, correct usage: Long proves or Long has proven), Congressman Long has proved he deserves a second term almost 50 comments were posted disputing the endorsement.

One comment that really nailed it---
I noticed in the N-L's endorsement of Claire McCaskill that it labeled Todd Akin's views as "well outside the mainstream." Yet, when it's time to endorse Billy Long, who endorsed Akin when others backed away, who calls himself the most conservative congressman in Missouri, that suddenly Long is a "pragmatic conservative" because he told the N-L he was? The editorial does a terrible job describing Jim Evans and thereby does a disservice to the public in misrepresenting the general views of both candidates.

The N-L said that in their endorsement of Billy Long in 2010, the N-L asked Long "to bring common sense to Washington" Well, no. the 2010 article says "Long promises to bring common sense to Washington." This wasn't an objective viewpoint given by the N-L, this was something Billy Long told the N-L he was going to do. Here we are again in 2012. Looking at Billy Long's rhetoric, record, and lack of providing the public information it needs to make the best choice, the N-L endorses saying "Long was quick to emphasize an emerging role as a pragmatic conservative" Again, this is not an objective viewpoint given by the N-L, this was something Billy Long told the N-L he is going to do.
  From the News-Leader endorsement:
Reflecting the views of his constituents, Long has been a vocal opponent of the Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare, but he recognizes the value of key components, such as prohibiting denial of coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
The catch here in this discussion of 'pre-existing conditions' is in the definition of 'continuous coverage'.  Romney's plan (which Long supports) extends preexisting condition provisions only to those insured with continuous coverage,  to those without gaps in coverage.

After his last vote (of 30 plus) in July to repeal ACA, Long released a press release in which he or his staff said, "Today I voted to repeal this law because of these and many other bad provisions.  I will continue to work hard and ensure the president’s government takeover of health care is replaced with free market reforms that put patients first."

So, with that in mind, I sincerely present this "Rose" to Billy Long for his 30 plus unsuccessful attempts to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, "Obamacare".  If Long had been successful in his attempts our daughter would have had no health insurance coverage for injuries sustained in a terrible horse accident. She was starting a new job and was between insurance coverage.  Thanks to "Obamacare" she had health insurance which is covering the injuries she received in her accident.



Monday, October 15, 2012

Shane and his wife had a fee office but "we didn't ask for it", part deux.


Today (October 15, 2012), the print edition of the Springfield News-Leader has a top of the fold story, byline Josh Nelson, with the headline: Conflict of interest alleged.  The on-line headline is different: Kander attacks Schoeller's past connection with Nixa license office Opponent alleges Schoeller may have violated conflict-of-interest laws

The article is a recap of this story  from the Bus Garage, October 3, 2012: Shane and his wife had a fee office but "we didn't ask for it":

A major point in both Nelson's article and the Bus article is the patronage aspect of the fee offices.  As Nelson writes, 

Prior to 2009, only nine license office contracts were awarded with a competitive bid. The rest of the 183 offices were awarded by governors to politically connected allies in the form of no-bid contracts.
In 2005, Gov. Matt Blunt gave the contract for the Nixa license office to the Schoeller Group.

Shane Schoeller was the chief administrative aide for Blunt when Blunt was secretary of state.

 
On August 1, 2006, Schoeller talked to KY3 News political reporter David Catanese about the fee offices: http://ky3.blogspot.com/2006/08/shane-schoeller-aims-to-end-roark.html:

License Fee Office Reform - This may be a touchy topic for Schoeller because his wife operates a fee office in Nixa. He said he does not yet have a position on Rep. Mark Wright's plan to change the way the offices are awarded and run. "I haven't taken a position, I'd have to see the details but so much has been mischaracterized about these license offices. Unfortunately it has become an issue, but for me it is already out there. My wife has one office in Nixa, but we didn't ask for it. We were approached about running it and I encouraged my wife to do it. People rarely ask me about it, most aren't interested in it."

People who know about how the fee offices were awarded (and I am one of those people) know that these contracts do NOT drop of out the sky and ARE GIVEN as as patronage jobs, rewards given to, as the SN-L reporter states, "given to politically connected allies in the form of no-bid contracts."  For Schoeler to state otherwise is not how it works.

And Schoeller knew that in 2006 when he talked to Catanese and he knows that now.

Schoeller, except for one brief stint with SIFE, has worked for Kit Bond, Roy Blunt, John Ashcroft, Matt Blunt, and Rod Jetton. The Nixa office was given to Schoeller's LLC as a political favor. Schoeller should have given up the office after he was elected state representative.


Another 'spin' on this story is Schoeller's assertion that the fee offices do not collect money directly from the state. "Schoeller campaign officials have said that because the offices do not receive money directly from the state, the statute cited by Kander does not apply."

When you and I go to the fee office and buy plates, we write the check out to the "Department of Revenue". Not one check to the "Department of Revenue" and one check to the fee office operator. The state, using our money, pays the fee office operator for the performing the service of selling license plates.

Schoeller seems to be spliting hairs here, trying to make the best of a bad situation. However, Kander correctly notes the law prohibits lawmakers or spouses from “for any” consideration or service.

From Kander's news release:

The Schoeller Group L.L.C., which was founded by Representative Schoeller and is now owned by his wife, Mendie Giles Schoeller, was awarded the Nixa Contract Office by Governor Matt Blunt – Schoeller’s former boss – without a competitive bidding process in 2005. Representative Schoeller ran for and won a seat in the Missouri General Assembly in 2006, entering office on January 3, 2007.

State law prohibits members of the Missouri General Assembly or their spouses from performing any service for the state that pays $1,500 a year or more unless it is part of a publicly bid contract and the legislator or their spouse was the lowest bidder. This prohibition also applies to businesses where the member or spouse own more than ten percent of the company.

Timeline of Events
October 14, 2003: Shane Schoeller files Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State’s office to start The Schoeller Group, L.L.C.
March 17, 2005: Department of Revenue informs Mendie Schoeller that she has been tentatively selected as the Contract Agent for the Nixa Fee Office.
April 12, 2005: Mendie Schoeller submits business plan for operation of Nixa Fee Office.
April 13, 2005: The Schoeller Group L.L.C.’s registered agent is changed from Shane Schoeller to Mendie Schoeller. In The Schoeller Group’s bid to keep the office in 2010, Mendie Schoeller wrote “In April 2005, sole ownership was transferred to Mendie Giles Schoeller…” No public record exists suggesting the Schoellers have separated or divorced, making this distinction meaningless as a practical matter.
January 3, 2007: Shane Schoeller is sworn in as a State Representative, making section 105.456.2 applicable to both him and his spouse, Mendie Schoeller. As of this date, because they received the Nixa Fee Office without the benefit of a competitive bid, it became illegal for Shane Schoeller, his spouse, or their LLC to continue to operate the office.
January 3, 2007 – January 6, 2010: The Schoeller Group L.L.C. operates the Nixa Contract Office in violation of section 105.456.2. In this time period, the Nixa Office processed approximately 184,298 transactions worth $612,101 in processing fees, which exceeds the $1,500 per year allowed by section 105.456.2.
January 7, 2010: Department of Revenue announces Alternative Opportunities, Inc. won the competitive bid for the Nixa office. The Schoeller Group was the only other bidder for the office.

Thursday, October 04, 2012

Sara fell off this horse and fractured her skull.

A month ago, our daughter got her dream job of working at an equestrian center in Apex NC.

Yesterday, she was riding this horse and took a fall resulting in a fractured skull with an epidural bleed.

She is currently in nuero trauma intensive care and is being monitored very closely. We are thankful the bleed has not worsened.

If no changes occur she will move out of intensive care tomorrow to a lesser level of care.

Please keep her in your thoughts during this trying time.

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Maybe Todd's right?

In an article published Tuesday by Slate Magazine,  Jane Obert self-identified herself as "the city of Neosho's finance director".

I never heard of her before I was forwarded this article by Dave Weigel about Todd Akin: Welcome to Akin Land: Southwest Missouri made the Todd Akin candidacy, and southwest Missouri could save it.

 Jane was quoted in Weigel's article: 

Shortly before I leave Joplin’s AFP rally I talk to Jane Obert, the city of Neosho’s finance director. Off duty for the day, she’s wearing the red-and-blue colors of the Southwest Missouri Conservative Network, another one of the umbrella groups down here that’s weathered the decline of the Tea Party.
“What he actually said, that riled people up, was not said eloquently for a politician,” says Obert. “But it was actually true. Any time women are in a highly stressful situation, they’re not likely to get pregnant.” She points me to the Department of Health and Human Services website, which says this much in a HealthTip. “It’s a clear choice.Do you stand for life, or do you stand for murdering unborn babies for any time and any reason. Claire McCaskill wants to make it legal to suck an unborn baby’s brains out. How barbaric is that?”

The HHC website Obert refers to,  Stress and Pregnancy was first published on October 10, 2010 and revised on May 7, 2011:
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
A study indicates being stressed may reduce the chances of becoming pregnant. Researchers in the United States and England measured women’s levels of a body chemical in saliva that’s considered a barometer of stress – alpha-amylase. They followed the women for six months. And they say women with higher levels were less likely than women with lower levels to get pregnant each day during the fertile window.
At the National Institutes of Health, researcher Germaine Louis:
``However you best relax, as long as it’s healthy and won’t have further implications for trying to get pregnant, is something that you might want to consider.’’ (8 seconds)
Dr. Louis cautions that alcohol and smoking should be avoided as a means of reducing stress.
The study is in the journal Fertility and Sterility.
Learn more at hhs.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.
Last revised: May 7, 2011
 I googled "Jane Obert".

The Joplin Globe's Roger McKinney reported that on September 7, 2012 Obert was fired by City Manager Troy Royer.  Neosho finance director fired after nearly a year at post.
Royer said he couldn’t reveal the reasons for firing Obert.

“She was dismissed, but that’s all I can say,” Royer said.

Obert, reached by phone at her home, said she was told that her dismissal had to do with relationships. She said after receiving the explanation, she still wasn’t aware of the reason.
 Obert said her dismissal had to do with relationships.  How barbaric is that?


Shane and his wife had a fee office "but we didn't ask for it."


Jason Kander, who is in the running for Secretary of State, has some questions for Shane Schoeller:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Jason Kander today called on Rep. Shane Schoeller to explain to Missourians how his family business’s ownership of the Nixa fee office at the same time he was serving in the legislature does not violate Missouri’s conflict of interest laws.

The Schoeller Group managed the fee office in Nixa from 2006 until 2010. According to publicly available documents, The Schoeller Group continued to manage the Nixa fee office after Representative Schoeller was sworn into office in 2007, which appears to violate RSMO 105.456.

 When the process of awarding fee offices was opened up to competition instead of cronysim, The Schoeller Group lost the contract.

“Shane Schoeller may have violated Missouri law by serving in the legislature at the same time his family operated a no-bid fee office for the state,” said Rep. Jason Kander. “From all the publicly available documents, it appears that The Schoeller Group improperly managed the Nixa fee office from 2007-2010. I am calling on Representative Schoeller to release all of the documents relating to the fee office so Missourians can determine if The Schoeller Group’s management of the fee office violated state law.”

The Schoeller Group L.L.C., which was founded by Representative Schoeller and is now owned by his wife, Mendie Giles Schoeller, was awarded the Nixa Contract Office by Governor Matt Blunt – Schoeller’s former boss – without a competitive bidding process in 2005. Representative Schoeller ran for and won a seat in the Missouri General Assembly in 2006, entering office on January 3, 2007.

State law prohibits members of the Missouri General Assembly or their spouses from performing any service for the state that pays $1,500 a year or more unless it is part of a publicly bid contract and the legislator or their spouse was the lowest bidder. This prohibition also applies to businesses where the member or spouse own more than ten percent of the company.

As a result, on the day Representative Schoeller became a member of the Missouri House of Representatives, all of the relevant factual predicates for application of Section 105.456.2 were met:
1) Shane Schoeller was a member of the General Assembly.
2) His spouse, Mendie Giles Schoeller, owned more than 10% interest in The Schoeller Group L.L.C.
3) The Schoeller Group L.L.C. provided services to the state (operated the Nixa Fee Office) for consideration in excess of $1,500 per year.
4) The contract to operate the Nixa Fee Office was awarded without the benefit of a competitive procurement process.
Timeline of Events
October 14, 2003: Shane Schoeller files Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State’s office to start The Schoeller Group, L.L.C.
March 17, 2005: Department of Revenue informs Mendie Schoeller that she has been tentatively selected as the Contract Agent for the Nixa Fee Office.
April 12, 2005: Mendie Schoeller submits business plan for operation of Nixa Fee Office.
April 13, 2005: The Schoeller Group L.L.C.’s registered agent is changed from Shane Schoeller to Mendie Schoeller. In The Schoeller Group’s bid to keep the office in 2010, Mendie Schoeller wrote “In April 2005, sole ownership was transferred to Mendie Giles Schoeller…” No public record exists suggesting the Schoellers have separated or divorced, making this distinction meaningless as a practical matter.
January 3, 2007: Shane Schoeller is sworn in as a State Representative, making section 105.456.2 applicable to both him and his spouse, Mendie Schoeller. As of this date, because they received the Nixa Fee Office without the benefit of a competitive bid, it became illegal for Shane Schoeller, his spouse, or their LLC to continue to operate the office.
January 3, 2007 – January 6, 2010: The Schoeller Group L.L.C. operates the Nixa Contract Office in violation of section 105.456.2. In this time period, the Nixa Office processed approximately 184,298 transactions worth $612,101 in processing fees, which exceeds the $1,500 per year allowed by section 105.456.2.
January 7, 2010: Department of Revenue announces Alternative Opportunities, Inc. won the competitive bid for the Nixa office. The Schoeller Group was the only other bidder for the office.


Frequent bus riders will know that the bus garage is not only the receptorium for the Jim Lee Vehicle Collection (aka 'rolling junkyard') but also is a vast repository for sometimes totally useless information and a few zingers.

So when this information about the Nixa fee office and the Schoeller's involvement entered the bus garage alarms went off alerting this driver to previously stored information regarding the topic.

Prior to Jay Nixon's revision of how fee offices were awarded (and I have a file on that also-- Today's lesson: don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining), the offices were given out as political favors, patronage.

In a posting on Tuesday, August 1, 2006, then KY3 political reporter David Catanese wrote about Shane Schoeller who was making his first bid for public office: Shane Schoeller aims to end Roark legacy

 

Schoeller talks to Catanese about the Nixa fee office:
License Fee Office Reform - This may be a touchy topic for Schoeller because his wife operates a fee office in Nixa. He said he does not yet have a position on Rep. Mark Wright's plan to change the way the offices are awarded and run. "I haven't taken a position, I'd have to see the details but so much has been mischaracterized about these license offices. Unfortunately it has become an issue, but for me it is already out there. My wife has one office in Nixa, but we didn't ask for it. We were approached about running it and I encouraged my wife to do it. People rarely ask me about it, most aren't interested in it."
Shane worked for Bond, Roy Blunt, Ashcroft, Matt Blunt, Rod Jetton and the license office just fell out of the sky. Of all the politicians he has worked for Schoeller, in Catanese's post, said he's learned the most from his four years serving as a legislative aide to Rep. Roy Blunt.

These offices are awarded as political favors and don't try to kid anyone by saying they are not.

I don't know Schoeller or his wife, but it strains his credibility with me when he says he or his wife didn't seek the fee office.
 




Monday, October 01, 2012

Judge not lest ye be judged.



  • A friend and I were having a political discussion. 

    He is a Republican and he didn't want me to judge all republicans by Billy Long. 

    Or Dave Spence.

    Or Todd Akin. 

    Or Ed Martin.

    Or Shane Schoeller. 

    Or Tim Jones.

    Et Cetera. 

    Et Cetera. 

    Et Cetera.