Missouri

   A former voter registration worker for an activist community organization pleaded guilty in federal court today to filing false paperwork with the Kansas City election board last fall.

   Carmen R. Davis, 38, was charged in January with voter registration fraud and identity theft before the November 2006 elections.

   The charges against four former ACORN workers have mushroomed into a national issue as some have alleged the indictments to be part of a political program to suppress minority voter turnout in the November elections.

   Interim U.S. Attorney Bradley Schlozman brought the charges less than a week before the elections. A few weeks later, prosecutors dropped charges against one defendant, whose identity had been stolen by the actual culprit, they said.

    Davis subsequently was indicted.

   Earlier this week, Dale D. Franklin, who pleaded guilty to filing false voter registrations in February, was sentenced to probation. Brian Gardner pleaded guilty in March and is awaiting sentencing, while Kwaim A. Stenson is scheduled for trial in July. Davis, Franklin, Gardner and Stenson are from Kansas City.

   Dave Helling and Steve Kraske reported on Prime Buzz last night and in The Star today that Sen. Kit Bond's staff, worried about a potential scandal over Missouri's fee offices, suggested two years ago that the Bush administration should consider replacing then-U.S. Attorney Todd Graves.

   Reactions?

    Dave Helling and Steve Kraske write up the revelation that former U.S. attorney Todd Graves of Kansas City was on a list of federal prosecutors to be replaced. The internal Justice Department document was dug out by McClatchy's Washington bureau, which found that three other U.S attorneys were also targeted, for a total of 12.

   The story comes after two speculative Prime Buzz special reports -- one on Graves and one on why Brad Schlozman may have been named his replacement -- circulated on the Internet and in Washington. The reports, based on weeks of reporting by Helling and Kraske, laid out a case for why Graves may have been on such a list. Those reports have now been largely confirmed.

   Here's the A1 story this morning in The Star.

   Reactions?

   Slapped with a $50,000 lawsuit in connection with his activities in an August 2006 state Senate primary, GOP political guru Jeff Roe has fired back .

   "This is politics," Roe said. "Anybody with $200 can file a suit."

   Shortly before the August primary, Roe wrote on his political blog, The Source, that a one candidate for Missouri's 2nd District state Senate seat, Joe Brazil, had been involved in a high-school prank that led to the death of a friend. Roe was backing a different candidate, Scott Rupp, who went on to win the election.

   Roe wasn't working for either candidate.

   In 1982, Brazil was driving a dump truck that was pouring thousands of tons of sand into the parking lot at McCluer North High School as part of an unauthorized beach party and senior-class prank.

   A friend fell through the frame of the truck and was crushed while Brazil drove slowly along.

   Roe wrote that Brazil and his friends had been drinking.

   "So now we have another instance of Brazil's irresponsibility and not owning up to his mistakes," Roe wrote in The Source. "What else do we need to know, Joe?"

   But the suit contends that Brazil had not been drinking and was not drunk, and authorities filed no charges. The incident exposed Brazil to ridicule and contempt, the suit said.

   Roe, though, said he pulled information about the incident from a different Web site and was only repeating what already had been written about the incident.

   "For a guy who claims he wants this story to go away, sending out press releases and filing lawsuits is an odd way for that to happen," Roe said.

   The suit was filed in St. Charles County Circuit Court by attorney Dan McLaughlin.

   Nude photos of Jessica Robinson, press secretary for Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, are circulating around the Capitol.

   The photos, taken by her husband to document her pregnancy,  are resurfacing two years after the pictures were stolen from her personal computer and posted on the Internet by computer hackers, according to the story published today by Jo Mannies of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

    Robinson discovered the pictures online on several pornographic websites in late 2004, along with personal information, including her employment with the state. 

   The Missouri Highway Patrol investigated the case for several months and although nobody was ever charged with the crime, the photos were taken down from the websites.

   But now the photos have resurfaced online and in the Capitol.  Blunt's chief of staff, Ed Martin, sent a three-page memo on Thursday to all legislative offices expressing his dismay over the situation and hopes that the individuals responsible would be discovered and held accountable.

   An ebullient Steve Glorioso had a hot-off-the-computer e-mail from an official at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee today. The e-mail included a lengthy Roll Call piece out today (subscription required) on Mayor Kay Barnes' likely challenge to Congressman Sam Graves. The e-mail took up almost three single-spaced pages. Glorioso scrawled a note atop the e-mail and had an aide hand it to Her Honor at today's council meeting: His note said: "The DCCC loves this story!" 

   Barnes has just returned from a trip to D.C. that included meetings with top DCCC officials and getting the results of a Graves vs. Barnes poll. So what's the scuttlebutt on the poll and what does Barnes have to say about the potential race?

   Check out Prime Buzz for that and more.

   Former three-term U.S. Sen. Tom Eagleton of Missouri died this morning. He was 77.

   Eagleton, known for his booming voice and perfect election record in Missouri, had been ill for several months. His death was attributed to various ailments, including pneumonia and heart troubles.

   Eagleton died about 10:30 a.m. at St. Mary’s Hospital in St. Louis. He had been a patient there for about a week.

   A spokesman said he had been in declining health for several months with heart, respiratory and other ailments.

   “The totality of it just overwhelmed him,” said spokesman Mark Abels.

   Plans were in the works for a Saturday memorial service, but details were still being worked out.

   Abels said Eagleton had recently completed the first draft of his memoirs. The book was still in “first-draft” form, and there was no timetable for publication, Abels said. “We’ll see what the future brings for the book,” he said.

     JEFFERSON CITY | Gov. Matt Blunt today defended his handling of the Fred Ferrell sexual-harassment affair, saying his focus was on placating the target of Ferrell’s offensive touching and rude remarks.

    Blunt said he did not dismiss his agriculture director until this week – nine months after Ferrell’s boorish actions were confirmed – because he thought the matter could be settled amicably with the woman who reported the problems. Ferrell was ordered last May to issue an apology, to undergo sensitivity training and to contribute $10,000 toward the employee’s settlement, Blunt said.

   When it became clear last week that the employee was not satisfied with the punishment and compensation offer, Ferrell could no longer effectively lead the Agriculture Department, Blunt said.

   “We thought we could resolve this in a manner that satisfied the offended employee,” Blunt said. “When it became clear that we hadn’t satisfied the offended employee, then it became time for him to leave.”

   Critics said the explanation left them perplexed. Sen. Joan Bray, a St. Louis County Democrat, called the governor’s explanation “code for it became public and we looked bad.”

   After reading the investigative report that found numerous instances of offensive behavior toward women in his office, the governor was not offended enough to fire Ferrell, Bray said. But after the report became public last week, Ferrell suddenly was ineffective in his job, she said.

   “What this says to me is that the governor felt as long as everything was hushed up and secret and the victim was paid off quietly, they were fine with it,” Bray said.

A group of Democratic women lawmakers is demanding that Gov. Matt Blunt explain why he didn’t fire Department of Agriculture Director Fred Ferrell way back in May after an investigation of sexual harassment.

   A former employee of the agency alleges Ferrell repeatedly harassed her, saying he’d like to see her in a wet T-shirt as well as kissing her face and touching her. The employee, Heather Elder, also alleges in court papers that Ferrell wouldn’t promote her because he didn’t believe women should be supervising men.

   In a statement released Friday, Blunt’s office said that after the governor had reviewed an investigation conducted by the Missouri Highway Patrol, (see this attachment) Ferrell was suspended, fined $10,000 and forced to undergo sensitivity training.

   Not good enough, seven Democratic women lawmakers said in a letter to Blunt Sunday, who demanded “an explanation of your decision to keep a departmental director in power who you knew was guilty of repeated sexually inappropriate comments and actions.”

   The lawmakers also wanted to know how Blunt “decided to authorize a large payment to one of the victims in an attempt to keep any of this from becoming public.” The Department of Agriculture sued Elder last week, alleging she had reneged on a settlement agreement to take $70,000 and $12,000 in attorneys fees for dropping her claims.

   Elder’s attorney said her client had never agreed to the settlement.

   “Your decision to keep this man in power, potentially leaving other female employees in harm’s way, while you worked to keep his actions secret from the public violated the public trust and merits a full public accounting,” the letter to Blunt said.

   The lawmakers also made reference to many of the details brought out in interviews during the highway patrol investigation, a report that Blunt’s administration only released Friday after months of claiming it was not a public record.

   “We find it incomprehensible that you decided to reinstate a departmental director who refers to his secretary as a ‘show dog,’ who stated that he hires women ‘based on their pretty face, not what is in their minds,’ who wanted to arrange a ‘wet t-shirt contest’ for his women employees, and who told male employees in the department that ‘a woman could not be in a position of management above other men,’ “  the letter said.

   The Democratic lawmakers who signed the letter included Rep. Jenee Lowe and Sen. Jolie Justus of Kansas City. Others included Sen. Joan Bray of St. Louis County and Reps. Margaret Donnelly, Robin Wright-Jones, Patricia Yaeger and Gina Walsh of St. Louis.

    Still awaiting a response from Blunt as of this posting.

   Former Kansas City reporter and television news anchor Karen Foss will head up public relations for Ameren, a Missouri utility, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

  Ameren has faced public criticism in recent weeks in the eastern part of the state.

A memorial service for Harriett Woods, the first woman to be elected to statewide office in Missouri, will be Saturday in St. Louis.

The following is a note from Woods' son, Andrew:

The Memorial Service for Harriett Woods will be held Saturday from 9-11 am at Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis. My mother was passionate about classical music and a devoted follower (and subscriber) of the St. Louis Symphony, so we are pleased to be able to host her event in such a beautiful facility where she spent so many enjoyable moments... many accompanied by her children and grandchildren.

We apologize for the early morning hour of the service, and welcome everyone to join us in remembering our mother... the event will be open to the public. Thank you to all who have offered such wonderful expressions of concern for our family and memories of our mother.