State briefs 10/3/17

McCaskill requests talk on campus rape

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill wants to speak with President Donald Trump about campus sexual-assault policy. In a Monday letter, McCaskill criticized his administration's handling of the issue so far and asked to talk with him about working together on new policy. McCaskill said Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' decision to roll back former president Barack Obama's administration policy on investigating campus sexual assaults is confusing for colleges. McCaskill said it also fails to offer needed support for survivors of sexual assault. DeVos has said the policy was unfairly skewed against those accused of assault. McCaskill said she wants to talk with Trump about bipartisan solutions and a bill she's sponsoring about campus sexual assault. She's one of 10 Senate Democrats up for re-election in states Trump won.

Death-penalty trial begins for inmate

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A death-penalty trial has started for an ailing man charged with an attack at a federal prison hospital in Missouri that killed one fellow inmate and injured another. The Springfield News-Leader reported 61-year-old Ulysses Jones Jr. went on trial last week on charges of using a makeshift knife to kill 38-year-old Timothy Baker as he slept in 2006 at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield. Court records stated the other inmate survived. Defense attorney Thomas Carver said Jones is dying slowly of end-stage renal disease. Jones already is serving a life sentence for two robberies and murders in 1979 and 1980 in Washington, D.C. Baker, who is from Ohio, had served about half of his six-year sentence for a cocaine-related conviction when he was killed.

-- From wire reports