State briefs 2/4/05

Ex-congressman, two others guilty of fraud

ST. LOUIS -- A former Oregon congressman and another man defrauded investors in the St. Louis area of more than $2 million, a jury has ruled. Jurors in U.S. District Court in St. Louis ordered former Rep. Wester Cooley and businessman George Tannous to pay $2.2 million, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Thursday. The trial lasted eight days. The jury on Wednesday ruled the men, along with an associate who used the named John Montgomery, defrauded investors here by telling them that online auction giant eBay.com was on the verge of buying their startup company, BidBay.com.

Kansas man charged in death of toddler

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas man who was baby-sitting for his girlfriend's young son has been charged in the child's death. Zayquon Hammond, who would have turned 2 next week, was pronounced dead Tuesday of injuries suffered Monday night. Jackson County prosecutors charged Ryan T. Wiss, 21, of Pittsburg, Kan., on Wednesday with second-degree murder, child abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. Wiss is accused of punching Zayquon in the abdomen, knocking him back into a stair railing and kneeing him. The boy lost his balance as he was starting to go up the stairs again and fell down to a concrete landing, court records said.

Mom, grandma, uncles charged in girl's death

PINEVILLE, Mo. -- The mother, grandmother and two uncles of a 6-year-old girl authorities believe was severely malnourished and dehydrated have been charged with felonies following her death last weekend. Hannah Renee Davenport was declared dead after being brought to a Joplin hospital from her home in Anderson on Saturday night. Medical records show the girl was born with a defective digestive tract that required surgery when she was 2. She needed a special diet of soft foods, and frequent visits to the doctor, but the records show the doctor's visits stopped last summer.

State treasurer will no longer bank with France

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The state treasurer's office plans to stop investing money in several foreign-owned financial institutions, including a French banking group that handled most of the money in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq. An investment committee for State Treasurer Sarah Steelman is expected to vote today to remove Paribas Capital, owned by BNP Paribas Finance Inc., from Missouri's approved list of brokers.

Blunt combines two state positions with appointment

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Matt Blunt has appointed state facilities manager David Mosby to a newly combined position that will oversee the maintenance, design and construction of state buildings. Blunt said the state will save $80,000 by eliminating the position of director of design and construction and merging its duties with those of the director of facilities management, to which Mosby was appointed. Mosby, 52, already was managing the day-to-day operations and maintenance of 30 state-owned facilities in five cities. Since going to work for the state in 1992, he also has served as the state's leasing manager and Capitol complex operations manager. Mosby previously served in the Air Force.

Panels focus on changing school funding plan

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Legislative leaders have set up a couple of special committees to focus on changes to the state's formula for funding public schools. The legislature already has standing education committees in the House and the Senate, but legislative leaders said having a group work exclusively on the state's school funding formula made sense.