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AGRICULTURE 
Agriculture
is a vital part of the economy of the 133rd Mo. House District (all of Cedar
and most of Polk counties) and the State of Missouri. As a member of the Mo.
House I will strive to insure we preserve our agricultural heritage and enhance
the opportunities for those involved with agricultural endeavors. I believe we
can do more to promote the importance of agriculture in the area.
Polk County is second in the state in beef production,
with nearly 50,000 head. Although the stats found on line are old, Polk County
ranks high in hay production as well.
Polk County
Rank Within Missouri's 114 Counties, 1998-99
Cash Receipts 41
Corn Production 83
Wheat Production 76
Soybean Production 86
Sorghum Production NA
Hay Production 1
Cattle and Calves 3
Beef Cows 2
Milk Cows 6
Hogs and Pigs 71
Source: Missouri Agricultural Statistics Service
Agriculture of all types is also important to Cedar
County, which in 1998-99 stats ranked in the top fifty counties for
Sorghum Production 41
Hay Production 42
Cattle and Calves 38
Beef Cows 30
Hogs and Pigs 41
Source: Missouri Agricultural Statistics Service
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
and ALTERNATIVE FUELS 
I support funding research and providing incentives
for production and use of alternative energy sources, such as hydrogen and
solar power, wind generators, etc. And I believe Missourians need to be aware
of and permitted to participate fully in the U.S. Department of Energy solar
photovoltaic electric initiative. I feel the voters should be allowed to vote
on the Consumer Clean Energy Act as promoted by the Here's Help Network and the
concept of net metering is a great idea.
I am aware of land in Missouri that is
said to have considerable natural gas. Such resources should be developed.
Missourians need to be set free from those reaping
extreme profits from oil and gas.
I support funding research and tax credits
for production and use of ethanol, ethanol blends, biodiesel, wind and solar
energy, and other renewable fuel sources.
CHILD PROTECTIVE
SERVICES
In
the 1970s-80s I was quite active with groups seeking to protect children from
child abuse. By 1986 I began to realize there were a lot of flaws in a system
where a child that really was being abused could be charged as an adult and
sent to adult prison to serve time for the murder of her mother, which her
father had committed.
Soon across the USA so called child protective services were granted more and
more police state type powers and more and more families were torn apart
through lies, manufactured evidence, and reports that left out the facts. When
was there time for protection of kids really being abused, when the system
spent so much time framing thousands of innocent parents? Grandparents and
other family members rights were tossed aside to often place kids in foster
care in homes where they in several cases died. By the 21st century it became
quite common for someone to claim sexual abuse by a father or mother and often
without proof people were branded sex offenders, imprisoned, and lost their
children.
(I am not so naive to believe we do not have a problem with real sex offenders
and people who abuse children. I am well aware of the fact we have many sick
people in our midst. BUT, child protective services has been based on lies, is
a system designed outside of Missouri, and is meant to destroy the family
structure.)
This past legislative session some so called improvements were passed from
proposals designed elsewhere and passed by the Republicans. Like the so called
revisions to Mo. Election laws made a few years ago, I suspect the revisions
will in the long term give child protective services more power and make
matters worse.
The Mo. General Assembly needs to review all laws relating to child protective
services, remove all provisions that are not in the best interests of families,
and pass legislation that insures a system where those truly abused are
properly protected and rarely anyone is falsely accused of child abuse. Part of
the solution is insisting on a system based on facts and truth and checks and
balances to insure those who do not play fairly and base their actions on facts
and truth do not work in the Mo. system.
CRIMINAL SENTENCING REFORM
Missouri
built far too many prisons and failed to accept the reality that warehousing of
criminals rarely helps society in any manner. We need to save money by
releasing some non violent prisoners, then begin to close some prisons, keeping
in mind the importance of each to jobs and the community they are in.
Why do we have a Department of Corrections, if we do not believe people can be
corrected and learn to live lawfully?
The Mo. General Assembly needs to pass legislation to require greater use of
alternative sentencing, such as electronic monitoring, community
service, highway work crews(chain gangs). There needs to be funding sources to
encourage use of such programs and incentives to get judges to make greater use
of alternative sentencing. There also needs to be greater incentives
established where prisoners can earn parole or transfer to an alternative
sentencing program.
We also need to established mandatory mental health treatment programs for
those suffering from mental illness and imprisoned.
And we need to revise the laws regarding sentencing and treatment of sex
offenders. Consideration should be given to clinical treatment programs versus
mere rhetoric and mental therapy.
DEATH PENALTY
Missouri needs to establish a moratorium on the
death penalty until all the death penalty cases can have DNA review and until
the Mo. General Assembly can pass legislation abolishing the death sentence.
I served as the paralegal for the last
twelve days of appeals in a death penalty case. I organized the paper and video
presentation and gave the oral presentation to the governor's office. The
effort resulted in a short special investigation by the governor's office, but
the night of the execution I knew there was a missing link I just needed more
time to find. Less than two weeks after an innocent man
was murdered by the state, I had in my hand a letter telling the rest of the
story. The man I had tried to help defend had been running drugs for members of
law enforcement. The officer he was accused of murdering was actually killed by
another officer, who now has been elected as a sheriff. The man executed could
have also told the rest of the story, but he chose not to. Are any Missourians
safer because he was executed? Of
course not.
My first experiences with the death
penalty were actually over a decade earlier. One of my former students, age 14,
was falsely accused of the murder of her mother and I saw the headline she
could be the youngest ever to be executed in Mo. (an inaccurate headline
because we have executed as young as 11). Under the threat of the death penalty
she was coerced into an Alford plea and was in Ashcroft's adult Mo. Dept. of
Corrections for 44 mos. before a federal judge ordered her release. Thirty six
mos. later she was found not guilty by a jury. The same judge, who forced her
Alford plea, also used the threat of the death penalty to force an Alford plea
on an innocent mentally retarded young man. He spent over nine years in Mo.
prison before Governor Carnahan gave him a full pardon and declared him
innocent. The real murderers have never been charged in either of these cases.
How could anyone believe in the death
penalty knowing how often the judicial system fails?
ECONOMIC
IMPROVEMENTS
It is past time for Missourians to have
effective, positive economic change.
As a member of
the Missouri General Assembly I will be pleased to help sponsor legislation to
insure the success of "Governor" McCaskill's Turn Missouri Around economic
blueprint.
Elect McCaskill Elect
Bekki Cook Citizens for McCaskill
Missouri Democrat Party Missouri
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