KRPS News; 10/21/2019 7am

This is 89-9 K-R-P-S. Good Monday morning. I'm Fred Fletcher-Fierrope. We have clear skies and 46 degrees here in Pittsburgh at 704. The chief prosecutor of the county that includes Lawrence, Kansas will no longer prosecute people for basic marijuana possession. So, Yelopis Jepsen of the Kansas new service has more. Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson says he looked at what places like Lawrence and which tall we're doing and decided it's time to change. He says it's not, quote, fair or just to prosecute in Douglas County when there are no significant penalties in Lawrence. Public attitudes have shifted, he says, and the courts and law enforcement have bigger fish to fry. Branson argues that drug addiction is a problem, but that jail doesn't fix it. And going after low-level cannabis crimes has disproportionately hurt people of color and the poor. For the Kansas new service, I'm Cili Yopis Jepsen in Topeka. The mayor is a Missouri's four largest cities men in Springfield, Friday, to address the problem of violent crime in their communities. The mayor's identified gun violence as a top concern.

And they expressed those concerns to Missouri, Governor Mike Parson, who also attended the meeting. The mayor's of St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia, and Springfield said they will try to strengthen Missouri's witness protection program and support laws that keep firearms out of the hands of violent offenders. Governor Parson told reporters after the meeting that he hopes to increase funding for mental health resources in these communities. The main thing I think that comes out of today, we know we got to do something. We cannot continue going the way we are and expect any different results. So I think we're all more than willing to look outside the box per se to figure out how we fight by the crime in the state. The meeting was hosted by Springfield's mayor, Ken McClure. The standardized test scores released last Thursday for Missouri's public school students were stubbornly low, but St. Louis Public Radio's Ryan Delaney reports on one group of students who are steadily improving. Students whose first language is not English have been slowly making gains compared to their native speaking peers. Since 2016, English language learners

have closed the gap by about five percentage points in reading and math compared to white students. And by two and a half percentage points in reading and four percentage points in math compared to the overall average. Assistant Education Commissioner Chris Neill says that's long enough to call a trend. I'm very pleased to see English learners on the rise. The population of English language learners has doubled or even tripled in some suburban St. Louis school systems over the past decade. Their academic gains have come despite a shortage of qualified teachers. I'm Ryan Delaney. Missouri Southern football is drop five straight. This time on Saturday to washporns by a score of 49 to 19. The Lions will look to snap their losing streak this weekend on the road taken on an 0 and 7 North Eastern state River Hawk team kickoff Saturday in Tallahqua at 2 p.m. The weather forecast for Southwest Missouri sunny and nice today with winds as high as 30 miles per hour, a high day of 64. Currently in Joplin, we have mostly clear skies in 48 degrees at 7.21.