Related(?): What the Frack?
Also see: The deadly consequences of fracking
More from Missouri:
Police nab suspect in '93 British heist in Mo.
Missouri tragedy inspires career shifts toward public aid
"Trucker rule threatens states’ road funds" January 03, 2012
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Stuck in a financial pothole, Missouri’s highway department has been selling equipment and cutting workers to raise enough money to repair its roads. Unless it also changes state law, it could lose tens of millions of federal highway dollars as a penalty for not adopting new safety requirements for commercial truck drivers.
Though Missouri’s financial predicament may be extreme, it is far from unique....
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"Missouri teen admits killing neighbor, 9" January 11, 2012
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Alyssa Bustamante looked down, her long brown hair covering her teenage eyes, as a judge read the charges against her: murder and armed criminal action, for knowingly strangling, cutting, and stabbing her 9-year-old neighbor.
For more than two years after she was arrested as a high school sophomore, Bustamante had been publicly silent about the gruesome crime, which a patrol officer testified she confessed to committing because “she wanted to know what it felt like.’’ Yesterday, it was her time to talk.
Describe what you did, a judge instructed Bustamante, as she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for killing Elizabeth Olten.
“I strangled her and stabbed her in the chest,’’ Bustamante, 17, said in a clear voice, looking straight at the judge.
“Did you cut her throat too?’’ the judge asked. “Yes,’’ Bustamante responded.
She used her hands for strangling and a knife for the rest of the attack, Bustamante told judge.
Bustamante had been charged with first-degree murder, and by pleading guilty to a lesser murder charge, she avoided the possibility of spending her life in an adult prison with no chance of release.
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"Mo. teen gets life in killing of 9-year-old" by Associated Press | February 09, 2012
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Missouri teenager who had described the slaying of a young neighbor girl as an “ahmazing’’ thrill made an emotional apology yesterday to the girl’s family and was sentenced to a potential lifetime in prison.
Moments before her sentence was imposed, 18-year-old Alyssa Bustamante rose from her chair — with shackles linking her ankles and holding her hands to her waist — and turned to face the family of 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten, whom she confessed to killing in October 2009.
“I really am extremely, very sorry for everything. I know words,’’ she said, pausing to take a deep breath and struggling to compose herself, “can never be enough, and they can never adequately describe how horribly I feel for all of this.’’
Elizabeth’s mother, Patty Preiss, stared ahead as Bustamante apologized.
Cole County Circuit Judge Pat Joyce then sentenced Bustamante to the maximum possible sentence for second-degree murder: life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Elizabeth’s family declined to comment about the sentencing, as did Bustamante’s family.
There were no immediate indications that Bustamante planned to appeal the sentence.
Bustamante originally had been charged with first-degree murder but pleaded guilty last month to the lesser charges to avoid a trial and the possibility of spending her life in an adult prison.
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