KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri appeals court on Thursday denied the state attorney general’s request to recuse all Jackson County judges from presiding over an upcoming evidentiary hearing for a man who the county prosecutor says was wrongfully convicted in a triple murder more than 40 years ago.

The Missouri Court of Appeals also denied Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s request to cancel the hearing for Kevin Strickland, who has been in prison for the killings since 1979 and has always maintained that he’s innocent.

Schmitt asked the court to recuse all judges in Jackson County, which includes a large part of Kansas City, because he argued that they have shown a bias in favor of Strickland. The court didn’t explain its ruling, which Schmitt plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court, according to his spokesman, Chris Nuelle, KCUR reported.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker has said Strickland was wrongfully convicted of the killings, and she and Strickland’s lawyers plan to argue at an Oct. 5-6 hearing that he should be exonerated and freed.

Peters Baker has said two men who admitted to taking part in the shootings said Strickland was not there, and the only witness to identify him as the shooter recanted her statement.

Schmitt, who is seeking the Republican nomination to run for a U.S. Senate seat, has said he believes Strickland is guilty.

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — The Americans are running out of excuses in the Ryder Cup.

They bring another loaded team to Whistling Straits, 11 of them among the top 16 players in the world. Not only is it a home game, the travel restrictions because of COVID-19 make this crowd even more one-sided than Lambeau Field.

That’s part of what led Tony Finau to say, “This is a big one.”

What makes it so critical has more to do with a new generation of American golfers than any task force created to try to stop European dominance in the biennial matches.

Finau offered himself as an example as the third-oldest player on the team. He just turned 32. He played his first Ryder Cup in France three years ago. That qualifies him as one of the more experienced players because only three of his U.S. teammates have played more.

If the Americans want to change the culture, this is as good a time as any to start.

“We have a whole new team,” Finau said. “We have a team with no scar tissue. There’s only a handful of us that has even played in a Ryder Cup, and the few of those, we have winning records. So we actually don’t have guys on our team that have lost a lot in Ryder Cups.”

They also have not lost the pressure that invariably comes with being the better team on paper. Despite losing nine of the last 12 times dating to 1995 — two years before leading U.S. qualifier and two-time major champion Collin Morikawa was born — they are the betting favorites.

“Everyone is playing great golf right now and that’s really the key to winning points,” said Daniel Berger, one of six rookies on the U.S. team. “There’s 11 other players you could throw at me and I would feel completely confident and trustworthy that if they had to hit a big shot or make a big putt, they could do it. That’s a big key for us.

The response from Europe may as well be a collective yawn.

One team is looking for the secret formula to winning. The other keeps perfecting it.

The Europeans have spent most of the week tossing golf balls in the air on the first tee to determine teams for their practice rounds. Their uniforms featured the green-and-gold of the Green Bay Packers one day, and they tossed foam Cheesehead hats to the crowd. Ian Poulter was among those tossing golf balls to the gallery on Thursday.

No one looks to be having as much fun, a product of winning so often. And then it tends to switch on Friday for the first of five sessions that determine who gets the gold trophy.

“I don’t think our switch flips as much as you think,” Paul Casey said. “It just ramps up. Maybe there are a few less smiles that are visible. But we’re still trying to have the time of our life and play amazing golf. … We are methodical, attention to detail. We try to leave no stone unturned because we know the margins are so small.

“We all know it could be down to one putt or a fraction of a shot every day.”

The margin really hasn’t been that small since what the Europeans refer to as the “Miracle at Medinah” in 2012 when they rallied from a 10-6 deficit behind the inspired play of Ian Poulter and key putts on Sunday by Justin Rose and Martin Kaymer.

Europe has scored five- and seven-point victories at Gleneagles in Scotland and Le Golf National outside Paris, while the Americans picked up a home win at Hazeltine with a five-point win.

An American victory could be the start of a new culture of winning with newcomers like FedEx Cup champion Patrick Cantlay and Olympic gold medalist Xander Schauffele, longtime friends Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, big-hitting Bryson DeChambeau and four-time major champion Brooks Koepka. The average age is 29, the youngest ever for a U.S. team.

“They have outplayed us in quite a few Ryder Cups and that’s the mold we want to change going forward,” Finau said. “And that’s why I say that’s a big one.”

And if it doesn’t happen?

Finau is no stranger to setbacks. He went more than five years without winning until he broke through in a big way to start the FedEx Cup playoffs. He attributed that win at Liberty National to never losing belief even as he heard questions about whether he could finish the job.

It’s not much different from what the American Ryder Cup team faces.

“I see a change in culture. I see a change in American teams,” Finau said. “Hopefully, this week the culture of us not getting the job done in the Ryder Cup changes this week.”

COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. (WREG) — Multiple people were injured Thursday in a shooting inside the Kroger on Byhalia and Poplar Avenue in Collierville, a Memphis suburb, after an active shooter incident.

Collierville Police Chief Dale Lane confirmed 13 people were shot, and one person killed. The suspected shooter also is dead, possibly from a self-inflicted gunshot, Lane said. See the press conference with details below.

The suspect’s vehicle is still parked and is being investigated.

Lane said officers entered the store just after 1:30 and found multiple people shot, and employees in hiding. He could not comment on whether the shooter was an employee, saying it was under investigation.

Lane called it “the most horrific event that’s occurred in Collierville history.”

Multiple witnesses report hearing at least a dozen shots. Some customers made it out of the store. Employees had others take shelter in the cooler, witnesses said.

One employee, who says she’s worked at the Kroger for 32 years, told WREG she hid with her coworkers and several customers when they heard the gunshots.

Collierville High School was briefly sheltering in place.

Multiple ambulances were seen entering Regional One Hospital in Memphis. The hospital reported it saw nine patients, four in critical condition and five non-critical.

Our office has been in contact with ATF, TBI, and local authorities on the ground, and we are closely monitoring the situation in Collierville. We are praying for all of the victims.

— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) September 23, 2021

Details are still coming in. WREG will update this page as more information becomes available.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri is on pace to record approximately 48,000 COVID cases in September, a 20.4% drop from last month.

According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the state has recorded 667,829 cumulative cases of SARS-CoV-2—an increase of 1,615 positive cases (PCR testing only)—and 11,314 total deaths as of Thursday, Sept. 23, an increase of 24 over yesterday. That’s a case fatality rate of 1.7%.

Please keep in mind that not all cases and deaths recorded occurred in the last 24 hours.

State health officials report 53.3% of the total population has received at least one dose of the vaccine. Approximately 64.6% of all adults 18 years of age and older have initiated the process.

The state has administered 60,729 doses of vaccine in the last 7 days (this metric is subject to a delay, meaning the last three days are not factored in). The highest vaccination rates are among people over 65.

Boone County, the city of Joplin, St. Louis County, and St. Charles County are the only jurisdictions in the state with at least 50% of its population fully vaccinated. Eighteen other jurisdictions in the state are at least 40% fully vaccinated: Atchison, Cole, Jackson, Franklin, Greene, Jefferson, Cass, Nodaway, Andrew, Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve, Carroll, Callaway, Gasconade, and Christian counties, as well as St. Louis City, Kansas City, and Independence.

Vaccination is the safest way to achieve herd immunity. Herd immunity for COVID-19 requires 80% to 90% of the population to have immunity, either by vaccination or recovery from the virus.

The Bureau of Vital Records at DHSS performs a weekly linkage between deaths to the state and death certificates to improve quality and ensure all decedents that died of COVID-19 are reflected in the systems. As a result, the state’s death toll will see a sharp increase from time to time. Again, that does not mean a large number of deaths happened in one day; instead, it is a single-day reported increase.

At the state level, DHSS is not tracking probable or pending COVID deaths. Those numbers are not added to the state’s death count until confirmed in the disease surveillance system either by the county or through analysis of death certificates.

The 10 days with the most reported cases occurred between Oct. 10, 2020, and Jan. 8, 2021.

The 7-day rolling average for cases in Missouri sits at 1,492 yesterday, it was 1,545. Exactly one month ago, the state rolling average was 1,917. 

Approximately 49.4% of all reported cases are for individuals 39 years of age and younger. The state has further broken down the age groups into smaller units. The 18 to 24 age group has 82,807 recorded cases, while 25 to 29-year-olds have 57,110 cases.

People 80 years of age and older account for approximately 43.7% of all recorded deaths in the state.

Month / Year	Missouri COVID cases* (reported that month)
March 2020	1,327
April 2020	6,235
May 2020	5,585
June 2020	8,404
July 2020	28,772
August 2020	34,374
September 2020	41,416
October 2020	57,073
November 2020	116,576
December 2020	92,808
January 2021	66,249
February 2021	19,405
March 2021	11,150
April 2021	12,165
May 2021	9,913
June 2021	12,680
July 2021	42,780
August 2021	60,275
September 2021	36,802

Missouri has administered 6,949,404 PCR tests for COVID-19 over the entirety of the pandemic and as of Sept. 22, 16.9% of those tests have come back positive. People who have received multiple PCR tests are not counted twice, according to the state health department.

According to the state health department’s COVID-19 Dashboard, “A PCR test looks for the viral RNA in the nose, throat, or other areas in the respiratory tract to determine if there is an active infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. A positive PCR test means that the person has an active COVID-19 infection.”

The Missouri COVID Dashboard no longer includes the deduplicated method of testing when compiling the 7-day moving average of positive tests. The state is now only using the non-deduplicated method, which is the CDC’s preferred method. That number is calculated using the number of tests taken over the period since many people take multiple tests. Under this way of tabulating things, Missouri has a 9.7% positivity rate as of Sept. 20. Health officials exclude the most recent three days to ensure data accuracy when calculating the moving average.

The 7-day positivity rate was 4.5% on June 1, 10.2% on July 1, and 15.0% on Aug. 1.

As of Sept. 20, Missouri is reporting 1,762 COVID hospitalizations and a rolling 7-day average of 1,863. The remaining inpatient hospital bed capacity sits at 22% statewide. The state’s public health care metrics lag behind by three days due to reporting delays, especially on weekends. Keep in mind that the state counts all beds available and not just beds that are staffed by medical personnel.

On July 6, the 7-day rolling average for hospitalizations eclipsed the 1,000-person milestone for the first time in four months, with 1,013 patients. The 7-day average for hospitalizations had previously been over 1,000 from Sept. 16, 2020, to March 5, 2021.

On Aug. 5, the average eclipsed 2,000 patients for the first time in more than seven months. It was previously over 2,000 from Nov. 9, 2020, to Jan. 27, 2021.

The 2021 low point on the hospitalization average in Missouri was 655 on May 29.

Across the state, 470 COVID patients are in ICU beds, leaving the state’s remaining intensive care capacity at 18%.

If you have additional questions about the coronavirus, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is available at 877-435-8411.

As of Sept. 22, the CDC identified 42,363,951 cases of COVID-19 and 677,086 deaths across all 50 states and 9 U.S.-affiliated districts, jurisdictions, and affiliated territories, for a national case-fatality rate of 1.6%.

How do COVID deaths compare to other illnesses, like the flu or even the H1N1 pandemics of 1918 and 2009? It’s a common question.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), preliminary data on the 2018-2019 influenza season in the United States shows an estimated 35,520,883 cases and 34,157 deaths; that would mean a case-fatality rate of 0.09 percent. Case-fatality rates on previous seasons are as follows: 0.136 percent (2017-2018), 0.131 percent (2016-2017), 0.096 percent (2015-2016), and 0.17 percent (2014-2015).

The 1918 H1N1 epidemic, commonly referred to as the “Spanish Flu,” is estimated to have infected 29.4 million Americans and claimed 675,000 lives as a result; a case-fatality rate of 2.3 percent. The Spanish Flu claimed greater numbers of young people than typically expected from other influenzas.

Beginning in January 2009, another H1N1 virus—known as the “swine flu”—spread around the globe and was first detected in the US in April of that year. The CDC identified an estimated 60.8 million cases and 12,469 deaths; a 0.021 percent case-fatality rate.

For more information and updates regarding COVID mandates, data, and the vaccine, click here.

A federal arrest warrant has been issued in Wyoming for Brian Laundrie following the death of Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito.

The warrant, issued by the U.S. District Court of Wyoming, following a federal grand jury indictment, is for violation of “Use of Unauthorized Access Devices” related to the suspect’s activities following Petito’s death, according to a U.S. Department of Justice and FBI news release.

Today’s official #FBIDenver statement and the relevant charging documents are attached. pic.twitter.com/KMEIMOuqKH

— FBI Denver (@FBIDenver) September 23, 2021

Only a few days from the start of Nuggets training camp, Michael Porter Jr. isn’t thinking about anything but basketball.

At least that’s what the Nuggets star forward claimed Thursday, as the deadline for an early contract extension inched closer. The Nuggets have until the start of the season to reach a deal with the 23-year-old or he’ll enter next summer as a restricted free agent.

Porter, fresh off a healthy offseason that featured a week-long workout with Warriors sniper Steph Curry, said he’s leaving negotiations up to his agent, Mark Bartelstein.

“It’s a thing that’s on the radar, but, you know, I try to let my agent do his job,” Porter said. “I’m in the loop. I’m talking with my agent, talking with Tim (Connelly), those guys, but for me, it’s God’s time, and when it’s supposed to happen, it’ll happen. I’m not going to try to rush it. All I’m gonna worry about is getting ready, getting geared up for the season.

“… I love basketball,” Porter added. “It’s not too stressful for me about the money stuff. Of course that’s part of it. I’m just trying to stay in the gym and get better.”

Not coincidentally, Porter’s work ethic is one of the primary reasons the team views him as a fixture of their core moving forward. Both Connelly and Nuggets coach Michael Malone have lauded his commitment in the gym and are both bullish on his future.

In just his second real season in the NBA, Porter averaged 19 points per game on 44.5% shooting from the 3-point line. With a timeframe for Jamal Murray’s return still unestablished, Porter will be featured even more heavily in the Nuggets’ offense than last season, when he burst into the starting lineup and became a mainstay there throughout the playoffs.

Still, perhaps due to any number of reasons, talks between the two sides remain fluid.

“Tim and I talk all the time, we have a great relationship,” Bartelstein told The Denver Post. “Michael is completely focused on getting ready for the season and wants to take his game to a completely different level and help the Nuggets win at the highest level. Tim and I will continue to have conversations on our end.”

Among offseason stops that included Missouri, Washington state and Los Angeles, Porter spent extended time with Curry, whom he knew after attending his camps as a high schooler.

Porter and his brother Coban worked out with Curry in what the Nuggets’ forward described as high-intensity shooting workouts.

“Steph’s biggest attribute is how good of shape he’s in,” Porter said. “So we were running around, game-speed shots … Every shooting drill was a competition as well.”

The sessions, which sometimes meant morning and evening workouts, were meant to replicate the type of shots Porter expects to see in games. He also said he was hoping to work with Curry during future offseasons.

But even outside of the Curry visit, Porter was back in the lab rarely taking any days off. He said his focus was on improving his ball-handling, creating off the dribble and refining his separation moves. There’s a good chance that his 13.4 shots per game last season will tick up as the primary ballast to reigning MVP Nikola Jokic.

A Loveland family nurse practitioner faces a fine after failing to comply with a cease-and-desist order instructing him to stop illegally marketing and overstating the effectiveness of alleged COVID-19 cures and treatments.

Siegfried Emme, owner of Loveland Medical Clinic, will pay $20,000 if he complies with a consent judgment filed with the Larimer County District Court on Thursday, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a news release.

“My office will hold accountable those who continue to break the law after they are told to stop — and in so doing continue to place the public at risk,” Weiser said in the release. “Falsely advertising alleged ‘cures’ and providing misleading information about treatments for COVID-19 can cause direct harm to patients and delay them from seeking the care they need.”

It’s officially fall. That means cooler temperatures, warmer drinks, and perfect patio sitting weather. There’s nothing better than sipping a spiced cider or hot chocolate while the sun sets outside. LIV Sotheby’s International Realty represents some of the best homes in Denver with patios that will make you fall in love with autumn all over again.

23870 E Ontario Place

At 23870 E Ontario Place in Aurora, listed by LIV SIR broker Angela Hacker for $850,000, the backyard is more like an outdoor oasis. Set on almost half an acre with beautiful mountain vistas, the home offers plenty of options for enjoying the fresh air all year long. Nothing went overlooked when designing the outdoor space at this residence, from the stone patio with its own gas fire pit and the stone sitting wall for added seating when entertaining, to the ambient landscape lighting carefully selected low maintenance flowers, shrubs, and trees. There’s even a hot tub so soaking and relaxing no matter the season.

48148 Irving Street

For those who refuse to acknowledge that summer has finally come to an end, we have the house for you. 48148 Irving Street, in Denver, is practically made for hosting a barbecue no matter the season. Listed by Connie Kraska for $1,200,000, this home’s backyard and patio offer everything you need to make a day of grilling outdoors. The patio kitchen features a barbecue any grill master would be proud of and plenty of space for savoring your delicious creations amidst the cool breeze. The rest of the back yard is illuminated by the café lights that zig-zag between the covered patio and the detached garage allowing the party to continue even after the sun goes down.

1165 S Grant Street

Who knew a patio could be so cozy? The outdoor living space at 1165 S Grant Street, listed by LIV SIR brokers, Ben and Erin Rule for $950,000, is just as warm and inviting as the inside of this Denver home. In the beautiful, fenced back yard you’ll find a paved patio that has enough room for a dining set, lounge area, grill, and fire pit. The addition of heat lamps makes this area as comfortable as it is cute even as the temperatures drop. Imagine spending a lazy Sunday afternoon out on the patio, soaking in the sun’s rays and reading a book in the tranquility of your own backyard. Now that’s a patio worth falling in love with.

In Teddy Bridgewater’s lone start in Denver in October 2015, the quarterback was sacked seven times in front of a raucous orange crowd as the eventual Super Bowl champion Broncos beat the Vikings by a field goal.

Now, Bridgewater is hoping that same rude reception greets rookie QB Zach Wilson and the Jets on Sunday afternoon. The Broncos’ 2021 home opener will be a sellout, with 76,125 frenzied fans expected to pack Empower Field for the team’s first full-capacity regular-season game since 2019.

“It was loud, and on third downs you just had to buckle down and try to block out the noise,” Bridgewater recalled. “Hopefully, we can make the Jets feel what I felt in 2015.”

The Broncos are double-digit favorites against winless New York, but their home field hasn’t been much of an advantage in recent years. Denver’s 19-21 at home over the past five seasons, a .475 winning percentage tied for fifth-worst in the NFL.

A Denver deputy sheriff was awarded the department’s Medal of Valor on Thursday for defusing a violent incident at the downtown jail in which she was allegedly attacked.

Deputy Ida McComb was recognized by Denver Sheriff Elias Diggins who presented her with the prestigious award at a department ceremony. The medal recognizes deputies “who have exhibited exceptional courage, regardless of personal safety, in the attempt to save or protect others,” according to a sheriff’s news release.

While working in a housing unit at the jail McComb was allegedly attacked by an inmate, the release said. Other inmates separated McComb and the alleged assailant, who they in turn attacked in defense of McComb.

“Deputy McComb quickly gained her composure and began to give commands, ordering individuals away from the inmate she believed attacked her and reestablished control of the housing unit while calling for assistance,” the release said. “Her quick thinking and response redirected a situation that could have spiraled out of control.”