Where does Missouri get the drugs it uses to execute prisoners? The supplier is a secret
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the first time since 2015, Missouri has returned to executing multiple people on death row per year — two in 2022 and two scheduled so far for 2023 — but details about the process remain shrouded in secrecy.
Nineteen prisoners have capital sentences, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections. The Missouri Supreme Court has issued death warrants for two of them: Amber McLaughlin is scheduled to die Jan. 3 and Leonard Taylor’s execution date is Feb. 7.
The state of Missouri uses pentobarbital, a drug commonly used in animal euthanasia. Public records show the state spends at least $20,500 on the drugs used for each execution.
But it’s unclear where Missouri is obtaining pentobarbital. Most pharmaceutical companies have stopped supplying chemicals for use in executions, citing ethical concerns. As supply issues have increased, states have resorted to illegally importing drugs and trading drugs with other states, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). Some, including Missouri, have turned to compounding pharmacies, which formulate drugs not available at commercial pharmacies.
—The Kansas City Star
Thousands of public EV chargers are coming to California highways — eventually
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s electric car push is revving up in 2023, as state agencies plan to deploy some 90,000 public charging stations along highways and in vulnerable communities to encourage households, businesses and public agencies to ditch gas-powered vehicles.
The plan for clean vehicle infrastructure is undergirded by more than $3 billion in state and federal funding meant to lay the groundwork for widespread adoption of zero-emissions vehicles in the state. Chargers are planned to start operating in 2025.
While the infrastructure build-out falls short of the state’s ambitious goal to install 250,000 EV chargers by 2025, it promises to help more households, businesses and public agencies go electric in the coming years. State agencies estimate the need for 1.2 million chargers in 2030.
“This transformative investment will deploy charging and refueling infrastructure swiftly and equitably to make sure drivers of zero-emission cars and trucks feel confident they can refuel wherever they go,” said lead transportation commissioner Patty Monahan at the California Energy Commission (CEC).
—The Sacramento Bee
Manatee die-off season looms as trial of feeding them lettuce begins again
When the state’s wildlife department flung the first handful of lettuce to a starving manatee in the Indian River a year ago, it was an act of desperation driven by a catastrophic die-off and violating an environmental golden rule that animal behavior should not be messed with that way.
A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission cop might jail an ordinary citizen for such an offense.
The stated goal of providing Florida-grown lettuce to wild manatees was to prevent a repeat of the grim pace of mortalities during the winter of 2020-21 and to dial back the number of animals that had declined to bleeding, listing, emaciated and organ-failing hulks in need of rescue by private zoos, aquariums and theme parks.
Did the unprecedented provisioning of lettuce for much of last winter at a Florida Power & Light Co. electric plant at the Indian River in Brevard County make any difference? The state wildlife department’s gut answer is most likely. But its biologists say they don’t have the science to sort out the intertwined mysteries of manatees’ incredible toughness and the Indian River’s lethal ecology to quantify a difference.
—Orlando Sentinel
Putin, Xi hail ties as Russia struggles with war in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed deepening ties between their countries in talks Friday, despite signs of Beijing’s impatience over the wider political and economic impact of Russia’s struggling invasion of Ukraine.
Russia-China ties are the “best in history” and their strategic partnership is a “stabilizing factor” amid rising geopolitical tensions, the Russian president said in the video call. Russia would seek to strengthen military cooperation with China, he said.
Xi thanked Putin for sending a message of congratulations after a congress of China’s ruling Communist Party in October that handed him a precedent-defying third term in power. China stood ready to expand the “strategic partnership,” Xi said.
Their end-of-year call, the first talks since Xi and Putin met in person in Uzbekistan in September, underscores Moscow’s deepening dependence on Beijing. Putin called Xi “dear friend” during a portion of the meeting that was televised, and the Chinese leader responded similarly.
—Bloomberg News
