Tagged: chris koster

The Missouri Attorney General’s office is warning the public of a new scam that’s targeting smartphone and cellphone users.

The scam is known as "smishing," and it involves text messages telling recipients that they’ve won prizes or gift cards from big-name retailers such as Wal-Mart or Costco and instructs them to claim them by clicking on a link.  Attorney General Chris Koster (D) says clicking the link will infect phones with malware that gives identity thieves access to personal information.

An annual report released Friday by the attorney general found black drivers were 72 percent more likely than white motorists to be pulled over in 2011. Black drivers were stopped 2.5 times more often than Hispanic drivers.

The report compares racial characteristics of Missouri's driving-age population to the racial composition of drivers in the roughly 1.7 million traffic stops, 129,000 searches and 81,000 arrests.

Regional news coverage from the KBIA newsroom, including:

• A wrap of of the legislators' final actions of the 2012 Missouri legislative session
• Attorney General Chris Koster puts pressure on the MO Supreme Court to schedule executions

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is urging the State Supreme Court to set execution dates for 19 death sentences. Koster says no legal barrier is barring the high court from moving forward with the executions. 

Koster says 10 cases of capital punishment have already been awaiting execution dates for over 3 years. He gave the court an additional 9 names today and says there is no legal ground for delaying punishment.

Regional news coverage from the KBIA Newsroom, including:

• Pretrial motions end in the Ryan Ferguson case.
• The Missouri House passes a bill to change the state's workers' comp system.
• Some state senators balk at changing gubernatorial election rules.