MSHP Questioned Over New Plane

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – The Missouri House Budget Committee is demanding answers from the Highway Patrol superintendent over the agency’s purchase of a new $5.6 million airplane.Lawmakers are questioning the need for the plane and whether its purchase was politically motivated.Col. Ronald Replogle testified at a hearing Wednesday that the plane was purchased to help the patrol in its homicide and drug investigations. He said other state officials, including Gov. Jay Nixon, use the patrol’s current passenger plane 70 percent of the time.The patrol purchased a King Air 250 plane in December. House members are asking Replogle for the plane’s flight logs and communications between the patrol and the governor’s office over the plane’s purchase.