By Frank Morris
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-586246.mp3
Kansas City, MO – Attention focused on Missouri this week in the Justice Department scandal over the firing of US attorneys. Former US Attorney for Western Missouri Todd Graves and Thomas Heffelfinger in Minnesota may have been the first federal prosecutors purged last year. McClatchy newspaper reporters, sighting unnamed senior congressional aides, write that both men appeared on a hit list in a memo written by the Attorney General's then chief of staff Kyle Sampson in January 2006. Both quit shortly thereafter, and both were quickly replaced by young lawyers viewed as intensely loyal to President Bush. KCUR's Frank Morris reports that here in Missouri, Democrats speculate the move may have been an attempt to influence the hotly contested senate race last year.