{"id":3575,"date":"2025-08-06T09:56:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T14:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T09:56:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T14:56:43","slug":"missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri agency seeks dismissal of lawsuit alleging it punished a whistleblower\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

The Cole County Courthouse in downtown Jefferson City (Annelise Hanshaw\/Missouri Independent).<\/p>\n

The Missouri attorney general\u2019s office is asking a Cole County judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging a state agency violated competitive bidding laws to steer lucrative technology contracts to a well-connected company.<\/span><\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed in May by a longtime state employee named Rodney Rice, alleges \u201c<\/span>deliberate bias<\/span><\/a>\u201d toward St. Louis-based World Wide Technology in awarding state IT contracts.<\/span><\/p>\n

World Wide Technology is one of the largest privately-held companies in the country. It was founded by David Steward, a prolific Missouri political donor who has contributed $2.3 million to mostly Republican campaigns over the last decade.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The company has been paid $53 million by the state over the last two years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Missouri agency accused of illegally steering contracts to well-connected company<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The state gave World Wide Technology numerous unfair advantages over its competitors, Rice alleges in his lawsuit, violating state procurement law and exposing the state to potential liability if anyone found out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When he brought his concerns to his supervisors, Rice alleges he was admonished for being an \u201cobstructionist\u201d and demoted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both World Wide Technology and the Office of Administration, which handles contracting for state government, deny the accusations<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a <\/span>motion filed last week<\/span><\/a>, Assistant Attorney General Justin Mettlen argues that the allegations made by Rice do not violate any law, rule or regulation. Any alleged \u201cmismanagement,\u201d Mettlen contends, merely represents a disagreement between Rice and his supervisor\u2019s decision making in procurement and awarding state contracts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing that Rice allegedly reported to his supervisors, Mettlen writes, can be considered \u201cprohibited activity.\u201d Thus, he should not be considered a whistleblower.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiff\u2019s acknowledgement that the law allows (the Office of Administration) discretion in making contracts short circuits his allegations that he reported actual unlawful conduct,\u201d Mettlen writes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rice says in his lawsuit that he began to suspect bias toward World Wide Technology in state IT contracts after realizing one of the company\u2019s former employees was leading the State Data Center.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

World Wide Technology won \u201ca majority of the state\u2019s \u2018infrastructure\u2019 contracts even in cases where it did not submit the lowest bid,\u201d Rice alleges. \u201cIn fact, (the company) had been awarded one contract even though it had submitted the highest bid, which was millions of dollars more than the bids from other approved vendors.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Though Missouri has rules permitting the selection of \u201cclearly inferior bids,\u201d the lawsuit states,\u00a0 \u201cnone of those rules had been followed in the case of (World Wide Technology).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rice says his concerns were heightened when he learned the state provided a current employee of World Wide Technology key card access to an office in the Truman State Office Building in Jefferson City, a privilege he says no other vendors are provided.<\/span><\/p>\n

He later learned the state was using World Wide Technology contractors to work on the preparation of a new project that had not yet been put out to bid, \u201cwhich would give (World Wide Technology) an unfair advantage in the bidding process.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In early 2024, Rice alleges, \u200b\u200bWorld Wide Technology was allowed to change the terms of a project after it had already been sent out to vendors for competitive bids. World Wide Technology would be paid for time and materials, the lawsuit states, regardless of whether it met benchmarks laid out in the project proposal that was previously provided to its competitors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Concerned that awarding the contract to World Wide Technology based on \u201cfar more favorable terms\u201d would likely violate state law, Rice says he spoke to the Office of Administration\u2019s legal department for advice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He says he was advised by the agency\u2019s attorneys to stop the entire bid process and reissue a revised request to ensure that all vendors had a fair chance at winning the bid.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that was later overruled by his supervisor, who Rice alleges told him to let the bid process proceed unabated without notice to the other vendors. Soon after, Rice says he was given the choice of demotion or being placed on a performance improvement plan, which he understood would have led to his dismissal \u201cafter sufficient time to paper his file.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Calling the decision a \u201cHobson choice,\u201d Rice says he \u201caccepted\u201d a demotion and a pay cut on April 16, 2024.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cole County Courthouse in downtown Jefferson City (Annelise Hanshaw\/Missouri Independent). The Missouri attorney general\u2019s office is asking a Cole County judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging a state agency violated competitive bidding laws to steer lucrative technology contracts to a well-connected company. The lawsuit, filed in May by a longtime state employee named Rodney…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMissouri agency seeks dismissal of lawsuit alleging it punished a whistleblower\u00a0 - WestplexNews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Missouri agency seeks dismissal of lawsuit alleging it punished a whistleblower\u00a0 - WestplexNews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Cole County Courthouse in downtown Jefferson City (Annelise Hanshaw\/Missouri Independent). The Missouri attorney general\u2019s office is asking a Cole County judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging a state agency violated competitive bidding laws to steer lucrative technology contracts to a well-connected company. The lawsuit, filed in May by a longtime state employee named Rodney...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WestplexNews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-06T14:56:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_6614-scaled-e1724428392275-1024x614.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brad Hildebrand\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brad Hildebrand\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brad Hildebrand\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/86ac6e2a917ca881b22f6d55d1b955f0\"},\"headline\":\"Missouri agency seeks dismissal of lawsuit alleging it punished a whistleblower\u00a0\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-06T14:56:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":720,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_6614-scaled-e1724428392275-1024x614-10LVwE.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/\",\"name\":\"Missouri agency seeks dismissal of lawsuit alleging it punished a whistleblower\u00a0 - WestplexNews.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_6614-scaled-e1724428392275-1024x614-10LVwE.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-06T14:56:43+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_6614-scaled-e1724428392275-1024x614-10LVwE.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_6614-scaled-e1724428392275-1024x614-10LVwE.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":614},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Missouri agency seeks dismissal of lawsuit alleging it punished a whistleblower\u00a0\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/\",\"name\":\"WestplexNews.com\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"WestplexNews.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/cropped-Westplex-News-MASTER-PNG-CLEAR-CROP-690-X-242.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/cropped-Westplex-News-MASTER-PNG-CLEAR-CROP-690-X-242.png\",\"width\":690,\"height\":242,\"caption\":\"WestplexNews.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/86ac6e2a917ca881b22f6d55d1b955f0\",\"name\":\"Brad Hildebrand\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc2f8931c569b15114c958f40a15bda5a2ae504b7f31d3ecf1c2227aa19e0071?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc2f8931c569b15114c958f40a15bda5a2ae504b7f31d3ecf1c2227aa19e0071?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Brad Hildebrand\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/Westplexnews.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/author\/bradh\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Missouri agency seeks dismissal of lawsuit alleging it punished a whistleblower\u00a0 - WestplexNews.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Missouri agency seeks dismissal of lawsuit alleging it punished a whistleblower\u00a0 - WestplexNews.com","og_description":"The Cole County Courthouse in downtown Jefferson City (Annelise Hanshaw\/Missouri Independent). The Missouri attorney general\u2019s office is asking a Cole County judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging a state agency violated competitive bidding laws to steer lucrative technology contracts to a well-connected company. The lawsuit, filed in May by a longtime state employee named Rodney...","og_url":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/","og_site_name":"WestplexNews.com","article_published_time":"2025-08-06T14:56:43+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_6614-scaled-e1724428392275-1024x614.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Brad Hildebrand","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brad Hildebrand","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/"},"author":{"name":"Brad Hildebrand","@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/86ac6e2a917ca881b22f6d55d1b955f0"},"headline":"Missouri agency seeks dismissal of lawsuit alleging it punished a whistleblower\u00a0","datePublished":"2025-08-06T14:56:43+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/"},"wordCount":720,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_6614-scaled-e1724428392275-1024x614-10LVwE.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/","url":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/","name":"Missouri agency seeks dismissal of lawsuit alleging it punished a whistleblower\u00a0 - WestplexNews.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_6614-scaled-e1724428392275-1024x614-10LVwE.jpg","datePublished":"2025-08-06T14:56:43+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_6614-scaled-e1724428392275-1024x614-10LVwE.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_6614-scaled-e1724428392275-1024x614-10LVwE.jpg","width":1024,"height":614},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/missouri-agency-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-alleging-it-punished-a-whistleblower-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Missouri agency seeks dismissal of lawsuit alleging it punished a whistleblower\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/","name":"WestplexNews.com","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#organization","name":"WestplexNews.com","url":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/cropped-Westplex-News-MASTER-PNG-CLEAR-CROP-690-X-242.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/cropped-Westplex-News-MASTER-PNG-CLEAR-CROP-690-X-242.png","width":690,"height":242,"caption":"WestplexNews.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/86ac6e2a917ca881b22f6d55d1b955f0","name":"Brad Hildebrand","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc2f8931c569b15114c958f40a15bda5a2ae504b7f31d3ecf1c2227aa19e0071?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc2f8931c569b15114c958f40a15bda5a2ae504b7f31d3ecf1c2227aa19e0071?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Brad Hildebrand"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/Westplexnews.com"],"url":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/author\/bradh\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}