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Missouri voters won’t fall for the ballot initiative power grab

2 years 10 months ago

For over a century, Show-Me-State voters have had the ability to amend the constitution by ballot initiative and simple majority vote. As a conservative, I take pride in the fact that our state’s forefathers had the foresight and humility to provide the people with a mechanism against political tyranny. Today that check is being threatened. […]

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Jamie Corley

Missouri lawmaker works with Humane Society to stop use of gas to kill shelter animals

2 years 10 months ago

Some of Missouri’s animals’ last moments are spent in a gas chamber, suffocating in carbon dioxide – but a bill by Rep. Adam Schwadron, R-St. Charles, would bar shelters from using this type of euthanasia. ā€œHumanely treating our animals in our shelters is something that’s very important for us in the state,ā€ Schwadron said. ā€œAnd […]

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Annelise Hanshaw

Lawsuit seeks to overturn Missouri abortion ban as violation of religious rights

2 years 10 months ago

When Missouri lawmakers put the words ā€œAlmighty God is the author of lifeā€ into the section of law stating the General Assembly’s intent for abortion regulations, they crossed the line separating church and state, a lawsuit filed Thursday in St. Louis charges. Thirteen Christian and Jewish leaders are suing the state and six elected prosecutors […]

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Rudi Keller

Members of Congress sign up for TikTok, despite security concerns

2 years 10 months ago

WASHINGTON — Just like teens, members of Congress are setting up TikTok accounts — even as the popular app is increasingly barred from government devices and heads of federal intelligence agencies raise concerns about data collection and surveillance obtained by a Chinese-owned company.Ā  At least 32 members of Congress — all Democrats, including U.S. Rep. […]

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Ariana Figueroa

Affordable, reliable and sustainable: report compares utility performance

2 years 10 months ago

A nationwide comparison of electric utility performance by an Illinois consumer advocacy group found that customers in states that are heavily reliant on fuel oil and natural gas, as in the Northeast and South, tend to pay more than those with larger amounts of carbon-free generation, among other findings.Ā  The report by the Illinois-based Citizens […]

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Robert Zullo

Missouri Democrats praise Parson’s speech — and four other State of the State takeaways

2 years 10 months ago

Early in his annual State of the State address on Wednesday, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson sang the praises of an income tax cut enacted by the Republican-dominated General Assembly late last year.Ā  Closer to the end of his nearly one-hour speech to a joint session of the legislature, Parson vowed to ā€œsupport and defend our […]

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Jason Hancock

Parson makes I-70 a focus for Missouri budget heavy on infrastructure, education spending

2 years 10 months ago

Gov. Mike Parson wants to spend nearly $1 billion to widen Interstate 70 in congested areas while seeking federal funding to complete the job statewide. In his budget proposal delivered to lawmakers Wednesday, Parson asked for $859 million from the more than $5 billion in surplus general revenue to widen the highway in suburban areas […]

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Rudi Keller

Critical race theory dominates Missouri Senate committee hearing on education bills

2 years 10 months ago

Lawmakers debated critical race theory for two hours Wednesday, as the Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee heard public testimony on a pair of bills that both seek to create a so-called “Parents Bill of Rights.” The two bills would establish a statewide transparency portal for public schools and enshrine parental rights, like a right […]

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Annelise Hanshaw

Missouri lawmakers vow to expand child care access. Governor’s speech may lay out the plan

2 years 10 months ago

A major area of bipartisan agreement among Missouri lawmakers this year is improving access to affordable child care.Ā  And on Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Mike Parson is expected to lay out his vision for addressing what some legislators have framed as a child care crisis in Missouri.Ā  Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, told reporters […]

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Clara Bates

White House defends delay in revealing classified documents at Biden private office, home

2 years 10 months ago

WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday defended sitting on information about Obama administration classified documents found at President Joe Biden’s private residence and a think tank, saying officials are attempting to balance working with the Justice Department and sharing information publicly. ā€œWe understand that there’s a tension between the need to be cooperative with […]

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Jennifer Shutt

Vivek Malek takes office as Missouri Treasurer during ceremony in House chamber

2 years 10 months ago

Vivek Malek began his tenure as Missouri State Treasurer on Tuesday surrounded by hundreds of friends, including some he helped become Americans. Malek, a Republican appointed by Gov. Mike Parson to replace Scott Fitzpatrick, elected state auditor last year, said the turnout that filled the Missouri House chamber to watch him take the oath of […]

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Rudi Keller

Missouri Republicans renew early focus on parental rights, critical race theory

2 years 10 months ago

Parental access to school records – and how history and race are taught in Missouri classrooms – will be among the first topics considered by lawmakers this legislative session. During the Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee’s first meeting Wednesday afternoon, committee members will hear testimony on a pair of bills dubbed the ā€œParents’ Bill […]

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Annelise Hanshaw

Advocates, providers scramble as Missouri’s new homelessness law goes into effect

2 years 10 months ago

Audra Youmans says most people living on the streets of St. Louis have nowhere else to go. As a volunteer and advocate with St. Louis Winter Outreach, she made over 40 calls to the city’s referral service for homeless shelters last year — recording and compiling a video to demonstrate the problem.Ā  “Every single time […]

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Clara Bates

Despite setback for Missouri silica sand mine, the fight isn’t over for neighbors

2 years 10 months ago

Missouri regulators handed a setback to a proposed silica sand mine south of St. Louis earlier this month when they revoked a pivotal permit. But the fight isn’t over for opponents of the mine.Ā  While state regulators denied one permit to NexGen, the would-be owners of the proposed mine, they almost simultaneously granted the company […]

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Allison Kite

On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, no one should settle for ā€˜a piece of freedom’

2 years 10 months ago

Some historians mark the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s murder as the end of the civil rights movement. Over an arc of 14 years — from the 1954 Brown Decision to King’s death in 1968 — the nation attempted to address its racial caste system. The same nation that launched a war on hunger and […]

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Mark McCormick

U.S. House GOP would make it easier for feds to give public lands away to states

2 years 10 months ago

U.S. House Republicans included in the new rules for the chamber they passed this month a provision meant to make it easier for Congress to give away public lands. The provision is a fairly technical piece of the 55-pageĀ rules package. It affects internal House accounting and requires that anytime Congress were to give any federal […]

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Jacob Fischler

U.S. to hit debt limit much sooner than expected, thrusting Congress into showdown

2 years 10 months ago

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government will hit its borrowing limit next week, forcing the new, divided Congress into negotiations over the debt limit much sooner than expected, though a potential date for the nation to default isn’t expected until this summer. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote to Congress on Friday afternoon, telling leaders the United […]

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Jennifer Shutt

Missouri regulators say they’re close to naming marijuana chief equity officer

2 years 10 months ago

The constitutional amendment legalizing recreational marijuana in Missouri won voter approval in November but created a schism among social-justice activists over the question of racial and economic equity.Ā  Some believe the new law will empower minority marijuana business owners, while others worry it will cement an already distrusted, inequitable business licensing system in place. Much […]

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Rebecca Rivas