A Missouri Republican congressman and a Democratic state legislator with overlapping districts are engaged in a social media battle over a staff visit to the state Capitol Building this week. State Rep. David Tyson Smith, a Columbia Democrat, hit first, accusing U.S. Rep. Mark Alford, a Raymore Republican, of sending three staff members to his […]
Issues that have long been plaguing Missouri’s child welfare system were the focus of hours-long debates in the state Senate this week, as lawmakers approved a sprawling bill aimed at helping the state’s most vulnerable children.
A quip is a witty remark that brings a chuckle. Another kind of CWIP, however, is an extra charge on utility bills that critics say is nothing to laugh about. The acronym stands for Construction Work in Progress, and it means allowing companies to put a charge to build a new generation plant on customer […]
NEW MADRID — At the New Madrid Historical Museum there’s an earthquake simulator where visitors get to play engineer. At their disposal are cylindrical wooden sticks and rectangular boards that can be constructed into simple buildings. A numbered dial is then turned, which causes the platform to shake, simulating earthquakes of varying intensity. Most basic […]
Missouri is failing its citizens. In most states, if someone is convicted of a crime they did not commit, they have a legal path to prove their innocence. Missouri, however, is one of the few states where that path does not exist unless the person is on death row. That means if someone has rock-solid […]
A proposed constitutional amendment reinstating Missouri’s abortion ban cleared a Senate committee Wednesday after a GOP lawmaker who opposes the inclusion of rape and incest exceptions asked to be removed from the panel to avoid sinking the bill’s chances. Sponsored by state Sen. Adam Schnelting, a Republican from St Charles, the proposed amendment would ban […]
A bill backed by the hemp industry that would impose age restrictions on their products was resoundingly rejected Tuesday evening by a Missouri House committee after product safety requirements were removed. The bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Ben Baker of Neosho, would place an age restriction on the purchase of intoxicating hemp products, such […]
Since late 2021, a market pay plan designed to combat high turnover in the Department of Transportation has been tied up in court over the question of whether lawmakers or the Highways and Transportation Commission has final say over how state road funds are spent. The final answer, delivered Tuesday by the Missouri Supreme Court, […]
A Republican push to bar transgender Missourians from changing the sex on their birth certificates was briefly debated Wednesday morning by a state Senate committee. The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Sen. Mike Cierpiot of Lee’s Summit, said birth certificates reflect “facts on the day you were born” and should be unchangeable except in cases of […]
Members of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus criticized the state budget and Gov. Mike Kehoe’s executive order to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs in a news conference Tuesday. State Rep. Michael Johnson, a Kansas City Democrat and the caucus chair, focused his comments on Kehoe’s elimination of DEI efforts. The caucus had released a […]
Missouri legislators are once again pushing what they refer to as “Born Alive Survivors Act,” a bill that feeds off myths and miseducation about abortion in order to punish people navigating a tragic fetal diagnosis. It targets a specific circumstance in a pregnancy involving the diagnosis of a fetus as “incompatible with life” — three […]
The Missouri Senate Education Committee discussed legislation Tuesday seeking to ban materials deemed explicit from digital libraries and hold library boards responsible for the content made available to minors. State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, an Arnold Republican, filed legislation applying safety measures to “digital library catalogs” after hearing about explicit material available on a state-subsidized […]
A Missouri Senate committee heard testimony once again on Monday about raising the bar on the process for passing initiative petitions. Initiatives petitions are measures proposed by citizens that appear on the ballot after an appropriate number of signatures are collected from voters. Republican senators led last year’s unsuccessful push to change the initiative petition […]
The Senate Committee on Government Efficiency heard a bill Monday that would ban state funding for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Sponsored by state Rep. Ben Baker, a Republican from Neosho, the bill would also bar state departments from mandating a DEI program in contracts with private organizations. “The bottom line is we as a […]
COLUMBIA — The doors of the only Planned Parenthood clinic in mid-Missouri opened up on Monday morning just like they have since 1970. But for the first time since 2018, pregnant women from central Missouri received an abortion at their local clinic instead of traveling across state lines. By 10 a.m., the first two patients […]
A bill targeting foreign-manufactured drones drew opposition Monday from Missouri law enforcement officials and public utility representatives. State Sen. Rick Brattin, a Republican from Harrisonville, said the crux of his legislation is to ban future purchases of Chinese drones by law enforcement. Concerns he cited in the Senate Committee on Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety […]
A Missouri House budget subcommittee slashed more than $300 million from agency budgets Monday, which the chairman said is intended to align spending authority with actual spending. Another budget subcommittee, also meeting Monday, cut $59.5 million more in general revenue from several agencies, earmarking the money instead for local projects that include several that were […]
More states are loosening vaccine mandates, scaling back vaccine promotion efforts and taking other steps likely to lower vaccination rates — even as a major measles outbreak spreads in Texas. Meanwhile, public health experts worry that the confirmation of vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human […]
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