(Missouri Independent) – Missouri’s largest electric utility believes a bill aimed at reducing competition and giving monopoly providers an advantage in building transmission lines will avoid cost overruns and deliver better results for customers. In its home state, where it stands to benefit, Ameren Missouri has offered its full-throated support to legislation aimed at giving the company […]
(Missouri Independent) – Missouri’s Senate returned from its spring break Monday with Democrats resuming their filibuster of a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender children. The Senate reconvened to debate legislation sponsored by Sen. Holly Thompson-Rehder, R-Sikeston, that began as a ban on transgender girls participating in school sports but was expanded to include prohibitions […]
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced that his office is issuing an emergency regulation clarifying that, because gender transition interventions are experimental, they are covered by existing Missouri law governing unfair, deceptive, and unconscionable business practices, including in administering healthcare services. The regulation is necessary due to the skyrocketing number of gender transition interventions, despite […]
The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that Cameron Melton Malone, 30, of Sikeston, Missouri, was sentenced Monday to serve a total aggregate sentence of 125 months (10.4 years) in federal prison for the offenses of felon in possession of a firearm and possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Malone appeared for his sentencing hearing before U.S. […]
A former Missouri state employee on Monday admitted abusing her position to send $140,500 in unearned unemployment benefits to friends, relatives, and others. Vicky Hefner, 63, of Jefferson County, Missouri, was working for the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Division of Employment Security as a benefit program specialist at the time of the crimes, […]
A woman from Missouri was sentenced Monday to a year in federal prison for engaging in a scheme to deposit tens of thousands of dollars worth of counterfeit checks created with information from stolen U.S. mail. U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig also ordered Tyra G. Robinson, 21, of Hillsdale, in St. Louis County, to […]
(Missouri Independent) – Lawmakers return to the Missouri Capitol Monday to kick off the second half of the 2023 legislative session with a laundry list of priorities and a constitutional deadline to get them done. Legalizing sports betting, changing the initiative petition process, education policy shifts, tax cuts, banning foreign land ownership, expanding postpartum health […]
(Missouri Independent) – A software company that successfully sued the state and was awarded $23 million last year has filed a new lawsuit against Missouri’s Department of Social Services, alleging the agency “knowingly and purposefully” violated open records law. According to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Cole County, Florida-based HHS Technology submitted a request for records to the social […]
Overseas markets could be harming forests in the U.S. Demand for wood pellets for biomass energy has increased dramatically around the world, especially in Europe where burning wood is treated as renewable energy and heavily subsidized. The UK-based company Drax Group plans to build a 450,000-ton-per-year wood pellet plant in Longview. Peter Riggs, director of […]
A new report looking at access to primary-care doctors found nearly 2 million Missourians are medically disenfranchised. The report from the National Association of Community Health Centers and the American Academy of Family Physicians looked at medically underserved and disenfranchised populations across the country. Study authors estimated more than 100 million Americans lack access to a primary-care […]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency directed Ameren to submit a draft Focused Feasibility Study to the Agency by June 30, 2023. EPA required Ameren to conduct additional work in February, after field work conducted by EPA in January identified Ameren’s Huster Road Substation as a source of the new contamination in the Elm Point Wellfield […]
Northwest Missouri State University’s Board of Regents during its regular session Thursday approved rates for the institution’s 2023-24 academic year, including tuition and fees, room and board rates, and supplemental fees that support the University’s continued emphasis on accessibility and affordability. The rate increases approved by the Board align with the consumer price index (CPI) […]
(Missourinet) – Law enforcement agencies are cautioning residents to not drink and drive. Anthony Morabith reports Today is St. Patrick’s Day, a day typically associated with having a drink (or three). The Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop B based out of Macon in Northeast Missouri will be conducting blanket patrols this evening. The […]
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced that his office obtained a consent judgment in a case against the business owner of Puppy Love Kennel, Corey Mincey, for violating Missouri’s standards for licensed commercial dog breeders. “As Attorney General, I will enforce the law as written, which includes holding accountable those who continue to violate state […]
A man from St. Louis pleaded guilty Thursday to five federal felonies and admitted harassing and threatening to rape five women. Robert D. Merkle, 54, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to all the counts he was facing: two counts of interstate communication of threats and three counts of cyberstalking. He admitted […]
United States District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr., sentenced Keith Lamar Dunlap to 15 years in federal prison for robbing the Citizens Bank of Sikeston on October 30, 2020. Dunlap, now 56, was also sentenced to serve a consecutive term of 12 months in federal prison for violating his supervised release in a 2013 […]
The former operator of a Kansas City, Missouri pawn shop pleaded guilty in federal court to engaging in a $3 million scheme to fence more than 100,000 stolen items and sell them on eBay. Frank J. Santa Maria, 58, of Leawood, Kansas, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District […]
Members of the Missouri State Highway Patrol arrested the following individuals after a special investigation by criminal investigators within its Division of Drug and Crime Control. All subjects are considered innocent until proven guilty. Jeffery L. Burkett, 46, of Des Arc, MO, has been charged with the following: Participating knowingly in criminal street gang activities […]
(Missouri Independent) – A few cities and towns around the U.S. are letting noncitizens vote in local elections, and more could follow. In response, Republicans see a chance to turn opposition to noncitizen voting into a national rallying cry. On March 14, Washington, D.C., became the latest city to approve noncitizen voting, when a bill […]
(Missouri Independent) – Republican South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson introduced a bill Tuesday aimed at expanding work requirements for federal nutrition aid, reigniting a perennial conflict over how Congress navigates both the farm bill and federal spending. “Work is the best pathway out of poverty,” Johnson, who in his home state has talked about growing […]
