Coronavirus in Prisons

Missouri Department of Corrections implements technology to cut COVID-19 infection rate within prisons

Implementation of three technological innovations in the Missouri Department of Corrections aims to cut COVID-19 infection rates in Missouri state prisons and other facilities. These strategies: Kill the virus in the air Kill the virus on surfaces Detect the virus in wastewater The department now has ionization generators — air purifying devices that destroy 99.4% […]

School Bus Picking up kids (children)

Audio: Northern Missouri Senator proposes to limit pay for Missouri’s K-12 public school superintendents

State Senator Cindy O’Laughlin of northern Missouri’s Shelbina wants to limit pay for Missouri’s K-12 public school superintendents. Under a bill she has pre-filed, total compensation could not exceed 3.5 times the average total compensation provided to all certified, full-time teachers employed by the district. Missouri has about 551 public and charter schools. The Missouri […]

Network cables (RJ45 ) connected to a switch

Audio: Missouri Senator emphasizes rural broadband during address to Missouri Farm Bureau

Missouri’s senior senator says he’s working to ensure that the Show-Me State is getting a healthy share of federal broadband funding. Republican Roy Blunt addressed Missouri Farm Bureau members during their annual meeting this weekend, saying the Re-Connect program has invested 200-million dollars in Missouri, which is 20 percent of all support nationwide.     […]

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt

Audio: Missouri Attorney General announces settlement with mortgage servicer Nationstar

Missouri’s Attorney General and 50 other attorneys general have reached an 86-million dollar settlement with the nation’s fourth-largest mortgage servicer.     Schmitt says the consent judgment resolves allegations that Nationstar violated consumer protection laws during its servicing of mortgage loans. Schmitt says the agreement will provide 850-thousand dollars in relief, for more than 800 […]

Abortion Law

Audio: Judge says Missouri Secretary of State unconstitutionally delayed group’s effort to overturn abortion law

A Cole County judge says Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft unconstitutionally delayed a group’s effort to overturn an abortion law.     Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetum’s ruling says Ashcroft used an unconstitutional set of laws to delay the collection of referendum signatures attempting to overturn new abortion regulations. The ACLU and another group […]

Marijuana leaf

Audio: Missouri’s U.S. House members vote along party lines to decriminalize marijuana

The Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives has voted largely along party lines in favor of decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level. Missouri’s Democratic members voted in support and Republicans voted against the plan. GOP Congresswoman Ann Wagner did not vote on the measure. The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or MORE Act, would remove […]

Medical Marijuana

Medical marijuana subpoena may have been connected to Independence, Missouri FBI probe

(Missouri Independent) – The head of Missouri’s medical marijuana program testified under oath that a grand jury subpoena his agency received late last year was likely connected to an FBI investigation in Independence.  The revelation by Lyndall Fraker, director of medical marijuana regulation at the Missouri Department of Health and Seniors Services, is the first […]

Healthcare Graphic

Audio: Missouri prepares to launch new program to help rural hospitals with covid struggles

On Tuesday, Missouri is launching a program focused on helping rural hospitals with their problems of limited staffing, bed capacity, and equipment during the pandemic. In southwest Missouri’s Appleton City, many low-income families are waiting for care. Jamie O’Farrell tells Springfield television station KOLR she treats patients at Ellett Memorial Hospital’s clinic.     Through […]

Doctor with Stethascope

Audio: New data shows 57% of Missouri K-12 students have access to school-based healthcare

New statewide data says 57% of Missouri’s more than 900,0000 K-12 public school students have access to at least one school-based health care service. The Show-Me School-Based Health Alliance of Missouri conducted the report about services in schools like mental and behavioral support, physical health services, primary care, telehealth, to oral and vision care. Rachel […]

School Funding

Audio: $76 Million in to be deployed to Missouri’s K-12 schools, once Governor signs supplemental budget

About $76 million in federal money will be heading to Missouri’s k-12 schools, once Governor Mike Parson signs the supplemental budget bill. House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith, R-Carthage, says the $1.27 billion supplemental budget includes $75.6 million for school nutrition services.     “i.e., paying for meals in k-12 education,” Smith says. “So this […]

Audio: All healthcare, long-term care residents and staff in Missouri should begin receiving vaccinations this month

Missouri’s state health department chief says the state should be able to begin vaccinating this month all hospital and long-term care staff and residents against COVID-19.     Dr. Randall Williams says the state is expected to get enough doses this month to begin vaccinating all of Missouri’s roughly 340,000 healthcare workers and long-term care […]

Richard Davis via Mo Department of Corrections

Audio: Convicted Missouri killer Richard Davis, once subject of massive national manhunt, dies in hospital

A high-profile Missouri prisoner who was waiting for an execution date has died, from apparent natural causes.     The Missouri Department of Corrections says 56-year-old Richard Davis died of natural causes this week, at a hospital. Davis was sentenced to death in 2007 for the separate gruesome killings of Marsha Spicer and Michelle Huff […]