Power Outage News Graphic

Fuel shortages drove February blackouts, Southwest Power Pool investigators find

(Missouri Independent) –  Rolling outages that left thousands without power in February were driven overwhelmingly by fuel shortages — especially in natural gas, executives with the Southwest Power Pool said Monday. This winter sustained frigid temperatures across the Midwest and South forced huge demand for energy while the weather made generators struggle to keep up. The Southwest Power […]

Missouri State Fair 2021

Audio: Events at Missouri State Fair planned around bicentennial celebration with $9 million in renovations

The theme for this year’s Missouri State Fair is “Our Missouri Celebration.” State Fair Director Mark Wolfe says the theme is tied to the state’s bicentennial celebration, which is what the events at the fair are planned around.     August 10 is the actual 200th anniversary of Missouri entering the United States. Missouri State Fair Director […]

Medicaid Expansion in Missouri

Missouri Supreme Court rules voter-approved Medicaid expansion is constitutional

(Missouri Independent) – Missouri must expand Medicaid to 275,000 eligible people who were expecting coverage under a constitutional amendment that took effect July 1, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Thursday. In a unanimous opinion, the court overturned a trial court ruling that the amendment, passed in August 2020 was unconstitutional because it may increase the state’s cost for […]

Drug distributors Johnson and Johnson reach settlement in opioid case with state of Missouri

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt today announced that his office has received a term sheet from Johnson and Johnson and multiple distributors (McKesson, Amerisource Bergen, and Cardinal Health), setting the stage for the largest victim-centric settlements the State of Missouri has ever seen and tentatively securing roughly just over half a billion dollars of funding […]

Grundy Electric Foundation

GEC Community Foundation awards over $7,500 in grants

The Trustees of the GEC Community Foundation, Inc. met on July 14, 2021, and awarded 11 grants totaling $7,522. All grants are funded by member donations called Operation Round Up, where members voluntarily round up their utility bills each month to fund grants to eligible entities. Education grants were awarded to Princeton R-V School District, […]

Coronavirus Concerns

Adair County becomes “COVID-19 Hotspot” according to Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry have created COVID-19 Hotspot Advisories in light of the rapidly rising case counts in north-central and southwest Missouri, including Adair County which confirmed another 11 cases bringing their case count to 2670. The Hotspot Advisories are designed to keep […]

Ricky Smith and Dewey Bedsaul Booking Photo

Patrol arrests two on DWI and drug-related allegations

Highway Patrol troopers working in Daviess County have made separate arrests this week of two drivers for alleged alcohol consumption and drug usage. Sixty-year-old Savannah resident Ricky L. Smith was arrested Wednesday evening and accused of felony driving while intoxicated as well as possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. He’s also accused of failure to […]

Quail standing on a log

Blunt sponsors bipartisan senate effort to protect wildlife

U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Martin Heinrich (N.M.) introduced the bipartisan Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA) of 2021 to invest in proactive, on-the-ground conservation work led by states, territories, and Tribal nations to support the long-term health of fish and wildlife habitat all across America. “Missouri is home to some of the best hunting, […]