Construction workers installing solar panels

USDA invests $464 million in renewable energy infrastructure to help rural communities, businesses and ag producers reduce energy costs

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the Department is investing $464 million to build or improve renewable energy infrastructure and help rural communities, agricultural producers, and businesses lower energy costs in 48 states and Puerto Rico. “USDA continues to prioritize climate-smart infrastructure to help rural America build back better, stronger and more […]

Amaren Missouri

“Simply unconscionable”: Advocates push Ameren to keep electric bills low during pandemic

(Missouri Independent) – Ameren Missouri should not increase its electrical rates for its customers as they struggle to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and economic fallout, a coalition of environmental, veterans, and tenants advocates said Wednesday.  The St. Louis-based utility filed with regulators in March seeking a rate increase worth nearly $300 million per year to pay […]

Street View Jefferson City Missouri State Capitol Building

Democrats demand LGBTQ exhibit return to Missouri Capitol or other exhibits be removed

(Missouri Independent) – If an LGBTQ history exhibit was removed from the Missouri Capitol because it didn’t get pre-approval from a specific board, then every exhibit on display that didn’t get approved must also be removed, House Minority Leader Crystal Quade argued in a letter to state officials on Wednesday. That would mean, she said, that […]

Disaster Relief

White House seeks at least $24 billion to aid states struck by natural disasters

(Missouri Independent) –  The White House is urging Congress to approve at least $24 billion — and likely more — for disaster relief costs, saying that the aid should be included in a short-term spending bill expected this month. That tally includes $14 billion for recovery costs related to extreme weather events, including hurricanes, floods, and wildfires during […]

Gavel and Missouri Flag

Judge orders no change – for now – in Missouri’s prisoner health care contractor

(Missouri Independent) – Work to bring a new contractor for prisoner health care services online in Missouri can continue, but the actual transition from Corizon, the current provider, won’t occur until at least early November, Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green ordered Tuesday. Green issued a temporary restraining order blocking the state from canceling its […]

Accident-Crash graphic

Teenager injured in Sunday crash north of Pickering

One person from Hopkins was injured Sunday afternoon in an accident four miles north of Pickering in Nodaway County. Nineteen-year-old Jaiden Hopkins was taken by ambulance to the Mosiac Life Care in Maryville with moderate injuries. She was a passenger in a sports utility vehicle driven by 30-year-old Jacob Morgan of Ravenwood, who wasn’t hurt. […]

18-Wheel truck big rig

Big rig overturns injuring driver from Illinois

On Friday evening, the Highway Patrol reports a Springfield, Illinois man sustained serious injuries when a semi-truck overturned one mile south of Omaha, Missouri. An ambulance took 72-year-old Russell Wake to the Northeast Regional Medical Center of Kirksville. The truck traveled north on Highway 149 before running off the right side of the road, overcorrecting, […]

Drug Trafficking

Two from Missouri plead guilty to meth trafficking

Two Missouri residents have pleaded guilty in federal court to methamphetamine trafficking after they received a large package of methamphetamine shipped from California to distribute locally. Bryan Patton Tullous, 39, of Columbia, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Willie J. Epps, Jr., to participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Co-defendant Cassiopeia Marie Blaise, 36, […]