(Missouri Independent) – Help may be coming for Missouri homeowners behind on their mortgage payments because of COVID-19 income losses. The Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday added $150 million in federal mortgage assistance funds to the supplemental spending bill for the current fiscal year, one of several new sections using money from pandemic relief bills passed by Congress […]
Tag: big
Grain Belt transmission line forges ahead amid landowner, lawmaker pushback
(Missouri Independent) – On the heels of a historic cold snap that left thousands across the Midwest without power, Kansas and Missouri residents could soon reap the benefits of a massive high-powered transmission line delivering renewable energy. Grain Belt Express, a project a decade in the making, is starting to acquire land along its route spanning […]
Hawley introduces the “Bust Up Big Tech” act
Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced the Bust Up Big Tech Act, new legislation to restore accountability and competition to Big Tech. Senator Hawley’s bill would break up Big Tech companies seeking to dominate multiple industries simultaneously, by banning companies like Amazon from marketing their own retail goods alongside those of other sellers or providing online hosting or cloud services to an ever-growing swath of the internet—including competitors. The […]
Lawmakers reintroduce legislation to ban TikTok from government devices
Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) reintroduced his legislation to ban all federal employees from using TikTok on government devices. Despite reports that TikTok is a unique threat to data security, the Biden administration shelved plans by the Trump administration to force a sale of TikTok’s American operations. Text of the legislation, cosponsored by Senators Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and […]
MoDOT planned road work in north Missouri for the week of April 19, 2021
The following is a list of general highway maintenance and construction work the Missouri Department of Transportation has planned in North Missouri for the week of April 19 – 25. All road closures and planned roadwork may be viewed on the Traveler Information Map at http://traveler.modot.org/map/. Inclement weather may cause schedule changes in some of […]
Missouri open enrollment bill sparks debate over segregation, consolidation
(Missouri Independent) – As bills expanding charter schools and creating new scholarship accounts for private school tuition make their way through the process, one piece of legislation is trying to give students more options within the public schools that already exist. House Bill 543, sponsored by Rep. Brad Pollitt, R-Sedalia, would establish the “Public School […]
Audio: United Hog Systems withdraws permit application to build CAFO in Livingston County
United Hog Systems, LLC has withdrawn its permit application to build a concentrated animal feeding operation in northern Livingston County. Presiding Commissioner Ed Douglas says the Livingston County Commission got word April 14th from the Department of Natural Resources. Douglas explains United Hog originally applied for a CAFO in February 2020 but withdrew that application. […]
Video: Lawmakers introduce bill to subject Major League Baseball to antitrust Laws
U.S. Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) have introduced a bill to remove the antitrust exemption that has been in place for Major League Baseball to subject them to existing law. Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), with over 20 cosponsors, has produced companion legislation in the House. “MLB […]
Ducks Unlimited partners improve nearly 2,000 acres in Missouri for water quality and wildlife habitat
Ducks Unlimited and numerous partners invested more than $575,000 to protect, enhance or restore 1,926 acres of wetland and grassland habitat in Missouri in 2020, greatly improving water quality and wildlife habitat. The milestones in 2020 were achieved with field staff taking extra precautions and using creative solutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The acres […]
Senator Hawley introduces the “Trust-Busting for the Twenty-First Century Act”
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced the Trust-Busting for the Twenty-First Century Act, new legislation to take back control from big business and return it to the American people. Senator Hawley’s bill will crack down on mergers and acquisitions by mega-corporations and strengthen antitrust enforcement to pursue the breakup of dominant, anticompetitive firms. Senator Hawley […]
Bill would add $1 billion to Missouri spending, revise Medicaid payment system
(Missouri Independent) – The biggest item in a $1 billion supplemental spending bill would set aside money for a new method of making Medicaid payments, but exactly how it would work or how much it would cost is unknown. The House Budget Committee on Tuesday held a public hearing on the bill that would also […]
Election results in northern Missouri for the Tuesday, April 6, 2021 election
There will be two new members each for the Trenton R-9 Board of Education and the Trenton City Council following the election on Tuesday. Voter approval was given to the local use tax for the city of Trenton and brush control for Grundy County. It was a 17% voter turnout (992 votes out of 5,859 […]
Missouri State Fair awards scholarships to 4-H and FFA youth
Missouri State Fair Director Mark Wolfe announced today that 40 youth, selected from Missouri 4-H and FFA State Fair exhibitors, will be awarded scholarships by the Missouri State Fair and the Youth in Agriculture (YIA) committee. These students are seeking higher education at a Missouri university/college. “Cultivating Missouri agriculture youth is at the core of […]
Audio: Missouri House signs off on budget to include bigger pay raise for some corrections jobs
The Missouri House has passed a 34-point-one billion-dollar state operating budget that includes a big pay raise for some hard-to-fill Department of Corrections jobs. On top of the requested two-percent salary boost for all state workers, some Corrections food service workers, officers, sergeants, and lieutenants would get anywhere from a nearly six percent to an […]
Holding Medicaid hostage over birth control defies law and reason
(Missouri Independent) – While playing politics with healthcare in Missouri is certainly nothing new, holding Missouri Medicaid hostage over basic birth control is a stunning — and consequential — shift. As captured in headlines across the state, state Sen. Paul Wieland has put the entire Missouri Medicaid program in jeopardy with his late-night amendment to a […]
Three injured when big rig rear-ends dump truck on Highway 36
Three people were hurt Friday afternoon in an accident east of Macon involving two trucks and a sports utility vehicle. The driver of a dump truck, 60-year old Randall Allspach of Bevier, and the driver of the sports utility vehicle, 71-year old Linda Flaspohler of Moberly, were taken by ambulance Samaritan Hospital in Macon. The […]
Carrollton man dies in crash on Highway 65; two others hospitalized
In the 6 o’clock hour of Thursday morning, a car driven by a Carrollton resident ran off Highway 65 and overturned in rural Saline County. The southbound car was traveling at a high rate of speed and began skidding on a corner before leaving the road, where it overturned onto its top and was demolished. […]
Missouri House plan to reject Medicaid expansion faces uncertain fate in the Senate
(Missouri Independent) – Republicans in the Missouri House finalized their plan to block funding for voter-approved Medicaid expansion on Thursday, giving final approval to its version of the state’s budget and sending it to the Senate. What happens next remains unclear. House Democratic Leader Crystal Quade said she’s confident the Senate will restore the $1.9 […]
Two big rigs crash on I-35 blocking northbound traffic
A collision involving two tractor-trailers blocked a portion of northbound Interstate 35 for a while on Wednesday afternoon in Clinton County. One driver, 53-year-old Ricky Huffman of LaCrescent, Minnesota, was taken by ambulance to the Cameron Regional Medical Center with serious injuries. The other truck driver, 54-year-old Terry Franksain of Traer, Iowa, declined medical treatment […]
Audio: New website to provide real-time weather information from Trenton
A new Missouri Mesonet weather site is up and running at the North Central Missouri College Barton Farm Campus of Trenton. The site was installed in October through a partnership with the University of Missouri and NCMC. Department Chair of the NCMC Agriculture Program Rustin Jumps is the Barton Farm Manager and an Agriculture instructor. […]