Audio: Missouri Senate passes transportation package with vaccine passport ban, vehicle safety inspection change

The state Senate has passed a transportation package that would ban entities in Missouri from requiring a vaccine passport to access transportation services. Companies are developing vaccine passports to encourage travel. Springfield-area state Senator Lincoln Hough is sponsoring the legislation that would also waive safety inspection requirements for new vehicles immediately before the vehicle is […]

USDA Sign

USDA announces funding available to assist socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency announces the availability of $2 million to establish partnerships with organizations to provide outreach and technical assistance to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. The funding was made possible by USDA’s new Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiative, an effort to distribute resources more broadly and to put greater […]

Fraud

Man pleads guilty to $244 million ghost-cattle scam

A Washington man pleaded guilty to defrauding Tyson Foods Inc. (Tyson) and another company (Company 1) out of more than $244 million by charging them under various agreements for the purported costs of purchasing and feeding hundreds of thousands of cattle that did not actually exist. According to court documents, Cody Allen Easterday, 49, of […]