(Missouri Independent) – Missouri House members are not ready to accept the congressional redistricting map approved by the state Senate. The House met Monday without voting on the Senate plan, approved Thursday at the end of a Senate session that lasted almost 24 hours. State Rep. Dan Shaul, R-Imperial and chairman of the House Redistricting Committee, […]
A variety of topics came to the Trenton City Council Monday night for a meeting that had to be moved due to lack of electricity at city hall while TMU spent much of Monday replacing a power pole at the parking lot and getting electricity back on. The council, as the Building and Nuisance Board […]
The U.S. Supreme Court at its Mar. 25 conference agreed to hear a case brought by the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation against California’s Proposition 12, which bans the sale of pork from hogs born to sows that weren’t raised according to the state’s “arbitrary” production standards. “We are extremely […]
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the Department is extending to May 11, 2022, the application deadline for the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program, which provides funding to expand meat and poultry processing capacity. The decision to extend the deadline comes after Rural Development heard directly from applicants about challenges with […]
Now that the confirmation hearings are complete, Senator Hawley says the Judge did nothing to assuage his concerns of what he claims is her record of leniency on sex criminals. Although the U.S. Sentencing Commission numbers show the majority of NON-production child pornography offenders in 2019 were sentenced to a punishment beneath the guideline ranges, […]
(Missouri Independent) – The Biden administration announced Thursday steps to expedite asylum cases at the U.S.-Mexico border in an attempt to resolve a years-long backlog, but policy advocates worry the streamlined process could prevent asylum seekers from obtaining legal representation if their cases are denied. “If somebody is not approved in the first instance, they’re […]
(Missouri Independent) – In the third day of hearings Wednesday on the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, several Republicans on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee interrogated her about sentences she handed down for child pornography offenses, disagreeing vehemently with her judicial decisions. Republicans grilled her with questions she had already answered […]
Governor Mike Parson announced that Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly known as Facebook, Inc., will locate a nearly one-million-square-foot data center in Kansas City, investing more than $800 million and supporting up to 100 jobs. The data center, a first of its kind in Missouri, is expected to be operational in 2024. “We’re proud to welcome Meta […]
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley took Wednesday’s opportunity to learn more about Supreme Court Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to instead hyperfocus on a handful of her sentences as a trial court judge. During the third and final day of Judge Jackson’s confirmation hearings, the Missouri senator continued to laser in on what he calls her lenient […]
(Missouri Independent) – An ex-FBI agent who conducted the criminal investigation of former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens in 2018 pleaded guilty Wednesday to evidence tampering and was sentenced to a year of probation. William Tisaby, 69, was hired by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner to assist in the investigation of allegations that Greitens threatened […]
During the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination for U.S. Supreme Court today, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) focused his questioning on the alarming trend of lenient sentencing in child pornography cases that he first mentioned in a tweet thread last week and his opening comments yesterday. During his time, Sen. Hawley focused on Judge […]
(Missouri Independent) – Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday sharpened their criticisms of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, probing her work as a public defender on behalf of terrorism suspects, the judicial sentences she has handed down for child pornography offenses, and her views of critical race theory. Jackson defended her […]
(Missouri Independent) – As a fight over who can regulate industrial hog and cattle operations awaits action by the Missouri Supreme Court, counties that sought more stringent protections against them wait in limbo. The Missouri Supreme Court is expected to hear an appeal by county commissioners who sought to regulate concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, […]
(Missouri Independent) – When Missouri’s health department refused to turn over certain documents to ProPublica reporter Pamela Colloff in October 2020, she did what the attorney general’s office directs anyone to do if they believe a government agency is illegally withholding public records. She filed a Sunshine Law complaint with Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, […]
The Missouri General Assembly has been on spring break this week and will reconvene March 21st. State Representative Rusty Black of Chillicothe says he thinks the House of Representatives did good work in the first part of the session. Black is in his sixth year as a State Representative. He enjoys being involved […]
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a lawsuit against the Rockwood School District for alleged Sunshine Law violations. On November 19, 2021, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office sent three Sunshine Law requests to the Rockwood School District seeking public records relating to the Rockwood School District’s decision to publish the FBI’s link to report parents […]
It took two votes before the Trenton City Council approved an ordinance to repeal the ban on specific breeds of dogs, including pit bulls and pit bull mix. The council adopted budgets for the city of Trenton and Trenton Municipal Utilities for the next fiscal year, and the council, in effect, took no action on […]
(Missouri Independent) – Senate Democrats and immigration advocates are pushing the White House to end a controversial Trump-era immigration policy enacted during the pandemic that allowed U.S. officials to expel migrants and asylum seekers at the border. “I continue to be disappointed, deeply disappointed, in the administration’s response,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York […]
(Missouri Independent) – Most of the enormous surplus accumulating in Missouri’s general revenue fund will be off-limits to members of the House Budget Committee when it prepares the fiscal year 2023 spending plan for floor debate. Gov. Mike Parson’s $47.3 billion budget proposal projects a $1.6 billion general revenue surplus at the end of June 2023. […]
(Missouri Independent) – The Missouri Ethics Commission has dismissed a complaint against former Gov. Eric Greitens accusing him of illegally using leftover money from his gubernatorial campaign committee to subsidize his quest for U.S. Senate. The complaint, filed in October by Campaign Legal Center, alleged Greitens used money from his state account to pay his eventual […]
