(Missouri Independent) – Missouri’s record general revenue surplus was off-limits for spending plans as the House Budget Committee worked Thursday, defeating Democratic efforts to give boost money for public schools and state colleges. The only significant addition to education budgets approved by the committee was to restart the teacher Career Ladder program, providing $21 million to give experienced […]
Tag: DOE
Audio: Candidates for Trenton R-9 School Board answer questions from the public during forum on Wednesday
Three candidates for the Trenton R-9 Board of Education participated in a forum in the Rissler Elementary School Library on March 30th. Incumbent Dorothy Taul, Toby Havens, and Jeff Spencer are running for two three-year terms. The forum was relocated after the evacuation of Trenton High School, where the event was originally to be held. […]
Governor Parson announces end to COVID-19 crisis in Missouri
Governor Mike Parson announced an end to the COVID-19 crisis in Missouri and that the state will be shifting to an endemic phase of the pandemic on Friday, April 1, 2022. A whole-of-government COVID-19 emergency response was taken for more than two years, an effort that responded to the needs of all Missourians during the […]
Missouri House blocks effort to limit access to out-of-state abortions
(Missouri Independent) – A bill that would make it a felony to donate fetal tissue from abortions for research or therapies won first-round approval in the Missouri House Tuesday, but lawmakers blocked an effort to make it illegal to help women obtain an abortion outside the state. The bill sponsored by Rep. Hannah Kelly, R-Mountain Grove, […]
USDA and Commodity Credit Corporation expect no purchases or sales of sugar under Feedstock Flexibility Program
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Commodity Credit Corporation announced today that it does not expect to purchase and sell sugar under the Feedstock Flexibility Program for crop year 2021, which runs until Sept. 30, 2022. The CCC is required by law to quarterly announce estimates of sugar to be purchased and sold under the Feedstock […]
Missouri Attorney General joins multistate action to end CDC’s mask mandate on public transportation
The Missouri Attorney General joined 20 other states in a multistate action against President Biden’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s continued use of the unlawful mask mandate on public transportation. The attorneys general argue that the mandate exceeds the authority of the CDC. The Biden administration continues to use a failed interpretation of a […]
Supreme Court to hear case against Proposition 12 by National Pork Producers Council and American Farm Bureau Federation
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 […]
Audio: Free mental health first aid training is being offered to Missouri K-12 schools
State Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven says students, teachers, and school staff are experiencing increased mental health challenges and stressors right now. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is teaming up with Mental Health First Aid Missouri to offer free mental health first aid training to K-12 schools across the state. Amy Bartels, with […]
20-year-old woman dies in head-on crash west of Unionville, 14-year-old driver hospitalized
One person was killed and another injured in the head-on collision of a pickup truck and a sports utility vehicle west of Unionville on Saturday night. The driver of the sports utility vehicle, 20-year old Holly Hydorn of Unionville, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her body was transported to the Playle-Jones Funeral Home in […]
Senate winds up grueling Supreme Court hearings on Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination
(Missouri Independent) – Representatives of the American Bar Association reiterated their finding that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is well qualified to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, and law enforcement groups rebutted GOP accusations Jackson is soft on child pornographers during the final day of Jackson’s confirmation hearings Thursday. Republicans, however, called in witnesses to […]
New process for asylum cases at the border unveiled by Biden administration
(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 […]
Audio: Missouri Congressman says Biden administration’s sanctions on Russia have come up short
Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves says it appears financial sanctions imposed by the United States and the rest of the West are beginning to have an impact on Russia. But Graves says President Biden should have imposed the sanctions long before Russia invaded Ukraine. Graves, a Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee, says […]
GOP senators attack and interrupt Judge Jackson in final day of questioning U.S. Supreme Court nominee
(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 […]
Groups criticize racial undertones at Supreme Court confirmation hearing
Black leadership groups are speaking out about what they see as racially charged lines of questioning during the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to become a high-court justice. Conservative senators have implied Jackson may be soft on crime, friendly to terrorists at Guantanamo, and a proponent […]
Ketanji Brown Jackson defends her record under grilling from U.S. Senate Republicans
(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 […]
Republicans push work requirements for coverage under Missouri Medicaid expansion
(Missouri Independent) – When the Good Samaritan Care Clinic opened in 2006 in Mountain View, only about 5% of the free clinic’s clients were eligible for Medicaid. When it closed late last year, that number had risen to 70%, Dr. John Roberts, one of the clinic’s founders, told the Missouri Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. Medicaid […]
Audio: Missouri unemployment benefits could be on the chopping block
The Missouri Senate debated a bill Monday night that could cut unemployment benefits from 20 to 8 weeks if Missouri’s average jobless rate is at or below 3.5-percent. State Senator Mike Bernskoetter, a Republican from Jefferson City, says his bill aims to put more people back to work while so many jobs are open. State […]
As CAFO lawsuit heads to Missouri Supreme Court, counties weigh options
(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, […]
Judge sentences Missouri woman to 9-1/2 years in federal prison on drug and gun charges
Kietra R. Studdard, age 44, of Fenton, Missouri appeared before United States District Court Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk and pleaded guilty. Studdard was sentenced to 115 months in federal prison for possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine; possession of pseudoephedrine with intent to manufacture methamphetamine, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. […]