(Missouri Independent) – The biggest state budget in Missouri history could also leave the biggest surplus in state history when the next fiscal year ends. The Missouri House on Thursday sent 15 appropriation bills to the state Senate, one supplemental spending bill for the current fiscal year, and 14 spending $46.5 billion in the coming year. The […]
(Missouri Independent) – It was just after 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 10, when the forms arrived from the state treasurer’s office. Without warning, and with little explanation, school superintendents discovered they were now required to certify their district had complied with Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s demands to drop all COVID-19 mitigation measures, such as […]
The U.S. Supreme Court plans to review in April the Biden Administration’s effort to unwind the Trump-era “remain in Mexico” border policy. The program allows U.S. officials to send non-Mexican migrants to Mexico to await their U.S. immigration court hearings. Lower courts have rejected the president’s attempts to stop the program, forcing the […]
(Missouri Independent) – Missouri’s state health department has applied to oversee federal family planning funds, a move reproductive health advocates fear would give the state power to cut off funding for providers who refer patients for abortion services. During his confirmation hearing late last month, former Department of Health and Senior Services Director Donald Kauerauf’s […]
(Missouri Independent) – On the Friday before a drawn-out confirmation battle ended with his ouster from office, Missouri state Health Director Donald Kauerauf wrote an impassioned letter meant to convince conservative legislators who were on the fence about his appointment. The message: While he believed in vaccines and data and science, he didn’t believe in vaccine […]
(Missouri Independent) – A handful of Republican lawmakers lashed out at the state’s medical marijuana industry Thursday, lobbing accusations of corruption into a Missouri House debate over whether to make it harder to amend the state’s Constitution. On a mostly party-line 98-53 vote, the Missouri House signed off on legislation Thursday that would require a two-thirds […]
(Missouri Independent) – In a unanimous decision Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that a lower court was justified in ordering the state health department to disclose medical marijuana application info that it had argued was confidential. The Department of Health and Senior Services refused to provide applications of businesses that were awarded licenses to […]
(Missouri Independent) – In a case that grew out of a law making it a crime for a doctor to perform an abortion after eight weeks, the Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday said those seeking to force a referendum on new laws can begin collecting signatures as soon as the bill is passed. The ruling threw […]
(Missouri Independent) – The Missouri Senate refused to confirm Donald Kauerauf as Gov. Mike Parson’s health director on Tuesday, leaving Kauerauf banned from the position for life. Hours later, Parson named Richard Moore, the Department of Health and Senior Services’ general counsel, as acting director of the agency. He slammed senators who blocked Kauerauf’s nomination […]
(Missouri Independent) – In a rare move, a Missouri commission granted a medical marijuana license to an applicant after discovering irregularities with how state regulators evaluated applications. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) decided to forgo appealing the ruling, announcing Tuesday that it had reached a settlement with the jilted applicant to […]
(Missouri Independent) – St. Louis hospitals straining to keep up with a record-breaking number of COVID-19 cases will get some relief in the form of a military medical team. A 40-member team will begin arriving at BJC-Christian Hospital in North St. Louis County on Wednesday, a news release from BJC HealthCare stated. The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic […]
(Missouri Independent) – The University of Missouri’s Columbia campus will begin the spring semester as planned Tuesday with no option for online classes, masking, or vaccination requirements, UM System President and campus Chancellor Mun Choi wrote to faculty leaders Friday. Choi’s response to concerns raised in a letter from the Executive Committee of the campus […]
Eight people died in traffic crashes during the 78-hour counting period, which began at 6 p.m. Thursday, December 23, 2021, and ended at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, December 26, 2021. 2021 Christmas Holiday Traffic Statistics Troopers investigated the following: Traffic Crashes — 310 Traffic Crash Injuries — 92 Traffic Crash Fatalities — 4 DWI — 67 […]
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reports nine people died in traffic crashes during this year’s Thanksgiving holiday counting period–from 6 p.m. Wednesday, November 24, 2021, through 11:59 p.m. Sunday, November 28, 2021. There were no boating crashes or drownings. During the Thanksgiving holiday counting period, troopers report the following traffic statistics for 2021 (preliminary): Crashes ─ 457 […]
An accident two miles south of Humphreys on Tuesday morning, November 23rd claimed the life of a Humphreys man. The Highway Patrol reports the body of 27-year-old Dakota Dalton was taken to the Ruschmeier Funeral Home in Milan. Dalton drove a sports utility vehicle south on Highway 139 before the vehicle ran off the left […]
(Missouri Independent) – Undocumented workers and immigration advocates are pushing for Democrats to keep work permits and protections from deportations in the final version of the $1.85 trillion social spending and climate package that the U.S. House is set to vote on as soon as Thursday night. Those immigration provisions face elimination when the bill […]
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt joined a 19-state coalition urging Congress to reject burdensome legislation that would increase fees on energy producers and hit American consumers with even greater price hikes. The two bills in question are the Methane Emissions Reduction Act in the Senate and a provision of the Build Back Better Act in […]
The Highway Patrol reports a Brashear man sustained moderate injuries when he was ejected from the motorcycle he drove six miles west of LaPlata on Wednesday night, October 13. A private vehicle transported 23-year-old Lucas Grgurich to the Northeast Regional Medical Center of Kirksville. The motorcycle traveled north on Hilton Avenue before he reportedly lost […]
A Maryville resident received serious injuries when a utility terrain vehicle crashed north of Maryville. Sixty-year-old Phillip McGinley was ejected from the UTV and flown by medical helicopter to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Mcginley was a passenger on the UTV, which was operated by 31-year old Adam Mattson of Maryville. Mattson […]
Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick announced that should proposals pass requiring financial institutions to turn over private citizens’ personal bank account information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) if they exceed $600 of inflows or outflows from the account, he will not comply. “As Treasurer, I have an obligation to the nearly 200,000 MOST 529 and MO ABLE […]
