The World Health Organization has added a coronavirus strain, known as lambda, to its variant watch list. West-central Missouri Republican Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler says the variant has made its way to the U.S. from people crossing the southern border. The Washington Post reports the WHO does not yet consider lambda to be a […]
The North Central Missouri College Board of Trustees approved bids and purchases as well as personnel matters July 27th. Athletic insurance was purchased through Dissinger Reed of Overland Park, Kansas for the 2021-2022 sports year at a cost of $31,467. That was for $26,980 for secondary accident insurance and $4,487 for catastrophic accident insurance with […]
(Missouri Independent) – Rolling outages that left thousands without power in February were driven overwhelmingly by fuel shortages — especially in natural gas, executives with the Southwest Power Pool said Monday. This winter sustained frigid temperatures across the Midwest and South forced huge demand for energy while the weather made generators struggle to keep up. The Southwest Power […]
The Grundy County Health Department reports 15 new COVID-19 cases have been added since July 21st, bringing the total to 1,309. Of the 36 active cases, 14 involve residents between the ages of 40 and 64, 12 involve those from 20 to 39, eight involve those 19 or younger, and two involve residents at least […]
We often think of the period from July 3rd to August 11th as the “Dog Days of Summer.” Some say that it signifies hot sultry days “not fit for a dog.” The Dog Days of Summer describes the most oppressive period of summer and it is certainly going to feel that way over the next […]
(Missouri Independent) – Missouri must expand Medicaid to 275,000 eligible people who were expecting coverage under a constitutional amendment that took effect July 1, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Thursday. In a unanimous opinion, the court overturned a trial court ruling that the amendment, passed in August 2020 was unconstitutional because it may increase the state’s cost for […]
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt today announced that his office has received a term sheet from Johnson and Johnson and multiple distributors (McKesson, Amerisource Bergen, and Cardinal Health), setting the stage for the largest victim-centric settlements the State of Missouri has ever seen and tentatively securing roughly just over half a billion dollars of funding […]
Carroll County Memorial Hospital in Carrollton will hold a town hall meeting for the 2021 Community Health Needs Assessment. VVV Consultants LLC will review community health indicators in the hospital’s 4 Corners Cafe on August 12 from 4 o’clock to 5:30 in the afternoon. Feedback and opinions will also be gathered on community health needs in […]
After more than a year without live music, the driving beat of a snare drum, the pulsing rhythm of a bass guitar, and sweet vocal melodies floating through the air around Stephens Lake Park will be welcome sounds as the Roots N Blues Festival makes its highly anticipated return to Columbia September 24-26, 2021. Missouri’s […]
The Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed on July 15 a case of human monkeypox in a U.S. resident who recently traveled from Nigeria to the United States. The person is currently hospitalized in Dallas. CDC is working with the airline and state and local health officials to contact airline passengers and others who […]
(Missouri Independent) – When the attorney general’s office asked a judge in 2019 to lift a temporary restraining order blocking a Missouri law pre-empting county regulations on concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, that were stricter than the state’s, the argument was straightforward. No one was trying to build a large animal feeding operation in Cedar […]
Chicago has reinstated its COVID-19 travel order for Missouri. The windy city is requiring any unvaccinated people traveling from Missouri to get a negative coronavirus test result no more than 72 hours prior to arrival in Chicago or quarantine for a 10-day period upon arrival. During an event Tuesday in Jefferson City, Governor Parson weighed […]
With the initial wave of COVID-19-related layoffs now more than a year in the past, the six-figure over-the-year job losses that had characterized the Missouri labor market for the last nine months of 2020 and the first three months of 2021 were replaced with an increase of more than 130,000 jobs from June 2020 to […]
Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) joined U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in introducing the Securing the Homeland from International Entrants with Life-threatening Diseases (SHIELD) Act to codify the Trump administration’s public health order under Title 42 that required U.S. border officials to promptly remove illegal immigrants to stop the spread of COVID-19. Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Tom Cotton […]
Families will begin getting IRS child tax credits this week. Most payments will be automatic and will start this Thursday and will arrive about the 15th of each month through the end of 2021, but that will be half of the money due to families. The other half will come with payment of […]
(Missouri Independent) – President Joe Biden’s key COVID-19 advisers on Thursday defended the administration’s strategies for boosting vaccinations in the states after Missouri’s governor said federal door-to-door outreach efforts are not welcome there. Top Biden adviser Jeff Zients said anyone mischaracterizing the administration’s attempts is “doing a disservice to the country.” Gov. Mike Parson voiced his […]
(Missouri Independent) – As federal officials land in Missouri at the request of the state to assist with combatting a wave of new COVID cases spurred by the Delta variant, Gov. Mike Parson publicly rebuffed outreach strategies President Joe Biden touted. On Tuesday, a member of the newly-created federal surge response team arrived in the […]
(Missouri Info Corps) – New crop diseases pervading Missouri have been linked to climate change, and they’re directly impacting crop production. Climate change has already made Missouri a little more hot and humid but has also caused some diseases for crops like corn and soybeans to become more prevalent. If not treated properly, farmers could […]
(Missouri Independent) – During June, as the Delta variant of COVID-19 took hold in Missouri, the seven-day average of new cases doubled. And now that the easily spread mutation has reached every corner of the state, July will be a repeat of June, or worse, according to the University of Missouri professor monitoring wastewater for the […]
Missouri non-farm payroll employment increased from April 2021 to May 2021, but the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased by a tenth of a percentage point. Employment, seasonally adjusted, increased by 6,000 jobs over the month, with job gains in both goods-producing and service-providing industries. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.2 percent in May […]
