The Trenton City Council on Monday evening approved a $4.00 increase in the monthly cost for having an electric meter. The increased funds are designed to pay off a loan the city has due to additional energy costs incurred during the extreme cold spell in February. The council also voted to reduce by three dollars […]
(Missouri Independent) – Many of the staff and residents in Shunda Whitfield’s St. Louis County nursing home were sick before they even realized what was going on. It was April 2020, and masks weren’t yet standard practice. Little was known about COVID before it swept through nursing homes, and as a certified nursing assistant, Whitfield […]
Carroll County Memorial Hospital and Norborne R-VIII School District continue their partnership of providing educational opportunities for students through a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) lab. In 2020, CCMH donated $5,000 to sponsor Norborne’s STEM lab initiative. On July 12, CCMH presented another donation of $5,000. With the donation, the school was able to […]
Health-care advocates called on Missouri lawmakers to allocate funds for Medicaid expansion right away after the state Supreme Court ruled they must extend coverage to the 275,000 people who fall into what’s known as the Medicaid gap. That means they have incomes above their state’s eligibility for Medicaid but cannot afford marketplace or employer-based insurance. […]
(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 […]
U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.), along with the entire Senate Republican caucus, sent a letter to President Biden urging him to abandon his effort to impose a capital gains tax increase on family-owned businesses, farms, and ranches. Repealing this part of the tax code would have a devastating effect on multi-generation operations, which could lead […]
Leadership Northwest Missouri recently held their 2021 graduation ceremony in Cameron at the Cameron Community Center. The celebration began with a welcome by Master of Ceremonies, Julie Robertson, Chair of the Graduation Planning Committee and 2020 LNWMO alum. Tim Wymes, 2020 LNWMO alum, blessed the group with an invocation prior to dinner. Katelyn Addison and […]
A newly-released map identifies portions of the U.S.-Mexico border wall built by the Trump administration, and for conservation groups and wildlife advocates, it is alarming. The Biden administration halted construction and said it will use federal funds to assess the damage caused by the new, higher walls. Myles Traphagen, borderlands program coordinator for the Wildlands Network who created […]
Redistricting reformers urged the people charged with drawing new voting-district maps in Missouri to commit to putting the voters over partisan interests. Governor Mike Parson has appointed a bipartisan group of commissioners to draw state legislative maps. The Legislature draws congressional maps. Caroline Fan, founder and president of the Missouri Asian American Youth Foundation said in […]
(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 […]
Missouri’s Medicaid expansion lawsuit case is now in the hands of the seven-member state Supreme Court. The court heard about 35 minutes of oral arguments Tuesday morning in Jefferson City. This case will likely come down to the definition of “appropriation.” Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem ruled in June that Missouri’s August Medicaid expansion […]
The Princeton R-5 Board of Education approved bids July 12th. A milk bid was approved from Anderson Erickson, and a fuel bid was approved from MFA Oil of Princeton. Superintendent Jerry Girdner reports the fuel bid was tax free two cents off of retail. The board approved student and staff handbooks. The tax rate hearing […]
(Missouri Independent) – After an eight-year fight over Medicaid expansion, the arguments are over. The question of whether 275,000 people will receive state-paid health care coverage is in the hands of the Missouri Supreme Court. Oral arguments took place Tuesday in an expedited appeal. The seven judges must decide whether Medicaid eligibility will expand, as directed by the […]
The Missouri Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday morning, July 13, 2021, in Jefferson City in one of the biggest cases the court has faced in recent memory: Missouri’s Medicaid expansion lawsuit case. Oral arguments will begin Tuesday at 11 a.m. Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem ruled in late June that […]
At least nine states and the District of Columbia have recently reported numerous unexplained sick and dying songbirds. To date, avian and wildlife health experts with the Missouri Department of Conservation have not received similar reports, and there are no other indications of unexplained death or illness in Missouri’s wild birds. “Though we have not […]
A number of Missouri’s most influential business groups have filed a legal brief, in support of Medicaid expansion. Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth has the update. The Missouri Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Jefferson City in Missouri’s high-profile Medicaid expansion lawsuit case. The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and several business groups in St. […]
Adoption of broadband has the potential to boost a community’s economic growth and quality of life. But in much of Missouri, especially rural areas, the high-bandwidth wirelines to connect households and businesses don’t exist. Helping more Missouri communities become digitally connected was the topic of a recent webinar by the University of Missouri System Broadband […]
Supporters of the U.S. Postal Service are pressing for passage of a bill to shore up the troubled agency. Twin versions of the bipartisan Postal Service Reform Act of 2021 are winding their way through committees in the U.S. House and Senate. John McHugh, a former congressman from New York who served as Secretary of the Army until […]
(Missouri Independent) – For years, Lisa Zerbe said she biked, rode horses, and ran near Ameren Missouri’s largest coal-fired power plant in Franklin County because she “naively believed” state environmental regulators were protecting citizens from pollution. Now, she won’t. “It is truly a disheartening feeling of betrayal from an agency in my younger years I […]
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 […]
