Captain Erik A. Gottman, commanding officer of Troop B, Macon, announces Trooper Trent J. Haley is being promoted to the rank of corporal effective May 1, 2022. He will be designated assistant zone commander of Zone 5 which encompasses Adair, and Schuyler counties. Haley was appointed to the Patrol on January 7, 2007, and after […]
Tag: Illinois
Audio: Medical Marijuana in Missouri on track to generate $300 million dollars in 2022
Missourians are setting medical marijuana buying records with sales that could top 300 million dollars this year. The Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association – or MOCAAN – says patients bought more than thirty million dollars’ worth ($30.71M) of medical marijuana in March alone, which is right at a million dollars a day. The […]
Audio: Judge dismisses criminal charges in Ride The Ducks deaths in Branson
The judge in the criminal trial of three men accused of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of 17 people in the Duck Boat Tragedy has dismissed all charges. Stone County Judge Alan Blankenship issued his ruling on Tuesday after delaying the initial hearing for his decision in March. The boat was swamped by waves caused […]
Missouri Senate committee takes up bill targeting Grain Belt Express transmission line
(Missouri Independent) – The Missouri Senate is poised to take up a long-running effort to stymie the Grain Belt Express, a massive transmission line meant to carry wind energy from southwest Kansas across three states. The $2 billion project would carry 4,000 megawatts of energy, dropping some off in Missouri before ending at the Illinois-Indiana […]
Democrats block Hawley’s bill to get tough on child sex offenders
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) went to the Senate Floor on Tuesday to call for unanimous consent to pass his “Protect Act of 2022” which protects children from sexual exploitation by enhancing the penalties for possessing child pornography and preventing judges from sentencing offenders below federal guidelines. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) objected and blocked the […]
Jackson wins 3 GOP votes as U.S. Senate advances her Supreme Court nomination
(Missouri Independent) – The U.S. Senate advanced Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic Supreme Court nomination in a 53-47 procedural vote Monday evening, hours after the Judiciary Committee deadlocked along party lines. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mitt Romney of Utah voted with all 50 Senate Democrats on the procedural […]
Preferred Family Healthcare to pay more than $8 million in fines related to embezzlement, bribery investigation
Springfield, Missouri-based nonprofit Preferred Family Healthcare will pay more than $8 million in forfeiture and restitution to the federal government and the state of Arkansas under the terms of a non-prosecution agreement announced, which acknowledges the criminal conduct of its former officers and employees. “Preferred Family Healthcare must relinquish the illegal profits it garnered from […]
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, […]
Audio: Ag groups support more Conservation Reserve Program flexibility to aid in potential global grain shortage
Ag groups are calling on the Biden administration to provide flexibility for prime farmland in the Conservation Reserve Program as the Russian/Ukraine conflict has the potential to impact global food security. Ag economist Scott Irwin at the University of Illinois tells Brownfield Ukraine produces about 60 million acres of crops which are at risk this […]
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 […]
Ketanji Brown Jackson vows to decide U.S. Supreme Court cases from a ‘neutral posture’
(Missouri Independent) – Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson began her four-day confirmation process to become the nation’s first Black female associate justice on Monday, listening to hours of opening statements from Senate Judiciary Committee members before giving her own. In her first public remarks since President Joe Biden nominated her last month, Jackson, who grew […]
U.S. Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to start today
(Missouri Independent) – After more than two weeks of private meetings with nearly half the U.S. Senate, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s pick for the U.S. Supreme Court, will field questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee in highly anticipated public hearings that begin today (Monday). Members of the panel will question Jackson for […]
Grand jury indicts former Missouri school principal and co-conspirator in murder for hire plot
A federal grand jury indicted Cornelius M. Green and Phillip J. Cutler on March 9, 2022, for conspiracy to commit murder for hire and murder for hire that resulted in the death of Jocelyn Peters and her unborn child in 2016. The indictment alleges that Green and Cutler had a longstanding and close friendship […]
Corn and soybean groups sue EPA over revised greenhouse gas emissions standards
Several state corn and soybean groups are suing the EPA over its revised greenhouse gas emissions standards that would focus clean energy efforts on electric vehicles. The groups’ petitions to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia argue the rule change would be detrimental to the biofuel sector by only allowing electric […]
Missouri man sentenced to eight years in federal prison for his role in carjacking plot
United States District Court Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk sentenced Antwan Jones to eight years in federal prison for his role in a carjacking, weapons charges, and assaulting a federal officer. Jones had previously pleaded guilty in November 2021. According to the plea agreement, Jones and his co-defendant stopped their SUV next to the victim on […]
House grants initial approval to bill that would allow prison nurseries in Missouri
(Missouri Independent) -The House gave initial approval Wednesday to a bill that would allow newborns to remain with their incarcerated mothers for the first year and a half of the baby’s life. The bill would permit the Missouri Department of Corrections to establish nurseries within the state’s correctional facilities, allowing children born to incarcerated women to […]
Push for expanded Missouri gambling puts casinos, video operators in opposing camps
(Missouri Independent) – Approving video lottery would produce more than 10 times the new state revenue of sports wagering and drive cash-prize video games of debated legality out of Missouri, a newly updated report contends. The report, prepared by Morowitz Gaming Advisors LLC and Global Gaming & Hospitality Capital Advisors LLC and paid for by companies that […]
Video: Biden taps Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as first black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court
(Missouri Independent) – President Joe Biden formally announced the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday afternoon. “President Biden sought a candidate with exceptional credentials, unimpeachable character, and unwavering dedication to the rule of law,” the White House said in a statement. If confirmed by the Senate, Jackson, 51, […]
Registered sex offender in Missouri sentenced to 10 years in prison for possessing child porn
The United States Attorney’s Office announced that James Taylor, age 45, of Doniphan, Missouri, was sentenced to 120 months or 10 years in federal prison for the offense of Possession of Child Pornography. Taylor appeared for his sentencing hearing before United States District Judge Matthew T. Schelp at the federal courthouse in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. […]