(Missouri Independent) – The summer surge of infection tied to the easily spread Delta variant of COVID-19 is accelerating in Missouri, with state health officials on Wednesday reporting the highest case total since mid-January. The Department of Health and Senior Services reported 2,995 additional cases, with at least one case in 105 of the state’s 117 local […]
Missouri Attorney General joins a coalition of 26 states to protect Americans’ right to self-defense at the United States Supreme Court. The states filed an amicus brief in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, urging the justices to declare New York’s subjective-issue, or “may issue,” firearm license regime unconstitutional and reverse the […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
(Missouri Independent) – A crowded Republican primary is emerging in Missouri’s 4th Congressional District, a solidly GOP seat that is also the only one of the state’s eight districts certain to have a new lawmaker at the end of 2022. State Rep. Sara Walsh, R-Ashland, on Wednesday became the latest candidate to enter the race […]
(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 […]
The Missouri 4-H shooting sports teams won third-place honors at the 2021 4-H Shooting Sports National Championships, June 20-25 in Grand Island, Neb. More than 590 participants from 32 states competed in nine disciplines, demonstrating excellence in marksmanship, safety, responsibility, and teamwork, said Jim Sappington, University of Missouri Extension state 4-H shooting sports coordinator. “It […]
Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s Securities Division is seeking penalties and restitution from a Missouri man and his Chesterfield-based company after St. Louis residents were allegedly defrauded out of $81,000. Between January 2017 and June 2018, Loy Dennis Maxey and his company, Fresh Start Credit Services, LLC, allegedly sold promissory notes and misappropriated a […]
(Missouri Independent) – Bob F. Griffin, who served as speaker of the Missouri House for 15 years until he was forced to resign in the face of a federal criminal investigation, died Wednesday in Columbia. He was 85. Griffin was the longest-serving speaker in the state’s history. During his tenure as speaker from 1981 to 1996, the […]
Governor Mike Parson announced that Missouri has requested the Federal Emergency Management Agency participate in joint Preliminary Damage Assessments in 17 counties in response to severe storms and flooding. The joint teams will survey the damage that began with severe storms on June 19 and continued through July 1 in preparation for the state’s official […]
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 […]
The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission today approved the FY2022-2026 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). It includes transportation projects for July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2026. The STIP is the Missouri Department of Transportation’s list of 1,434 highway and bridge projects that are planned by state and regional agencies. The draft STIP was released […]
Much like Christmas and birthday wish lists, kids compile their own “wish list” of fireworks for the Fourth of July celebration. The youngest took inventory of firecrackers leftover from last year (aka, a stash he had hidden) and determined we need roman candles, bottle rockets, parachutes, and artillery shells. This year’s explosions and bright lights […]
Congressman Sam Graves (R-MO), the Ranking Member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, led conservatives on the floor of the United States House of Representatives today in opposing H.R. 3684. “This bill is nothing more than the Green New Deal with a little infrastructure sprinkled on top,” said Graves. “It’s completely unpaid for and it does nothing […]
(Missouri Independent) – With fewer than 12 hours to spare before the start of a new fiscal year, the Missouri House on Wednesday approved a bill extending medical provider taxes essential to balancing the budget, forestalling more than $700 million in cuts planned by Gov. Mike Parson. Divisions over how and whether to add provisions sought by […]
Had MFA Enterprises Inc. – operating as West Central Agri Services – addressed potential dust ignition sources, an explosion that seriously injured an employee and caused the destruction of the main elevator at an Adrian grain loading facility might not have happened. OSHA cited the grain-handling facility for one willful and six serious safety violations, […]
(Missouri Independent) – The U.S. House voted Tuesday to remove from the Capitol a bust of the late Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, who in 1857 wrote the Dred Scott decision (Dred Scott pictured above article) that stripped all Black Americans, free or slave, of their citizenship. The legislation passed on a vote of 285-120 with only 67 […]
Community partnerships in Missouri are working to help young people, either in or aging out of foster care, connect with the resources they need to start their independent lives, and the pandemic has brought added financial hardship for many. DeWayne Bright, Sr., youth advocate for the Local Investment Commission (LINC) in Kansas City, works with […]
A Missouri Department of Transportation worker was struck and killed on Monday in Platte County. Sixty-one-year-old Lloyd Crawford was listed as a long-time maintenance worker in the Kansas City district of the Missouri Department of Transportation. The incident occurred on northbound Highway 273 near the intersection with Highway 371. MoDOT said Crawford was performing flood […]
