(Missouri Independent) – In a historic vote, the Missouri House signed off Tuesday on legislation creating a prescription drug monitoring program — inching one step closer to ending Missouri’s designation as the only state without one. The bill now heads to Gov. Mike Parson for his signature or veto. Sen. Holly Rehder, a Sikeston Republican who […]
Tag: population
Carroll County Memorial Hospital announces new Chief Executive Officer
Carroll County Memorial Hospital Board of Directors announces Scott Thoreson has accepted the position as CCMH’s new Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2021. “We had an extremely difficult decision to make due to the number of highly qualified candidates we interviewed,” said Rex Buhrmester, CCMH Board of Directors president. “Jeff has set this hospital […]
Lawmakers approve Missouri operating budget
Missouri foster care advocates are praising Friday’s passage of the $35.1 billion state operating budget, saying it provides unprecedented support for the foster families who care for the thousands of children in Missouri foster care. House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith (R-Carthage) tells Missourinet that the budget provides a $90 million increase for foster and adoptive […]
Audio: Missouri Legislature passes private schooling tax credit bill
The Missouri Legislature has passed a private schooling tax credit bill. The measure would let donors provide scholarships to students to attend a private Missouri K-12 school. In return, they would get state tax credits. Senator Andrew Koenig of eastern Missouri’s Manchester carried the House bill that would prioritize special needs students and those who […]
University of Missouri Extension releases 2021 mental health toolkit
The University of Missouri Extension and Show-Me Farm Safety recently released a new Together We Can toolkit to help rural Missourians access mental health resources. “Missourians are strong and resilient in the face of the challenges and uncertainty that can come with farm life,” says Marshall Stewart, MU vice chancellor for extension and engagement and […]
Bipartisan coalition of lawmakers hope to fund free tampons, pads in Missouri prisons
(Missouri Independence) – In Missouri, incarcerated women’s access to feminine hygiene products depends on where they’re housed. Some are forced to pay to buy tampons and pads to meet their needs, while others are provided with such low-quality products they end up having to make their own. A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers hopes to change that […]
Department of Conservation offering permit applications during May for fall bear hunting
The Missouri Department of Conservation reminds Missourians interested in hunting black bears in the state to apply during May for one of 400 permits being offered by MDC for the state’s first black-bear hunting season this coming fall, Oct. 18–27. The maximum total harvest for the season will be 40 bears. Bear hunting in Missouri […]
Audio: Missouri Senate sides with House; chooses not to fund Medicaid expansion
The Missouri Senate has passed a $34 billion state budget proposal without funding an expansion of Medicaid. The upper chamber sided with the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Missouri House of Representatives by rejecting attempts to put expansion funding into the budget that begins in July. Gov. Mike Parson’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2022 […]
Lawmakers introduce resolution honoring holocaust hero Carl Lutz
U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Bob Casey (Pa.) introduced a resolution honoring Carl Lutz, a Swiss diplomat who saved more than 50,000 people – half of the surviving Jewish population of Budapest – from deportation to concentration camps during the Holocaust. While working in Nazi-occupied Hungary, Lutz obtained permission from Nazi leadership to issue […]
Audio: Senator Hawley calls for federal agencies to return to work and resume full duties
United States Senator Josh Hawley is asking federal agency leaders to ramp up operations again at some field offices. He says pre-CVOID 19 services should be restored. Many of these complaints have been directed at the National Personnel Records Center, which is based in St. Louis and houses military records for veterans nationwide. […]
Missouri open enrollment bill sparks debate over segregation, consolidation
(Missouri Independent) – As bills expanding charter schools and creating new scholarship accounts for private school tuition make their way through the process, one piece of legislation is trying to give students more options within the public schools that already exist. House Bill 543, sponsored by Rep. Brad Pollitt, R-Sedalia, would establish the “Public School […]
Pause for Johnson & Johnson vaccine extended at least a week as federal health panel wrestles with next steps
(Missouri Independent) – Use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 shot will remain paused for at least a week after a federal vaccine advisory panel said Wednesday that it had too little data on a rare but serious blood-clotting condition reported in at least six women. That means states and federally run vaccine sites will […]
Missouri Attorney General files suit against Biden administration to reinstate Migrant Protection Protocols enacted by Trump
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit against President Joe Biden, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas, and several other members of President Biden’s administration to reinstate the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) enacted by President Trump and work toward combating migrant trafficking, securing the border, and ending the border […]
Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reports state’s first confirmed case of South African variant
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is reporting the first identification in a Missouri resident of the COVID-19 variant, B.1.351, which was first identified in South Africa in December 2020 and began being reported in the United States in late January. The B.1.351 variant was identified in a sample from an adult living […]
State vaccination teams surpass one-quarter million doses of vaccine administered to Missouri residents
State of Missouri vaccination teams supporting mass and targeted vaccination events across the state have now administered more than one-quarter million vaccines to Missourians. This total is in addition to vaccines administered by high throughput health centers, local public health agencies, federally qualified health centers, pharmacies, and other community enrolled providers. “Our state teams have been […]
Clinton County selected to test new broadband internet technology
A small town in northwestern Missouri is one of seven communities in the nation testing experimental technology that could expand rural access to high-speed internet and the opportunities that can bring. Missouri University of Science and Technology is leading a team that has been awarded a one-year, $300,000 grant through the technology nonprofit US Ignite’s […]
Audio: Will the Missouri Senate back the House’s attempt to defund Medicaid expansion? Senate President Dave Schatz weighs in
The Missouri House has passed the next state operating budget – without funding voter-approved Medicaid expansion. The $34.1 billion budget plan is now in the hands of the Republican-controlled Senate. Missouri Senate President Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, gives his thoughts to Missourinet affiliate KTUI in Sullivan about whether he expects the upper chamber to fund the expansion. […]
Governor Parson announces state-supported mega vaccination site in Springfield
Governor Mike Parson announced that the state will host a Mega Vaccination Site in Springfield with the potential to fully vaccinate up to 10,000 Missourians. The event will be held at Hammons Student Center at Missouri State University (MSU) on Thursday, April 8, and Friday, April 9, 2021, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on […]