Gavel and Law book news graphic

There is a renewed push to expand access to legal aid

The movement to expand affordable legal services is receiving renewed focus since a U.S. Supreme Court Justice made a public endorsement of the idea. Conservative-leaning Justice Neil Gorsuch recently wrote an op-ed for USA Today, calling on states to find creative ways for more Americans to get free or affordable legal guidance, especially in non-criminal cases. […]

Roy Blunt Reservoir

NCRS releases final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for East Locust Creek Watershed Plan

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Missouri released a final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) recently for the East Locust Creek Watershed Plan. The plan involves the construction of a proposed multiple-purpose reservoir in Sullivan County.  The supplement addresses changes since NRCS prepared the East Locust Creek Watershed Plan and Environmental Impact Statement in 2006. […]

Unemployment Benefits Graphic

Missouri begins issuing additional $300 Federal supplement to the unemployed

The Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations’ Division of Employment Security this week began processing $300 Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) payments to eligible unemployed workers under the Continued Assistance for Unemployed Workers Act of 2020.  Eligible claimants should begin seeing their payments within the next few days, depending on how long their bank […]

Wastewater map of wastewater plants being tested for COVID markers

Statewide project testing wastewater for markers that cause COVID-19 underway

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and researchers at the University of Missouri – Columbia have been collaborating on a statewide project to test domestic wastewater for genetic markers of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Missouri’s Coronavirus Sewershed Surveillance Project is funded by a Centers for […]

Community Resource Center of Chillicothe

Community Resource Center in Chillicothe receives grant to reduce homelessness in 6 north Missouri counties

The Community Resource Center in Chillicothe has received a grant for up to $500,000 to reduce homelessness in six counties, including Livingston, Linn, Caldwell, Daviess, Grundy Carroll. The grant will enable the resource center to provide help to eligible persons or families in those counties. Funding is through the CARES Act Coronavirus Emergency Solutions Grant […]

East Locust Creed Reservoir Website

East Locust Creek Reservoir timber harvest announced

The North Central Missouri Regional Water Commission has posted a Request for Qualifications for an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract for Phase 1A for timber harvest.  This will be, likely, the smallest of multiple phases of timber harvest and tree clearing.  It is approximately 90 acres where the future East Locust Creek Reservoir (ELCR) dam […]

Foster Care

Audio: Missouri social services workers develop plan to help more youth aging out of foster system

Four Missouri Department of Social Services workers have won a state government challenge for proposing a plan to support more foster children aging out of the system. Rene’ Brinkman, Shasta Miller, Bobbie Thomas, and Nicole Robinson head a unit in southeast Missouri helping older youth prepare to transition into independent adults. Brinkman says their plan […]

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Website

CDC awards Missouri public water systems for fluoridation quality

Nineteen community water systems have been awarded a Water Fluoridation Quality Award from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Fluoridation is the adjustment of fluoride in drinking water to a level that is effective for preventing tooth decay. The award recognizes those communities that achieved excellence in community water fluoridation by maintaining […]

Lack of adequate funding has left county taxpayers bearing incarceration costs of state prisoners

Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway has released an audit of the County Reimbursement Program, which reimburses county governments for certain costs for housing and transporting state prisoners. The program is administered by the Missouri Department of Corrections. The audit found that a combination of delayed reimbursements due to lack of state funding and increasing incarceration […]

Investigation File Closed Graphic

No charges to be filed against Cleveland officers over 2014 shooting of Tamir Rice

The Justice Department announced that the career prosecutors reviewing the independent federal investigation into the fatal shooting of Tamir Rice on Nov. 22, 2014, in Cleveland, Ohio, found insufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges against Cleveland Division of Police (CDP) Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback.  The department notified counsel for Mr. Rice’s family […]

Vaccine Distribution or Covid-19 or Coronavirus

Governor’s office provides update on COVID-19 vaccine distribution and administration in Missouri

The state of Missouri continues to see the distribution and administration of COVID-19 vaccines according to the state’s vaccination plan. Last Friday, the Food and Drug Administration issued an Emergency Use Authorization for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the second vaccine to be approved. “The announcement of a second vaccine that is proven to be safe […]