Landowners and agricultural producers currently enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program now have a wider opportunity to enroll in a 30-year contract through the Clean Lakes, Estuaries, And Rivers initiative, called CLEAR30. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expanding CLEAR30, a water-quality focused option available through CRP – to be nationwide now. Interested producers with […]
Tag: States
University of Missouri study says 97 of 114 Missouri counties have nursing shortage areas
While the United States faces a nationwide nursing shortage, a recent study at the University of Missouri found rural Missouri counties experience nursing shortages at a greater rate than the state’s metropolitan counties. In addition, the study found rural Missouri counties have a higher percentage of older nurses nearing retirement, which could have a severe impact on […]
Lawmakers introduce Bill to improve housing services for survivors of human trafficking
U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and Dick Durbin (Ill.), as well as U.S. Representatives Joyce Beatty (Ohio) and Ann Wagner (Mo.), introduced legislation that would commission a study reviewing current homelessness and housing services for survivors of trafficking. “We can […]
Missouri Attorney General opposes reinstatement of overreaching WOTUS rule in Letter to EPA and Army Corps of Engineers
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Army Corps of Engineers, opposing their recent move to reconsider the more limited Navigable Waters Protection Rule, a President Trump-era rule that reversed the 2015 Obama-era Waters of the United States rule. EPA Administrator Michael Regan and the […]
Chillicothe set to celebrate Sliced Bread Day on July 10
Chillicothe’s most famous invention is celebrated state-wide with Sliced Bread Day in Missouri every July 7, which is the anniversary of the groundbreaking innovation. This year the community will celebrate Sliced Bread Day with a variety of fun, community activities on the following Saturday, July 10, 2021. Ninety-three years earlier, on July 7, 1928, The […]
Missouri Attorney General files suit against Hickory County dog breeder
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt today filed suit against Laurie Lund of Cridder Creek Kennel for multiple violations of the Animal Care Facilities Act and for operating without a license since January 2021. “The vast majority of Missouri’s commercial breeders comply with the Animal Care Facilities Act, however, when my Office finds repeat violations of […]
USDA announces dates for Conservation Reserve Program general and grasslands signups
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has set a July 23, 2021, deadline for agricultural producers and landowners to apply for the Conservation Reserve Program General signup 56. Additionally, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) will accept applications for CRP Grasslands from July 12 to August 20. This year, USDA updated both signup options to provide greater […]
As massive livestock operations move in, fighting them gets harder for rural neighbors
(Missouri Independent) – Jeff Jones has lived on his family’s land east of Columbia, Missouri, his entire life. Some of the family’s farms are more than 150 years old. And Jones, who raises cattle and grows row crops, has no intentions of going anywhere. But after years of fighting, his community is home to a […]
Missouri lawmakers passed a host of reforms aimed at keeping kids out of jail
(Missouri Independent) – Retired St. Louis Judge Evelyn Baker once sentenced a 16-year-old Black boy to 241 years in prison for two armed robberies. No one was seriously injured in the robberies, but the boy “didn’t express any remorse,” Baker said, remembering the sentencing hearing. Now, when she thinks back, Baker deeply regrets the sentence […]
University of Missouri report looks at population trends in Missouri
Missouri’s population grew by about 11,000 people from 2019 to 2020. This 0.2% increase is only half the national rate of 0.4%, though it is typical of the modest growth experienced by many other Midwestern states. But the picture gets more complicated when you zoom in to specific regions and counties. “This growth is uneven,” […]
Authorities report the arrest of two individuals, another remanded to custody of Grundy County Sheriff
The Grundy County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest of two individuals on June 10 and another individual being remanded to the custody of the sheriff. Twenty-six-year-old Samantha Katherine Persell of Kirksville has been charged with the felonies of possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, amphetamine or methamphetamine, and misdemeanor driving while […]
Governor Parson signs SCR7 and HB 574 into law
Governor Mike Parson signed SCR 7 and HB 574 into law. “I am happy to sign these two pieces of legislation into law, and I want to give a special thank you to Senator Dan Hegeman, Representative Rusty Black, Senator Jeanie Riddle, and Representative Kent Haden for their respective work on these bills,” Governor Parson […]
Audio: Starting Saturday, Missouri will no longer offer additional federal pandemic unemployment benefits
Starting Saturday, Missouri will no longer offer additional federal pandemic unemployment benefits. A growing number of Republican-controlled states have chosen to end the federal aid that added $300 per week. Last month, Governor Parson announced the decision because he said the extra funding is causing worker shortages among some Missouri businesses. Missouri House […]
Attorney General says Missouri lawmakers can refuse to fund Medicaid expansion
(Missouri Independent) – Missouri lawmakers were not obligated to fund Medicaid expansion, and the courts cannot force the state to pay the medical bills of people who would be eligible under an initiative that amended the state constitution, the state attorney general’s office argued in documents filed Monday in Cole County Circuit Court. The filing from Attorney […]
Missouri Attorney General files civil suit against St. Louis County illicit massage business
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a civil lawsuit against an illicit massage business, Royal Day Spa, located in St. Louis County. This lawsuit is the fifth filed by Attorney General Schmitt as part of his Office’s Hope Initiative to combat human trafficking in illicit massage businesses. “Human trafficking is a scourge on our society […]
Three Russian men, one U.S. citizen indicted for $11 million tax fraud conspiracy
Three Russian men and a naturalized U.S. citizen have been indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in a conspiracy to use stolen identities to file thousands of fraudulent tax returns and send much of the illegal proceeds to their co-conspirators in Russia. Alexander Pavlov, 37, and Dmitrii Shenke, 35, citizens and residents […]
Grundy County Nursing Home District Board of Directors reviews construction project
The Grundy County Nursing Home District Board of Directors on June 8 discussed the construction project at Sunnyview Nursing Home of Trenton. The meeting was with contractor The Wilson Group, Debbie Berry with the United States Department of Agriculture, and architect Matt Rimiller. Administrator Jerry Doerhoff reports the board discussed the contract change order submitted […]