(Missouri Independent) – State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick wants Missouri to join other states that are dumping Russian investments from retirement funds. In a news release Tuesday, Fitzpatrick called for an emergency meeting of the Missouri State Employees Retirement System (MOSERS) Board of Trustees for votes to block future purchases of Russian securities and consider how to divest […]
Tag: suit
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 […]
Audio: Missouri Libertarian Party announces platform
The Missouri Libertarian Party plans to file a lawsuit to be included in the state’s redistricting process. Missourinet’s Brent Palm has details on the weekend state convention. Members say current law that only allows the top two political parties to participate in redistricting is unfair to the Libertarian party and to the citizens […]
Missouri man sentenced to more than 14 years in prison for carjacking pizza driver
A Missouri man appeared before United States District Court Judge Stephen R. Clark late Friday afternoon and was sentenced to 179 months in prison for carjacking a Domino’s Pizza driver in February 2021. According to the plea agreement, on or about February 5, 2021, Ryan McDaniel, 25, of St. Louis, approached the victim who was […]
Man pleads guilty to smuggling 22 pounds (10 kilos) of meth aboard bus in Missouri
A man pleaded guilty in federal court to smuggling more than 10 kilograms of methamphetamine aboard a bus traveling through Kansas City, Missouri, from Los Angeles, California, to New York. Douglas D. McDowell, 63, of New York, N.Y., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to one count of possessing methamphetamine with intent to […]
Missouri man charged with illegal firearms after police pursuit
A Missouri, man who caused an accident while fleeing from a police helicopter, then ran from police officers through the backyards of a residential neighborhood before being apprehended, was charged in federal court with illegally possessing firearms. Jonathon M. Pentlin, 24, of Belton, was charged with one count of being a felon in possession of […]
Coalition of 13 attorneys general call for resignation of Alejandro Mayorkas’ at Department of Homeland Security
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, along with 13 other attorneys general are calling for U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ resignation. In a letter, citing the continued failure to enforce federal law and secure the southwest border, the coalition of 14 state attorneys general is demanding that Secretary Mayorkas leave office as his […]
Beef processing facility near KC in violation of Missouri regulations for polluting waters
(Missouri Independent) – A beef processing facility 40 miles southeast of downtown Kansas City polluted at least a mile of nearby streams and allowed septic tanks of sewage and entrails to overflow, state regulators found this month. The facility, the former site of a beef operation that neighbors felt threatened a nearby botanical garden, was referred […]
Missouri takes months to process Medicaid applications — longer than law allows
(Missouri Independent) – This story was originally published by Kaiser Health News. Aneka French applied for Medicaid in October, not long after Missouri became the 38th state to expand eligibility for the program. But her application sat for months in a backlog with tens of thousands of others. While she waited, French, 45, an uninsured medical […]
U.S. Department of Justice sues Missouri over law blocking enforcement of federal gun regulations
(Missouri Independent) – A controversial Missouri gun law that penalizes police for enforcing federal gun laws is facing a new legal challenge from the U.S. Justice Department. On Wednesday, the department filed suit to prevent Missouri from enforcing its Second Amendment Preservation Act (SAPA), a law that allows citizens to file suit for up to […]
Missouri state health agency seeks control of Title X funds that go to Planned Parenthood
(Missouri Independent) – Missouri’s state health department has applied to oversee federal family planning funds, a move reproductive health advocates fear would give the state power to cut off funding for providers who refer patients for abortion services. During his confirmation hearing late last month, former Department of Health and Senior Services Director Donald Kauerauf’s […]
Missouri Attorney General issues statement on Department of Justice lawsuit over Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act
Following a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice over Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt released the following statement: “After their disastrous arguments in the Missouri Supreme Court last week, the Biden Department of Justice has now filed yet another partisan lawsuit that seeks to attack Missourians’ Second Amendment rights. […]
American Farm Bureau Federation claims it’s the ‘voice of agriculture,’ Others beg to differ
(Missouri Independent) – This story was originally published as a collaboration between Investigate Midwest and Watchdog Writers Group. The American Farm Bureau Federation calls itself the “voice of agriculture,” a slogan it trademarked in 2007. But as the divide between agribusiness and small farmers has grown in recent decades, a unified voice of agriculture has become harder to […]
Missouri health centers continue to vaccinate, despite staffing shortages
As Community Health Centers (CHCs) mark a year of administering vaccines to underserved Missourians, the needs of the pandemic have strained their services. More than 40% of centers report they do not have enough staff to keep up the vaccination pace. Rodney Hummer, vice president of strategy for the Missouri Primary Care Association and a registered nurse, […]
Criticism of Missouri medical marijuana system seeps into initiative petition debate
(Missouri Independent) – A handful of Republican lawmakers lashed out at the state’s medical marijuana industry Thursday, lobbing accusations of corruption into a Missouri House debate over whether to make it harder to amend the state’s Constitution. On a mostly party-line 98-53 vote, the Missouri House signed off on legislation Thursday that would require a two-thirds […]
Status of Trenton’s medical marijuana facility now unknown
In a unanimous decision on Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that a lower court was justified in ordering the state health department to disclose medical marijuana application info that it had argued was confidential. The Department of Health and Senior Services refused to provide applications of businesses that were awarded licenses to grow and […]
Missouri Supreme Court: Medical marijuana application info must be disclosed in appeals
(Missouri Independent) – In a unanimous decision Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that a lower court was justified in ordering the state health department to disclose medical marijuana application info that it had argued was confidential. The Department of Health and Senior Services refused to provide applications of businesses that were awarded licenses to […]
Bankruptcy of failed Moberly factory project nears end after 10 years in court
(Missouri Independent) – Unsecured creditors will get less than a nickel on the dollar for debts left by a Moberly economic development project that went bust in 2011 as Missouri lawmakers worked on a plan to finance air freight shipments from China. A final report pending before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Dow describes how $2.1 million […]
Grundy County Sheriff’s deputy loses control on icy road striking tree
The Trenton Police Department reports no one was injured when a Grundy County Sheriff’s Department pickup truck hit a tree on Wednesday night, February 2, while in pursuit at a slow speed. Deputy Austin Taul traveled south on Chestnut Street and attempted to make a right turn onto Crowder Road. The pickup lost traction with […]
Judge approves most of Ashcroft’s summary for Missouri school funding ballot measure
(Missouri Independent) – A Cole County judge kept intact most of the ballot summary Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft wrote for an initiative petition seeking to bar public funds from going to private schools. On Wednesday, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem ruled that Ashcroft was correct to say in the summary that the […]