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USDA announces dates for Conservation Reserve Program Grasslands signups

Agricultural producers and landowners can apply for the Conservation Reserve Program Grasslands signup from today until August 20. This year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) updated signup options to provide greater incentives for producers and increase the program’s conservation and climate benefits, including setting a minimum rental rate and identifying two national priority zones. […]

Medicaid Expansion in Missouri

Audio: Missouri business groups file court briefs in support of Missouri Medicaid expansion

A number of Missouri’s most influential business groups have filed a legal brief, in support of Medicaid expansion. Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth has the update.     The Missouri Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Jefferson City in Missouri’s high-profile Medicaid expansion lawsuit case. The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and several business groups in St. […]

Fiber Optic Internet Access

University of Missouri Broadband Initiative outlines community-driven process for local expansion

Adoption of broadband has the potential to boost a community’s economic growth and quality of life. But in much of Missouri, especially rural areas, the high-bandwidth wirelines to connect households and businesses don’t exist. Helping more Missouri communities become digitally connected was the topic of a recent webinar by the University of Missouri System Broadband […]

Labadie Energy Center on Missouri RIver in Franklin County Missouri

Endangered fish, leaching ash ponds: Environmental groups oppose Missouri coal plant permit

(Missouri Independent) – For years, Lisa Zerbe said she biked, rode horses, and ran near Ameren Missouri’s largest coal-fired power plant in Franklin County because she “naively believed” state environmental regulators were protecting citizens from pollution.  Now, she won’t.  “It is truly a disheartening feeling of betrayal from an agency in my younger years I […]

Jobs Report

Jobs report for May 2021 shows slight increase in Missouri unemployment numbers

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 […]

Accident-Crash graphic

Four injured in two-vehicle crash five miles east of Gallatin

Four people sustained injuries in an accident involving two pickup trucks five miles east of Gallatin on Thursday afternoon July 1. The Highway Patrol reports the driver of one pickup, 33-year-old Daryl Betts of Fayette, the driver of the other pickup, 34-year-old Jonathan Parker of Gallatin, and Parker’s passenger, 82-year-old Billy Parker of Gallatin, received […]

Missouri Attorney General Seal and Gavel

Missouri Attorney General recoups $156,000 in restitution, settles case against Jim Bakker and Morningside Church

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt today announced that his office has recovered $156,000 and obtained a consent judgment against Jim Bakker and Morningside Church Productions. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office filed suit against Bakker and Morningside Church Productions back in March of 2020 for marketing “silver solution” as a potential cure for the Coronavirus. The […]

CAFO or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation

Some of Missouri’s largest CAFOs are seeking less stringent state regulation

Eleven of Missouri’s largest concentrated animal feeding operations are working to reduce the state’s oversight of their hog facilities despite a record of manure spills and clean water violations.  Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, has 11 CAFOs seeking new state permits.  The facilities, dotted across northern Missouri, combined are capable of raising more […]