(Missouri Independent) – During June, as the Delta variant of COVID-19 took hold in Missouri, the seven-day average of new cases doubled. And now that the easily spread mutation has reached every corner of the state, July will be a repeat of June, or worse, according to the University of Missouri professor monitoring wastewater for the […]
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a petition for writ of certiorari in Schmitt v. Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, asking the Supreme Court of the United States to review Missouri’s law prohibiting abortions of unborn children with Down syndrome. “My son Stephen has shown me the inherent beauty […]
As of June 29th, 16 breakthrough cases of COVID-19 had been reported in Grundy County since vaccination began in the county. One of the 38 active cases on June 29th was a breakthrough case. Health Department Administrator Elizabeth Gibson says that is about typical for breakthrough cases. Two thousand four hundred eighty-four Grundy […]
(Missouri Independent) – A Cole County judge has temporarily blocked the state’s new policy for Medicaid hospital payments which was set to take effect Thursday and ordered a hearing July 9 to determine if the order will become permanent. In response to a lawsuit filed by the Missouri Hospital Association, Circuit Judge Cotton Walker on Friday […]
(Missouri Independent) – Kendra Findley had thought the Springfield area had seen the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic in December — a month when cases regularly surpassed 200 a day and that saw a record 98 residents die of the virus. Looking back, that was when the Alpha variant, first identified in the U.K., was […]
(Missouri Independent) – A bipartisan coalition handed anti-abortion activists a rare defeat in the Missouri Senate Friday night, rejecting a push to ban Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider as it passed a bill to secure billions for the state’s Medicaid program. And only a restatement of the state’s already existing ban on using public funds to […]
In the last three weeks – there has been a major increase in the Delta variant of COVID-19 in Missouri…especially in the Northwest and Southwest part of the state. Kendra Findley, Administrator of Community Health and Epidemiology in Greene County, says this highly contagious strain is now the most dominant in that area. […]
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 […]
(Missouri Independent) – Gov. Mike Parson gave lawmakers a deadline of noon Tuesday to strike a deal to renew medical provider taxes vital to funding Medicaid or accept responsibility for more than $700 million in cuts from the state budget that takes effect July 1. If not, the governor says he will freeze funding in Missouri’s […]
To honor and recognize their employees, Carroll County Memorial Hospital typically holds departmental appreciation weeks throughout the year. Employees are categorized into five groups and are traditionally recognized during one of these five special weeks. However, COVID-19 has continued to create a challenge for traditional recognition activities. “The CCMH Rewards & Recognition Team worked hard […]
Information has been provided from last weeks’ meeting of the Spickard Board of Aldermen. The board voted to send a letter to those individuals with properties considered to be a nuisance. A discussion was held on the Department of Natural Resources inspection regarding alleged violations of the city’s water system. Problems with the sewer pumps […]
(Missouri Independent) – Last Tuesday, Republicans appeared to have reached a fragile consensus around extending a tax crucial to Missouri’s Medicaid finances — opening the door for Gov. Mike Parson to call lawmakers into a special session this week. By Friday afternoon, June 18, that consensus appears to have been derailed, at least temporarily, by disagreements […]
The Grundy County Health Department has received confirmation of the COVID-19 Delta variant in a Grundy County resident. The Delta variant was previously known as the “Indian variant”, as it was first found in India. It’s one of three sub-lineages of the Indian variant, and is also known as B.1.617.2. The CDC has classified the […]
The Grundy County Nursing Home District Board of Directors approved a contract change order on June 15th. The change order was for the window project for $18,772. Payment for a request for funds was also approved for $152,014. The contractor will start on the energy project in the next few weeks as soon as supplies […]
A Maryland man was sentenced Monday to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution for defrauding a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) program dedicated to rehabilitating military veterans with disabilities. According to court documents, Francis Engles, 65, of Bowie, was the owner and operator of Engles Security Training School (Engles […]
The Princeton R-5 Board of Education on Monday evening, June 14, approved a bid for a passenger vehicle pending availability and final approval of a facility grant. The approved bid was from Suburban Chevrolet of Tulsa, Oklahoma for $45,695. Pettijohn Auto Center of Bethany also submitted a bid for $44,414. Pettijohn’s bid was lower, but […]
(Missouri Independent) – For years after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, activists and community leaders have pushed to “re-envision public safety.” Inspired in part by the Ferguson Commission, which recommended that cities focus more resources on the root causes of crime, organizers across the state echoed these calls. But they largely fell on deaf ears. […]
A federal appeals court has upheld today the temporary blocking of Missouri’s eight-week abortion ban. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis issued the ruling about the regulations passed by the Missouri Legislature in 2019 for abortions around eight weeks of pregnancy. Under House Bill 126, sponsored by O’Fallon Republican […]
Due to COVID-19, the veteran’s service officer reports all veteran’s benefits opportunities for the next two weeks have been canceled. Those opportunities include the previously scheduled visits to Milan this Friday, June 11, 2021 and to the Trenton VFW Post home on the 18th of June. In the meantime, the veteran’s service officer, Wayne Kleinschmidt, […]
Results from community sewershed surveillance in Brookfield indicate possible increases in COVID-19 transmission. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services saw increasing and elevated trends of concentrations of COVID-19 genetic fragments in wastewater from the Brookfield (Linn County) sewershed during the weeks of May 17th and 24th. During the week of May 17th, the […]
