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Missouri Supreme Court weighs whether counties can regulate CAFOs
Did legislators violate Missouri’s constitution when they overruled counties to clear the way for industrial hog farms across the state? Does new legislation prohibiting local regulation apply to counties that already had their own rules? These are some of the questions before the Missouri Supreme Court in a case challenging the state’s attempt to bar […]
Ameren may turn to natural gas to make up for shuttering Rush Island coal plant
Ameren Missouri may restart natural gas burners to offset the court-ordered shuttering of a coal-fired power plant that violated federal law, the company told state regulators Wednesday. The St. Louis-based electric utility announced late last year that it would retire its Rush Island Energy Center in early 2024 after a federal court found in 2019 […]
Kansas Congresswoman Sharice Davids touts federal funds for lead pipe replacement
The locations of lead service lines seem like the sort of thing someone would know, Congresswoman Sharice Davids said Thursday. But as cities and counties across the U.S. grew, water utilities didn’t keep track of them all. Now, they’re finally required to find them. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s updated lead and copper rule requires […]
Missouri law didn’t require environmental review before issuing silica mining permit
Poisonous sand blowing in the wind. Wells running dry. A dark night sky ruined by constant lights. These are the things residents in Ste. Genevieve County are worried about as they work to prevent a silica sand mine from moving into their community. NexGen Mining Inc. plans to mine silica sand, commonly used for fracking, […]
Beer heiress Trudy Busch Valentine captures Missouri Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate
Anheuser-Busch heiress Trudy Busch Valentine won the Democratic nomination for Missouri’s open U.S. Senate seat Tuesday, defeating her closest rival, former Marine Lucas Kunce. With nearly all precincts reporting, Busch had won 43% of the vote, compared to 38% for Kunce. Throughout her campaign, Valentine has said working as a nurse and experiencing immense grief […]
Abuse allegations hanging over Senate race get little mention at Greitens event in KC
When she arrived Monday night to hear former Gov. Eric Greitens campaign for U.S. Senate in downtown Kansas City, Christine Thompson was on the fence. It wasn’t the accusations of child abuse — made in a sworn affidavit by his ex-wife — that gave her pause about Greitens. Nor was it the accusations of sexual assault that […]
Gov. Mike Parson issues drought alert for almost half of Missouri counties
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson issued drought alerts in nearly half of Missouri counties Thursday, where exceptional heat and lack of rain threaten the state’s farmers and ranchers. “Unfortunately, we don’t anticipate conditions improving soon,” Parson said in a news conference. Fifty-three counties along or south of the Missouri River are affected by the alert. About […]
Missouri Democrat Senate hopefuls discuss abolishing the filibuster, Medicare for all
Trudy Busch Valentine was the only one against Medicare For All. Spencer Toder wants to investigate the U.S. Supreme Court justices who said they would uphold abortion rights and then overtuned Roe v. Wade. Lucas Kunce suggested far more incremental policies than most candidates to curb gun violence. And nearly all of the nine candidates […]
Anti-abortion groups make dubious claims as Kansas amendment vote nears
Claims made by campaigns for and against a constitutional amendment undoing Kansans’ right to an abortion look like descriptions of two different realities. The Value Them Both amendment, according to proponents, reverses the state’s “nearly unlimited ‘right’ to abortion.” The campaign’s website says “every reasonable regulation of abortion in Kansas may soon be struck down.” […]
Lucas Kunce is betting outspoken populist message can turn Missouri Senate seat blue
PERRYVILLE, Mo. — Lucas Kunce’s life story seems built for a populist Senate campaign in Missouri. He grew up in a modest neighborhood in Jefferson City where a local grocer let his mother float checks when his family couldn’t afford the bill. He attended Yale University on grants, came back to Missouri for law school […]
Grain Belt Express announces expansion that means more clean energy for Missouri
Missouri will get five times the clean energy previously promised by the developers of the Grain Belt Express transmission line, executives announced Monday. Grain Belt Express is a 800-mile high-voltage transmission line meant to carry renewable energy from wind-swept western Kansas across Missouri and Illinois to the Indiana border. Its developer, Chicago-based Invenergy, previously planned […]
Missouri doctors fear vague emergency exception to abortion ban puts patients at risk
Some Missouri medical providers are fearful that patients with high-risk pregnancies will face delayed care in life-threatening situations because doctors fear prosecution under Missouri’s newly-enacted abortion ban. “I’m following the rules that are made by people that have no understanding of medicine and science, and that’s extremely, extremely dangerous,” said Iman Alsaden, a doctor and […]