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Missouri House budget committee signs off on $320 million for rental assistance
Missouri lawmakers are hoping to quickly approve about $320 million in funding for rental assistance — part of the $25 billion in rental assistance passed by Congress in December’s COVID-19 relief package. The House Budget committee unanimously voted to advance the funding bill Tuesday afternoon. House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith, R-Jasper County, expects the […]
Missouri housing advocates look to Biden administration to strengthen eviction moratorium
Freezing rain was pouring down when sheriff deputies knocked on Anthony Stinson’s apartment door in Kansas City. It was 2:15 p.m. on Jan. 6. At that time in Washington D.C., armed insurrectionists had begun battling police officers at the U.S. Capitol. While people across the country were gasping in horror, Stinson’s children — a two-year-old […]
Missouri GOP push bill to discipline officers who ‘infringe’ on Second Amendment rights
Missouri law enforcement officers could be permanently disbarred and face fines if they “infringe” on residents’ Second Amendment rights, under a bill debated by a state Senate committee on Tuesday. Republican state Sen. Eric Burlison’s legislation would create a “Second Amendment Preservation Act,” which prohibits any state or local officer from enforcing federal firearms laws […]
Effort to stop charging 17-year-olds as adults has stalled in Missouri
Khadijah Wilson had a bully during her junior year at Francis Howell North High School in St. Charles. She told her principal and teachers about the name calling, and how the other girl constantly threatened to beat her up. But no one intervened. It went on for several months. “I reported it more and more,” […]
Aerial surveillance contract faces more roadblocks in St. Louis
The St. Louis Board of Aldermen is set to vote today on whether to enter into a contract with an aerial surveillance company to help combat crime in the city. But the controversial contract may be running into a trio of roadblocks. The city’s attorney argues that the contract may be illegal. The company in […]
Record number of women, Black and LGBTQ lawmakers serving in Missouri’s legislature
Missouri’s 2021 legislative session will be barrier breaking. The number of women serving is at an all-time high with 52 women lawmakers. It will have the most ever Black lawmakers serving with 25. There will be five openly LGBTQ lawmakers — what is believed to be another record. And the first Asian American woman was […]
Eric Schmitt denies involvement in call for Trump supporters to march on U.S. Capitol
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt denies any knowledge of a robocall by an arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) encouraging “patriots” to participate in a march that ended in a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. Schmitt serves as vice chair of RAGA. The Rule of Law Defense Fund, the 501(c)(4) […]
Controversial aerial surveillance proposal in St. Louis moves forward
St. Louis aldermen have advanced a bill proposing a three-year contract with a controversial aerial-surveillance program that claims to help solve and prevent murders. After more than four hours of testimony Tuesday, an aldermanic committee voted 6-1 to approve a contract with Persistent Surveillance Services for the company to fly three surveillance planes over the […]
Prosecutors try to keep people out of pandemic-clogged courts through diversion programs
When Julia Fogelberg was a public defender in St. Louis County, she saw how the criminal justice system could often do more harm than good. Now working on the prosecutor side, she’s grateful that she can provide a different solution — like in the case of a single-mother of two she met this summer. The […]
Food stamp applicants struggle to get through Missouri call center line
In normal times, the Missouri Bootheel has the highest rates of hunger in the state. “But when the pandemic hit, it made an already bad situation much worse,” said Lisa Church, chief advancement officer of the Southeast Missouri Food Bank. The organization’s pantries and mobile food distribution were seeing as many as three times more […]
St. Francois County jail faces class-action lawsuit alleging ‘unlawful’ conditions
When Bonne Terre resident Robert Hopple entered the St. Francois County Detention Center in May 2018, he was placed in a small holding cell with about ten other men for roughly three days. Hopple, 49, says the jail staff gave him a urine-soaked mat and a thin blanket to sleep on the floor — while […]
Missouri may get 30 percent less of its second dose of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine
Missouri may be receiving about 25 to 30 percent less of the second dose of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine than it had anticipated, the state health department director said Wednesday. The state will “be seeing a little bit less” of the second scheduled dose, Randall Williams, the director of the Department of Health and Senior Services, […]