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Lawmaker wants to use Missouri surplus to widen I-70
For decades, motorists crossing Missouri have cursed congestion on Interstate 70. And almost as long, the Missouri Department of Transportation has warned that the road, one of the first interstate highways to be built in the 1950s, needs major reconstruction. “The option to do nothing on I-70 is not there,” Kevin Keith, then-director of MODOT, […]
Former aide to Greitens plans bid for Missouri office in 2024
Republican Will Scharf, a key player in Gov. Eric Greitens’ brief state administration, will be a candidate himself in 2024, he said Wednesday, but what office he is seeking is uncertain. Scharf issued a news release announcing he’d formed a committee to raise money for a statewide campaign. An attorney, Scharf has spent the past […]
Ashcroft criticizes Blunt support for Senate bill protecting same-sex marriage
Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said Tuesday he is “flabbergasted” retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt supports a bill adding federal legal protections to same-sex marriages. Ashcroft, a Republican considering a bid for governor in 2024, sent Blunt a letter Tuesday asking him to reverse his stance and work to block the Respect for Marriage […]
Missouri state budget is bulging with $6 billion in surplus cash
For the first time in its history, the only real limit on what Missouri can buy on a cash-and-carry basis is the imagination of the people spending the money. The state treasury is bulging with more than $6 billion in surplus cash, the result of 28 months of double-digit revenue growth and federal payments tied […]
‘Not a new or novel policy’: Judge rules Missouri town cannot ban woman seeking records
An Edgar Springs woman won a partial victory Tuesday in her long-running dispute with her city when a judge ruled local officials violated her constitutional rights and the state’s Sunshine Law. The small Phelps County city must pay Rebecca Varney a fine of $600 plus her legal costs for “knowing and purposeful” violations of the […]
Opposition growing to Missouri Secretary of State rules on library materials for children
When she was 13, Dakota Hommes felt scared and alone. She was having a crisis, didn’t feel she could talk to her parents about it and worried about her future. “At 13, I wasn’t sure that I would make it,” she said. Then, at a library, she found the novels “Parrot Fish” by Ellen Wittlinger […]
Missouri man awarded $441,000 after rocking chair collapses in state office
A defective rocking chair will cost Missouri taxpayers $441,000, the Southern District Court of Appeals ruled Monday. In a case stemming from a 2015 accident at the Missouri Children’s Division office in Sikeston, the court ruled that Kenneth Gilmore, a grandfather injured when a rocking chair collapsed during a supervised visitation, must be compensated for […]
Ten rural Missouri hospitals closed since 2012. Scotland County hopes to avoid that fate
MEMPHIS, Missouri – In March, Scotland County Hospital’s auditors delivered a stark warning. After five consecutive years of losses, only federal COVID-19 payments received over the previous year had kept the 25-bed hospital’s bank account solvent. In the fiscal years covered by the audit, accounting firm BKD reported, the hospital lost $7.9 million — $2.3 […]
Firings, corruption accusations create turmoil at struggling north Missouri hospital
MEMPHIS, Missouri – Joni Lloyd was in her pajamas when the call came. Lori Fulk, chair of the Scotland County Hospital District Board of Directors, was calling. She asked Lloyd, the vice-chair, to come to her house to talk. When Lloyd arrived the evening of Aug. 15, she found Fulk was not alone. An emergency […]
Missouri Senate Republicans pick Rowden, O’Laughlin for leadership in 2023
Republican state senators made history Thursday by selecting Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin as majority leader, making her the first woman from either party to hold the second most powerful job in the upper chamber. O’Laughlin, of Shelbina in northeast Missouri, defeated Sen. Mike Bernskoetter of Jefferson City in a vote held in a closed-door caucus. Current […]
Missouri House GOP pick new floor leader, speaker pro tem at post-election caucus
Missouri House Republicans chose a Kansas City-area lawmaker as majority floor leader Wednesday and a southeast Missouri representative as the caucus nominee for speaker pro tem in a post-election meeting in the Capitol. State Rep. Jonathan Patterson of Lee’s Summit, who will be starting his third term in January, was chosen to serve as majority […]
Democrats prevail in hotly contested Missouri legislative races
This story has been corrected since it was first published. Missouri House Democrats had their best election night in years Tuesday, adding three seats to increase their caucus to its highest total in a decade. The party also successfully defended a St. Louis County state Senate seat that saw massive spending by Republicans. Democrats went […]