JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is proposing an 8.7% pay raise for state workers as a way to offset inflation and discourage employees from leaving for better paying jobs. The governor’s proposal also includes an additional $2 per hour shift differential for workers in some congregate care facilities like prisons, mental…
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A multibillionaire Democrat whose actions in the past year have suggested a possible interest in running for president has been sworn in as Illinois governor for the second time. J.B. Pritzker took the oath on Monday, the first Illinois governor to start a second four-year term since 2007. No governor has…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Two years to the day since U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley’s now-famous raised-fist salute to rioters at the U.S. Capitol, a Marine veteran who ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2022 has announced that he’ll try to unseat Hawley in 2024. Lucas Kunce announced his bid on Friday. He served 13 years in…
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri lawmakers are back to work. The GOP-led Legislature opened its annual session Wednesday. Republican leaders say making it harder to amend Missouri’s Constitution is a top priority in this year’s legislative session. Republicans now must decide whether to make it more challenging for residents to put policies to a…
TROY, Mo. (AP) — A former Missouri deputy who investigated a murder case that became the subject of an NBC show starring Renee Zellweger is now accused of harassing and stalking a detective who was investigating him for potential misconduct. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Mike Merkel was charged Tuesday and accused of photographing…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Texas man has admitted that he helped steal $1.2 million from a Missouri woman in a romance scam. Federal prosecutors said 37-year-old Rotimi Oladimeji admitted during a plea hearing Monday that in August 2019 he and others began communicating with a St. Louis woman who had created an online dating…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The judge presiding over a hearing to determine if a Missouri man’s murder conviction should be overturned questioned if police and prosecutors “were in a little bit of a rush” to convict Lamar Johnson. St. Louis Circuit Judge David Mason is presiding over a hearing on an effort to vacate Johnson’s…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis officials have chosen the Wilmington, Delaware, police chief to lead its police department. Mayor Tishaura Jones announced Wednesday that Robert Tracy has been chosen as the St. Louis department’s new leader. Tracy has nearly 40 years of law enforcement experience. Before being named Wilmington police chief, he worked in…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A hearing has begun that will decide whether to overturn the conviction of a Missouri man who has spent nearly three decades in prison for a murder that two other people have since confessed to committing. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is backing Lamar Johnson in his effort to vacate…
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has asked a judge to sanction St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, accusing her of concealing evidence in her effort to vacate the conviction for a man who has spent nearly 30 years in prison for murder. Lamar Johnson was convicted in 1994 of killing 25-year-old Marcus Boyd in an…