JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri lawmaker says a colleague upset over a right-to-work bill took a swing at him in an alley outside a Jefferson City restaurant and the two ended up in a fistfight. Rep. Courtney Allen Curtis released a copy of the restraining order Tuesday that he filed against Rep. Michael…
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – U.S. Rep. Jason Smith says a state agency hasn’t been transparent in plans to build a new state park in southeastern Missouri. The Missouri Republican spoke Monday during a state House hearing in favor of bills to require the Department of Natural Resources to sell land in Oregon County purchased…
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Republican lawmakers are raising concerns about Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon’s request to add almost half a billion dollars more to this year’s budget. Budget officials said Medicaid accounted for about three-quarters of the budget request. Some senators asked how earlier estimates had been short by hundreds of millions of dollars.…
( KTRS ) Republicans in the state Senate continue to criticize the University of Missouri for not firing an assistant professor who confronted journalists during campus protests last November. Melissa Click was charged with misdemeanor assault, on Monday, in connection with her run-in with a student videographer and a student photographer. The confrontation on the…
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri House committee is considering a bill that calls for a private company to scrutinize whether welfare recipients are qualified to receive benefits. Bill sponsor Rep. Marsha Haefner told a committee Monday that her proposal would reduce paperwork for Department of Social Services employees. She says it could prevent money…
(KTRS) More than 80 Missouri inmates sentenced to life in prison as teenagers have a chance at freedom following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The high court ruled Monday that its 2012 ruling banning mandatory life without parole sentences for juvenile murderers applies to those previously convicted. The ruling says inmates must be given a chance…
( KTRS ) A proposed ban on lobbyist gifts to lawmakers and public officials has won approval from a House panel. Current law allows lobbyists to give unlimited gifts to legislators and other officials. Republican Rep. Justin Alferman’s bill would prohibit that. On Tuesday, members of a House committee voted unanimously in favor of the legislation.…
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri lawmakers pushing to change the state’s loose ethics laws next will turn to ways to clamp down on the flow of unlimited gifts from lobbyists to lawmakers. A bill to ban lobbyist gifts to public officials is up for review Tuesday in a House committee. Lobbyists can spend whatever…
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – The first bill the Missouri House has passed this year would increase reporting of elected officials’ and others’ personal finances. House members voted 143-11 in favor of the measure Thursday. It heads to the Senate. The legislation would require personal financial disclosure reports to be filed twice a year. Currently,…
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri cities would face limits on how much revenue from ordinance violations they could keep under a new Senate proposal. On Wednesday, a suburban St. Louis resident told lawmakers she’s received fines for chipped paint at her home. Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt says his bill aims to cut down on…