Jefferson City, MO – Missouri Governor Jay Nixon made a rare campaign appearance Monday for fellow Democrat Robin Carnahan (Secretary of State, running for US Senate) at an event near Kansas City (Excelsior Springs). The governor has been mostly avoiding the campaign trail this year, which he suggests can also be a winning strategy. St. Louis Public Radio's Marshall Griffin explains.
Nixon says he can best help Democrats running for office by doing his job as governor.
Jeffrson City, MO – Attorneys general in all 50 states are jointly investigating whether mortgage companies mishandled documents that resulted in hundreds of thousands of home foreclosures across the country.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster says it appears that some foreclosure affidavits were signed without confirming whether the information contained in them was accurate, a process known as "robo-signing."
Jefferson City, MO – The deadline to register to vote in Missouri this year has passed. State officials now turn their attention to absentee voting and making sure people's addresses are correct. St. Louis Public Radio's Marshall Griffin reports.
Laura Egerdal with the Secretary of State's office says Missourians who want an absentee ballot mailed to them have until October 27th to request one.
Jefferson City, MO – Some Missourians with developmental disabilities will now be able to receive services while living at home, thanks to a new county, state and federal partnership.
The program will provide up to $12,000 per year per person for 470 disabled Missourians in 37 counties, including several in the Kansas City region.
Roger Garlich, with the State Department of Mental Health, says the program includes about 18 services.
Jefferson City, MO – Missouri's congressional candidates have been added to a national database whose creators say will show voters where they're likely to stand on national issues. It's called Vote Easy, and it was set up by Montana-based Project Vote Smart.
Adelaide Kimball is a board member and senior advisor for the group. She says most candidates don't like telling voters how they would vote on such issues as abortion, immigration and gun control.
Jefferson City, MO – The heavy rainfall and flooding in parts of the Midwest have so far not delayed crop harvests in Missouri. Last year's drenching rains led to late corn and soybean harvests and prevented farmers in Missouri from planting winter wheat. Gene Danekas with the U.S.D.A. says this year's situation is not as severe.
"42 percent, almost half of the corn, has been harvested, that's well over 3 weeks faster than we were last year," says Danekas. "I know there's some wet fields, especially after this last week, so that'll probably slow them down somewhat."
Jefferson City, MO – A Cole County judge may decide Friday (August 27) whether a new law that places restrictions on sexually-oriented businesses in Missouri can take effect Saturday as planned.
The new restrictions include a ban on full nudity and alcohol sales at strip clubs, limit where new clubs and adult video stores can locate, and require them to close at midnight.
Jefferson City, MO – Union leaders in Missouri are not happy with a new health insurance plan for state employees. It replaces the current co-pay system with one that requires state workers to pay deductibles. Richard von Glahn is with the Missouri State Workers Union.
"We are frustrated because state employees are gonna be faced with higher out-of-pocket health care costs the Missouri legislature continues to choose policies that balance our revenue crisis on the backs of state workers," says von Glahn.
St. Louis, MO – A short video featuring an interview with Missouri Democratic Senate nominee Robin Carnahan combined with a photo of World Trade Center rubble has been removed from Republican Roy Blunt's YouTube site. The clip contains a radio interview, in which Carnahan says she would not try to tell New Yorkers whether or not a mosque should be built near the site of the 9-11 attack. When St. Louis Public Radio's Marshall Griffin asked Blunt about the video, Blunt objected to the question:
Jefferson City, MO – Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed and vetoed several bills Wednesday, the final day for action on legislation passed during the 2010 regular session.
First, Governor Nixon signed legislation creating new ethics rules. It restricts money transfers between political committees and allows the Missouri Ethics Commission to launch its own investigations, instead of waiting for complaints to be filed by others. But it does not restore campaign contribution limits, which Democrats had been calling for.
Jefferson City, MO – Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has been signing dozens of bills into law since the regular legislative session ended in May. But two controversial bills remain unsigned as the deadline approaches.
One of those bills deals with ethics. Provisions include restricting political committee-to-committee money transfers and allowing the Ethics Commission to launch investigations. The other bill would expand the information women must be told 24 hours before getting an abortion.
Kansas City, MO – Missouri Senate leaders are bypassing a committee that's blocking legislation to provide auto incentives during the ongoing special session.
Republican Chuck Purgason, chair of the senate's Fiscal Oversight committee, is blocking a vote on the House bill that contains both incentives for Ford Motor Company and tax breaks for underground data centers. So Senate leaders have crafted a separate bill that excludes the data centers. It's sponsored by Republican Luann Ridgeway of Platte County:
Jefferson City, MO – A lawsuit has been filed in Jefferson City that's designed to stop the August 3rd referendum on Missouri's participation in the new national health care law. The referendum was approved by the Missouri House and Senate this year, and it states that citizens cannot be forced to buy health insurance against their will.
Jefferson City, MO – Elderly Missourians who qualify for $250 rebate checks from Medicare are being warned to watch out for scam artists.
The checks that are being mailed out are legitimate, but seniors who receive them may be targeted by con artists. State Attorney General Chris Koster says recipients should not give out their personal information to anyone calling to ask for it.
Jefferson City, MO – Mental Health officials in Missouri are awaiting word if Governor Jay Nixon will cut their budget even more than lawmakers did this year.
Of the $484 million lawmakers cut from the state budget in April, nearly $26 million came from the Department of Mental Health, which oversees programs dealing with psychiatric health, drug and alcohol abuse, and Medicaid patients.
