![Jason Hancock is the editor of the Missouri Independent.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8e4bfa7/2147483647/strip/true/crop/225x300+38+0/resize/150x200!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F47%2Fc0%2Feb23dc7449028f1674affc0fd75f%2Fmo-jason-hancock-300x300.jpg)
Jason Hancock
Editor, The Missouri IndependentJason Hancock has been writing about Missouri since 2011, most recently as lead political reporter for The Kansas City Star. He has spent nearly two decades covering politics and policy for news organizations across the Midwest, and has a track record of exposing government wrongdoing and holding elected officials accountable.
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Democrat Elad Gross and Republican Will Scharf are hoping to replace Andrew Bailey, a Republican running for a full term in office after being appointed to the job by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson in 2022.
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In a 6-3 decision, the court found that Missouri Attorney General and other plaintiffs did not have any standing to sue the Biden Administration and failed to prove that social media platforms acted due to government coercion.
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This week, top Republican lawmakers in Kansas announced that they had reached out to the Chiefs organization to urge the team to consider moving across the state line. The leading candidates to be Missouri’s next governor are split on whether the state should offer incentives to keep the team where it is.
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Denton Loudermill sued Republican state Sens. Rick Brattin, Denny Hoskins and Nick Schroer over posts they made on social media falsely accusing him of being an undocumented immigrant and the shooter at the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade. The three senators are being represented by Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
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Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and former federal prosecutor Will Scharf both repeated lies that the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate. That's despite numerous independent studies and government reviews proving there was "absolutely no evidence" of fraud.
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Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office says three Republican lawmakers were acting in their official capacity when they made false social media posts about a Kansas Chiefs fan, and are protected by "legislative immunity."
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Missouri House ethics panel ends investigation into Dean Plocher, after blocking release of evidenceThe committee voted to dismiss the ethics complaint, after removing language that blamed the result on “the inability of the committee to finish the investigation as a direct result of obstruction of the process and the intimidation of witnesses by” Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher.
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The Missouri House Speaker is already being accused of obstructing the work of an ethics committee. Recently, lawmakers have raised concerns about whether the ethics rules in the House need to be reworked in cases where the chamber’s most powerful member is the focus of an investigation.
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The report, which was voted down by the Missouri House committee, concluded the inquiry lacked direct evidence of ethical misconduct but alleged the speaker hindered the investigation’s efforts to get to the truth.
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Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres, faced criticism last year for unsuccessfully pushing the House to purchase a software system from a private company over the objections of nonpartisan legislative staff. Meetings his office helped arrange with an Oklahoma company last month are drawing comparisons.