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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.
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Plocher’s hold on his speakership remains tenuous, and his campaign for lieutenant governor is now considered a longshot. His top legislative staff are gone, either fired or resigned in the wake of the scandals. But the impact of the ethics probe is playing out in more subtle ways in the Missouri House.
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Public records show the Missouri House spent $60,000 of taxpayer money renovating the speaker’s office — including $29,000 on new furniture like a leather sofa and new fridge. At the same time, other legislative offices remain inaccessible to constituents with disabilities.
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Accused of threatening legislative staff and stealing from taxpayers, Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher has denied any wrongdoing and rebuffed calls for his resignation. His alleged "ethical misconduct" will be the subject of a House Ethics Committee hearing this week.
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A Republican lawmaker sparked ethics concerns after he threatened to cut at least a million dollars from the agency if it bans deer baiting. And he said another lawmaker that owns a hunting lodge would help him.
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Certain individual freedoms are fundamental rights in America, but those rights are not limitless. Ethicists say society has an obligation not to do harm to others.
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How masks have become so politicized, and what prompted one Kansas City woman to become a living organ donor.
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As more Americans receive COVID-19 vaccines, Missouri and other state legislatures are debating whether they should implement a vaccine passport system.
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Missouri's lawmakers are debating banning vaccine passports and first-year educators discuss their experience teaching in the COVID-era.
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State Sen. Barbara Bollier would be the first Democrat to represent Kansas in the U.S. Senate since 1939, and the Ethics Professors consider a political candidate's obligation to debate their opponent.
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The new leader of Center School District brings years of experience with her including leading another metro district, Kansas' pioneering role in the battle for women's suffrage, and the moral quandaries brought about by an enduring viral pandemic.
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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and widespread Black Lives Matter protests have thrown heavy moral questions into the national air.