Jefferson City

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe has proposed deep cuts to art funding across the state as part of an austerity initiative emphasizing smaller government and fiscal discipline. Artists and arts advocates say their cultural contributions help drive economic investment.

Following a rocky end to last year’s legislative session, Democrats are looking to slow things down, while Republicans push to pass Gov. Mike Kehoe’s state income tax cuts. Political reporter Jason Hancock spoke with KCUR’s Up To Date about the slow start and early dysfunction in the Missouri General Assembly.

At a protest in the state Capitol on Wednesday, hundreds of Missourians urged lawmakers to respect their will on reproductive rights and paid sick leave — two measures that voters passed in 2024 but the legislature moved to reverse immediately after.

The group People Not Politicians has reportedly collected 200,000 signatures — almost 100,000 more than needed — to get a measure on the 2026 ballot. The ballot measure would give Missourians a chance to vote on the Trump-backed map that could deny 5th District Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, one of two democrats in the state, his seat.

Deandre Pointer took a plea deal in 2023 to end his court challenge to a 2005 conviction for first-degree murder. Then he found out how the Department of Corrections awards credit for time served.

One lawmaker said Missouri runs the risk of becoming a "sanctuary state for pedophiles" if the General Assembly doesn't pass a bill that would give victims of child sex abuse more time to press civil charges against their abusers.

During a public ceremony in Jefferson City, the former U.S. senator and governor was honored for his accomplishments and for not seeing political parties as a barrier for progress.

The lawsuit filed by the MacArthur Justice Center says that in the summer, the lack of air conditioning or heat solutions at Missouri's Algoa Correctional Center violate the constitutional rights of people detained there.

The Missouri Family Health Council saw a spike in emergency contraception kits following election day. To keep up, volunteers gathered in Jefferson City to help build the kits.

Thousands of people took over the small town of Sedalia, Missouri, on this day in 1974 for the Ozark Music Festival, a party full of nudity, drugs and rock 'n' roll music. Half a century later, people still talk about the lore from that hot wild weekend. Plus: One very fluffy prison resident is changing the men around him in a Missouri correction facility.

Prison can be a lonely, violent place. But one program — or more specifically, one Jefferson City, Missouri, prison resident — is helping change the men around him.

This year’s budget process was criticized by the governor and lawmakers over a lack of transparency.