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The Missouri legislature stumbled its way to the end of this year’s legislative session. Catch up on the biggest things lawmakers did and what was left unaddressed. Plus: Inmates at a state prison in Lansing, Kansas, rioted three years ago but nobody has been charged yet.
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An amendment proposed by Republican state Rep. Ben Baker of Neosho added adults into the “Missouri Child and Adolescent Protection Act," a House bill originally designed to bar minors from accessing puberty blockers, hormones and gender-affirming surgeries.
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Christopher Dunn has spent more than 30 years in prison for a 1990 murder in St. Louis, but a Missouri judge says no jury today would convict him. Why is he still in prison?
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Michael Rogers was hospitalized after being violently attacked by members of the Aryan Brotherhood in retaliation for cooperating with prosecutors. His lawsuit accused the Kansas Department of Corrections of placing him in the general population at El Dorado Correctional Facility despite known threats to his safety.
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A prison nurse said she felt trapped between two corrections officers as one described plans to kidnap, drug and rape her. Her attorney said there were “daily ‘rape jokes’ from other corrections officers and retaliation by the warden and other jail personnel.”
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The court concluded that Missouri refused to allow paycheck deductions to starve the corrections workers’ union during negotiations — violating the “fundamental right” to collective bargaining guaranteed by the Missouri Constitution, and freedom of speech and association rights protected by the state and federal constitutions.
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Six of the seven Kansas Supreme Court Justices will be on the November ballot to keep their jobs. While retention elections usually fly under the radar, the fight over abortion could raise the stakes on Nov. 8. Plus, Kansas inmates say medical care is so bad, they're suffering for years without relief.
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The bill directs the Missouri Department of Corrections to establish a nursery within a women’s correctional facility by July 2025, and allow incarcerated women to stay with their newborns for their first 18 months.
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Bradford pear trees — an invasive species that chokes out native plants — are blooming all across Kansas and Missouri right now, so it’s the perfect time for biologists to track them down and kill them. Plus, why a Missouri prison is training incarcerated men in computer programming.
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Lawsuits in Kansas are challenging the state’s new congressional redistricting plan in court, saying the GOP-drawn map violates the state constitution. Plus, election results from around the Kansas City area.
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The Department of Missouri Corrections will lift its coronavirus pandemic visitor restrictions on April 1. Visitors can see loved ones in state prisons without wearing a mask or taking a health screening test prior to entry.
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On the last day before the legislature takes a week off, the House also passed legislation creating nurseries in women’s prisons and a measure to prevent local officials from closing churches in a pandemic.