State News

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- In July 2002, a drought settled over Missouri that lasted 99 weeks and finally ended in May 2004. Eight years later during the week of Aug. 21, Missouri suffered the most intense drought in its history. The dry spell affected 35.72% of land in the state, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor...

FENTON, Mo. -- A St. Louis County man is accused of shooting his wife and killing her father when the older man tried to intervene. Prosecutors on Friday charged James Kempf, 45, with second-degree murder, assault and two counts of armed criminal action. Police also identified the man killed as John Colter, 66, who remains on the loose...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A snowplow struck and killed two pedestrians in Kansas before sunrise Friday after a winter storm coated parts of the Midwest with snow. The collision involving a Riley County plow truck happened shortly after 5 a.m., after the National Weather Service issued winter weather advisories across parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin and a large swath of Missouri...

ST. LOUIS -- A woman who says she was raped by a Lyft driver in St. Louis has filed a lawsuit accusing the ride-hailing company of prioritizing profits over passenger safety. Cristen Giangarra's lawsuit, filed Wednesday, is the latest of several filed by women across the country who have claimed they were sexually assaulted by Lyft drivers. Giangarra, a 30-year-old registered nurse, is listed only as "Jane Doe" in the lawsuit but she identified herself during a news conference Thursday...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri lawmakers made a case to adopt stringent photo identification requirements for voting Wednesday, just days after the state Supreme Court struck down key portions of a more lenient voter ID law as unconstitutional. Judges last week permanently blocked a central provision of a 2016 voter identification law requiring a sworn statement from people lacking a photo ID in order to cast a regular ballot, a move Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said "eviscerated" the law.. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri lawmakers Wednesday moved to enact strict penalties for people caught with the highly lethal opioid fentanyl. The House gave the bill initial approval in a voice vote. If passed, the bill would add fentanyl and two substances sometimes used to commit rape to Missouri's drug laws...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A California man was sentenced Wednesday to five years in federal prison with no parole for participating in a scheme to cash more than $447,000 in stolen tax refund checks. Dante L. Chestnut, 31, of Ontario, California, pleaded guilty in July 2019 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A gunman who opened fire outside of a Kansas City nightclub, killing a woman and injuring at least 15 other people before a guard killed him, had a past weapons charge dropped after lawmakers loosened the state's gun laws. Jahron Swift, 29, had been in trouble with the law before he opened fire on people leaving or waiting to get into the 9ine Ultra Lounge in eastern Kansas City late Sunday, when the city was celebrating the win that put the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.. ...

FLORISSANT, Mo. -- Prosecutors have charged a man with murder in the death of a 16-year-old boy in a fire at his suburban St. Louis home. Bobby Copass, 39, was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder and first-degree arson after the victim, Dustin Baggett, died Saturday. Baggett was injured in a fire Friday at a Florissant home where he lived with his mother, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported...

NEW FLORENCE, Mo. -- The wife of a mid-Missouri snake breeder who was killed in 2017 was charged Friday along with a second person in the man's death, authorities said. Lynlee Renick, 35, of New Florence, and Michael Humphrey, 35, of Jefferson City were charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the June 8, 2017, shooting death of Renick's husband, Benjamin Renick, 29, at his reptile farm near New Florence...

RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia urged the state Supreme Court on Friday to uphold a weapons ban at an upcoming gun rally in the capital, insisting it was necessary to prevent a repeat of deadly violence that erupted at a white nationalist rally more than two years ago...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A plane slid off an icy taxiway at Kansas City International Airport on Friday as a sprawling winter storm hits large sections of the Midwest and beyond, leading to the closure of schools, universities and government offices. The Delta Air Lines flight was taxiing to be de-iced before flying to Detroit when the nosegear slipped off the taxiway, said Delta spokeswoman Martha Witt. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Mike Parson said Thursday he plans to fight efforts to expand the number of people eligible for government health care, as a ballot initiative to do so gains momentum. Advocates are collecting signatures to put the issue on November's ballot. The proposed constitutional amendment would allow adults earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level to access Medicaid starting in July 2021...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Two Democratic state senators from Kansas City are leaving to take executive branch jobs. The Senate on Thursday confirmed the appointments of Sen. Shalonn "Kiki" Curls to the state Labor and Industrial Relations Committee and Sen. Jason Holsman to the Missouri Public Service Commission...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Mike Parson on Wednesday called for a new state savings fund and reaffirmed his support for gun rights in face of a spike in violence in the state's biggest cities. Parson identified both as top goals for the year in a State of the State speech to the Republican-led Legislature...

BELLAIRE, Texas -- A 16-year-old student was shot to death Tuesday at a Texas high school, and a suspect was arrested hours later, officials said. Grenita Lathan, interim superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, confirmed the shooting victim at Bellaire High School had died. She gave no other information and took no questions...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday permanently blocked a central portion of a 2016 voter identification law it said had required a “misleading” and “contradictory” sworn statement from people lacking a photo ID. The 5-2 ruling upholds a decision by a lower court judge, who had blocked the affidavit requirement from being used in the 2018 general election. It had remained on hold since then...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Republican senators rolled out a plan Tuesday to ask Missouri voters to undo key parts of a nationally unique redistricting model directing a demographer to draw new legislative districts with "partisan fairness" and "competitiveness" as top criteria...

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner on Monday filed what she called an unprecedented federal civil rights lawsuit, accusing the city, the local police union and others of a coordinated and racist conspiracy aimed at forcing her out of office...

DALLAS -- A subtle design feature of the AR-15 rifle has raised a technical legal question that is derailing cases against people who are charged with illegally buying and selling the gun's parts or building the weapon. At issue is whether a key piece of one of America's most popular firearms meets the definition of a gun that prosecutors have long relied on...

ST. LOUIS -- Passengers at St. Louis Lambert International Airport could soon be able to speed up their check-in process using their fingerprints and the irises in their eyes. The city Airport Commission on Wednesday endorsed a contract with a New York-based company to bring its CLEAR biometric system to Lambert. The contract must still be approved by the city Board of Estimate and Apportionment...

Hurricane-force wind gusts and hail the size of baseballs could accompany potent storms that also threaten to spin up tornadoes and drench the South with heavy rains, forecasters said Friday. The national Storm Prediction Center said more than 18 million people in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma will be at an enhanced risk of storms Friday that could include strong tornadoes and flooding rains. The area includes several major Texas cities including Dallas, Houston and Austin...

A storm system expected to strike a handful of southern states this weekend is looking more and more menacing. More than 18 million people in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma will be at an enhanced threat of storms that could include strong tornadoes and flooding rains, the national Storm Prediction Center said...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The 2020 Missouri legislative session kicked off Wednesday with lawmakers pledging to consider an overhaul of a voter-approved redistricting plan and address violence in the state's biggest cities. Republican leaders in the House and Senate said a priority during the roughly five-month annual session will be sending voters yet another proposed change to how legislative districts are drawn...

CLAYTON, Mo. -- The St. Louis County Council has agreed to allow archery hunting of deer in county parks starting in the fall in an effort to thin the growing deer heard in the region. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the legislation became law late last month without a signature from County Executive Sam Page...

ST. LOUIS -- Gov. Mike Parson says he's not convinced unregulated and untaxed video gambling terminals in the state are illegal, even as investigators in his administration work to halt their spread. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Parson, who is the former Polk County sheriff, said he is monitoring a Platte County court case that could provide legal guidance to the state's prosecutors on what constitutes a game of chance versus a game of skill...

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis residents living in poor, segregated neighborhoods are at a greater risk of cancer from air contaminants, and proximity to congested traffic make up a significant share of that vulnerability, according to a study from Washington University...

ST. LOUIS -- A memorial to soldiers in downtown St. Louis has been damaged by vandalism, including a spray-painted message of "No war." The vandalism was discovered Sunday morning. It wasn't immediately clear whether it was in response to the airstrike that killed a top Iranian official, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an attack that's drastically raised tensions between Tehran and Washington...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The state budget director on Monday announced Missouri revenue collections have increased significantly so far this fiscal year. Director Dan Haug said net year-to-date general revenue collections were up 5.2% in December compared to the same time frame last fiscal year. Missouri's fiscal year runs from July through the end of June...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Hallmark Cards Inc. will cut about 400 jobs worldwide, including 325 at its headquarters in Kansas City, the company said Monday. Hallmark will offer buyouts before turning to layoffs. The company said affected workers will receive severance pay and assistance as they seek new jobs...

JOPLIN, Mo. -- Work is underway on a 600-megawatt wind project in southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas. On the Missouri side, construction has started on the North Fork Ridge Wind Farm about 20 miles north of Joplin and is expected to begin in the next month around Golden City on the King's Point Wind Farm. Both of those farms will consist of 69 wind turbines that will generate a total of about 300 megawatts, The Joplin Globe reported...

CHICAGO -- Illinois' first day of legal recreational marijuana generated nearly $3.2 million in sales, state officials announced Thursday. There were 77,128 transactions on New Year's Day, when the law legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes took effect, according to Toi Hutchinson, senior adviser to Gov. J.B. Pritzker on cannabis control...

ST. LOUIS -- The City of St. Louis has sold just four city properties under a program launched last year allowing people to buy homes for $1. St. Louis developed the Dollar House Pilot Program in hopes of selling tax delinquent properties the city's Land Reutilization Authority has received and of revitalizing struggling neighborhoods. Under the program, a buyer must have the financial means to renovate the property...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri will continue to allow lawfully admitted refugees to settle in the state in communities that request them, Gov. Mike Parson announced Tuesday. The governor's decision came in response to an executive order issued in September by President Donald Trump, which, for the first time in U.S. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's levees need to be strengthened and repaired, especially in rural areas hit hard by prolonged flooding in 2019, according to an advisory group appointed by Gov. Mike Parson. St. Louis Public Radio reported the Flood Recovery Advisory Working Group on Tuesday released its report on ways to address flooding in the state and improve flood recovery. Parson signed an executive order in July creating the 24-member advisory group...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Thousands of Missouri businesses will receive tax cuts with the new year. But because of the way the new law is written, some corporations doing business in Missouri could end up paying more. The give-and-take tax law enacted by former Gov. Eric Greitens just hours before his May 2018 resignation is to finally take effect Wednesday with the start of the 2020 tax year...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A proposal in Illinois to make daylight saving time permanent has some residents and business owners worried about the confusion it could cause at the Missouri border. St. Louis sits along the Mississippi River, which separates Illinois and Missouri. Tens of thousands of people in the St. Louis area work in one state and live in the other...

ST. LOUIS -- The owner of Stray Rescue of St. Louis plans to rebuild after a fire destroyed a farmhouse he used as a home for elderly, disabled and terminally ill dogs. The fire broke out Saturday at Randy's Rescue Ranch in O'Fallon, Illinois, just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. Stray Rescue owner Randy Grim told KSDK-TV that with help from firefighters, all the dogs were saved, but two senior cats who also lived there died and the farmhouse was a total loss...

The State of Missouri has stopped withholding union dues from the bimonthly paychecks of prison guards in what the union's grievance officer calls a "pitiful attempt to bankrupt" the labor organization. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the maneuver by Republican Gov. Mike Parson's administration has left the Missouri Correctional Officers Association with a funding shortfall as it negotiates a new contract with the state for 5,000-plus guards and sergeants...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A southwest Missouri family that saw its application to grow medical marijuana rejected is now suing the state, demanding a license to participate in Missouri's fledgling medical cannabis industry. The lawsuit filed Friday by Paul Callicoat and his family of Sarcoxie, Missouri, came a day after the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services granted 60 licenses from the more than 500 companies that applied. ...

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- In time for the 2020 growing season, Missouri farmers will be able to grow industrial hemp. Producers will first need to obtain a permit from the Missouri Department of Agriculture, according to St. Louis Public Radio. The online applications will begin to be processed Thursday...