State News

A Republican congressman running for U.S. Senate in Missouri released a 30-second ad Thursday that falsely claims the 2020 election was "rigged" and "stolen" from former President Donald Trump. Billy Long, who represents a southwestern Missouri district in the U.S. House, is among several candidates seeking the GOP nomination in 2022 for the seat being vacated by Sen. Roy Blunt, who is not seeking a third term...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- So far in January, 62 Missouri school districts have closed for one or more days, largely because of a lack of staff caused by a surge in COVID-19 cases, education officials said Thursday. That number is 12% of districts statewide, said Mallory McGowin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Gov. Mike Parson in his State of the State address Wednesday proposed spending hundreds of millions of dollars to boost child care services and teacher wages as the state battles the latest COVID-19 surge. Parson asked the GOP-led Legislature for $722 million to prop up child care centers and close to $22 million for matching grants to raise teacher salaries...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri House endorsed a congressional redistricting plan Tuesday that is projected to maintain the state's Republican edge but turned back an attempt by some GOP members to more aggressively redraw districts to their advantage...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas City man released from prison after serving more than 40 years for a wrongful conviction is suing the company that provides medical care for Missouri prison inmates. Kevin Strickland alleges in his lawsuit medical care provided by Corizon LLC officials left him dependent on a wheelchair and able to stand for only brief periods, KMBC-TV reported...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A task force created to consider how to help Missouri's small businesses recover from the financial strain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic issued several recommendations Monday. The Show Me Strong Recovery Task Force, created by Gov. ...

ST. LOUIS -- COVID-19 infections are rising in Missouri nursing homes and crippling schools as the highly contagious omicron variant surges. New data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows cases among nursing home staff ballooned to 1,261, up from a peak of 981 last fall. But the 895 cases among residents is below the peak, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A state appeals court on Thursday rejected an appeal brought by Missouri Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick over wording on a proposed constitutional amendment. Fitzpatrick sued Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft in July, alleging a description Ashcroft wrote for the proposed amendment would cause people to vote against it...

NORMANDY, Mo. -- School districts struggling with staff absences because of COVID-19 are facing difficult decisions about how to provide the required number of instruction hours while being limited in the number of hours of virtual learning permitted...

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Republican lawmakers on Wednesday debated a proposal that would raise the bar for amending Missouri's Constitution, an effort that follows the success of several Democratic policies at the polls. The measure, discussed Wednesday by the state House elections committee, would require support from at least two-thirds of voters to amend Missouri's Constitution. Currently, constitutional amendments are adopted if approved by at least 51% of voters...

ST. LOUIS — Nearly 60 Missouri police chiefs are supporting a lawsuit raising concerns about a new state law forbidding local law enforcement from enforcing federal gun laws. The group of chiefs belonging to either the St. Louis Area Police Chiefs Association or the Missouri Police Chiefs Association said some of the wording in the law "has inadvertently caused confusion and raised a number of questions that hinder law enforcement's ability to defend and protect Missouri citizens," the St. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Missouri House panel advanced a congressional redistricting plan Wednesday that is projected to keep Republicans solidly in control of the state's delegation to Washington without reaching for an even more dominant advantage...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri House lawmakers on Tuesday debated bills that would ban critical race theory in K-12 schools and give parents and guardians more control over what their children learn, an issue that likely will dominate this session. One bill, considered in the House education committee, would prohibit Missouri schools from teaching critical race theory, a framework for examining the effects race and racism have on the nation's institutions...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The University of Missouri's governing board on Tuesday rejected a request from the university system's president to temporarily require masks on the Columbia campus in response to increasing cases of COVID-19. System president Mun Choi first asked the Board of Curators to enact a mask requirement in classrooms, laboratories, offices and public buildings when attendance was required and social distancing wasn't possible...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The University of Missouri has named a choral hall after musician Sheryl Crow, who graduated from the school in 1984 with a degree in music education. The Columbia Missourian reported the newly named hall is inside of the Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield Music Center...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Gov. Mike Parson's administration on Monday pushed lawmakers to approve a 5.5% state employee raise that would kick in as soon as Feb. 1. Missouri Budget Director Dan Haug asked members of the House Budget Committee for $91 million for raises this year, which includes $52 million in state funding. Parson's plan also would bring state worker pay to a minimum of $15 an hour...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The leader of Missouri's largest anti-abortion group on Monday urged state lawmakers to adopt an aggressively Republican congressional map that could leave Democrats holding just one of the state's eight U.S. House seats after the next election...

ST. LOUIS — The number of people being treated for COVID-19 across Missouri continues to set records as virus cases surge across the state and strain hospital capacity. The state Department of Health and Senior Services said 3,235 people were hospitalized with the virus statewide and about 15% of the state's hospital beds remained available. That number just topped 2,900 for the first time Friday and exceeded the record of 2,862 set in December 2020...

COLUMBIA, Mo. — A judge on Friday sentenced a Missouri man to 28 years in prison — the maximum he could impose — for the 2019 killing of his wife, whose body he buried in a state park and whose death he misled the authorities about for more than a year...

ST. LOUIS -- Increasing COVID-19 cases combined with staff shortages are straining the ability of Missouri hospitals to provide care for patients with the virus and other illnesses, according to hospital officials. Dr. Aamina Akhtar, chief medical officer for Mercy Hospital South, said patients coming to emergency rooms are sometimes waiting for days to be admitted to the hospital, or are discharged without getting proper care...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's Republican-led Legislature kicked off the 2022 annual session Wednesday amid a coronavirus surge and during an election year. Seating in House hearing rooms and the chamber is limited to curb the spread of COVID-19. Most hearings in the House and Senate are being livestreamed, with live audio or video when the chambers are in session. Masks are not required in the Capitol...

Hospital and health officials across Missouri sounded the alarm Wednesday over sharply increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases, with some saying they are seeing more confirmed cases than at any time since the coronavirus pandemic began. Leaders of Kansas City-area hospitals said in a phone conference they are trying to treat the patients and respond to an intense demand for COVID-19 testing while also facing staffing shortages...

ST. LOUIS -- The City of St. Louis has not destroyed guns seized months ago from the couple who made headlines by waving the weapons at racial injustice protesters, and the couple is trying to get them back. Robert Dierker of the City Counselor's Office told a judge during a virtual hearing Wednesday the guns taken in 2020 from Mark and Patricia McCloskey have not been disposed of, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported...

The University of Missouri System currently does not plan to join other universities across the country delaying the start of their spring semesters or returning to online-only instruction because of the surge in COVID-19 cases. Classes at the University of Missouri in Columbia start Jan. 18, and spokesman Christian Basi said the school currently doesn't anticipate any schedule changes. Furthermore, students will not be required to wear masks indoors, even if they're not vaccinated...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.-- For the first time since 2006, more than 1,000 people died in traffic crashes last year in Missouri, the state transportation department said. Preliminary data showed 1,004 people were killed in crashes last year, a 2% increase over 2020 and the second consecutive year fatalities increased after more than a decade of declining, the Missouri Department of Transportation said in a news release...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Senate President Dave Schatz and former House Speaker Elijah Haahr are expected to be deposed later this month in a lawsuit alleging a former House employee was fired for raising concerns about a lack of COVID-19 safety measures...

COLUMBIA, Mo. --Four people -- including a child -- were killed and three other children were seriously injured in a crash caused by a wrong-way driver a few miles north of Columbia, the Missouri State Highway Patrol reported. The crash happened around 7:30 p.m. Monday on Highway 63, when a car traveling south in the northbound lanes crashed head-on into a sport utility vehicle carrying six people, the Daily Tribune reported...

A firearms store and gun range in suburban Kansas City refused to let a Muslim woman use the range unless she removed her hijab, a Muslim civil rights organization alleged in a federal lawsuit. In a lawsuit filed Dec. 28, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the law firm of Baldwin & Vernon in Independence alleges the gun range at Frontier Justice in Lee's Summit enforces its dress code in a discriminatory way disproportionately affecting Muslim women...

A medical group representing most hospitals in the St. Louis region expressed disappointment Friday in Gov. Mike Parson's decision to allow Missouri's pandemic state of emergency order to expire, saying it removes flexibility that helped hospitals treat the onslaught of COVID-19 patients...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri conservation officials are considering a plan to extend the hunting season for species such as bobcats and raccoons that are typically killed for their fur. A proposal from the state Department of Conservation would extend the season for eight so-called fur-bearing species -- raccoons, opossum, coyotes, mink, muskrats, river otters, bobcats and striped skunk...

Gov. Mike Parson announced Friday that Missouri's COVID-19-related State of Emergency will expire today and not be renewed. The order had been in place since March 13, 2020. "Thanks to the effectiveness of the vaccine, widespread efforts to mitigate the virus, and our committed health care professionals, past needs to continue the state of emergency are no longer present," Parson said. ...

ST. LOUIS -- The number of daily COVID-19 cases in St. Louis has tripled since the start of December, a trend the city's health director calls "alarming." Meanwhile, people seeking to get tested for the virus are struggling to find kits in stores or appointments at testing sites. Urgent care centers and pharmacies in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas are busy, with few openings. Stores that sell home testing kits are struggling to keep them on the shelves...

The highly contagious omicron coronavirus variant has spread across much of Missouri, wastewater testing data shows. The variant has now been detected at low levels in 15 of the 63 test locations, including in St Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, Columbia, Branson, St. Joseph, Union, Clinton, Warrensburg and Fulton, said Jeff Wenzel, who oversees the wastewater surveillance program for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A House panel on Thursday agreed on two tentative plans for redrawing Missouri’s state legislative districts, while the Senate panel remained deadlocked and failed to act. House and Senate commissions, divided evenly between Republicans and Democrats, faced a Thursday deadline to tentatively redraw districts based on new census data...

CLAYTON, Mo. -- St. Louis-area health officials said Thursday that the highly transmissible omicron variant of the coronavirus appears to be fueling a surge in cases, and urged the public to avoid travel and gatherings. "The community is not as safe as it was a month ago, and you should consider that as you plan your activities," the St. Louis County health department said in a news release that encouraged vaccinations, booster shots and masking...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Three southwestern Missouri men pleaded guilty Thursday to federal misdemeanors for breaching the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The Kansas City Star reports that 45-year-old Zachary Martin and two brothers, 44-year-old Michael Quick and 49-year-old Stephen Quick, each could face up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine at sentencing on March 17. They also must pay $500 each in restitution for damage to the Capitol building. All three men are from Springfield...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- An accounting oversight board filed a complaint against Missouri's Democratic Auditor Nicole Galloway this month over critical audits of Sen. Josh Hawley's use of public money while he was state attorney general. The Missouri Board of Accountancy has been threatening to discipline Galloway, a Democrat, for months over the audit of Hawley, a Republican...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Missouri law forbidding local police from enforcing federal gun laws is hampering efforts to protect the public, federal authorities say. A court brief filed Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Justice outlines multiple examples. The brief said that after an Independence police officer was killed in a shootout in September, state law enforcement initially refused routine federal assistance in tracing the murder weapon, The Kansas City Star reported...

ST. LOUIS -- New cases and hospitalizations from COVID-19 are surging throughout Missouri, and health leaders are warning of an approaching "perfect storm" if more people don't get vaccinated and take other precautions. Missouri is seeing a seven-day average of daily new cases of more than 3,000. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A judge on Wednesday turned aside efforts by five Missouri counties to reverse his ruling stripping local health departments of the ability to impose regulations aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green issued his order 24 hours after the counties -- Jackson, St. Louis, Jefferson, Cooper and Livingston -- filed briefs asking for the right to intervene in the case...