State News

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Protesters blocked a downtown St. Louis interstate, set a fire in the road and broke into trucks during a demonstration over the death of George Floyd after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee onto Floyd's neck during an arrest. One St. Louis protester died early Saturday...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri reported another 33 COVID-19-related deaths Saturday, up 4.5% in a single day, increasing its total for the coronavirus pandemic to 771. The state Department of Health and Senior Services also said the number of coronavirus cases rose by 1.3%, up 167 cases to 12,962 as of Saturday. The department said 718 people infected with the novel coronavirus have been hospitalized...

During his Thursday media briefing, Gov. Mike Parson announced he was extending the first phase of his reopening plan through June 15. It was originally scheduled to expire Sunday. He said the decision was not because of any setback but to ensure that the state is ready to move to the next phase...

HANLEY HILLS, Mo. -- Bishop Floyd Williams knows the coronavirus has proven especially lethal in the black community, so his decision to reopen his End Times Christian Assembly in St. Louis comes with some trepidation. Still, Williams says that for his 80 parishioners, meeting together again is a risk they're willing to take. He plans to restart in-person services June 7...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Elaine Kellerman of Parkville cringes when she hears people describe the sound coming from a train's horn as "noise." "To me, the whistles of the train, they are like the song of the train," she said. "They're a call. I think they are very beautiful."...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Conservative advocacy group United for Missouri on Wednesday announced it's suing to take a proposal to expand Medicaid health care eligibility to thousands more low-income adults off the Aug. 4 ballot. The limited-government group's lawsuit against the Missouri Secretary of State's Office claims the proposal would expand the government health insurance program without coming up with a funding source to pay for it...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- The owner of a business that hosted crowded pool parties over the Memorial Day weekend at Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks says no laws were broken and safety measures were in place to protect against the spread of the coronavirus. Social media postings over the weekend showed large crowds of mostly young people without masks and not adhering to social distancing guidelines at pools along the central Missouri lake that is a popular weekend getaway for people in the state and the surrounding region. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Mike Parson on Tuesday said he's moving up the date voters will decide whether to expand Medicaid health care coverage to thousands more low-income adults in the state. Missouri ballot initiatives automatically go on the November general election ballot unless the governor acts otherwise...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Leaders in St. Louis, Kansas City and the State of Kansas urged people who partied close together at Lake of the Ozarks over the Memorial Day weekend to self-quarantine for two weeks, amid fears the gatherings documented in social media postings will lead to a resurgence of the coronavirus...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's state health director on Tuesday confirmed the state has been lumping together different coronavirus test results in a way that can be misleading, despite saying otherwise multiple times last week. The agency has been combining the results of viral tests, which detect active cases of the virus essentially from the onset of infection, with antibody tests. ...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- Missouri's health director issued a dire warning Monday after photos and video showed Memorial Day weekend revelers partying close together: The coronavirus is still here, and the spreading of illnesses could have "long-lasting and tragic" results...

ST. LOUIS -- Missouri's unemployment rate more than doubled last month due to the shutdown caused by the coronavirus, state officials said Friday. Still, Missouri's jobless rate of 9.7% was well below the national rate of 14.7%. The Missouri Department of Economic Development released its April jobs report that spelled out the devastating impact of the halt to the economy that was part of the effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus...

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. (AP) -- Chris Ott doesn't remember many of the days he spent tethered to a ventilator at Mercy Hospital South as he fought the grip of COVID-19 while in a medically induced coma. But for his family, each of the 55 days he spent at Mercy seemed to never end -- until he was finally discharged this week...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The two astronauts who will test drive SpaceX's brand new rocketship are classmates and friends, veteran spacefliers married to veteran spacefliers, and fathers of young sons. Together, they will end a nine-year drought for NASA when they blast into orbit next week from Florida's Kennedy Space Center...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Civil rights groups on Tuesday appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court after a local judge dismissed their lawsuit seeking to allow all Missourians to vote absentee in upcoming elections to help reduce the risk of catching or spreading the coronavirus...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- Restaurants and other nonessential businesses will be allowed to open their doors today in St. Louis city and county, but some people in the region worry it's still too early in the area of Missouri stung hardest by the coronavirus...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Some elected officials in Missouri and neighboring Illinois were at odds Friday as Congress considered additional aid to states because of the coronavirus. The divide mirrored a political split in Washington, where the Democratic-led U.S. House passed a $3 trillion coronavirus relief package that the Republican-led Senate seemed sure to reject...

WASHINGTON -- A Republican senator with access to some of the nation's top secrets became further entangled in a deepening FBI investigation as agents examining a well-timed sale of stocks during the coronavirus outbreak showed up at his home with a warrant to search his cellphone...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri lawmakers wrapped up their work Friday by passing bills allowing people to vote by mail because of the coronavirus and ramping up criminal penalties in response to an uptick in violent crime in the state's biggest cities...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri lawmakers rushed to pass as many bills as possible on the final day of the session Friday, after they took several weeks off work because of the coronavirus. To compensate for lost time, lawmakers crammed numerous bills together to get more policies across the finish line. Here's a breakdown of some of the major proposals approved by the Republican-led Legislature Friday...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill to ban the state from doing business with companies that boycott Israel. The GOP-led House approved the measure 95-40 on Thursday, the day before their Friday deadline to pass bills this year...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- Large events are slowly starting up again in Missouri -- a state more willing than most to permit sports, concerts and shows following the economic shutdown aimed at stemming the spread of the coronavirus -- even as some experts wonder whether it's too soon...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- Both the number of confirmed cases and deaths from the coronavirus in Missouri reached somber milestones Tuesday: Cases topped 10,000 and the number of deaths exceeded 500. The state health department reported 88 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 10,006. Thirty-six new deaths were reported. Since March, 524 people in Missouri have died from the virus...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- All Missouri hospitals would be required to offer rape kits under a bill passed by lawmakers Tuesday. Currently, not every Missouri hospital has staff trained to gather evidence of sexual assault through rape kits. Under the bill, all licensed hospitals would be required to provide rape kits by 2023...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Attorneys for the family of a Missouri nurse who died from COVID-19 filed a claim for death benefits Monday under the state's workers' compensation laws. Celia Yap-Banago, 69, died April 21 after caring for a patient with COVID-19 at Research Medical Center in Kansas City. ...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- Gov. Mike Parson said Monday he's encouraged by seeing residents returning to some semblance of normal life after weeks of shelter-in-place orders made necessary by the coronavirus. The Republican governor spent the weekend back home in southwestern Missouri and said it was good "to do some of the normal duties in life." He helped his grandson shop for his first car and took his wife to a restaurant...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Frustrated by scarce supplies and a chaotic marketplace amid the coronavirus outbreak, some U.S. governors are seeking to bolster their home-state production of vital medical and protective equipment to ensure a reliable long-term source for state stockpiles...

ST. LOUIS -- Experts aren't clear why the coronavirus is striking the state's two largest metropolitan areas so differently, although the geography of the areas might provide a clue. Johns Hopkins University reported 494 deaths and 9,900 cases in Missouri as of Sunday, with the bulk of them in the St. Louis region. As of late last week, around 470 had died in the St. Louis area, compared to about 160 in greater Kansas City, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- With graduation looming, the future is looking a lot less bright than it did just a few months ago for college seniors. They are entering a job market flooded with tens of millions of workers who have lost their jobs amid the coronavirus, The Kansas City Star reports...

LIBERTY, Mo. -- St. Louis County and Kansas City officials announced Friday that they will proceed with the gradual reopening of businesses but with several restrictions in place as efforts continue to slow the spread of the coronavirus. St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said large venues, including sports courts and playgrounds, public pools, gyms and fitness centers, and banquet rooms, will not be allowed to open May 18...

MINNEAPOLIS -- As coronavirus hotspots erupted at major U.S. meatpacking plants, experts criticized extremely tight working conditions that made the factories natural high risk contagion locations. But some Midwestern politicians have pointed the finger at the workers' living conditions, suggesting crowded homes bear some blame...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri lawmakers on Thursday agreed to try to spare colleges and universities from budget cuts despite plummeting revenue the state budget director says are unlike anything he's ever seen. Budget director Dan Haug on Thursday announced net revenue collections dropped more than 54% in April this year compared to April 2019, largely because Tax Day was delayed until July. Overall state revenue decreased more than 6% so far this year compared to the same time last year...

LIBERTY, Mo. -- More than 50,000 Missourians filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week, marking the third straight week the number has dropped, the state labor department said Thursday. A total of 495,392 people have filed unemployment claims since the week that ended March 21, when local governments began instituting "stay-at-home" orders in response to the spread of the coronavirus...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Police are investigating the death of a transgender woman in Sikeston, and an LGBTQ advocacy group is raising concerns about a rash of similar killings so far this year across the U.S. The body of 28-year-old Nina Pop was discovered Sunday night inside her apartment in Sikeston. Pop had been stabbed several times, the town's police chief, James McMillen, said Tuesday...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri state senators on Tuesday voted to spare colleges and universities from steep budget cuts despite a large decline in state revenue caused by the coronavirus. Senators voted 26-5 in favor of a higher education spending plan that would give public colleges and universities the same funding next year they were originally promised this year. Schools ended up getting less this year because Republican Gov. Mike Parson slashed their funding to balance the budget...

LIBERTY, Mo. -- Gov. Mike Parson on Tuesday continued his optimistic message about the state's reaction to the coronavirus pandemic and urged state residents to return to work if possible and support Missouri-based businesses. A day after Parson's statewide "stay-at-home" order expired and some businesses reopened, the governor encouraged Missourians to "safely re-engage in the economy" by supporting businesses while also continuing social distancing and safety measures...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Mike Parson has a simple reason for not wearing a face mask during a visit to a southwestern Missouri thrift store. "I chose not to," Parson said tersely Monday in response to a reporter's question. Parson's "stay-at-home" order ended Sunday, and businesses reopened across most of Missouri a day later, except in St. Louis, St. Louis County and Kansas City. The Republican governor spent the morning visiting several businesses in southwestern Missouri...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- The coronavirus has infected residents in nearly 80 nursing homes and assisted care facilities in Missouri, according to new information released by the state. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services on Friday, for the first time, listed information on confirmed cases at "congregate living facilities," which include those providing nursing or convalescent care. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Residents and state employees who return to state offices today will find some new requirements before they can enter government buildings, according to Sarah Steelman, commissioner of the Missouri Office of Administration. Private businesses also were allowed to reopen when Gov. Mike Parson's "stay-at-home" order expired early today...