State News

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The government says several people are targets of a criminal investigation into the tourist boat that sank in July, killing 17 people. The Kansas City Star reported prosecutors state in a court filing Friday in a civil case the investigation of Ripley Entertainment and other individuals remains ongoing after the boat's captain was criminally charged. Kenneth Scott McKee has pleaded not guilty of negligence in operating a boat in unsafe conditions at Table Rock Lake...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A former coach and a choreographer for a high school dance team in Kansas are denying allegations they prevented a black student from performing during an event because her skin was "too dark" and clashed with the costumes. Former student Camille Sturdivant leveled the accusations in a lawsuit against the Blue Valley School District, saying she faced racial discrimination and was ostracized after complaining about how she was treated before graduating in 2018...

MARION, Ill. -- A southern Illinois man has been charged in the death of a 62-year-old Marion man whose body was found in his home. Ernest Alex Pulliam of rural Williamson County was arrested Tuesday in Cape Girardeau and charged with first-degree murder in the death of Donald R. Schultz. The victim's body was found Saturday...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The attorney for a former Missouri sheriff's deputy and correctional officer sentenced to death for a double killing told Missouri Supreme Court judges during Wednesday arguments his client should get a new trial because prosecutors bungled the case...

FULTON, Mo. -- The Missouri museum honoring Winston Churchill will mark its 50th anniversary in May with events including relatives of the famed British prime minister. Relatives of presidents Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon also are scheduled to take part in the celebration May 3 to 5 at the National Churchill Museum on the campus of Westminster College in Fulton, the town where Churchill delivered his famous "Iron Curtain" speech in 1946...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Now that Missouri is entering the medical marijuana industry, two Democratic lawmakers from Kansas City want to give businesses owned by women and minorities a slight edge in entering the market. The Kansas City Star reported the virtually identical proposals by Rep. Barbara Washington and Sen. Kiki Curls give minority- and women-owned businesses a 10 percent bonus when the state scores license applications on a variety of measurements...

ST. LOUIS -- An undercover St. Louis police officer reported his colleagues beat him "like Rodney King" when they mistook him for a protester following the acquittal of a white former officer in the fatal shooting of a black man, according to newly released court documents...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Conservation officials say eight people were shot, three of them fatally, during the 2018 fall deer and turkey hunting seasons. The Springfield News- Leader reported the Missouri Department of Conservation said two of the fatal shootings happened at hunting camps and the third happened in the field. ...

ST. LOUIS -- Recreational use of marijuana is illegal in Missouri, but for about one-third of the state's residents, it's a crime prosecutors won't pursue. Over the past seven months, prosecutors in St. Louis city, Jackson County and most recently St. Louis County have all announced they will no longer prosecute most low-level marijuana possession cases...

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis County NAACP wants a news station to fire a newscaster for what he said was an unintentional racial slur while mentioning Martin Luther King Jr. On Jan. 17, KTVI newscaster Kevin Steincross was discussing a tribute to King when he said "Martin Luther coon Jr." He apologized shortly afterward, saying he accidentally misspoke...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missourians will get February food stamps early because of the federal government shutdown. The Department of Social Services announced participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will get payments by Sunday...

ST. LOUIS -- U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley plans to move his family to a suburb of Washington D.C., but will keep a Missouri home in Springfield. Hawley's spokeswoman, Kelli Ford, said in a statement Thursday that Hawley and his wife decided to move with their two young sons to Washington so they could be together while the Senate is in session...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas City couple claims in a federal lawsuit state requirements for foster parents who own guns violate their constitutional rights. Foster parents in Missouri are not prohibited from possessing firearms if they are otherwise legally allowed to do so. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri Gov. Mike Parson wants to downsize the Department of Economic Development and move several hundred staffers to the Department of Higher Education. The Republican governor on Thursday signed executive orders for the state government reorganization...

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis' Gateway Arch is among many national parks forced to shutter and sideline federal workers during the partial government shutdown, but the towering attraction's closure is also hurting private tourism workers and nonprofits. Partners of the Gateway Arch National Park estimate they've collectively lost more than $600,000 in revenue since Dec. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is proposing a $351 million bond to repair or replace 250 bridges across the state, a pitch he made to lawmakers Wednesday during his first State of the State speech since taking over when his predecessor resigned in scandal last year...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A University of Missouri-Kansas City professor has resigned after being accused of coercing foreign graduate students to perform work and personal tasks for him...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A former student alleges in a lawsuit that Drury University didn't protect her after she was sexually assaulted in a university dorm room...

ST. LOUIS -- Missouri's former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill has a new job as a network political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. "Morning Joe" hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski made the announcement Tuesday morning during an interview with McCaskill on the MSNBC show. NBC St. Louis affiliate KSDK-TV reported McCaskill said she would bring her experience from the Senate and "won't hold back."...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri House lawmakers Tuesday voted against protections for LGBT staffers and gave themselves the option to make some of their emails confidential, despite a voter-approved requirement for transparency. House members changed their records policy as part of a broader package of internal House rules for the 2019 legislative session, which began last week. The new policy deals with lawmakers' documents on party strategy and correspondence with constituents...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Rethinking the benefit of prisons, Missouri House leaders are backing legislation that could effectively undo mandatory minimum sentencing laws for many nonviolent criminals. The Missouri legislation reflects a national trend toward more lenient prison terms for some drug offenders and other low-level criminals, as governments shift toward alternative strategies that focus more specifically on rehabilitation...

WARRENTON, Mo. -- A school district in eastern Missouri has voted to adopt a four-day week schedule, joining a growing trend across the state. The Warren County School District will begin holding classes Tuesday through Friday and extend the school day by 33 minutes for the 2019-2020 school year, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Supervision still will be made available for students on Mondays, with breakfast and lunch provided...

BRANSON, Mo. -- The Missouri city where 17 people died in a tour boat accident last year plans to honor the victims somehow but is still determining how to do so. A Branson businessman in September proposed building a lighthouse-shaped monument to the victims of the July 19 duck boat accident on nearby Table Rock Lake. ...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Tens of thousands remained without power and dozens of schools canceled classes Monday after a deadly winter blast. The storm hit the Midwest region Friday, dumping more than a foot of snow across parts of Missouri. Authorities say at least three died in Missouri and two in Kansas on snow-covered roads...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Up to 15,000 paroled inmates who were sent back to jail for parole violations could be eligible for relief after a federal judge certified as a class action a lawsuit arguing the inmates were re-incarcerated without hearings or legal representation...

HUMANSVILLE, Mo. -- For members of a polygamous community of about 400 people in rural Missouri, their enclave has always been the promised land. Known as "The Ranch" to its residents and as "The Compound" to people in neighboring towns, the group still practices plural marriage 35 years after it was established on a 600-acre property between the towns of Humansville and Stockton in southwest Missouri, according to a report by The Salt Lake Tribune in collaboration with The Guardian that shined a new spotlight on the little-known community.. ...

ST. LOUIS -- The Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association is planning what it calls the state's largest medical marijuana trade conference in March. The trade show, called MoCannBizCon+ Expo will be held March 11 and 12 at Union Station in St. Louis...

ST. LOUIS -- A onetime St. Louis County tax preparer who admitted to filing nearly 100 false returns has pleaded guilty to a federal charge. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Rennell Mace entered the plea Wednesday. It states he filed returns with false wage amounts to claim earned income tax credits for clients or false educational expenses to receive tax credits. Mace now lives in the Atlanta area...

LEADWOOD, Mo. -- Authorities say an officer has shot and killed an armed man in eastern Missouri after he raised his weapon as SWAT team members executed a search warrant. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the shooting happened Tuesday morning at a home in the Leadwood area. The Missouri State Highway Patrol says the warrant stems from an investigation of drugs and weapons offenses...

CAMDENTON, Mo. -- The five-month-long hunt for a missing Missouri boy who is the subject of a custody dispute has ended after sheriff's officials found the 6-year-old hidden in an attic crawl space. The Camden County Sheriff's office said in a news release that officers found Braedence Jones and his mother Aubrey Ferguson on Tuesday in the crawl space at a home in rural Laclede County in southwest Missouri...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri General Assembly began its historic 100th edition Wednesday with a new slate of leaders who touted an agenda focused on promoting good schools and good jobs. Republicans in charge of the Capitol also encouraged a more peaceable assembly, a year after a gubernatorial scandal and a chain-reaction of resignations resulted in widespread upheaval among those guiding the state...

CLAYTON, Mo. -- New St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell is wasting no time implementing changes in how the county approaches crime. But so far he's not ready to address his biggest issue: whether to reopen the investigation of the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt argues in a brief filed with the Missouri Supreme Court courts should change the way the cost of incarceration -- commonly called board bills -- is collected from indigent inmates. In a brief filed Monday, Schmitt argued collecting board bills as court costs creates modern day debtors prisons. Indigent inmates who can't pay their board bills as court costs can be returned to prison, adding to their debts...

PEVELY, Mo. -- An eastern Missouri police chief has been put on paid leave while a domestic assault allegation is investigated. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Pevely Mayor Stephanie Haas announced Monday night police chief Charles "Tony" Moutray is off the job and an attorney has been hired to investigate...

ST. LOUIS -- A Missouri school district that includes students from Ferguson must change its board member election method after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal. The Supreme Court let stand a July ruling from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals panel sided with a federal judge who in 2017 ordered the Ferguson-Florissant School District to adopt cumulative voting, saying the district's at-large election method violated the federal Voting Rights Act...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri tax revenue was down 2.9 percent through the first half of the fiscal year, but budget officials expect that to rebound in the coming months. Missouri took in $4.3 billion in net general revenue from July through December, which covered the first six months of the 2019 budget year. That was down $128 million from the previous fiscal year...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri lawmakers will consider whether to collect sales taxes on online purchases, allow sports gambling and overhaul legislative redistricting when they return for the start of the 2019 session. Actions by the U.S. Supreme Court and Missouri voters last year are dictating top issues for the Republican-led Legislature during the roughly five-month annual session, which starts Wednesday...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Mike Parson's administration received strong public pushback over a proposal to allow weapons in the Missouri Capitol. All 50 comments that came in between mid-November and mid-December said firearms should not be allowed in the Capitol, even if the owners had concealed-carry permits, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported...

ST. LOUIS -- Railway commuters traveling between St. Louis and Chicago have not seen faster rail journeys, despite most of the Amtrak corridor's $1.95 billion upgrade concluding a year ago. Delays in installing and testing new GPS-related safety technology kept Amtrak trains from hitting high speeds of 90 mph during 2018, as the Illinois Department of Transportation originally projected, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Trains are not allowed to travel faster than 79-mph on the route...

FREEBURG, Ill. -- The owner of a southwestern Illinois farm is breeding Arabian horses in a bid to sell the animals to buyers in Saudi Arabia. Rodger Davis owns the 300-acre Riding Center near Freeburg, just east of St. Louis. Davis told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he's been meeting with Saudi officials in hopes of striking a long-term business deal to breed his horses with the country's dwindling stock...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- State education officials said results of tests given to Missouri public school students in April and May will be released Feb. 1. The Springfield News- Leader reported reading and math scores previously were released to the public as early as August. The tests are intended to give a snapshot of academic achievement at the grade, subject, school, district and state levels...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A political consultant directed state employees during the early days of now-resigned Republican Gov. Eric Greitens' administration, according to records obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Emails from Greitens' team spanning from his transition to governor through the first several weeks of his tenure show his senior adviser, Austin Chambers, approved policy roll-outs, received drafts of Greitens' State of the State address and had access to pending media inquiries. ...

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis County police chief has proposed a consolidation of city and county police departments. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported St. Louis County police chief Jon Belmar's combined department would have 2,654 commissioned officers. The city now has 1,328 and the county has 1,006 officers. The proposal states the focus would be to "secure the downtown and central corridor."...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Republican Eric Schmitt took the oath Thursday as Missouri's attorney general, pledging to pursue issues such as the opioid epidemic and vowing neither he nor his staff would use a message-deleting app on work phones. Missouri Chief Justice Zel Fischer gave Schmitt, 42, the oath of office in the Jefferson City Supreme Court building as his wife and three children surrounded him...

BERTRAND, Mo. -- Authorities say two people were killed in a crash in Southeast Missouri. The single-vehicle crash was reported around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday on Interstate 57 in Mississippi County. Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Clark Parrott said southbound lanes of the interstate were closed temporarily so a helicopter could land and take a child who survived to Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The interstate reopened just before 10:30 a.m. Wednesday...

NEW ORLEANS -- Few experiences capture old New Orleans and the Mississippi River quite like a paddlewheel riverboat coming round the muddy bend with its tooting whistle horn, towering smoke stacks and water-churning propeller. This month the first new riverboat in more than a decade is set to launch in this Louisiana port city. ...

ST. LOUIS -- Vermont's population is among the smallest in the U.S., but a study from United Van Lines indicate people are moving to the New England state. The suburban St. Louis-based moving company Wednesday released its 42nd annual National Movers Study, which tracks customers' state-to-state migration patterns...

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis County's new prosecuting attorney is shaking up his staff and instituting new policies just two days into the job, his spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday, and a veteran assistant prosecutor who presented evidence to the grand jury after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson is reportedly among those let go...

OMAHA, Neb. -- Business conditions improved last month in nine Midwest and Plains states despite shortages of skilled workers, according to a monthly survey report issued Wednesday. The Mid-America Business Conditions Index rose to 55.2 in December from 54.1 in November, the report said. The October reading was 54.9. Survey organizers said any score above 50 suggests growth...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Longstanding errors in tax withholding tables that were corrected in September could cost thousands of Missouri taxpayers on their state income tax returns for 2018, according to state officials. Residents who expect to receive a modest refund on state income taxes could instead owe the state money, and those who do receive a refund could have it reduced by as much as 90 percent, The Columbia Daily Tribune reported...