State News

O'FALLON, Mo. -- Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced Friday no charges will be filed in the 2017 death of Tory Sanders, a Black inmate in the Mississippi County Jail who died under similar circumstances to George Floyd -- after a white law enforcement officer's knee was pressed on his neck...

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has asked the Missouri Supreme Court to restore her authority to prosecute a couple accused of wielding guns at racial injustice protesters last summer. Gardner's office on Thursday petitioned the state Supreme Court to block a judge's order disqualifying her and her office from prosecuting the case against Mark McCloskey, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported...

Newly introduced legislation to add household pets to orders of protection got a hearing before a Missouri Senate committee earlier this week. Sen. Elaine Gannon (R-3/De Soto), a 1975 graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, filed Senate Bill 71 in order to shield pets from those threatening or committing abuse against them...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Republican-led Missouri House on Wednesday passed another bill to require voter photo identification at the polls, an attempt to reinstate the policy after it was gutted by the state Supreme Court. House lawmakers voted 109-46 to send the bill to the GOP-led state Senate...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- Missouri teachers and child care providers will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination in mid-March, Gov. Mike Parson said Thursday. Parson said during his weekly media briefing the state plans to open up vaccinations to those in Phase 1B, Tier 3, effective March 15. That group involves an estimated 550,000 additional residents. The new date is about a month earlier than state leaders originally projected...

MISSION, Kan. -- When COVID-19 patients inundated St. Louis hospitals, respiratory therapists arriving for yet another grueling shift with a dwindling supply of ventilators would often glance at their assignments and cry, heading into the locker room to collect themselves...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Poor Missouri families could get money to pay for their children to go to private schools through a tax credit program given initial approval Wednesday in the state House. Under the proposal, private donors would give money to not-for-profits that in turn would dole out the scholarships. The money could be used for private school tuition, transportation to school, extra tutoring and other education-related expenses...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A Missouri judge said the wait time for some poor defendants to get legal help is unconstitutional but is giving state lawmakers time to beef up the agency's budget in hopes that will help. Circuit Judge Will Hickle in an order last week wrote a group of poor defendants likely will succeed in their class-action lawsuit against the state...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Republican-led Missouri House on Monday advanced another version of a voter photo identification law that was gutted by the state Supreme Court last year. The court in 2020 permanently blocked a central provision of the 2016 law requiring voters who lacked a photo ID to make a sworn statement in order to cast a regular, non-provisional ballot...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri protesters who repeatedly block traffic without permission could face felony charges under a bill given first-round approval in the state Senate on Tuesday. The measure follows protests last summer in the St. Louis area and across the country over the death of George Floyd, including demonstrations that blocked traffic on major highways...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A commission hearing hundreds of appeals from applicants who want licenses to grow medical marijuana has approved two applications the state previously rejected. The state Administrative Hearing Commission on Tuesday awarded Heya Kirksville and Heya Excello cultivation licenses, according to orders issued by commissioner Sreenivasa Rao Dandamudi, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri senators passed a bill Tuesday to shield hospitals, manufacturers and other businesses from lawsuits over alleged wrongdoing during the pandemic. The GOP-led Senate voted 20-13 in favor of the bill, which now goes to the Republican-led state House...

ST. LOUIS -- Several Missouri health departments are preparing to administer extra vaccinations this week, the result of postponed appointments necessitated by last week's brutal winter weather. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday the weather delayed the expected delivery of 3,000 doses to St. Louis County. County officials this week expect to receive and administer double the normal number of vaccinations. They say the existing sites have capacity, though they may need to add staff...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- The number of new Missouri coronavirus cases continued to decline Monday, but state officials cite one cause for concern: Wastewater samples indicate the fast-spreading U.K. variant is "widespread" across the state. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported 351 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths. ...

ST. LOUIS -- Some elderly and sick residents of the St. Louis area, fed up with waiting to get the call for a COVID-19 vaccination close to home, are traveling to distant places around the state to get their shot. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Butch Hartmann, 78, of Richmond Heights doesn't have a computer but is calling any phone number he can get to find a place so his longtime girlfriend can get a vaccine dose. So far, she hasn't found an appointment...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Attorneys who represent clients in the medical marijuana industry are concerned they might face discipline under a state Supreme Court directive that appears to put federal law in conflict with state law. The directive, which took effect July 1, states attorneys cannot participate in -- or advise clients how to participate in -- acts that are illegal under federal law but legal under state law. ...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- Missouri has no plans to move teachers higher on the list for COVID-19 vaccinations, instead focusing on getting shots to older people and those with serious illnesses, the state's health director said Thursday. "Those people who are more likely to get sick, and bluntly, to pass away if they get COVID, continue to be the governor's focus and my focus and all of our focus," Dr. Randall Williams said during Gov. Mike Parson's weekly media briefing...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A bill passed by the Missouri House on Thursday would put a pause on open-records requests when public agencies are closed, an attempt to ease pressure on governments during emergencies such as the coronavirus pandemic. But the measure, approved 149-1, also would cover state lawmakers who close their offices for most of the year while the Legislature is not in session. That could mean Sunshine Law requests are ignored for months...

LIBERTY, Mo. -- St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said Friday better communication about the state's COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan should help reduce frustration that erupted publicly this week between Gov. Mike Parson and some eastern Missouri health officials...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Mike Parson on Thursday signed a bill to provide more than $324 million in federal funding to Missouri renters and landlords struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. The money comes from a federal program that Congress passed in December aimed at helping tenants who have fallen behind on rent and face eviction...

POTOSI, Mo. -- Missouri wildlife officials are seeking the public's help in finding the person who shot and injured a bald eagle, which later had to be euthanized. The protected raptor was reported injured Friday when the U.S. Forest Service called Conservation Agent Jaymes Hall about the bird having been spotted in southern Washington County, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Winter weather is being blamed for crashes in Kansas and Missouri, including two fatal crashes in Missouri. The Missouri State Highway Patrol said Michael Dickison, 46, of Bolivar died Monday afternoon when he lost control of his pickup truck on the icy pavement of Highway 13 in southwestern Missouri, causing the truck to overturn before it was hit by another truck. South of St. Louis, Jimi Williams, 19, of Festus died after his car skidded and was struck by another car...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt is running for another U.S. Senate term and former Democratic state Sen. Scott Sifton is challenging him. A spokeswoman for Blunt on Monday told The Associated Press the two-term senator is planning to run shortly after Sifton announced his bid for the Senate seat...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Missouri tasked nine regional groups across the state with making sure Black and Latino communities have equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, but the effort got off to a slow start. Nearly two months into the vaccine rollout, four of the groups still aren't operational, KCUR reported Monday. Overall, just 5% of the doses in Missouri has received have gone to Black residents, even though Black people make up about 11.5% of the state's population...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The first case in the state of a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus has been recorded in northeast Missouri, state health officials said Saturday. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said in a statement the variant of the virus first identified last fall in the United Kingdom had been confirmed in a person who lives in Marion County, which is just northwest of St. Louis near the Mississippi River...

MISSION, Kan. -- Mortuary owner Brian Simmons has been making more trips to homes to pick up bodies to be cremated and embalmed since the pandemic hit. With COVID-19 devastating communities in Missouri, his two-person crews regularly arrive at homes in the Springfield area and remove bodies of people who decided to die at home rather than spend their final days in a nursing home or hospital where family visitations were prohibited during the pandemic...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- Missouri's governor and health director on Thursday warned local entities responsible for COVID-19 vaccinations to stick with the state's priority list or risk losing future distributions. Gov. Mike Parson used part of his weekly news conference to raise concerns about vaccinators going rogue and allowing some people who are not yet eligible for the vaccine to jump ahead in line. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri House on Thursday passed a bill to ban local police from enforcing federal gun laws, an effort to stymie implementation of any new federal gun restrictions enacted under President Joe Biden. The Republican-led House voted 103-43 in favor of the bill Thursday...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A Missouri state lawmaker indicted on federal fraud charges for falsely promoting a treatment as having stem cells to help with COVID-19 and other illnesses has been asked to resign. House Speaker Rob Vescovo on Wednesday said fellow Republican Rep. Tricia Derges should step down after a federal grand jury indicted the Nixa legislator on fraud charges. He removed her from all her committee assignments Monday, when the indictment against her was unsealed...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- Missouri continues to see declines in newly confirmed coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, but the death toll reached another sad milestone Tuesday, topping 7,000. The state health department cited 340 additional deaths. All but two of those were the result of the Bureau of Vital Records' weekly review of death certificates to include COVID-19-related deaths that were not previously reported by local health agencies. ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri Supreme Court Judge Laura Denvir Stith on Tuesday announced she's retiring from the state's high court. Stith, who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2001 by former Gov. Bob Holden, will step down March 8. She was only the second woman to serve on the state's seven-member high court. Stith was later joined by Judges Patricia Breckenridge and Mary Russell, who still sit on the court...

MISSION, Kan. -- A Missouri man has been arrested on charges accusing him of taking part in the storming of the U.S. Capitol and livestreaming it from inside the building. FBI agents and police in Springfield arrested Zachary Martin without incident Thursday on charges of engaging in illegal activities on Capitol grounds, disorderly conduct and demonstrating inside the Capitol, FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said in a news release...