State News

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.-- Missouri's Republican-led Legislature passed a high-profile measure to ban local enforcement of federal gun laws with just an hour to spare before lawmakers' 6 p.m. Friday deadline. The GOP-led House voted 111-42 along party lines to send the firearms bill to Republican Gov. Mike Parson...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — College athletes could cash in on their fame, but students also could face higher tuition rates as a result of legislation that won final approval Friday in Missouri. The bill would add Missouri to a growing list of states enacting laws that would allow student athletes to earn money for autographs, sponsorships or other uses of their names, images, likenesses or athletic reputations...

Gas shortages at the pumps have spread from the South, all but emptying stations in Washington, D.C., following a ransomware cyberattack that forced a shutdown of the nation's largest gasoline pipeline. Though the pipeline operator paid a ransom, restoring service was taking time...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Gov. Mike Parson dropped plans Thursday to expand the state’s Medicaid health care program to thousands of low-income adults after the Republican-led Legislature refused to provide funding for the voter-approved measure...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri’s Legislature on Thursday passed a wide-ranging bill that would, among other things, limit when police may use chokeholds, in an effort to respond to the outcry over police violence. The Republican-led House voted 140-4 to send the bill to Gov. Mike Parson, a former sheriff...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The identity of Missouri Lottery winners could be kept secret under legislation sent to Gov. Mike Parson reversing the state’s current policy of publicizing winners. The bill, which received final approval Wednesday in the Senate, would make it a misdemeanor for the lottery or its contractors to publicize the identity of lottery winners, unless the winners ask for their names to be made known. The bill previously passed the House...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri would gain greater oversight of unlicensed residential care facilities for children under legislation that won final approval Thursday following allegations of long-running abuse at some boarding schools. The legislation, which now goes to Gov. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri's gas tax could soon rise for the first time in 25 years after the state's Republican-led Legislature passed a gradual increase projected to raise hundreds of millions of new dollars for roads and bridges. Republican Gov. Mike Parson, who has made infrastructure a priority, praised lawmakers Wednesday for shepherding the contentious measure to passage and indicated he is likely to sign it into law...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri lawmakers pushed back Wednesday against local coronavirus restrictions, passing legislation limiting the duration of public health orders that have shut down businesses and schools and limited how many people can gather...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A small group of Missouri lawmakers on Wednesday asked fellow Republican Gov. Mike Parson to call a special session on state election laws. Seven Republicans on the House's elections committee wrote in a letter to Parson they're worried election law priorities won't pass by lawmakers' Friday deadline...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The GOP Legislature on Wednesday passed bills that would require out-of-state online stores to collect sales taxes on Missourians' purchases. The House and Senate passed slightly different versions of the proposal. Both bills still need at least another vote to go to Gov. Mike Parson's desk by lawmakers' Friday deadline...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Senate on Wednesday voted to limit when police can use chokeholds in a rare step by state lawmakers to take action in response to police violence. The bill's 31-2 bipartisan passage in the GOP-led Senate came just days before lawmakers' Friday deadline to send legislation to Gov. Mike Parson, a former sheriff...

ST. LOUIS — A federal judge says St. Louis County cannot enforce ordinances targeting panhandlers and violating their free-speech rights, and has awarded $150,000 to a homeless man who was cited 31 times. Robert Fernandez has also been arrested four times in the county for soliciting without a license...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Gov. Mike Parson on Tuesday announced the state is cutting off all federal pandemic unemployment benefits in an attempt to push people back to work. Parson said those federal benefits will end for Missourians June 12. The Republican governor said he hopes cutting those benefits will drive people back to work and address a labor shortage in the state...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri House in an unusual move Tuesday passed a pared-down school voucher bill after a similar measure when to the governor's desk last week. The main provisions of both bills would create a tax credit program to pay for kids to go to K-12 private schools...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri House in an unusual move Tuesday passed a pared-down school voucher bill after a similar measure went to the governor's desk last week. The main provisions of both bills would create a tax credit program to pay for children to go to K-12 private schools...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The fate of a wide-ranging law enforcement reform bill was in question Tuesday after Gov. Mike Parson threatened to veto it over a provision giving lawmakers the power to issue subpoenas requiring people to testify before legislative committees...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging St. Louis County's COVID-19 restrictions, citing concerns about their impact on religion, education and the freedom of residents. The lawsuit filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court names County Executive Sam Page, the county's health department and its director, Dr. Faisal Khan. It seeks an injunction to end the restrictions...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri is closer than ever to joining every other state in having a statewide prescription drug database, after the House on Tuesday sent a bill that would create one to Gov. Mike Parson for consideration. The GOP-led House voted 91-64 in favor of the bill, which would enable a statewide database that provides physicians and pharmacists with a patient's prescription history so they can intervene with medical help for those who might be struggling with addiction...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri will get nearly $2.7 billion of flexible federal aid under a coronavirus relief law, but it isn't in any rush to spend it. Under guidelines released Monday by the U.S. Treasury Department, states can start applying immediately for at least half of their share of funding under the law signed earlier this year by President Joe Biden. States could start receiving money this month...

WELDON SPRING, Mo. -- A hiker was accidentally shot by a turkey hunter in the St. Louis area Saturday, authorities said. The shooting happened on the Lewis and Clark Trail in the Weldon Spring Conservation Area around 12:30 p.m. Saturday, St. Charles County Police Department spokeswoman Val Joyner said...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri House on Thursday voted in favor of creating "Rush Limbaugh Day." The GOP-led House tacked the provision on another bill, which then passed the chamber. The bill still needs Senate approval. The proposal is one of several pitched by Republican state lawmakers to honor the late Limbaugh every Jan. 12, his birthday...

The Office of the New York Attorney General said in a new report that a campaign funded by the broadband industry submitted millions of fake comments supporting the 2017 repeal of net neutrality. The Federal Communications Commission's contentious 2017 repeal undid Obama-era rules that barred internet service providers from slowing or blocking websites and apps or charging companies more for faster speeds to consumers. The industry had sued to stop these rules before they were repealed but lost...

David Barklage, a political consultant and lobbyist whose clients have included several prominent Republicans in state government, has been indicted on a felony tax charge. The indictment handed up in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on April 28 and unsealed Thursday alleges Barklage of Cape Girardeau failed to report $443,633 in income from 2012 through 2014. As a result, according to the indictment, he failed to pay $151,843 in taxes...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The Missouri House on Tuesday voted in favor of barring state and local officials from putting any restrictions on businesses, churches or other non-public entities during public health emergencies, except in certain circumstances. The Republican-led House voted 117-23 to send the bill to the Senate ahead of a May 14 deadline to pass legislation. ...

An avowed antisemite who testified he wanted to kill Jews and was sentenced to death after he shot and killed three people at Jewish sites in suburban Kansas City in 2014 has died in prison, the Kansas Department of Corrections said Tuesday. Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., 80, died Monday at the El Dorado Correctional Facility, where he was serving a sentence for capital murder, attempted murder, assault and firearms convictions...

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri lawmakers recently shut down attempts to pay for Medicaid expansion, in what is the latest example of a statehouse fighting to undo voter-enacted polices. Critics argued during a contentious debate in the state Senate on Thursday that voters didn't understand the potential cost of the federal health insurance program. ...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Vaccination rates vary widely across Missouri and Kansas as officials work to persuade more people to get the coronavirus shots. Statistics on the vaccination campaign show some communities making good progress distributing the shots while other, often rural areas, lag behind. In Missouri, a 33-percentage point gap exists between the county with the highest vaccination rate and the lowest. In Kansas, that gap is 26 percentage points...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The Missouri Senate on Wednesday voted against paying to expand Medicaid as called for by voters last year. The late-night Senate vote locked in the House's decision to refuse funding for the program, likely setting up a court battle with supporters of greater access to health care...

ST. LOUIS — Missouri has reported just 14 breakthrough COVID-19 cases among people who are fully vaccinated to federal health officials, even though 96 such cases have been detected in just the state's largest county. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked states at the start of this month to instruct local health departments and health systems to collect real-time information on "breakthrough infections."...

CHARLESTON, Mo. — Relatives of a Black man from Tennessee who died in a Mississippi County Jail in 2017 have been asked to accept $2.5 million to settle a lawsuit, court filings show, but the family's attorney says no settlement is pending. The City of Charleston agreed earlier this month to pay $500,000 to the family of Tony Sanders, of Nashville, who died in the Mississippi County Jail after a white sheriff pinned his neck to the ground with his knee for several minutes...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri House on Thursday advanced a bill to limit pandemic-related lawsuits, a top priority for Republican Gov. Mike Parson. The GOP-led House gave the proposal initial approval in a voice vote. It's unclear whether the bill will make it to the governor's desk by lawmakers' mid-May deadline to pass bills. The measure still needs another vote of approval in the House before it can move to the Senate for consideration...

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- A St. Joseph man reportedly used peanuts to try and hurt his mother's boyfriend, who has a severe peanut allergy, prosecutors said. Jacob Andes, 27, was charged Wednesday with assault, the Camden County prosecuting attorney said in a news release...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- One in 10 Missouri teachers are thinking about calling it quits after a challenging year of pandemic education, a recent survey found. Researchers with Missouri State University's College of Education sent out the survey to each of the 67,000 public school educators with an email on file with the state and 8,040 responded in mid-February. Of those planning to retire or resign, 62% cited the pandemic as their reason, the Springfield News-Leader reported...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Senate has tabled a bill to invalidate federal gun laws after pushback from Democrats who said the proposal would threaten partnerships between local and federal authorities. The bill seeks to invalidate federal laws or other actions deemed to infringe on a person's Second Amendment right to bear arms, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A Missouri House committee has unanimously endorsed a proposal to increase Missouri's gasoline tax, sending the measure to the full House, where some Republicans oppose raising taxes. The House Transportation Committee voted 13-0 Monday to approve raising the gas tax 12.5 cents during the next five years, resulting in a tax of 29.5 cents per gallon. It would be the first increase since 1996. Missouri's current tax of 17 cents a gallon is among the lowest in the nation...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- The number of Missourians who have been infected with the coronavirus has topped the half-million mark. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services on Tuesday cited 524 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 500,071. ...

Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, questioned the need for widespread COVID-19 vaccinations, saying in a radio interview "what do you care if your neighbor has one or not?" Johnson made the comments Thursday during an interview with conservative talk radio host Vicki McKenna. ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The Missouri House on Wednesday ousted a lawmaker accused of sexually and physically abusing his children years ago. The Republican-led House voted almost unanimously to kick out Rick Roeber, a Republican from Lee's Summit who was elected in November to represent his suburban Kansas City district...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A Missouri Senate budget committee on Wednesday voted against funding Medicaid expansion. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 7-7 on a Republican-sponsored proposal setting money aside to pay for the program. The tied vote meant the proposal failed...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Doses of the COVID-19 vaccine sent to rural areas of Missouri at the beginning of the state's immunization campaign often didn't reach locals, state data shows. That means vaccinations in parts of largely rural southern Missouri have stalled at some of the lowest rates in the country, even though rural areas initially received more doses per person than cities, KCUR-FM reported...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Mike Parson said Thursday he hopes to name a new state health director quickly to rebuild the agency after parting ways with the man who had led it throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The governor's office announced the resignation Tuesday of Department of Health and Senior Services director Randall Williams without providing any specific reason for his departure...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Transgender girls would be banned from playing on girls' sports teams under a bill that advanced Wednesday in the Missouri House. House lawmakers voted 100-51 to add the provision to another bill, sidestepping the more-typical process requiring approval from several committees...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri's Republican-led House on Monday passed a bill allowing guns in churches and on public transportation. House lawmakers voted 109-36 in favor of the proposal, which now goes to the GOP-led Senate for consideration. Currently, people need permission from religious leaders to bring firearms into places of religious worship in Missouri...

Missouri is preparing to launch a $5 million ad campaign to urge residents to get the coronavirus vaccine as appointment times begin to go unfilled in some places even though the state expanded eligibility to everyone age 16 or older. Called Stronger Together, the campaign will begin next month and will provide vaccination information through radio, TV, print and social media messages...