Friends,
Your statehouse MPANews service is back.
Please welcome Rebecca Berg who will be our editor for the service this fall. Rebecca has been a student of mine for the last two semesters. She was the lead reporter in what I consider to be the outstanding series last fall on the underlying environmental issues involved with the Lake of the Ozarks pollution controversy.
I've got a pretty large crop of reporters for the fall, so I'm pretty excited about what we can provide.
One new feature Rebecca and I plan to implement starting next week will be a short roundup of the weekly developments with each of the candidates for statewide office -- major policy announcements, new ads, travel, etc. It's a new approach, so I suspect it will evolve during the campaign season. And, as always, feel free to let me know (prb@mdn.org) what you would like changed or added. I have one reporter assigned to each of the candidates.
Also, like we did for the 2008 campaigns, we're going to produce indepth features on major issues before the state and nation (budget crisis, Afghanistan, robo calls, dog breeders, earnings tax, federal health care implementation, energy). With each feature, we'll include a short summary of the candidates' positions.
Again, feel free to email me or Rebecca (rebecca.g.berg@gmail.com). Or give us a call at 573-751-2888. This service represents a commitment by the Missouri School of Journalism to our Missouri newspapers, so let us know what we can do to improve. Or, what we've done well -- it really does help boost student morale.
Phill
Missouri schools aren't keeping pace with their national peers, Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro said Monday.
Nicastro spoke at a meeting of the Missouri Public Education Vision Project in Jefferson City, where representatives from 80 school districts gathered to discuss the future of the state's schools.
On a national scale Nicastro said Missouri falls "in the middle of the pack," reporting grades of C's and D's on assessments.
Nicastro suggested improving performance by developing programs for early childhood education and better preparing high school students for college.
For the first time in about three years, Missouri had some positive news about revenue for state government -- tax collections showed an upswing for the month of August.
It was not much of an increase (0.8 percent in August compared to August of 2009), but it was an increase.
On the other hand, revenue collections for the first two months of the fiscal year remain below last year.
The state's intake of revenue declined this year by 1.4 percent, down from $1.06 billion to $1.04 billion, Missouri Budget Director Linda Luebbering announced Thursday (Sept. 2)
The state's budget for the current budget year is based on a 2.3 percent increase by the time the fiscal year ends June 30, 2011.
Missouri voters will decide in November whether taxes can be applied to the transfer of real estate.
A Cole County circuit judge ruled Monday (Aug. 30) in favor of placing the issue on the ballot. The judge ruled supporters had gathered enough signatures, despite an earlier decision by the Secretary of State disqualifying the issue because some of the signature forms were improper.
If passed, the initiative would amend the state constitution to prohibit real estate transfer taxes imposed when a property is gifted to or purchased by a new owner.
The controversial state department head who was at the center of a pollution scandal last summer will soon be managing the fallout from water pollution of a different kind.
Natural Resources Department Director Mark Templeton, whose reputation was tainted by high E. coli levels in the Lake of the Ozarks last summer, has been selected to head the Office of Independent Trustees of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, it was announced Monday (Aug. 30).
As executive director of the trust, Templeton will be responsible for managing the money to be distributed to victims of the Gulf oil spill.
In September 2009, Templeton was suspended without pay for two weeks by Gov. Jay Nixon for providing the governor's office with incorrect information about beach closures at the Lake of the Ozarks.
Templeton's resignation took effect Wednesday. The position of director will be assumed temporarily by Kip Stetzler, a former Nixon aide, pending a nationwide search for a permanent replacement.
Five companies competing for Missouri's last remaining casino license submitted proposals by Wednesday's deadline, Sept. 1.
The proposals included plans for casinos in or near St. Louis, Cape Girardeau and Kansas City.
The Missouri Gaming Commission is expected to make the documents public next week, spokeswoman LeAnn McCarthy said.
The state will likely select a candidate by the end of the year.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced plans Wednesday (Sept. 1) for a comprehensive review of the state's domestic violence laws by a legislative task force.
"[We want to] make sure that there are the best possible set of laws on the books and we'll make recommendations to the general assembly for the next session in January," Koster said.
The task force, which is comprised of Democratic legislators from across the state, has meetings planned in St. Louis, Columbia and Kansas City.
Koster said he invited some Republican legislators, but none were available to serve on the task force.
The domestic violence statute currently on the books has not been updated in 30 years, Koster said.
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[Missouri Digital News is produced by the State Government Reporting Program of the Missouri School of Journalism (home of the The Journalist's Creed) with support from the Missouri Press Association, the Missouri Broadcasters' Association, KMOX Radio in St. Louis and KSMU Radio in Springfield.
MDN was designed and is managed by Phill Brooks] |
