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Missouri Senate-House bill boosts protections for police, punishment for protests The House and Senate will soon confer on a bill to boost protections for police officers and to boost penalties for repeated protesting in public streets. Senate Bill 26, deemed “the public safety bill of the session” by supporters, also comes with an array of amendments tacked on by the House Tuesday. The original bill by St. Charles County Senator Bill Eigel creates detailed conditions for a police conduct investigation, deters defunding of police departments and bans probation for a crime if a first respo...

Randall Williams, testifies before a Missouri legislative committee. (Photo by Tim Bommel of the Missouri state House staff) Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is refusing to release Williams’ resignation letter despite routine releases of such letters in past administrations A week out from Randall Williams’ resignation as Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s health director, there remains little clarity on what spurred his sudden departure. On Monday, the governor’s office refused to release a copy of Williams’ resignation letter, arguing that it was considered a closed record under the state’s ...

The face of Missouri’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic resigns © Tim Bommel /MissouriNet Dr. Randall Williams The face of Missouri’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis – Dr. Randall Williams – resigned on Tuesday, according to Gov. Mike Parson’s office. Parson said he accepted Williams’ resignation. Parson said he appointed Deputy Chief of Staff Robert Knodell as the Acting Director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Sign up for our Newsletters No reason was given why Williams resigned. Parson’s office said Knodell has served as Deputy Chief of Staff to ...

/ Missouri could implement a three-week period when a voter could cast an absentee ballot in person for any reason. Lawmakers could be chipping away at Missouri’s excuse-based absentee ballot system by creating a three-week period in which voters can cast their ballots early in person. But even though that proposal appears to have momentum, some election officials believe that the idea is still too restrictive — and largely keeps in place an ineffective excuse-based system that scares voters from casting absentee ballots. In order to cast an absentee ballot in Missouri, a voter has to che...

/ Missouri House Budget Chair Cody Smith, R-Carthage, presents the state's spending plan for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. The Missouri House of Representatives passed its version of the $34.6 billion state budget on Thursday, leaving out funding for the voter-approved expansion of Medicaid. It was a move that was expected after the Republicans on the Budget Committee unanimously voted down a bill to fund expansion last week. Budget Chair Cody Smith, R-Carthage, had previously segregated Medicaid expansion funding in a separate bill. He said he made the decision because it was a com...