MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
Members of the House Judiciary Committee gave a cold reception to legislation that would ban lobbyists from giving lawmakers gifts, food or drinks.
Several members said they thought the provisions were too strict.
Although the idea has been proposed in past years, it's gotten increased attention this year with the rise of a new block of leaders in the House.
House Speaker Steve Gaw has not endorsed the bill, but has said he thinks the proposal should come before the full House for debate.
Legislation to legalize concealed weapons cleared the Senate Civil Justice Committee.
Bill Sponsor Danny Staples said early committee approval made it possible to begin full Senate debate as early as the first week in February.
The bill is similar to the measure that has died in the closing days of the legislative session the past two years.
The version approved by committee does NOT require voter approval.
Last year, Gov. Mel Carnahan had warned he would veto the bill unless it were submitted to the voters.
State GOP chairman Woody Cozad met privately with the two leading candidates for the GOP nomination for governor in an apparent effort to assure a degree of harmony within the party.
State Auditor Margaret Kelly and State Sen. Bill Kenney both emerged from the meeting saying they did not intend to drop out of the race.
But Cozad said they had agreed to avoid a negative campaign.
House Speaker Steve Gaw has appointed a bi-partisan committee to review House member requests for travel funding.
Legislators will be required to get prior committee approval for travel expenses to be reimbursed. In addition, the committee plans to draft standards for what will be and what will not be financed with House funds.
Gaw's action follows stories alledging travel abuses by House members, although the House speaker said those stories were not the primary reason for his action.
In the past, House travel funding decisions were made by the House speaker. Gaw still will retain final say over a member's request, but the speaker said he does not expect to overrule his committee's recommendation.
Gaw said his own travel reimbursement will be subjected to the committee's review.
Bob Griffin is gone from the Missouri House.
Just a couple of weeks after he stepped down as House speaker, Griffin resigned his legislative seat after a short speech to the House.
Griffin had been speaker 15 years, longer than anybody else in the state's history.
His last few years had been marred by growing charges that he had concentrated too much power in his office and a continuing federal criminal investigation into his legal work with riverboat gambling.
For more details see Former House Speaker Bob Griffin resigns.
The Senate Judiciary heard emotional testimoney on both sides of the abortion controversy.
The committee held hearings on a nearly identical version of the abortion-counseling bill that the governor had vetoed last year.
In a change from last year, an official from the state's Health Department appeared before the committee to present the agency's formal opposition to the proposal. For more details on developments with abortion during the week, seek:
The House has given preliminary approval to a measure that would retain the federally-mandated speed limits for urban and two-lane highways.
The House rejected an amendment that would have imposed a limit on trucks 5 mph. lower than the limit for cars.
Limits on rural four-lane highways would return to what they had been prior to the federal law - 70 mph. on Interstates and 65 on other four-lane highways.
The pre-federal-law limits will return for all highways unless the legislature approves lower limits. The govenror has recommended lower limits be retained for urban and two-lane roads.
A similar measure has stalled in the Senate.
For more details, see
House Sepaker Steve Gaw emphasized legislative reform in his inaugural address to the House.
Gaw creation of legislative committee to review lawmakers' travel expenses and creation of an ethics committee to review ethical charges against lawmakers.
Gaw had delayed an inaugural speech when he was elected two weeks ago saying his election was so sudden and unexpected that he needed time to think about his speech.
For more details see:
The House version of the anti-abortion bill has been assigned to a committee controlled by abortion opponents.
The measure would require women to contact a counselor before an abortion could be performed.
The bill was assigned by House Speaker Steve Gaw to the House Children, Youth and Families Committee. The committee chair and a majority of the committee had voted for a nearly identical proposal last year that was vetoed by the governor.
Gaw, who voted against the bill last year, said he would not use his powers as speaker to bury the bill in committee.
For more details see: