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
A GOP-sponsored proposal to subject to legislative review Education Department standards for local schools was narrowly defeated in House Committee.
Since the beginning of the session, Republicans have been trying to force a legislative re-evaluation of the Excellence in Education law passed by the legislature a couple of years ago. For more details, see the newspaper story.
The Missouri Senate has approved a constitutional amendment to create a separate Department of Aging. See the SJR 32 Feb. 28 Senate roll call vote.
Two weeks ago, the House had approved a similar measure.
Also in the week of Feb. 26, the following issues won initial legislative-chamber approval:
For the yet another week, the Senate debated a proposal to ban lobbyists from giving gifts, food or drinks to lawmakers - but then put off making a final decision on the issue.
The Senate did approve an amendment to the proposal to extend the gift-ban to riverboat gambling employees. But the Senate adjourned before getting to a vote on the main proposal itself.
The week before, the Senate SCS SB 533 voted to ship a similar proposal to committee rather than taking an up-or-down vote on the issue.
Missouri's Secretary of State has issue an order blocking the insurance underwriting firm Lloyd's of London from selling securities in Missouri.
Rebecca Cook charges the 300-year-old British firm had failed to register in Missouri and had misled Missouri investors about the magnitude of the firm's liabilities for pollution and asbestos policy losses.
Cook's action also prevents the company from acquiring the assets of Missourians who already had invested in the firm and pledged their assets to cover company losses.
For for details see the story Secretary of State charges Lloyd's of London with securites fraud.
The House rejected the Senate deal that had been designed to end a filibuster on the speed-limit bill.
Under the Senate compromise, the speed limit on U.S. 71 in the district of Sen. Harold Caskey would jump to 70 mph. Caskey had been blocking a Senate vote on the bill by a filibuster.
But the House rejected the bill, throwing it back to the Senate where the leadership put off immediate action on the proposal.
For more information, see our radio story with digital audio.
A five-hour Senate filibuster forced a deal to be cut by supporters of the administration's efforts to keep speed limits down.
As a result of the filibuster by Sen. Harold Caskey, Senate supporters of the bill agreed to exempt a highway in Caskey's district from a lower speed limit that would be imposed on other non-Interstates.
The Senate agreed to that deal Monday night (Feb. 26). But the next morning, the compromise quickly was rejected by the House.
For more detailed information on this issue, see:
The Senate rejected an effort to impose an immediate ban on members accepting gifts, food or drinks from lobbyists.
The proposed ban was offered as an amendment to Senate rules. But the Senate leadership argued any such restriction should be adopted as a law - not a change in rules.
On the motion of the Senate President Pro Tem, the proposed rule was sent to the Senate's Rules Committee, thus blocking any Senate action on the proposal for the time being.
For more information, see:
Gov. Mel Carnahan showed up at the Secretary of State's office Tuesday morning to file for governor on the opening day for candidates to file for the August primary.
The only top-name Republican to announce for the office is State Auditor Margaret Kelly.
The Secretary of State has announced that her office will maintain an up-to-date list of candidate filings at the WWW site http://mosl.sos.state.mo.us/gov-ser/fillist.html.