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Missouri Digital News
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Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
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Mo. Digital News
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Missouri Digital News
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Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
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Mo. Digital News
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Missouri Digital News
Cole County Circuit Judge Byron Kinder suspended imposition of any sentence on former St. Louis City Sen. Jet Banks -- contingent on completing a five year probation period.
Suspension of the sentence means that Banks will not be a convicted felon nor have a criminal record.
Ironically, closing criminal records for cases in which sentences were not imposed was a provision in the law that Banks has sponsored some 25 years ago.
Banks had pled guilty to a felony charge of filing a false state income tax return and, subsequently, resigned from office citing health problems.
So far, no federal tax charges have been filed against Banks.
Banks' resignation leaves his staff with little to do but answer phones. Both capital and district offices will remain open until a new representative is elected from the 5th Senatorial District.
Banks' five bills could live or die with the beginning of the next legislative session in January. If the President Pro Tem does not send the bills to committee, they will most likely die.
Banks' proposals include senior citizen tax relief and fire protection.
See our radio story for details.
Just one week before scheduled sentencing on a felony tax fraud guilty plea, St. Louis Sen. Jet Banks resigned.
Banks' resignation letter cited health reasons for his resignation. He made no reference to his criminal case.
Banks had served as the Senate's majority leader for eight years -- the highest state post held by a black in Missouri history.
Banks was facing possible removal from office. Under state law, he would have been forced to leave office if a sentence was imposed for the tax charge.
Sen. Bill Clay, D-St. Louis, introduced a bill that will prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. There ten other states that have such laws. Sen. Dave Klarich is concerned that it might recongize same sex marriages as a result of it.
See our newspaper story for details.
Representative Jim Murphy says he's going to file a complaint against Senator Anita Yeckel, John Bardgett, Sr., and John Bardgett, Jr.
He says donations from the Bardgetts to Yeckel violated a rule of the Health Facilities Review Committee.
See our radio story for details.
The St. Louis Salvation Army's Tree of Lights program is almost two and a half million dollars short of its four and a half million dollar goal this year. The goal about twenty-five percent of the Salvation Army's entire annual budget.
See our package of radio stories for details.
Even though Missourians overwhelmingly voted in 1992 to implement term limit laws, a legislative committee tabled a recommendation Monday to bring the issue up for a vote again.
Sen. John Schneider, D-Florissant, wanted the Joint Interim Committee on Term Limits to recommend changes to the current law.
Sen. Peter Kinder has filed legislation that would prohibit lawsuits against the gun industry by local governments.
St. Louis city has such a lawsuit pending, but Kinder concedes he does not know if that state could block a lawsuit that has already been filed.
See our newspaper story for details. Also see our radio story.
Education Commissioner Bob Bartman says better preschool education would lead to better test scores for black students.
On this year's Missouri Assessment Program tests black students averaged lower scores than students of other ethnic groups on every test.
See our package of radio stories for details.
Legislation proposed by the committee on domestic violence will have a seperate section under the assult statute for domestic violence. Under curent law, acts of domestic violence is marked off as assult. That puts domestic violence acts along with bar fights, leaving no way to tell how often domestic violence really happens Rep. Vicky Riback Wilson said. The committee is also trying to raise public awareness and funding reguarding domestic violence.
See our newspaper story for details.
Missouri's Supreme Court ordered that the Cole County Sheriff's Department release a video tape the took of Rep. Mark Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, when he was arrested for drunken driving.
The case stems from a 1997 case by Jefferson City TV station KRCG which had sought to view tapes.
See the court decision for more information.
Missouri voters will have the power to decide what should be done with the estimated $6.7 billion tobacco settlement under a bill filed by senate leaders.
Leading Democratic senators supported the bill sponsored by Senate President Pro-Tem, Ed Quick.
The proposal creates a trust fund to hold the money until the citizens decide how it should be spent or if the funds should be refunded under the Hancock Amendment.
See our newspaper story and our package of radio stories for details.
According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Education, the number of college students in Missouri who are defaulting on their student loans is on the rise.
Meanwhile, on the national level, the percentage of students who have failed to repay their student loans on time is on the decline.
A number of programs have recently been instituted, however, which are designed to decrease the potential for default in Missouri.
See our newspaper story for details.
St. Louis Representative Charles Quincy Troupe will file two bills dealing with problems he sees at Missouri prisons.
One bill would create an independent position under the lieutenant governor who would investigate the department.
See our package of radio stories for details.
Missouri's senior senator has filed legislation to extend legislative term limits from the current eight years to 12 years.
Legislative term limits, approved by Missouri voters, begin affecting large numbers of current lawmakers in 2002. So far, only one lawmaker has been forced out of office from the term limits section of the state constitution.
For more details, see our newspaper story and our radio story.
Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment was among the measures filed on the opening day for lawmakers to introduce bills for the legislative session that begins next January.
ERA fell 3 states short of ratification before the deadline for ratification in the 1970s.
Also filed Wednesday was legislation to extend legislative term limits from eight years to 12 years.
See our newspaper story for details on the ERA proposal.
Jordan Cherrick, the state appointed attorney in the lawsuit involving Planned Parenthood and family planning funds, said cutting off funding to all 96 providers wasn't necessary.
Nanci Gonder, department spokesperson, said it was because the judge called into question the contract between the department and Planned Parenthood--which is the same one the department has with the other providers.
See our newspaper story for details.
Clinton's proposed parental leave for workers would cause an increase in taxes for employers, said two major Missouri business groups Tuesday.
Clinton unveiled a plan Tuesday that would provide parental leave payments from funds allocated for the temporarily unemployed -- funds that come from taxes on businesses.
President Bill Clinton's plan to increase parental leave payments is coming under attack by some of Missouri's leading business organizations. They say the proposal will increase taxes on employers. The state AFL-CIO supports the proposal.
See our package of radio stories for details.
A recent federal report recommends that each state provide public records of medical errors that lead to patient deaths.
Currently, Missouri does not make such records public.
Missouri's Department of Health Standards says that there will be few, if any, changes because of the report.
See our package of radio stories for details.