From Missouri Digital News: https://mdn.org
March 2003 Stories
- 3/31/2003: Newspaper Story - College students will receieve tuition relief if called to active duty.
- 3/31/2003: Newspaper Story - The Supreme Court Commission on Children's Justice released a draft report Monday, which included recommendations for higher salaries and lower case loads for DFS workers. The recommendations came from each of the four committee work groups.
- 3/31/2003: Newspaper Story - Senate committee set to pass two-part budget
- 3/21/2003: News summary for the week of March 17, 2003
- 3/20/2003: Newspaper Story - At a deployment ceremony Thursday at the state's National Guard headquarters in Jefferson City, members of the 1221st Transportation Division said their goodbyes to family, friends and sweethearts.
From there, no one knows where they are going or how long they will be gone.
- 3/20/2003: Newspaper Story - Legislature restored General Relief funding last week. However, Gov. Holden is planning to eliminate all funding for the program in the 2004 fiscal year.
- 3/20/2003: Newspaper Story - Some Missouri lawmakers are calling for a massive overhaul of the state's funding system for K-12 education.
A handful of Republican and Democratic legislators have said they want to scrap the current Foundation Formula -- the complex mathematical equation used by the state to disperse state funding to public school districts -- in favor of a new approach.
- 3/20/2003: Newspaper Story - Comparison of the fiscally and socially conservative agenda advancements
- 3/19/2003: Radio Story - Ameren UE and the Department of Conservation closed the area around the Callaway nuclear facility.
- 3/19/2003: Newspaper Story - Conservation area now closed around nuclear plant since nation is at level orange.
- 3/19/2003: Newspaper Story - Analysis: Online Sales Erode State Revenues
- 3/19/2003: Radio Story - The House passed a series of budget bills on Wednesday which give lump sums of cash to department heads to choose which programs get funding.
- 3/19/2003: Newspaper Story - Following the deaths of 2-year-olds Dominic James and Constance Porter, legislators have introduced bills to revise Missouri's foster care and juvenile justice systems. The proposals cover issues from the state child abuse hot line to the juvenile court system.
- 3/18/2003: Newspaper Story - Lawmakers who are reservists in the Armed Forces said they will not hesitate to postpone their duties at the Capitol if called to active duty in support of a war with Iraq.
- 3/18/2003: Radio Story - House debate on the Republican budget plan erupted into yelling as democratic lawmakers expressed their opposition.
- 3/18/2003: Radio Story - As a result of the heightened terror alert level, medical staff at the Missouri Health Department will be putting in longer hours.
- 3/18/2003: Newspaper Story - House gives first approval to budget
- 3/17/2003: Newspaper Story - Faced with the prospect of imminent war with Iraq, state lawmakers and officials are evaluating Missouri's preparedness and considering roles it may be called on to play.
- 3/17/2003: Newspaper Story - War Clouds Obscure Missouri's Budget, Economic Outlook
- 3/17/2003: Radio Story - One economist says Missouri's high credit rating could make it an attractive investment.
- 3/14/2003: News summary for the week of March 10, 2003
- 3/13/2003: Newspaper Story - Midsession checkup on Columbia legislators
- 3/13/2003: Newspaper Story - Columbia legislators' priorities box
- 3/13/2003: Newspaper Story - In a straight party line vote, the House Budget Committee Thursday approved a Republican-backed budget plan that would mean $382 million in new cuts for education in 2004.
Democrats, including Gov. Bob Holden, denounced the plan, accusing Republicans of not doing their job.
- 3/13/2003: Radio Story - Democrats say they were misled
- 3/12/2003: Radio Story - Juveniles who commit sex crimes may be required to register with school superintendents.
- 3/12/2003: Radio Story - A proposed bill would require the Department of Conservation to pay for accidents involving deer.
- 3/12/2003: Newspaper Story - The House leadership's budget plan would give up the "power of the purse" in exchange for overall spending cuts
- 3/12/2003: Radio Story - Both departments says House plan would result in program cuts. Associate Director for the Department of Social Services says the plan could affect access to health care for seniors.
- 3/12/2003: Newspaper Story - A bill requiring women to meet with a physician 24-hours before obtaining an abortion gained preliminary approval in the House Wednesday.
- 3/11/2003: Radio Story - Businesses who continue to send junk e-mail to list members could face heavy fines
- 3/11/2003: Radio Story - Lawmakers in the House approved a bill that would create a no spam list for those who want to free their inboxes of unwanted commercial emails.
- 3/11/2003: Radio Story - The Missouri House voted to protect email recipients from unwanted spam in their inboxes.
- 3/11/2003: Newspaper Story - Missouri's House gives first found approval to an anti-spam bill.
- 3/11/2003: Radio Story - The Senate Education Committee approved a bill that would allow schools to eliminate five make-up days.
- 3/11/2003: Radio Story - A proposed sales tax holiday for back-to-school shopping gets first round approval from the Missouri Senate.
- 3/10/2003: Radio Story - Senator Joan Bray (D-St. Louis) called the move "mean and cynical."
- 3/10/2003: Newspaper Story - Missouri school districts faced with having to make up dozens of snow days would get some relief under plans being pushed by several lawmakers.
Legislation has been introduced in both the House and Senate that would exempt districts with excessive weather-related and flu cancellations from having to make up those days.
- 3/10/2003: Newspaper Story - Lawmakers accused the University of Missouri Monday of hiring a lobbyist specifically to kill a bill aimed at lowering the state's health care costs.
MU spokesman Joe Moore said the university recently did hire a new lobbyist to advocate for the university on numerous issues -- not just the health care bill.
- 3/10/2003: Newspaper Story - After first round of cutting, Republican budget alternative still $372 million from balanced
- 3/ 7/2003: News summary for the week of March 3, 2003
- 3/ 7/2003: Newspaper Story - Driver licensing offices that handle 30 percent of Missouri's motorists would close if a Republican proposal gets final approval
- 3/ 6/2003: Newspaper Story - The Missouri House passed a bill Thursday that would allow citizens to carry concealed firearms in Missouri, with 108 votes in favor and 33 against the proposal. Now the bill has to be discussed in the Senate.
- 3/ 6/2003: Radio Story - As the military prepares for a possible war with Iraq, one state senator who serves in the National Guard says he may get called to duty.
- 3/ 6/2003: Radio Story - A House committee sent forward a bill that would prohibit school districts from expanding their nondiscrimination policy.
- 3/ 6/2003: Newspaper Story - Stopping kids from getting beer is the primary motivation cited by the sponsor of legislation to impose registration requirements on beer kegs.
Rep. Cathy Jolly, D-Kansas City, is sponsoring a bill that would require registration of kegs when sold for off-premise consumption.
- 3/ 6/2003: Radio Story - The Senate gave first round approval to a bill that makes it illegal for minors to travel to other states for abortions without parental consent laws.
- 3/ 6/2003: Radio Story - The Senate gave first round approval to a bill that would make it illegal for minors to enter other states in order to avoid Missouri's parental consent law.
- 3/ 5/2003: Newspaper Story - On a straight party-line vote, the Joint Committee on Legislative Research approved an investigation into whether there has been efforts to gag administration officials about the state's budget.
- 3/ 5/2003: Newspaper Story - Missouri's budget outlook is among the ten worst in the country, according to the National Conference of State Legislators
- 3/ 5/2003: Newspaper Story - During a 7-hour filibuster that included discussion of everything from preferred meditation techniques to noodling, of a handful of Democrats stalled the passage of a bill that would attempt to keep minors from fleeing to Illinois for abortions.
- 3/ 4/2003: Radio Story - Representative Tom Villa sponsored a courtesy resolution last December that adds to the historical debate between Greeks and Macedonians
- 3/ 4/2003: Radio Story - The Missouri House gave first round approval to a bill that allows for the carrying of concealed weapons.
- 3/ 4/2003: Newspaper Story - Republican leaders called for an inverstigation of an alleged DNR gag order by the Joint Committee on Legislative Research.
- 3/ 3/2003: Radio Story - Kinder says the Governor failed to address issues that are important to business owners and employees, such as worker's compensation.
- 3/ 3/2003: Newspaper Story - Lawmakers are considering cutting the double funding for summer school -- worth an estimated $91 million -- to help plug the state's projected $1 billion budget gap for 2004.
- 3/ 3/2003: Newspaper Story - Missouri's budget is to tight, the crumbling State Penitentiary may have to stay open another year
- 3/ 3/2003: Radio Story - Nation's Oldest Prison West of the Mississippi may Stay Open Another Year
- 3/ 3/2003: Newspaper Story - Gov. Bob Holden Wednesday sidestepped Republican leaders' call for a directive authorizing state employees to speak openly with lawmakers about budget cut ideas.
- 3/ 3/2003: Radio Story - Holden would only say that he did not ask state employees to avoid questions about his budget plan. Holden has not responded to House Speaker Catherine Hanaway's demand that he address state employees directly on the gag order.