The Missouri Conservation Department will unveil a comprehensive proposal Friday to reduce the number of wild hogs in Missouri.

The proposal, which will be highlighted at the Conservation Commission's regular meeting, includes using live traps, areal gunning, tracking dogs and Judas pigs.

Missouri is home to an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 wild hogs. State officials say they destroy agricultural crops and wetlands, and eat everything from worms, fungas and mushrooms to acorns and young deer.

House Democratic Leader Jeff Harris, D- Columbia, asked the Speaker of the House of Representatives to establish a special House committee on sexual harassment in the wake of the recent sexual harassment controversy in Missouri politics that led to the departure of the State Agriculture director.

Harris said the committee would focus on the allegations made against the former director of the Agriculture Department, Fred Ferrell. Ferrell was accused of sexually harassing his secretary, Heather Elder. He was asked to step down by Gov. Matt Blunt.

Democrats have accused the governor of covering up the incident by using the State Highway Patrol to conduct the investigation, instead of the Missouri Human Rights Commission which is usual policy. Democrats also claim funds from the Agriculture Department were illegally used to attempt to pay for Ferrell's accuser's silence.

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Missouri's House rejected a proposal that would have provided tax credits for some lower income St. Louis and Kansas City parents to move their children to private schools.

In a rare show of Republican Party backing, both the governor and lieutenant governor watched over the House debate and vote.

But more than 30 Republican defections along with near solid-Democratic opposition defeated the proposal.  Republican leaders had offered the bill in response to problems that have faced the St. Louis city school district that is threatened with accreditation loss by the state Board of Education later this month.

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The House passed a bill on Wednesday that would appropriate $60 million in funds to federally qualified health centers for capital improvements.

The grants will come in the form of $10 million per year, over the next six years, accounting for approximately 10 percent of the governor's proposed fiscal year 2008 budget.

Students might soon have a voting representative on the University of Missouri Board of Curators if legislation continues to gain momentum, student lobbyists said.

The Senate Education Committee on Wednesday unanimously passed a bill that would add a voting student on governing boards at the UM System, University of Central Missouri, Missouri State and Truman State. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia, said he was surprised the bill passed through committee unanimously.

This is the furthest, the earliest that a bill that would add a voting student member to governing boards has made it through the Senate, said John Myers, an Associated Student of the University of Missouri legislative assistant.

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Thousands gathered at the state Capitol to support a ban on all human cloning and condemn the passage of Amendment 2.

Representative Jim Lembke and Senator Matt Bartle spoke to the rally formed by Missouri Right to Life.

Lembke currently has a house resolution to restrict stem cell research in Missouri.

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A senate bill that would restructure the way telecommunications companies obtain approval to provide cable TV service in the state has received a lot of attention this year.

The legislation would create "statewide video franchising" in Missouri.  But what does that mean and why does it matter for consumers?

About two dozen suspected illegal immigrants working for a state government contractor were detained Tuesday evening in joint federal-state raids of government buildings in Jefferson City.

Gov. Matt Blunt made the announcement while the detainments were in progress.  The detainees had been hired by a company the state uses to clean state offices during the evening.

Democrats charged that the governor had allowed the situation by not taking illegal immigration seriously.

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Members of the healthcare community dissected a Senate Medicaid bill Tuesday, praising it for simplifying the healthcare system and criticizing it for increasing state oversight.

Some 20 witnesses, from healthcare professionals to a mother with a disabled child, voiced their support and objections of a bill that would help transform the state's Medicaid system into what Gov. Matt Blunt calls Missouri Health Net.

Sen. Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph, outlined his bill for the Senate's Health and Mental Health Committee Tuesday afternoon.

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Members of the Missouri farming community met Monday to voice their opposition against Senate bill 364.  The bill will elimniate local county health boards from regulating farm activity.

Democratic Senator Wes Shoemeyer, one of the rally's speakers, says the bill eliminates local control while threatening the independent farmer.  Shoemeyer says the bill caters to big corporations instead of aiding struggling local farmers.

The Senate ProTem, Michael Gibbons is pushing a bill that would permanently cut the state's franchising tax.

The bill was heard Monday where several witnesses spoke for and against the proposal.

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Schools that canceled classes during January's ice storms would not be required to make up lost time if a House bill passes this week.

"A lot of schools are hurting on days. It's backing into summer school, specifically," said Rep. B.J. Marsh, R-Springfield. He expects the bill to pass this week.

Under the language of the bill, any school districts that reside in the counties that were considered a disaster area between Jan. 15 and 22 would not have to make up days missed during that time. The bill also includes school districts that were not included in the disaster area, but canceled eight or more school days this school year.

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A Republican Senator hopes to get the death penalty in Missouri back on track by creating an execution team, which would administer the lethal gas and chemicals used in the execution.

The bill would allow confidentiality for the members of the execution team and would protect them from any actions taken by medical licensing board opposing their participation in executions.