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Will Scharf gets $2.9 million boost to his campaign for Missouri attorney general
A trio of checks totaling nearly $3 million rolled into a political action committee supporting Republican Will Scharf over the last week, boosting his campaign to unseat Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey in the August GOP primary. On Wednesday, Club for Growth Action Missouri — which is supporting Scharf — reported a $1.4 million donation from […]
Missouri Supreme Court denies marijuana company’s appeal of denied license
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that state marijuana regulators were within their authority to deny a cultivation business license to a company that failed to include proper paperwork with its application. Mo Cann Do Inc. applied for a cultivation license to grow marijuana in 2019. The company was denied when the state said […]
Republican senator leaves Congressional race to run for Missouri secretary of state
State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman has abandoned her run for Congress and instead filed to join the crowded GOP primary for Missouri Secretary of State. Coleman, an attorney and first-term Republican from Arnold, said in announcing her candidacy that there is “no more important job than protecting the integrity of our elections and our founding […]
Embattled Missouri House speaker switches races, now running for secretary of state
Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher, fending off an ethics investigation into allegations of misconduct, announced Tuesday he will drop out of the lieutenant governor’s race and instead seek the GOP nomination for secretary of state. The announcement comes on the final day candidates can file to run for the August primary. And it also comes […]
Budget, Medicaid funding could dominate final weeks of Missouri legislative session
Missouri lawmakers return to the Capitol Monday with a long list of policy priorities still in flux and only eight weeks to get it all done before the legislative session ends in May. Yet despite a host of issues dominating debate during the first half of the session, the two top tasks lawmakers must complete […]
Investigation of Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher continues next week
The bipartisan legislative committee investigating Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher over allegations of ethical misconduct will hold another hearing when lawmakers return to the Capitol from spring break next week. The House Ethics Committee — made up of five Republicans and five Democrats — will convene on Tuesday at 4 p.m. It is the committee’s […]
Suit alleging suppression of free speech met with skepticism at U.S. Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court seemed skeptical Monday of a lawsuit alleging the federal government colluded with social media companies to suppress the freedom of speech, with a majority of justices across the ideological spectrum raising issues with the case and its potential consequences. The Biden administration argued to the court there is no […]
SCOTUS to hear case alleging federal government bullied social media into censoring content
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday morning in a potentially landmark case involving the federal government’s efforts to encourage social media companies to remove misinformation from their platforms. The lawsuit was filed in 2022 by attorneys general in Missouri and Louisiana. It alleges the federal government colluded with social media companies such as […]
Dean Plocher testifies to the Missouri House ethics panel investigating him
House Speaker Dean Plocher testified Tuesday evening before a bipartisan committee investigating him over allegations of ethical misconduct. Appearing alongside his attorneys — Lowell Pearson and David Steelman — Plocher’s testimony took place behind-closed doors. House rules require proceedings of the ethics committee to be confidential, with none of the discussions, testimony or evidence gathered […]
Dean Plocher draws new scrutiny over series of Capitol meetings with out-of-state vendor
Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher arranged a series of meetings in the state Capitol last month between GOP legislators and an out-of-state technology vendor, inviting renewed bipartisan criticism of the embattled Republican as he remains the focus of an ongoing ethics investigation. The unusual arrangement — including a meeting with GOP leadership that took place […]
Ethics chair decries ‘theatrics’ after Dean Plocher’s lawyer seeks to attend closed meeting
Speaker Dean Plocher’s attorney sought to attend a closed-door hearing of the Missouri House Ethics Committee on Wednesday night, arguing he should be allowed to stay in order to listen to the panel review a report detailing the investigation of his client. Lowell Pearson, a veteran Republican attorney, was informed by the committee’s chair — […]
‘Due process takes time’: No timetable for completion of Dean Plocher ethics investigation
Leaders of a bipartisan Missouri House committee investigating Speaker Dean Plocher over allegations of misconduct said Monday that there is no timetable for when the inquiry will conclude. State Rep. Hannah Kelly, a Republican from Mountain Grove and chair of the House Ethics Committee, spoke to reporters following a roughly three-hour closed-door meeting of the […]