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Judge orders Missouri AG Andrew Bailey to sit for deposition over possible ethics breach
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey can be questioned under oath about interactions with a Jackson County official that appear to have violated legal ethics rules, a judge ruled Tuesday. The order forcing Bailey to sit for a deposition — which legal experts interviewed by The Independent agreed was highly unusual — stems from meetings he […]
Missouri governor on Kansas City Chiefs: ‘I’m not too worried about Kansas at this point’
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Monday he doesn’t think the Kansas City Chiefs want to leave Arrowhead Stadium for Kansas, though he acknowledged he hasn’t actually talked to the team’s owners. Speaking to reporters after a bill signing in Kansas City, Parson said he thought the reigning Super Bowl champion wasn’t that interested in building […]
Missouri governor signs tax break for Kansas City nuclear weapons parts manufacturer
Developers planning to expand a Kansas City facility manufacturing nuclear weapons components will get a break on sales tax under legislation Gov. Mike Parson signed Monday. Parson held a signing ceremony at the site, currently a gravel lot across from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s south Kansas City campus. The expansion is expected to cost […]
Liberty Hospital officially joins University of Kansas Health System
Despite resistance from lawmakers in both Kansas and Missouri, Liberty Hospital has officially joined the University of Kansas Health System, executives announced Monday. Leaders of the health system announced the completion of the merger Monday in a short video Monday alongside the CEO of Liberty Hospital, located in the Kansas City suburbs north of the […]
Radium in groundwater near West Lake Landfill in St. Louis County forces more testing
Crews working to clean up the West Lake Landfill in St. Louis County detected contamination in nearby groundwater, forcing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to investigate whether radium might have left the site. In a periodic update to nearby communities last month, the EPA said it would add groundwater monitoring wells around the site, which […]
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly signs bill to poach Kansas City Chiefs, Royals from Missouri
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly on Friday signed legislation that offers hundreds of millions of dollars to the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals to relocate from Missouri. The legislation, an expansion of one of the state’s tax incentive programs, could help finance up to 70% of the cost for one or both teams to build a […]
Missouri lawmakers criticize Kansas attempt to poach Royals, Chiefs
State and local officials from Missouri denounced Kansas legislators’ attempt to lure the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals across the state line, saying they would take steps to keep both teams. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, in a statement on Tuesday, said the city and state would continue negotiations with the teams that Missouri and […]
Kansas lawmakers approve tax incentive bill to lure Chiefs, Royals away from Missouri
TOPEKA, Kansas — The Kansas City Royals and Chiefs could receive hundreds of millions of dollars in sales tax revenue to move from Missouri and build new stadiums across the state line under legislation passed Tuesday by Kansas lawmakers. The House voted 84-38 and the Senate voted 27-8 to approve legislation that would expand a […]
Kansas Democratic lawmakers dined with Kansas City Royals on eve of stadium vote
LAWRENCE, Kansas — On the eve of a vote that could yield $750 million for a new Kansas City Royals baseball stadium in Kansas, a team executive met with several Democratic state lawmakers at a local steakhouse. Brooks Sherman, chief operating officer for the Royals, and lobbyists hosted lawmakers at the Six Mile Chop House […]
Chiefs, Royals ask Kansas for incentives to allow teams to leave Missouri
Representatives of the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals urged Kansas lawmakers Monday to expand a tax incentive program to provide the teams millions of dollars to leave Missouri and set up shop in new stadiums across the state line. “If we want to be major league we’ve got to have major league teams,” Korb Maxwell, […]
Lawsuit claims ‘fraudulent scheme’ in Tyson plant closure in southeast Missouri
Tyson Foods, Inc. “devastated” a Missouri town and “chicken farmers who put everything on the line” to raise animals for slaughter when it closed its Dexter plant, a lawsuit alleges. An owner of three poultry farms in Arkansas that raised chickens for slaughter at the plant, which closed last October, filed a lawsuit against the […]
‘Time for a reckoning.’ Kansas farmers brace for water cuts to save Ogallala Aquifer
JETMORE, Kan. — An inch or two of corn peeks out of the dirt, just enough to reveal long rows forming over the horizon. Sprinkler engines roar as they force water from underground to pour life into dusty fields. Thunder cracks. The wind whips up dirt as a trail of dark storms looms. The crashing […]