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Air conditioning is coming to some Missouri prisons. But it will take years and cost millions
Missouri lawmakers took a step toward improving conditions in some Missouri prisons last year by setting aside millions to install air conditioning in one of the state’s 17 prisons. That cooler air is still a year and a half away. That decision came as global temperatures broke summertime heat records. Prisoner rights advocates celebrated the […]
Evergy is hoping its regulators OK higher electric bills for its Missouri customers
Evergy confused and angered its Missouri customers in 2023 when it rolled out time-of-use rates that meant prices would run highest when people use the most electricity. Missourians, especially those on fixed incomes, complained of high costs and having to choose between things like groceries and their medications or powering their homes during peak hours. […]
Missouri Democrats, tired of seeing uncontested Republicans, recruit more legislative candidates
When Melissa Viloria was growing up in northeast Missouri, few people in power that looked like her. Viloria was born in Hawaii to a mother from Missouri and a father who immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines. Her parents moved to Missouri in 1978. They found themselves among the few vocal Democrats of the […]
Missouri counties say they lose money housing people headed to state prison
The cost of holding someone in a Missouri county jail for those days and months before and after a conviction ultimately falls to the state. In 2024, the state spent about $50 million to reimburse counties for the cost. But it’s had trouble keeping up with that tab. That’s left counties stuck with most of […]
Amid shortage, workforce housing becomes option in rural Missouri
In Kirksville, an entire floor of the hospital sits empty. The community could easily fill beds with patients — if only it could hire nurses and other workers to tend to them. Just up U.S. 63 near the Iowa border, the Schuyler School District can’t keep teachers on the payroll. A manufacturer wants to open […]
Missouri lawmakers clarify confusion to let more counties freeze property taxes for seniors
Missouri lawmakers gave counties a dose of much-needed clarity in May when they passed a bill aimed at clarifying a 2023 law that lets counties pass a senior property tax freeze, aimed at those 62 and older. The law passed last year gave counties the power to freeze property tax rates for Missourians who were […]
The Missouri legislature is cutting local governments’ power to pass their own laws
If Kansas City had its way, the local minimum wage would run $17 per hour, grocery stores would only use paper bags and you’d need to pass a background check to buy a gun in town. But politicians and businesses that see these policy ideas as threats to their authority or their bottom lines, shut […]
Missouri won’t let Kansas City become sanctuary city, but mayor wants more immigrant workers
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas has essentially invited immigrants to come and fill the local labor pool. He’s offering officials in New York and Denver help from the crush of immigrants in those cities and welcoming foreign workers to Kansas City. That quickly sparked accusations that Lucas appeared bent on making Kansas City a sanctuary […]
Missouri’s senior property tax freeze still dogged by unanswered questions
Last year, the Missouri General Assembly scrambled to act on an issue popular with voters who turn out in large numbers: property tax cuts for seniors in the form of a tax freeze. Lawmakers passed a vague directive letting counties freeze property tax bills for seniors, without defining what “senior” meant, who was going to […]
What the KC stadium tax defeat says about teams, their subsidies and Jackson County voters
The Royals and the Chiefs had everything. Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce — fresh off of a Super Bowl victory — endorsed a “yes” vote in ads airing on TV and on YouTube. Endorsements rolled in from the city’s top political players: Mayor Quinton Lucas (belatedly), U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver and nearly every union in […]
Celebratory gunfire after Kansas City Chiefs games is getting worse
As the Kansas City Chiefs get ready for a Super Bowl appearance with the San Francisco 49ers on Feb. 11, Missouri lawmakers advanced a measure to raise the penalty for shooting a gun skyward in celebration. Kansas City saw more celebratory gunfire on Sunday — an increase from when the Chiefs won the AFC championship […]
After Chiefs win, Kansas Citians fire guns in the air. A lawmaker wants the team to speak out
Every year — on New Year’s Eve, July 4, when a sports team wins a championship — police and politicians practically beg people not to fire their guns into the air in celebration. In Kansas City, reports of shots fired go up when the NFL playoffs roll around. Meanwhile, a proposal to slightly strengthen the […]