News

Newspaper publishers in Missouri could have to pay more to buy paper, ink and other supplies under a measure that has been endorsed by a House panel.

In a 7-5 vote Wednesday, the House Tax Reform Committee backed a proposal to eliminate sales tax exemptions on newspaper equipment in order to help fund state aid to the blind.

The Senate's only doctor continued to block a vote on a plan to create a prescription drug monitoring program for the state.

The Columbia Police Department is stepping up security during spring break and asking residents to do the same with their homes.

The Missouri House has given first-round approval to the state budget for next year.  As St. Louis Public Radio’s Marshall Griffin tells us, Republican leaders pushed through their plan to restore higher education cuts proposed by Governor Jay Nixon by refusing to fund a program for blind residents.

Sixty-two percent of working-age women have jobs, but they still earn just 74 cents on the dollar, compared to men. But that disparity varies by region; in some rural counties, women earn fully half what men do. In this week's Health & Wealth update, a new report on how women in Missouri are faring in health, work, education, and civic engagement. With a state legislature that's three-quarters men, will lawmakers do anything about the disparities?

The Missouri House is debating all 13 bills Tuesday that make up the state’s proposed budget for next year.  Lawmakers are offering up several amendments to the budget – one in particular would have shifted 150-thousand dollars from the state’s biodiesel fund to Alzheimer’s patients.  It was sponsored by Independent House Member Tracy McCreery of St. Louis County.

It appears the Missouri Supreme Court might not rule on legal challenges to congressional and state House districts before the candidate filing period ends next week.

The Missouri Senate has rejected an attempt to set up a state-run health insurance exchange.

The exchanges are part of the federal health care law approved in 2009. States are required to create exchanges by 2014 so that individuals and small business can compare health insurance plans.

Another group has organized a protest against the Missouri House Speaker's plan to put controversial conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh in the Hall of Famous Missourians

House Democrats are backing legislation they say would toughen Missouri’s ethics standards.  As Marshall Griffin tells us from Jefferson City, the bill would restore many provisions recently struck down by the State Supreme Court.