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Gov. Nixon Calls for Improvement in Municipal Court System

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Governor J. Nixon

Governor Jay Nixon has sketched out what he calls "clear areas for improvement" in Missouri’s municipal court system in the wake of the U.S. Justice Department’s blistering report on the police and city courts in Ferguson. So far Nixon is focusing primarily on beefing up the 1995 Mack’s Creek law.

In an address to the Missouri Bar on Friday, March 6, Nixon described the court systems of Ferguson and other towns that use police and courts to generate revenue as having gone awry.

“This is gonna continue to get a significant amount of my attention and the legislature’s attention and the courts’ attention…these are real problems that affect the trust in the system and ones we’re gonna spend serious time trying to work on,” Nixon said.

Nixon says he wants to strengthen current law, which limits cities and towns to basing no more than 30 percent of their budgets on traffic fines.  He told the Missouri Bar that a Senate bill to further shrink those caps is a good start. 

Missouri Public Radio State House Reporter Marshall Griffin is a proud alumnus of the University of Mississippi (a.k.a., Ole Miss), and has been in radio for over 20 years, starting out as a deejay. His big break in news came when the first President Bush ordered the invasion of Panama in 1989. Marshall was working the graveyard shift at a rock station, and began ripping news bulletins off the old AP teletype and reading updates between songs. From there on, his radio career turned toward news reporting and anchoring. In 1999, he became the capital bureau chief for Florida's Radio Networks, and in 2003 he became News Director at WFSU-FM/Florida Public Radio. During his time in Tallahassee he covered seven legislative sessions, Governor Jeb Bush's administration, four hurricanes, the Terri Schiavo saga, and the 2000 presidential recount. Before coming to Missouri, he enjoyed a brief stint in the Blue Ridge Mountains, reporting and anchoring for WWNC-AM in Asheville, North Carolina. Marshall lives in Jefferson City with his wife, Julie, their dogs, Max and Mason, and their cat, Honey.