Politics

A national tea party group has endorsed former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman in Missouri's Republican U.S. Senate primary. But numerous Missouri tea party groups say they are not taking sides in the race.

Columbia-based Shelter Insurance has sued a bond underwriter for $390 million over municipal bonds issued by the city of Moberly for the failed Mamtek USA sweetener plant project.

A House committee heard testimony Wednesday on legislation that would abolish the death penalty in Missouri.  As St. Louis Public Radio’s Marshall Griffin tells us, the bill would also commute sentences of all current Death Row inmates to “life without parole."

Regional news coverage from the KBIA News room, including:

• House legislators examine new death penalty rules in Missouri
• The controversy surrounding failed development of sweetener factory Mamtek in Moberly continues.
• Senate leaders endorse bill making disturbances of religious worship a crime.

The Missouri House has given first-round approval to legislation restricting lawsuits that stem from some crimes committed at businesses.