Local News

You might not realize that folks who work at sheltered workshops don’t make minimum wage. Those agencies are allowed to pay disabled workers less based on their productivity because of their handicap or age. Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer says there’s a new push to do away with the so – called …

Five teenagers are arrested after a Callaway County church is vandalized. The sheriff said yesterday they are all facing burglary and property damage charges. The suspects are all locals, between 16 and 18 years old. Investigators found smashed windows and other damage late last month at Oakley Chapel in Tebbetts. …

Did you get an unemployment check from the state last year? The Missouri House oversight committee chairman says the state overpaid more than 100-million dollars in unemployment benefits last year, and he’s hearing that some residents are being told they’ll have to repay up to 12-thousand dollars. The committee also …

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said lawmakers disrespected him when House leaders said he couldn’t give his annual speech in that chamber because of coronavirus concerns. The Republican wrote a letter Friday to GOP lawmakers accusing legislative leaders of an “insider stunt and petty show of arrogance …

Cole is the first local county with more than a hundred COVID-19 deaths. Officials there reported four more deaths yesterday (mon). Boone County reported its 70th COVID-19 death, a patient older than 80. Active coronavirus cases dropped a lot in Boone, with just 28 new positives yesterday (mon). Hospitalizations are …

Missouri’s GOP Senate leader says it’s time to increase the state’s gasoline tax. Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz of Sullivan will testify before the Senate Transportation Committee on Tuesday. He’ll present his bill, which would increase Missouri’s gasoline tax by two cents per gallon per year over five …

Did some legislative staffer get your COVID vaccination? Callaway County State Rep. Travis Fitzwater says an e-mail apparently went out from Democratic House Minority Leader Crystal Quade to some Capitol offices …     He says the move cheated those over 65 and first responders who were higher up on the list …

The renovations to Missouri’s Capitol building are done. The major construction work in Phase 2 of the project started in 2018. The Capitol in Jefferson City needed a touch up after more than a hundred years of wear and tear. The state spent about 50 million dollars on the project. …

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Gov. Mike Parson has proposed transforming a shuttered northwest Missouri prison into a training ground for incoming correctional officers. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Parson’s recently unveiled budget plan includes $671,714 to convert the idled Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron into an academy where …

Did you know that some children’s group homes in Missouri are exempt from state regulations? Cole County State Rep. Rudy Veit says those homes run by religious organizations do not have to register or have their employees go through criminal background checks …       The advocacy group ‘Missouri Kids First’ says …