Monday, November 9, 2015
Petticoat Lane, Kansas City, 1906.
Petticoat Lane -- East 11th Street, Kansas City, Mo. pictures the street on a warm summer day, about 1906
Missouri gets D- grade in 2015 State Integrity Investigation
Missouri gets D- grade in 2015 State Integrity Investigation
“So little is against the law”
By
Missouri
GRADE:D-(62)
RANK:26TH
Assessing the systems in place to deter corruption in state government
Click on each category for more detail
OUR METHODOLOGY
Public Access to Information
GRADE:F(50)
RANK: 18th
Political Financing
GRADE:F(41)
RANK: 44th
Electoral Oversight
GRADE:F(56)
RANK: 42nd
Executive Accountability
GRADE:C(75)
RANK: 3rd
Legislative Accountability
GRADE:F(59)
RANK: 37th
Judicial Accountability
GRADE:D+(67)
RANK: 5th
State Budget Processes
GRADE:D(65)
RANK: 43rd
State Civil Service Management
GRADE:F(59)
RANK: 29th
Procurement
GRADE:D-(63)
RANK: 41st
Internal Auditing
GRADE:B-(83)
RANK: 17th
Ethics Enforcement Agencies
GRADE:D(64)
RANK: 11th
State Pension Fund Management
GRADE:F(53)
RANK: 38th
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Here in the “Show Me” state, ethics reform has been an uphill battle as steep as the streets of Jefferson City, the capital.
It’s not that ethics bills have no supporters. Indeed, they do. The number of ethics-related bills and joint resolutions introduced in the General Assembly has increased each of the last three years, with 39 introduced in 2015. Democratic Gov. Jeremiah “Jay” Nixon has pledged to take the issue directly to voters in a ballot issue if lawmakers didn’t act. But not one ethics bill has passed in the last three years, despite Missouri's dubious status as a state without campaign finance limits, lobbyist gift limits, or cooling-off periods for legislators registering as lobbyists.
As a result, Missouri earned a D- grade with a score of 62, tied with Idaho for 26th place among the states in the State Integrity Investigation, an assessment of state government transparency and accountability conducted by the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity.
That’s a drop from 2012, when the Missouri garnered a C- and a rank of 16th. But the scores are not directly comparable, due to changes made to improve and update the project and methodology, such as eliminating the category for redistricting, a process that generally occurs only once every 10 years.
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Friday, October 16, 2015
Women of Old-time Music: Tradition and Change in the Missouri Ozarks
Women of Old-time Music: Tradition and Change in the Missouri Ozarks takes on the commonly-held folk music scholarship assertion that women did not widely participate in old-time music in the Ozarks.Through performances and interviews with senior generations of women musicians in southern Missouri, the film illustrates the central role women played, and continue to play, in the development of old-time music, culture, and community identity.
Thursday, October 15, 2015
St. Louis workers won't get a raise after judge strikes down minimum wage increase.The state's Republican legislature passed a law banning local raises.
Judge strikes down St. Louis' minimum wage increase hours before it takes effect
ST. LOUIS • A circuit judge struck down the city’s minimum wage law on Wednesday just hours before it was set to go into force.
Circuit Judge Steven Ohmer issued a sobering blow to the city’s law just after 4:30 p.m., declaring it void and out of step with state law. The city quickly said it would appeal to a higher court.
A consortium of groups sued last month in an attempt to stop the city from instituting an $11 minimum wage by 2018. The suit alleged the action conflicted with current state law.
Ohmer agreed, saying the city’s law raising the wage was “unenforceable and in conflict” with current state law that sets the minimum wage at $7.65.
“Obviously my clients are happy for the certainty with the impending midnight deadline for the increase,” said lawyer Jane Dueker, who argued on behalf of business groups, including the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, against the increase. “The city doesn’t have the authority to do what it did.”
On Thursday, the city’s minimum wage was set to rise to $8.25 an-hour— 60 cents above the state’s minimum wage. The law, approved by the Board of Aldermen in August, would have triggered increases on Jan. 1 to $9. Then, it would go to $10 in 2017 and $11 on Jan. 1, 2018.
Ohmer’s order blocked the city from instituting the increase, which means minimum-wage workers in the city will not see an increase unless an appellate court reverses his decision — something that could take months.
The city argued that the increase was proper, and also cited social issues from the Ferguson unrest as a reason for implementation.
Ohmer said it was the court’s duty to “determine the validity of the ordinance without considering the social or economic effect of its enforcement.”
Mayor Francis Slay was a vocal supporter of the law and pressed aldermen to pass it before a perceived state deadline.
“We will appeal the ruling with the hope that higher courts will affirm the city’s authority to adopt its own minimum wage,” Slay said via Twitter.
St. Louis City Counselor Winston Calvert, who represents Slay and the city, pledged to appeal.
“We’ve always known these issues would be resolved by the appellate courts,” Calvert said. “We are heartened that the judge agreed with the city on three of the five counts, but disappointed in the court’s decision on two of them.”
Ohmer agreed with the city that it had the power to enact legislation of local concern but said the minimum wage increase was not in conformity with state law.
Associated Industries of Missouri, a business group that was part of the lawsuit, applauded Ohmer’s decision.
“State law controls how much an employer must pay an employee,” Ray McCarty, the group’s president, said. “No local government has ever had the authority to issue an ordinance that directly violates state law. We believe the court made a correct decision.”
Some argued the city’s increase would force businesses to leave for St. Louis County, where local leaders declined to consider a wage increase to match their neighbors.
The issue was part of a national debate over raising the wage. Over the last few months, several major cities — including Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest city — approved rate increases. Proponents hope the local actions may spur state and federal legislators, who have been hesitant to approve significant minimum wage increases, to take a similar course.
Richard von Glahn, of Missouri Jobs with Justice, echoed those sentiments on Wednesday, saying: “The increase passed by the Board of Aldermen in St. Louis reflects a growing consensus that the crisis of poverty wages needs to be addressed at every level in our economy and we thank the City’s elected officials for their continued leadership on this.”
Lobbyists, legislators aim to quash political activist's free speech: "If I can be confronted with fines and criminal penalties, just for speaking my mind and even when there is no money whatsoever involved in my efforts, then the government can threaten and intimidate anyone."
Lobbyists, legislators aim to quash political activist's free speech
By Ron Calzone
Who would think that in America you can get a $1,000 fine for exercising your freedom of speech? Well, I just did.
I am a political activist. Just like thousands of other activists all over the state across the political spectrum, I go out of my way to talk to those in power about what I think our state’s laws should look like. When average citizens share their political opinions, exercise freedom of speech and petition the government regarding the laws we live under, they are doing exactly what America’s Founders had in mind when they established a self-governing constitutional republic.
They are not lobbyists and neither am I. Lobbyists are professionals paid by their clients to persuade politicians to vote in their clients’ interests. Lobbyists also use money to buy politicians’ attention, providing them with food or other gifts. I share my political ideas only because I believe in them passionately; no one has ever paid me to talk to an elected official and I don’t buy lawmakers gifts.
My activism has made some powerful enemies. Along with a host of other citizen activists, I vigorously oppose things like eminent domain abuse and giving subsidies and other government largess to corporations or other special interests. Maybe high-paid lobbyists don’t like having to explain to their clients why average citizens, using nothing more than facts, reason and speech, beat them at their own game time and again.
I have also angered powerful legislators by opposing them when they were trying to advance unconstitutional bills or ignore constitutional limits on their power.
On Election Day last November, the professional lobbyists’ guild, with the blessing of (and possibly at the prompting of) at least two influential legislators, decided to try to punish me and scare away other activists for exercising our constitutional freedoms. They filed a complaint with the Missouri Ethics Commission claiming that I should face fines (making prison a possibility), because I had not registered with the state as a legislative lobbyist.
Although state law prohibits the Ethics Commission from accepting complaints from any entity that is not a “natural person,” they accepted the guild’s complaint anyway. And although the law requires that they reveal the identity of the complainant within five days, the Ethics Commission took over two months to tell me who the real complainant was. Then this panel of six men and women, all appointed by the governor, held a hearing behind closed doors with their own lawyer arguing against me. So much for impartial judges, the rule of law and transparency.
There was no evidence that I have ever been hired or paid by anyone for the purpose of talking to legislators, but using uncommon and strained definitions of “designated” and “employed,” the commission decided that I must register as a lobbyist and fined me $1,000 for failing to do so in the past. Nothing they are ordering me to do increases the transparency of my activities.
Why should you care?
This conclusion was not just contrary to the state’s own definition of what a lobbyist is, it was an attack on the constitutional rights of any citizen who tries to share their political ideas with those in power. If I can be confronted with fines and criminal penalties, just for speaking my mind and even when there is no money whatsoever involved in my efforts, then the government can threaten and intimidate anyone.
That is why, with help from two public interest law firms, the Center for Competitive Politics and the Freedom Center of Missouri, I am appealing the ethics commission’s ruling against me. I will fight this case as long and as far as I must, not only on my own behalf, but on behalf of all citizens who have opinions about how our state should be governed and wish to exercise their constitutional right to share those opinions with our elected officials.
Ron Calzone lives in Maries County in central Missouri, where he raises cattle and horses and owns a small manufacturing business. He is also one of the directors of Missouri First, a think tank devoted to limited, constitutional governance.
The money that is spent for 3 of the 4 top offices in the state is insane. How much more obvious does influence buying have to take place before actual restraints are put into place?
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Republican state senator running for Missouri attorney general has received another big check from mega-donor Rex Sinquefield.
Online campaign finance records show that Sinquefield gave $500,000 Friday to Columbia Sen. Kurt Schaefer.
Schaefer likely will face off with University of Missouri School of Law associate professor and attorney Josh Hawley in a Republican primary.
This is the second large contribution Sinquefield has given Schaefer for a campaign for attorney general. He gave Schaefer $250,000 around the same time last year.
Sinquefield also has donated money to Republican gubernatorial candidate Catherine Hanaway and state treasurer candidate Sen. Eric Schmitt that could be used for their 2016 campaigns.
Sinquefield is a retired investment firm founder who has backed initiatives to cut Missouri's income taxes and revamp laws governing public school teachers.
Missouri Republicans, who want to bring us back to the 1950's, consider abortion law proposals. One wants to build an abortion memorial. No doubt to make sure women who have abortions are fully publicly shamed and made to feel as guilty as possible.
by
Missouri House Republicans are considering abortion legislation after a series of hearings that continued Wednesday.
Representatives Diane Franklin (left) and Andrew Koenig (center) chair the House Committees jointly investigating Planned Parenthood. Representative Stacey Newman (right) decries the hearings as a witch-hunt.
The House Committees on Ways and Means, and Children and Families held the latest Wednesday in a series of hearings that began after the release of several videos alleging Planned Parenthood had illegally profited from the sale of fetal tissue. The Attorney General’s office reviewed Planned Parenthood’s operations in Missouri in June and concluded that the organization had not broken any laws, but Republicans say the hearings in the House and Senate have turned up other issues.
Several Republican lawmakers say they have uncovered a need for more oversight of abortions, handling of fetal remains, and of whether abortion laws are being followed.
Representative Diane Franklin (R-Camdenton) says no one at the Department of Health or the company that incinerates remains is making sure all remains is accounted for.
“[If] there is something that should be there that’s not there, we want them to be sure to flag that, and then we need someone at the Department that is paying attention that it is flagged,” said Franklin.
Another proposal is the creation of an oversight committee to focus on whether laws regarding abortions are being followed.
Representative Andrew Koenig (R-Manchester) also wants to see any facility that performs abortions or handles remains be subject to random inspections.
“We talked about a number of things. I think all of these things should be in a comprehensive package that we pass,” said Koenig.
Representative Stacey Newman (D-St. Louis) says there is no purpose to the hearings.
“Today’s hearing was fiscally irresponsible and as a senior member on the Children & Families committee, I still have no idea of the joint chairs agenda, besides this being a witch-hunt purely for political theatre,” said Newman.
One House Republican, Rick Brattin (Harrisonville), suggested a requirement that, “an aborted child have some sort of memorial to where the parents of that aborted child could go and visit.”
Brattin, who served as a Marine for six years, proposed Planned Parenthood be required to set up, “some type of memorial – like a Vietnam Wall-type. I know that sounds crazy but by state law they’re given human status.”
Koenig said such a proposal would be, “lesser of a concern,” for him.
He and Franklin, the chairs of the two committees, said at least one more hearing would be held to prepare a report with policy recommendations for the 2016 session.
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