The chairwoman of the local Republican district committee urged Gov. Jay Nixon to call a special election to fill a vacant southern Missouri House seat on Thursday.

Rep. Jason Smith, a Republican, held the 120th district House seat until he won a special election to the U.S. Congress in June.

The 120th district includes all of Crawford County and parts of Phelps county.

Chairwoman Pamela Grow said the seat being vacant for this long is not allowing the district's residents to have a voice in Jefferson City.

House Minority Leader Rep. Jacob Hummel, D-St. Louis, said in a statement Thursday that Rep. Steve Webb, D-St. Louis County, has gone back on his original decision to resign.

Hummel said Webb had told him Wednesday morning he was going to resign. But later statements Webb made to the media contradicted that.

"But for the sake of his family and constituents, I strongly believe that he should follow through with his original intentions,” Hummel said.

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House Minority Leader Jacob Hummel, D-St. Louis, released a statement Wednesday indicating Rep. Steve Webb, D-St. Louis County, would resign his House seat following stealing allegations.

Webb is accused of one felony count of stealing and seven other misdemeanors related to mishandling campaign money.

According to the probably cause statement the chairman of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus withdrew $3,000 in campaign funds originally meant for a caucus reception in Washington D.C. and spent it on himself.

In his statement Hummel he thought Webb's decision to resign would be a good one, considering the seriousness of the charges, and that misappropriation of political donations for personal use cannot be tolerated.

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The State of Missouri and Jefferson City will split the tab to reopen a historic landmark.

Gov. Jay Nixon announced a $2 million project to reopen the Missouri State Penitentiary by Spring 2014.

“This agreement will ensure that its rich history can continue to be shared and experienced by all, while protecting the health and safety of staff and visitors at the site,” Nixon said.

The state and Jefferson City will each pay $1 million to finance the renovation. They are looking into hazardous material cleanup in some of the building’s housing units and the gas chamber.

The city’s Visitors Bureau Executive Director Diane Gillespie said the renovations will help return money to the state Capital.

“The Jefferson City Convention and visitors Bureau is deeply committed to this project and the potential it has to drive tourism in our city and the state of Missouri,” Gillespie said.

Public tours of the site began in 2009, and closed late September after environmental testing deemed several tour areas hazardous to the public.

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Representative Steve Webb, D-St. Louis County, is accused of one felony count of stealing.

KMOX reports the complaint against the chairman of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus claims he withdrew $3,000 in campaign funds originally meant for a caucus reception in Washington D.C. but spend it on himself.

Webb is also accused of seven misdemeanor accounts involving the mishandling of around $70,000 in campaign money.

The Missouri Ethics Commission Director James Klahr said the organization can't comment on the investigation that led to the charges. He said the commission began the investigation, then handed it over to St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch, who then turned it over to police.  

The office of Minority Leader Rep. Jake Hummel, D-St. Louis, released a statement from Hummel saying, “Misappropriation of political donations for personal use cannot be tolerated, and, if guilty of the charges against him, Representative Webb will have to answer for his alleged actions. Representative Webb has told me he intends to resign his House seat later today. Given the seriousness of the charges, we believe that is the appropriate decision for himself, his family and, mostly importantly, his constituents.”

Webb was first elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 2008.

Gov. Jay Nixon announced Tuesday he's ready to talk Medicaid with state lawmakers.

Nixon asked members of the Missouri House and Senate interim committees on Medicaid Transformation and Reform to sit down and discuss reforms for the health care system two days before Thanksgiving.

Rep. Noel Torpey, R-Jackson County, said he's pleasantly surprised the governor is reaching out early.

"I think it's great that he's engaging in an issue before session starts," Torpey said.

Rep. Sue Allen, R-St. Louis County, said she is skeptical. As of Thursday, Nov. 7, Allen is leaning towards not attending the meeting.

"I think he's going to still provide all of his arguments on why we need to take the federal dollars along with the strings attached and expand," Allen said.

The governor's plan for Medicaid expansion died in the legislature during the last legislative session.

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House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka, announced in a press release Tuesday he will create a special committee to investigate allegations of a "hostile" workplace environment in Gov. Jay Nixon's administration.

The announcement came after just last month, Dept. of Agriculture director Jon Hagler stepped down, following the resignation of an agency employee who recently filed a complaint against the department.     

“As this story has continued to evolve in the press I have heard from many Missourians who are deeply concerned by the allegations made against the former department director," Jones said. “Our goal is to root out any abusive behaviors and to make the department that oversees our state’s top industry the kind of efficient, well-run governmental agency that Missouri taxpayers deserve.”  

Jones appointed Rep. Casey Guernsey, R-Bethany, to chair the committee. Guernsey said he has worked closely with the Agriculture Department for over five years, and he has heard many allegations against the administration that go far beyond those that have reached the public so far.

"Because I work with the Department of Agriculture, it's natural that I develop relationships, friendships, acquaintances in the department who have to deal directly with the department," Guernsey said. "Because of that, I've heard a lot."

Guernsey said the scope of the committee's investigation will cover the entire Nixon administration.

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The Village of Uplands Park will be under St. Louis County governance in 2014 if a ballot issue passes.

If the ballot issue passes, the municipality would unincorporated and public services of the area would be turned over to county organizations.

Carmen Roberts, a trustee of the village, says Uplands Park can be self-managed.

"It is a very stable, even though it is strictly residential, community that can be maintained," Roberts said, "It simply needs to watch more carefully who they [residents] put in office."

Proponents of the dissolution say small municipalities should consolidate since many cannot afford to provide adequate public services.

Uplands Park is already patrolled by county police.

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A judge ruled Wednesday that red-light cameras conflict with St. Peters law.

Former Missouri Senator Jim Lembke said Monday he is hopeful that this ruling may help outlaw the cameras in the rest of Missouri.

Lembke said the dynamic of the general assembly has changed since his previous attempts to pass legislation outlawing red-light cameras, and he thinks the legislature could have better luck in the coming session.

"I think that there may be opportunities, especially in the light of this decision, that might give it some new energy," Lembke said.

Lembke says he thinks the cameras are set up to create revenue for municipalities, rather than for the safety of the public.

"These aren't about safety, these are about bringing in money to the coffers of these small municipalities, And they are just balancing their budgets on the backs of the taxpayers," Lembke said.

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Senate Majority Leader Ron Richard, R-Joplin, released the first draft of a new gun rights bill Thursday. He said it'd be the first bill introduced in the Senate next year.

The bill would nullify all past, present, and future federal gun laws and would lower the concealed carry age to 19.

Republican leaders Richard and Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles County, voted against a veto override of a similar bill in September.

Richard said he'd made the bill stronger than the one vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon.

"I think we've made it more forceful and the ability to stay out of the courts that way, I think it'll get signed and I think it will get passed," Richard said.

Rep. Stacey Newman, D-St. Louis County, disagreed. She said the bill is unconstitutional and said there's an ulterior motive behind the new bill.

"It's designed to sell weapons," Newman said.

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Missourians will see a cut in their food stamps starting tomorrow, as part of a $5 billion cut to the program.

Under the cuts taking effect tomorrow, a family of four will receive $36 less per month, which adds up to $396 less in aid between November 2013 and September 2014.

Roughly 15 percent of the state's population, or 933,000 people, rely on food stamps, according to a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The report says all of the Missourians on food stamps will be affected by the cut.

The 2009 stimulus bill contained a dramatic rise in food stamp aid to states. The bill was passed in response to the major economic downturn that started in September 2008.

The U.S. House and Senate are negotiating on a new 5-year farm bill, which could include further cuts to food stamps. The House passed a bill that included $39 billion in cuts, while the Senate version had $4.5 billion in cuts over 10 years.

Missouri school districts have a choice in how they will evaluate the performance of teachers.

The Joint Committee on Education met Wednesday to hear experts tell them how school teachers and administrators would be evaluated based on two separate models.

Directors from both the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Missouri Regional Professional Development Center reported on how their systems benefits districts.

Committee vice-chair Sen. David Pearce, R-Warrensburg, was pleased with what they had to say. 

"There is an ongoing effort to train and evaluate our teachers," Pearce said. "What I think this hearing here today talked about were two very, very good models."

Both models are currently being used in hundreds of schools districts across the Show-Me-State.

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Some Missouri lawmakers are continuing the debate on Medicaid expansion.

A House committee met Tuesday and Wednesday to look at different approaches to reforming Medicaid.

The committee discussed two-fold Medicaid plans on Tuesday in states that expanded eligibility and helped fund competitive private insurers.

Committee chair Rep. Jay Barnes, R- Jefferson City, questioned the success of the recent hybrid plans.

"How do we even know the system is working on other states?" Barnes said, proposing contracts structures with set health goals for providers.

According to the Missouri Hospitals Association, nearly 800,000 Missourians are uninsured.

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Missouri's Medicaid Transformation chairman recommended privatizing Medicaid Tuesday.

Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, proposed privatizing expansion so the state can contract it out to businesses.

Barnes acknowledged federal bureaucrats would have to support any plans Missouri made.

"Anything that's going to be transformative is going to require a discretionary waiver from the federal government," Barnes said. "Discretionary waiver means they can say yes or no for any damn reason they want to."

Barnes plans to introduce a revamped Medicaid bill in the upcoming legislative session.

The House shut down Barnes' first attempt to expand Medicaid eligibility last April.

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Less than a month after a former Department of Agriculture official resigned citing workplace hostility, a former Department of Labor official said Tuesday she was fired for raising similar concerns about Governor Jay Nixon's administration.

Gracia Backer served as the head of the Labor Department's Division of Employment Security from 2009 until March when she was fired 17 days after she had sent a letter to Commissioner of Administration Douglas Nelson regarding her concerns about former labor department head Larry Rebman.

Backer said Rebman would interfere in lower level decisions and was often time critical of older women who worked in the department.

Earlier in October Agriculture Department head John Hagler left the post shortly after a former employee criticized his department for creating a hostile work environment.

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An initiative petition ballot issue has been filed that would impose restrictions on campaign contributions to legislative candidates.

The measure also would prohibit lawmakers and their staff from accepting any gift from a lobbyist of a value greater than $5.

Also under the proposed constitutional amendment, legislators and their staff would be banned from working as lobbyists for two year after leaving office.

The restrictions cover only the legislature, but not statewide office holders or candidates for statewide office.

The proposal was submitted by St. Louis Attorney Brad Ketcher, who had been the legal counsel for former Gov. Mel Carnahan.

Missouri's current, Gov. Jay Nixon, warned legislators earlier this year that he would support a ballot issue to limit campaign contributions if the legislature failed to pass restrictions.

Missouri voters had approved contribution limits by a wide margin in 1994. But that provision subsequently was repealed by the legislature several years later.

One of the state's major campaign contributors, Rex Sinquefield, had filed suit earlier this year seeking to block another petition proposal that would restrict campaign contributions to candidates for statewide and legislative offices.

In a 5-2 decision, Missouri's Supreme Court upheld the state's decision to deny surviving-spouse benefits to the gay partner of a deceased member of the Missouri Highway Patrol.

The case was filed by Kelly Glossip who had been for more than 14 years an unmarried partner of a highway patrolman killed in the line of duty, Dennis Engelhard.

The state rejected Glossip's original claim for spousal benefits on the basis that the two were not actually married.

But in his court filings, Glossip cited a voter-approved provision in Missouri's Constitution that bans government from recognizing same-sex marriages.

Because of that ban, Glossip argued, denying benefits for a same-sex partner who legally could not get married in Missouri amounted to an unconstitutional discrimination based on sexual orientation.

But in its decision, Missouri's Supreme Court noted that the two could have gotten married in another state.

And the court concluded that would have raised a quite different issue for the judges, in a passage noted by one of Glossip's attorney's.

"If Glossip and the deceased patrolman had been married in another state (or country), Glossip could have challenged the statute that prohibits recognizing same-sex marriages for purposes of Missouri benefits," the majority decision suggested in an opinion that was not attributed to any one of the judges.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Richard Teitelman argued the combination of Missouri's constitutional ban on gay marriages and statutes that require marriage for governmental spousal benefits was a violation of the Constitution.

"This type of intentional, invidious and specifically targeted discrimination is fundamentally inconsistent with the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law," Teitelman wrote.

Glossip's case had attracted nationwide attention in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down provisions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

A number of major Missouri political figures had filed a brief supporting Glossip's claim including St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis.

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Cardinals fans will not have to worry about one thing in the World Series home games—their safety.

The Missouri National Guard will detect any trace of a nuclear threat at the World Series games in St. Louis before each fan enters Busch Stadium.

The two dozen soldiers and airmen will detect any trace of a nuclear threat at the World Series games in St. Louis before each fan enters Busch Stadium. They will also sweep the stadium to check for any chemical, biological, or nuclear threats.

Deputy Commander Dominic Sansone has been in the Missouri Guard for 10 years—he says it’s a thrill keeping his hometown safe.

“It’s always refreshing because again, you know, everyone in Missouri National Guard is a Missourian,” said Sansone. “So we live here, we’ve been around since 1636, that’s longer than active duty or anybody else.”

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The incident involving a rodeo clown imitating President Obama at last year's State Fair didn't stop attendance from rising.

According to a report released today attendance is up three percent from the previous year.

Missouri State Fair Director Mark Wolfe says the incident may have even been an incentive for certain citizens to attend.

"I'm sure there were some people who felt like they wouldn't participate because of that and some that did participate because of it. So I guess it just depends on how you look at those things."

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