Tag: Missouri

Missouri Legislative Session Opens with Different Priorities

The Center Square

During news conferences on Wednesday, Missouri’s Republican legislators stated their priority is approving new Congressional district maps while Democrats acknowledged they’ve gained some influence over the process and pledged to uphold voting rights.

At the state capitol in Jefferson City, none of the Republicans wore masks while meeting with reporters while all of the Democrats wore masks. Leaders of both parties were asked about the affects of the resurgence of COVID-19 infections on the upcoming session.

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Missouri Gov. Parson Says St. Louis Newspaper Admitted to Violating Computer Tampering Law

The Center Square
Mike Parson

Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Parson on Wednesday expressed confidence the Cole County prosecutor will charge the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for violating a state law protecting computer networks.

Gov. Parson called for the Highway Patrol to investigate the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Oct. 15 after it notified the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education its public-facing website contained Social Security numbers of teachers in its HTML code – visible to anyone using an Internet browser. Parson stated the “hack” might cost Missouri taxpayers as much as $50 million.

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Missouri Legislators Want to End Sales Tax On Guns, Food, Diapers in 2022 Session

The Center Square
Missouri State Capitol

If the number of bills submitted in the Missouri House of Representatives and the Senate is any indication, lots of time will be devoted to debating taxes during the next legislative session starting Jan. 5, 2022.

Approximately 10% of the 1,020 bills filed contain the word “tax” in the description. Senators filed about 40 bills and joint resolutions while representatives filed approximately 60.

More than 50 bills cover taxation and general revenue.

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Missouri Paper Stands by Reporting After Sparring With Governor Over COVID Mask Mandates

Peter D'Abrosca
Man on escalator with mask on

A Missouri newspaper is standing by its recent reporting on COVID-19 mask mandates after it drew criticism from Gov. Mike Parson (R).

“Our story — which included all documents and data supporting it — speaks for itself. We stand behind our reporting,” Editor-in-Chief of The Missouri Independent Jason Hancock told The Star News Network. 

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Missouri Sues Large School District for Breaking Open Record Laws on Critical Race Theory Materials

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Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt on Tuesday sued one of the state’s largest school districts, alleging it has violated open records laws in an effort to thwart public disclosure of critical race theory training materials for teachers and curriculum for students.

Schmitt’s lawsuit charges the Springfield Public Schools with 13 counts of violating the state Sunshine Law that include charging exorbitant fees for records. The move comes a day after Just the News reported that the school district’s training materials suggested teachers could be engaged in white supremacist behavior just by insisting on English language in classes, calling police on a black suspect or using the term “All lives matter.”

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In Fallout over National School Board Group’s Letter to Biden About Parents, Ohio, Missouri Depart

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Man standing in front of a room, giving a lecture with a presentation

The backlash from the incendiary language in a recent letter from the National School Board Association to President Biden asking for federal law enforcement to intervene on outspoken parents at school board meetings escalated this week when the group’s Ohio and Missouri chapters withdrew their respective memberships.

The Missouri School Boards Association in announcing its departure said the national group “demonstrated it does not currently align with MSBA’s guiding principles of local governance.”

The Ohio chapter was more direct, saying in its letter Monday that its departure was a “direct result” of the Sept. 29 letter to Biden.

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‘Totalitarian Tyranny’: Parents Groups Slam Attorney General Garland for Turning FBI on Their Activism

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Parents who protest public school policies on race, gender and COVID-19 are crying foul after Attorney General Merrick Garland promised to “discourage” and prosecute “harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against school boards, administrators, teachers and staff.

His “mobilization of [the] FBI against parents is consistent with the complete weaponization of the federal government against ideological opponents,” Rhode Island mother Nicole Solas, who is waging a public records battle with her school district over race-related curriculum, told Just the News.

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Black High School Student Admits Responsibility for Racist Graffiti at Missouri High School

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A black student admitted responsibility for racist graffiti that prompted a Sept. 23 walkout by over 1,000 students in a Missouri high school, administrators told St. Louis-area media outlets.

“The student responsible is not white, however, this does not diminish the hurt it caused or the negative impact it has had on our entire community,” Dr. Keith Marty, superintendent of the Parkway School District wrote in a Sept. 28 letter to parents.

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Sen. Josh Hawley Proposes Bill Holding Tech Companies Liable for Harm to Children

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Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a bill Thursday removing liability protections from tech platforms that harm children.

The bill would amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to strip liability protections from social media services that are found to have caused “bodily injury or harm to mental health” to users under the age of 16. This allows for users who suffer harm at the hands of social media companies to sue for damages.

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Missouri US Representatives, Hawley Push Probes, Bills Targeting Meatpacking Industry

The Center Square

There are more than 95,000 farms in Missouri with the Show Me State placing among the nation’s top 10 in terms of beef, chicken and pork production, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But consolidation within the meatpacking industry – four firms (JBS, Tyson, Cargill, National Beef) control more than 80% of all the beef slaughtered in the United States – has long frustrated Missouri producers.

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St. Louis’ Top Prosecutor Accused of Incompetence as Violent Crime Rises

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As violent crime increases in St. Louis, residents’ outrage towards Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner appears to be growing as well.

Gardner, who assumed office at the beginning of 2017 on a progressive platform, is St. Louis’ top prosecutor. But she has taken an extremely lax approach to actually prosecuting violent criminals, angering residents and victims’ family members.

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Democratic Rep. Cori Bush Tweets Independence Day is Only ‘For White People’

Cooper Moran

Progressive firebrand and Democratic lawmaker, Representative Cori Bush (D-MO-01) tweeted on Sunday that the only people who should celebrate Independence Day are “white people.”

“When they say that the 4th of July is about American freedom, remember this: the freedom they’re referring to is for white people. This land is stolen land and Black people still aren’t free,” her full tweet read.

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Four States to Slash COVID-19 Unemployment Aid Saturday

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Man in gray shirt, standing in a shop

Four states will be cutting pandemic unemployment increases three months early, ending the supplemental $300 in federal aid.

Alaska, Iowa, Missouri, and Mississippi will end pandemic-related unemployment relief on June 12. An additional 21 Republican-led states will slash federal aid before it expires on Sept. 6, according to Business Insider.

Conservatives continue to advocate an end to the increased benefits, saying they are no longer needed now that the pandemic is contained and speculating that the high payouts are discouraging would-be workers from returning.

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21 States Sue Biden Admin for Revoking Keystone XL Permit

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A group of red states sued President Biden and members of his administration on Wednesday over his decision to revoke a key permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, The Hill reported.

The lawsuit is led by Montana and Texas, and backed by 19 other states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

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Dead Missouri Measure to Cut Loathed Personal Property Taxes Revived

The Center Square

The Missouri Senate Monday night rejected a proposed five-year phase-out of the state’s property tax that could have saved state taxpayers nearly $1.5 billion by 2027.

On Thursday, the measure was resurrected as a proposal to make any increases in the personal property tax rate the same percentage as any real property tax rate hikes approved by counties, among a bevy of other provisions.

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GOP Lawmakers Urge Attorney General to Defend St. Louis Couple’s Gun Rights After Firearm Confiscation

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GOP lawmakers wrote a letter to Attorney General William Barr Friday, urging the protection of the firearm rights of the St. Louis couple that saw their guns confiscated after they went viral for defending their home against demonstrators, according to reports.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey were seen in a video brandishing a M16A2-style rifle and small handgun outside of their home as demonstrators broke through a private gate and encroached on their property line in June. Police executed a search warrant Friday and confiscated the couple’s rifle, and later their pistol, despite not yet filing any known charges against the pair, according to KSDK News.

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Video Appears to Show Mob Attacking Catholics Praying at St. Louis Statue

Anthony Gockowski

Multiple videos recorded after a Saturday prayer vigil in St. Louis appear to show Black Lives Matter agitators assaulting Catholics who participated in the event.

“Yesterday, while praying for peace and unity in our city and the protection of the St. Louis statue, Black Lives Matter protesters started to harass, berate, and assault the Catholics that were peacefully praying. We did nothing in retaliation,” Conor Martin, a candidate for Bedford Township Republican committeeman, claimed on Twitter.

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Kansas City Police Say Bricks Staged Near Protests Were ‘To Be Used During a Riot’

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Kansas City police officers found bricks and rocks staged near protest sites around the city, stoking concerns that individuals or groups had pre-planned looting and destruction that hit the city over the weekend, the department said Sunday.

“We have learned of & discovered stashes of bricks and rocks in & around the Plaza and Westport to be used during a riot,” the department said in a tweet on Sunday.

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Missouri and Mississippi File Lawsuits Against China for Unleashing COVID-19 on the World

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The attorneys general of Missouri and Mississippi announced this week that they are filing lawsuits against the Chinese government over its handling of the coronavirus, which first appeared in Wuhan late last year and was allowed to spread to the rest of the world.

Missouri AG Eric Schmitt says that China’s “campaign of deceit” has led to great human suffering across the globe.

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Commentary: Senators Blackburn and Hawley Want to Move Washington Out of Washington

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What do you suppose the Alliance for American Advertising has in common with the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, the American Society of Civil Engineers, or American Apparel and Footwear? Apart from beginning with the letter “A,” they are among the nearly 3,500 trades or firms that have dedicated lobbying operations in Washington, D.C.

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Judge Rules to Keep Last Abortion Clinic in Missouri Temporarily Open

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by Mary Margaret Olohan   A judge ruled Friday to keep the last abortion clinic in Missouri open temporarily despite the Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services’ refusal to renew the clinic’s license earlier in the day. Hours before State Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer extended his preliminary injunction to keep the clinic open temporarily, DHSS refused to renew the St. Louis abortion clinic’s license, according to NBC News. “Today is a victory for women to be able to access the kind of medical care that they and their health professionals need and deserve,” said M’Evie Mead, who heads policy and organizing at Planned Parenthood Advocates in Missouri, according to NBC. “It is still very, very difficult to access abortion in Missouri because of medically unnecessary hoops and regulations, but you can still come to Planned Parenthood today for all of your reproductive health care,” Mead added. “And that is a good day for women.” Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen has said if the Missouri clinic closes down, Missouri could be the only state in the United States since 1974 without an abortion clinic. “BREAKING: Today, Missouri’s health department weaponized a regulatory process to deny an abortion license to the…

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Missouri Abortion Clinic to Stay Open for Now After Court Order

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Reuters   Missouri’s only abortion clinic will stay open at least a few more days after a judge on Friday granted a request by Planned Parenthood for a temporary restraining order, allowing the facility to keep operating until a hearing on Tuesday. Planned Parenthood sued Missouri this week after state health officials said the license for Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood in St. Louis was in jeopardy, meaning the clinic could have closed at midnight unless the judge granted the request for a temporary restraining order. “Today is a victory for women across Missouri, but this fight is far from over,” Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen said in a statement after Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer agreed to the organization’s request. Representatives for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services could not immediately be reached for comment. Health officials had refused to renew the clinic’s license because they said, they were unable to interview seven of its physicians over “potential deficient practices,” according to documents filed in a St. Louis court. The legal battle in St. Louis comes a week after Missouri Governor Mike Parson, a Republican, signed a bill banning abortion beginning in the eighth week of…

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Missouri Is Latest US State to Approve Anti-Abortion Bill

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  Missouri is the latest U.S. state to act in favor of a restrictive abortion ban bill, bolstering a national movement Republicans hope could lead to the revocation of the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion. The Republican-led Senate in the midwestern U.S. state voted 24-10 early Thursday to ban abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy. The legislation includes exceptions for medical emergencies but not for pregnancies caused by incest or rape. The state’s Republican-led House must approve the measure before it goes to Republican Governor Mike Parson for him to sign into law. Parson voiced support for the bill on Wednesday. The Missouri senate’s passage of the bill came only hours after Republican Alabama Governor signed into law a near-total ban on abortion. I fully support my husband, @GovParsonMO, on his pro-life stand! All human life is sacred at every stage! #MissouriProud #ProLife pic.twitter.com/Yr2Chcp1Sp — First Lady Teresa Parson (@FirstLadyTeresa) May 15, 2019 “To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God,” Ivey said in a statement. Lawmakers in the southeastern U.S. state had passed the…

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GatewayPundit’s Jim Hoft Teams Up with Missouri’s St. Louis Tea Party to Announce a Rally for Trump’s Border Wall

Anthony Gockowski

The St. Louis Tea Party is organizing a rally for Saturday in support of President Donald Trump as he continues to fight for the border wall. According to a press release, the rally was organized by the St. Louis Tea Party and the Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft. “Our president needs our support. Our president needs to know we stand with him,” Hoft said in a statement, encouraging St. Louis residents to attend the Saturday rally in Clayton, Missouri. “Let’s show our support for President Trump as he holds the line, and demand funding for the wall,” the St. Louis Tea Party said on Facebook. The news comes amid a contentious government shutdown over funding for Trump’s border wall, which now Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are unwilling to budge on after multiple conversations with the president. On Thursday, Trump made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room (his first) and was accompanied by members of ICE and Border Patrol. Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, told the White House press corps that if they “interview Border Patrol agents, they will tell you that walls work.” “Anywhere that you…

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Outgoing Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly Echos Defeated Missouri Sen McCaskill’s Warning: Dems Need To Lay Off Left Wing Politics

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by Chris White   Democratic Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly said Saturday morning that Democrats need to avoid lurching to the left or risk alienating middle America. He’s the second outgoing Democratic lawmaker to issue such warning. Medicare-for-all and other traditionally left-wing ideas are too politically poisonous to sell in red states, the Indiana senator told CNN in a sit-down interview. Democrats need to do a better job of connecting with voters in middle America, Donnelly added. “We have not made enough of a connection … that the people of my state understand culturally, we (Democrats) want to make sure you succeed,” he said. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has pushed hard to make climate change and Medicare-for-all a high dollar issue for Democrats. But Donnelly is warning Democrats to tread lightly. “[W]hen you talk ‘Medicare-for-all’ … you start losing the people in my state,” he noted. “When we start talking about, ‘Hey, we’re going to work together with the insurance companies to lower premiums,’ that’s what connects.” The ideal candidate to oppose President Donald Trump in 2020 is someone who can focus on issues like manufacturing and health care, said Donnelly, who lost his re-election bid in November to Republican Mike…

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Missouri Federal Grand Jury Indicts 14 in Home Health Care Scam

Anna Marie Bolton

A fraud scheme perpetrated on taxpayer-funded Medicare and Medicaid began to unravel with an anonymous tip alerting officials “that some Iraqis were fraudulently receiving home care services,” says a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report from earlier this month. Investigators examined billing records from several home health care companies that provide services to the elderly or infirmed. They then compared those to travel records for both the caregiver and the recipient of the care, finding that one or the other was out of the country at the time the care was allegedly provided. Two weeks ago, a federal grand jury indicted 14 involved in the $1.3 million fraud, reports the Post-Dispatch. The story was later picked up by a newsletter for the home health care industry. The 14 charged included employees of the agencies as well as clients, and they are: Kian Abdollah, 52 Mohammed Abdollah, 78 Dalia Ahmed, 27 Dena Ahmed, 30 Fatemeh Akbari, 73 Hala Alalewi, 38 Haider Albab, 75 Nouria Habeb, 67 Pegdah Heidari, 27 Tony Iyar, 57 Ghufran Abdallah Jaber, 51 Huda Mohammedjamil, 53 Hend Msallati, 33 Asal Yousif, 53 An investigation launched into one of the clients earlier this year began to shed light on the fraudulent activity. According…

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Planned Parenthood Says it Puts Women First, But This Missouri Clinic Proves Otherwise.

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by Monica Burke and Genevieve McNalis   Planned Parenthood claims to put women first, yet the atrocious health code violations found at a Missouri clinic earlier this month suggest otherwise. The abortion giant was campaigning against newly proposed regulations on Missouri abortion clinics when state inspectors discovered a clinic in Columbia, Missouri, was already in violation of existing state regulations. The clinic’s license was due to expire in October, so in anticipation, the state health department made its routine inspection of the facility in August. In that inspection, the department discovered disgusting and dangerous health violations such as moldy equipment and bodily fluid on recently used equipment. The state informed Planned Parenthood of these health violations and expected the organization to correct them immediately. Not only did the clinic fail to do so, it continued operating for over a month without correcting the violations. When the state visited the clinic again on Sept. 26, 2018, they discovered additional violations. They found bloody single-use plastic tubing attached to the machine’s glass suction canister that was never disposed of after the last abortion procedure on Sept. 21, along with machines covered in mold and bodily fluid. The department also found rusty machines…

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Missouri Appeals Ruling That Blocked Part of Voter Photo ID

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Missouri’s top election official on Thursday said the state was appealing a judge’s ruling that blocked enforcement of parts of a voter photo identification law, adding that the ruling was causing “mass confusion” ahead of a key election for a U.S. Senate seat. Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (pictured) in a statement said the state attorney general had appealed the ruling and asked it to be put on hold as that process plays out. At issue is Senior Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan’s recent ruling striking down a requirement that a voter lacking a valid photo ID must sign a sworn statement and present some other form of identification in order to cast a regular ballot. Callahan also blocked the state from advertising that a photo ID is required to vote. Ashcroft said there’s confusion because Callahan’s ruling “directs the STATE not to use the statement.” But Ashcroft said it’s local election authorities who would have been responsible for requesting that voters without proper photo identification sign an affidavit, “so it is not clear if they are bound by the judge’s decision.” “The judge’s decision has injected mass confusion into the voting process just weeks before an important…

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Koch Network Launches Massive Ad Campaign to Bring Down Dem Senate Candidates in Key States, Including Tennessee

Anthony Gockowski
Phil Bredesen

The Koch Network is preparing to launch a multi-million dollar ad campaign across three swing-states in the hopes of bringing down key Democrats in the midterm elections. Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a Koch-backed group, announced Wednesday that it would spend $820,000 in Wisconsin, $2.1 million in Missouri, and another $2 million in Tennessee, according to CNBC. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who has already faced $5 million in attack ads thus far, is outed for opposing the GOP tax bill and backing a $1.3 trillion spending bill in AFP’s latest ad. “For Tammy Baldwin, it’s higher taxes and more spending. Higher sales taxes, higher income taxes, higher energy taxes, voting for $1.3 trillion in spending. We can’t afford Tammy Baldwin,” the ad states, praising Baldwin’s Republican opponent Leah Vukmir. In Tennessee, the Koch network is going after former governor Phil Bredesen, who is now seeking a Senate seat, for spending $9 million on remodeling the governor’s mansion at the expense of taxpayers. “While we struggled through a recession, Bredesen wasted 9 million taxpayer dollars upgrading his governor’s mansion, $4 million on a party cave, gilded bathrooms, and a kitchen worth two Tennessee homes,” the ad states. “Phil Bredesen lived the…

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‘Non-White’ Student Admits to Racist Graffiti in Missouri High School Bathroom

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Missouri school officials said a non-white student confessed this week to scrawling a racist message on a girls’ bathroom mirror, causing unrest at a St. Louis-area high school. The controversial phrase, “White Lives Matter,” followed by the N-word was discovered on a girls’ bathroom mirror at Parkway Central High School in Chesterfield on Nov. 15. In…

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No. 4 Georgia Stomps Missouri, 53-28

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ATHENS, Ga. — On a weekend with its share of upsets, Georgia’s offense made sure the No. 4 Bulldogs didn’t suffer a similar fate, rolling up 696 total yards to rout Missouri 53-28 on Saturday night. The victory will likely push Georgia (7-0, 4-0 SEC) into the No. 3 spot in the poll following Clemson’s loss…

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Bill Hennessy Commentary: Missouri’s Governor Greitens Signs Executive Order Protecting Patients’ Prescription Privacy

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Tennessee Star

  By: Bill Hennessy   In case you haven’t heard, Governor Greitens signed an executive order on July 17. The EO made Missouri the 50th state to establish some sort of prescription drug tracking. Most states track everything about prescriptions. And hyperactive federal judges have already opened those state databases to the unmasking eyes of the Deep State. So what makes Greitens’s plan unique and amazing? First, let’s look at the threat to privacy posed by most states’ plans. A threat the Missouri legislature almost brought to Missouri. From Business Insider: Federal courts in Utah and Oregon recently ruled that the Drug Enforcement Administration, in its effort to investigate suspected drug abusers or pill mills, can access information in those states’ PDMPs without a warrant, even over the states’ objections. That means the federal government can look in your medicine cabinet. Anytime. Without a warrant. Unless you live in Missouri. The bills that failed in the Missouri legislature (narrowly) looked like laws in those other states. The legislature would have tracked patients and prescribers and dispensers. But the legislature failed. So Greitens acted. Greitens’s EO is different. Very different. So different, Democrat Claire McCaskill is screaming for more intrusion. Like they…

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