Senator Bond wants the General Accounting Office to look into pharmacy compounding. Compounded drugs are customized medications that pharmacists mix from scratch, often without following safety procedures used by big drugmakers. Bond’s request comes after the Robert Courtney cancer drug dilution case that rocked the Kansas City area. Courtney pleaded guilty to diluting cancer drugs for nearly 10 years to increase his profit margin. Authorities believe more than four thousand patients were affected. He’s now serving a 30-year sentence. Bond has also received the green light from the Senate to form an advisory committee to look into compounded drugs.
Election Date Set to Replace DePasco
June 30, 2003 By
Governor Holden has set a November special election date to replace a Kansas City-area State Senator who died last month. The election is scheduled for November 4th to replace Ronnie DePasco, a Democrat, who died of cancer last month. Depasco had served in the legislature since 1977, first serving in the Missouri House, then the Missouri Senate.
West Nile Confirmed in Southwest Missouri Horse
June 30, 2003 By
Health officials in Southwest Missouri say a horse in McDonald County is the first case of equine West Nile Virus of the year. At least one crow in the St.Louis area was confirmed to have the disease and another has been reported in Southeast Missouri. The 18-year-old horse has been destroyed. Last year, 662 horses in the state picked up the virus. Mosquitoes transfer the virus to humans and horses after getting it from infected birds. People cannot spread the disease to other people, and it won’t spread from birds to people.
Special Legislative Committee to Investigate School Funding
June 30, 2003 By
An effort to create a new way for the state to distribute money to public school districts will be investigated in the next few months. Several legislators say it’s obvious the present school Foundation Formula no longer fairly distributes state school aid funds. It’s been ten years since the present Foundation Formula was written, and those who were involved in that say they knew even in 1993 that the formula was only going to be good for about a decade.Some school districts are threatening to sue the state because they say the present system is unfair. House and Senate leaders are about to appoint members of a special committee that will rewrite the Foundation Formula. Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder (R-Cape Girardeau) will appoint some of the committee members. House Speaker Catherine Hanaway (R-Warson Woods) will appoint some House members to the committee, which could have suggestions ready for the 2004 legisaltive session if things go smoothly. The system now being sued took two years to write.
One Special Session Down, Another On the Way
June 30, 2003 By
One special legislative session has ended. Another one is already planned. Governor Holden has announced he will sign the education budget bills, ending a contentious, month-long special legislative session. Holden, a Democrat, has also announced he will call legislators back into session in September during the annual veto session to reconsider his revenue package. House Speaker Catherine Hanaway (R-Warson Woods) won’t say whether she will consider revenue enhancements once lawmakers return for another special session. The House didn’t hear any during the June session. While Hanaway assigned revenue bills to the Tax Policy Committee during the special legislative session, the chairman of the committee refused to even hold a hearing on them. And even though a Senate committee heard some of the governor’s proposals, no revenue increase proposal made it to either the House or Senate floor for debate. Hanaway argues raising revenue could prove counter productive for state government, if it costs the state jobs, which, in turn, would cost the state tax revenue. She says the best way for state government to get more money is for more Missourians to go back to work. She says that needs to be the focus of the state government right now.
