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DNR dumps thousands of e-mails on Senate committee

August 28, 2009 By

A Senate committee has been given 200,000 e-mails to read as it reviews why the Department of Natural Resources withheld a report on contamination at the Lake of the Ozarks.

DNR drug its feet on releasing a report that parts of the Lake of the Ozarks were contaminated with E-Coli in May.

"So, what normally is a 24 to 48 hour process, took nearly four weeks," Senate Commerce Committee Chairman, Brad Lager (R-Savannah) told committee members in a conference call meeting Friday morning.

Lager said DNR has been less than cooperative in the committee’s review of its action. Lager insists the committee isn’t investigating DNR, merely reviewing its methods to determine if law needs to be changed to protect public health. Lager, a Republican, says he doesn’t want it to appear that a Republican legislature is investigating a Democratic Administration. DNR is part of the executive branch of Gov. Nixon.

Sen. Joan Bray, a Democrat from St. Louis, told Lager that though he insists the committee isn’t investigating DNR that is how it appears.

"This has all of the aura of an investigation," Bray, a member of the committee, told Lager. "And that’s what’s bothering me."

While Bray is suspicious, Republican Senator Matt Bartle of Lee’s Summit said the committee must review DNR’s actions and consider whether state lawmakers need to change current policy.

"If the department wants to take this to Defcon 4 and make it look like it’s some sort of criminal investigation that’s there, I guess, their prerogative," Bartle said during the conference call.

For now, staff is review material provided by the DNR. The committee will likely meet in Jefferson City later. DNR has been accused of withholding the information about contamination, because the state worried about the impact on tourism.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (1:20 MP3)

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , ,

Missourians rally to tell Washington "Hands Off My Healthcare"

August 28, 2009 By

The Patients First bus tour stopped in the Capitol City today, one stop among many in Missouri.

healthbus.jpg Organizer Carl Bearden says they’re collecting signatures from those opposed to the healthcare reform bill being debated in Washington and are urging folks to contact Senator McCaskill to voice their opposition.

Only a handful of concerned citizens showed up on the Capitol lawn to greet the bus today — in the rain — but Bearden says more than 200 people showed up at their stop in Camdenton.

The bus now heads to Rolla before heading towards Washington, Mo., today.

healthsigns.jpg The bus then leaves Missouri and makes its way toward Washington, D.C., where it will stop on Sept. 12, making stops in various states to collect signatures and talk about the grassroots effort along the way.

For more on the tour, visit http://joinpatientsfirst.com/bus-tour .

 

Filed Under: Politics & Government

$7 million cut to Tourism seen as crippling blow

August 28, 2009 By

A $7 million cut to the state tourism budget is seen as a crippling blow to tourism efforts and counter-productive to those in the industry.

Governor Nixon, faced with slumping state revenues, ordered belt tightening throughout the state. He ordered $430 million to be withheld. The money will be released only if the economy turns around and state revenue rebounds.

The Department of Economic Development chose to cut $7 million from the Division of Tourism . The cut to Tourism and the Missouri Arts Council spared the department’s economic development programs from deeper cuts.

The past president of the Missouri Travel Council , Gary Figgins, says the move discloses a misunderstanding of the impact of tourism.

"Tourism employs somewhere in the neighborhood 290,000 people in Missouri," Figgins says. "Those aren’t jobs that pay $20 to $30 an hour, but they’re good jobs, they’re safe jobs and they’re jobs that are not going to be shipped overseas."

A spokesman for the Economic Development Department says the decision to cut $7 million from Tourism was based, in part, because Tourism has a $4 ½ million budget balance. Figgins counters that that’s a false balance, reflecting money allocated and spent in the last fiscal year. The bills just haven’t come due yet.

"Make no mistake about it, it’s a $7 million cut," Figgins says. "They’re just looking at numbers there that, for one reason or another, they just don’t understand how the advertising purchases are made."

The Missouri Travel Council calls the cut to Tourism inequitable. It contends the cut to Tourism represents nearly 64% of the $11.3 million in withholding requested of the Department of Economic Development. The cut will cause Tourism to drastically reduce advertising as well as hurt efforts to promote the state to group tour operators and other niche markets Missouri attractions rely on.

Figgins says the cut to Tourism ultimately is counter-productive. He points to studies that indicate every dollar spent on tourism returns nearly $50 in visitor expenditures. The Division of Tourism claims it generates $2.46 in state tax revenue for every dollar spent. Tourism ranks second behind agriculture as the top industries in Missouri. The Missouri Travel Council predicts the cut will have dire consequences both in the near and distant future.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , ,

Tigers cut Blaine Dalton

August 28, 2009 By

University of Missouri Head Football Coach Gary Pinkel has dismissed freshman quarterback Blaine Dalton from the Tiger football program, effective immediately, due to a violation of team conduct policies.  The University will not release further comments regarding the dismissal.

A source of the Missourinet in Columbia said that Dalton was arrested for DUI. 

If that is the case, it would be Dalton’s second DUI since coming to Mizzou in the spring.  Dalton was pulled over in April by Columbia police.  In addition to the DUI charge, police also found 10 pills of Hydrocodone, a prescription painkiller.  Later it was determined the pills belonged to his friend.

Unfortunate situation for a kid who showed a lot of potential.  I give credit to head coach Gary Pinkel.  With Dalton’s dismissal, Jimmy Costello will back up Blaine Gabbert.

 

 

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Health Dept. pulls most regs on church-run centers

August 28, 2009 By

The state Board of Health has pulled dozens of church-run daycare regulations off the books. Childcare Administrator Kathy Quick says the regulations went into effect 14 years ago. Questions about the department’s legal authority to enforce them cropped up this Spring. She says two proposals will go to next year’s legislature to correct the situation.

She says the proposals will do no harm to religious-exempt facilities that are not licensed by the state although they do come under state regulations. Fire safety and sanitation rules remain in place because the department is authorized by law to enforce them. Quick says most of those faith-based operations meet or exceed standards set by the state anyway.

Click on the link below to hear our interview with Quick.

 

 

Upload Bob Priddy’s interview with Kathy Quick (8:59 mp3)

Filed Under: Health & Medicine
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