From the monthly archives:

September 2009

 Missouri’s junior senator thinks there will be a healthcare reform bill passed this year, but not without some games of "political gotcha" during Senate debate.

The Senate Finance Committee has rejected two public option proposals but Senator McCaskill thinks the more moderate of the two could have a chance during floor debate. She says the moderate proposal offered by New York’s Charles Schumer could be added during debate by the full senate.

She expects partisan politics to color much of the debate, predicting so many "political posturing amendments" that the thought of them makes her head hurt.

She thinks the senate will spend a lot of time on affordability to make sure the final bill does not create an insurance plan that millions of people cannot afford., And she says the cost of the entire plan will be much-discussed.

McCaskill says numerous groups are trying to work together to find middle ground. And she doesn’t think special interests are as influential as they have been because much of the work is being done senator-to-senator.

Upload McCaskill comments (2:15 mp3)

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Nixon officials attempt to explain E. coli flap

by admin 09/30/09 8:39 PM

Nixon Administration officials attempt to explain why contamination at the Lake of the Ozarks wasn’t reported promptly even as the governor orders an investigation of the Department of Natural Resources.
Officials within the Nixon Administration denied they knew about contamination at the Lake of the Ozarks until a month after readings were taken. [...]

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New program aims to find forever homes for teens in foster care

by admin 09/30/09 7:20 PM

A federal grant will help the St. Louis area get more foster kids into forever homes.
If the "Extreme Recruitment" program to get children, mostly teens, into permanent homes works in the St. Louis area this year, it could become a template for other locations in the state next year.
Carmen Schulze with [...]

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Nixon suspends DNR director, says he was given bad information

by admin 09/30/09 4:49 PM

Governor Nixon has suspended Department of Natural Resources Director Mark Templeton and ordered an investigation as to why DNR withheld information that the Lake of the Ozarks was contaminated with E. coli bacteria.
Nixon announced the suspension and that he has ordered an investigation of DNR during a telephone conference [...]

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Hold the phone! Time to do the right thing

by Bill Pollock 09/30/09 2:44 PM

The Missouri athletic department sold 25 cell phones at a surplus auction this summer.  Mike Bellman of Columbia paid $190 for the phones, then found out information wasn’t deleted like text messages, contact numbers and e-mails from people like Gary Pinkel, Mike Anderson and Mike Alden.  Now Bellman wants $3,000 as he [...]

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