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The Senate overhaul of the dog breeders law adopted by voters in November has been approved and sent to the House.
Thirteen Senators whose voters supported Proposition B in November voted against the revision although some of them acknowledged the proposition has several flaws. But five senators from districts that supported the proposition last year have supported the changes. [Read more...]
Republican Tom Schweich has been sworn in as Missouri’s new State Auditor.
He was introduced by former U.S. Senator John Danforth, who praised 
Schweich for his hard work as a diplomat and as his chief of staff, once at the United Nations.
Schweich will announce his staff Wednesday, but said he’d keep many of the Auditor’s professional staff on board, including some who have worked for years under both Democrat and Republican state auditors.
Schweich beat out incumbent Democrat Susan Montee in November.
Schweich, 50, was joined by his wife and children as he was sworn in by Missouri Court of Appeals Judge Gary Gaertner Jr.
Less than half of Missouri’s registered voters went to the polls last month.. But for voters who had to make some special efforts, the turnout was about double the average. [Read more...]
The election might be over, but the fight over Proposition B isn’t.
“We were very distressed by the campaign that the Missouri Farm Bureau led in Missouri against the measure,” might seem an odd comment from the winning side, but it’s what Humane Society of the United States President Wayne Pacelle has told the Brownfield Farm Network well after the November 2nd election.
Pacelle has written an open letter challenging the contentions of the Missouri Farm Bureau during the campaign for Proposition B, especially that the HSUS pushed the dog breeder initiative as a first step to outlaw livestock production.
“We have been very focused on more humane treatment of animals in agriculture, but it is not our goal to end animal agricultural and I have said that in countless forums,” Pacelle insists.
He can say it. The Missouri Farm Bureau doesn’t believe it.
“Mr. Pacelle and HSUS have an agenda, as we’ve seen in other states, to go far beyond that and try to regulate animal agriculture in a way that we have a problems with,” the Missouri Farm Bureau’s Estil Fretwell dismisses Pacelle’s statements.
Fretwell returns fire against the HSUS.
“They bought their way on the ballot through initiative petition. They used the money that they had to run commercials in the urban areas and present a message there and it passed in the urban areas,” Fretwell tells Brownfield. “But you look in the rural areas of this state, where though a grass-roots campaign the message got out about Proposition B and HSUS, it was overwhelmingly defeated.”
Prop B passed 997,870 to 936,190, a margin of 61,680. Some state lawmakers have suggested that legislation to alter the provisions of the initiative petition might be considered in the upcoming legislative session.
Senator Bond sees great challenges ahead for the Congress he is leaving.
Bond retires after three terms in the United States Senate, leaving just as his fellow Republicans have made a comeback in Washington. Bond says his advice to Republicans is to try to re-establish the bi-partisan, working relationship in place prior to the 2008 elections.
“Much of the problems we’ve seen today came because one-party rule refused to listen to or accept any changes or even consider ideas from the minority,” Bond says. [Read more...]
