May 22, 2013

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Legislature sends ‘webcam abortion’ ban to the Governor

May 14, 2013 By

The state legislature has approved a bill that would bar the use of telemedicine to administer abortion-inducing drugs.

Representative Jeanie Riddle (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Rep. Jeanie Riddle (photo courtesy Tim Bommel, House Communications)

The bill (HB 400) would require that when a woman is using RU-486 or another abortion-inducing drug she must be in the presence of her doctor, rather than have him monitor her by a videoconference.

The bill’s House sponsor, Rep. Jeanie Riddle (R-Mokane), says such procedures happen elsewhere in the country and leave patients at risk.

“We’ve had 15 deaths and well over 1,000 … 1,300, 1,500 serious complications with this drug. We’ve had two in the United States … two teenage girls that bled to death at home because they were afraid to tell their parents. Yes, this is about quality care for women.”

Rep. Genise Montecillo (D-St. Louis) says Riddle overplays the risks, and is not genuine in stating her motivation.

“If you’re opposed to RU-486, say you’re opposed to RU-486 and that’s what this bill is about, but don’t stand up and say that this has nothing to do with a woman’s right to choose because it has everything to do with a woman’s right to choose” Montecillo said. “Let’s just be honest about the discussion for once.”

Other opponents argued that the drug is meant to be administered and followed-up on at home.

The proposal goes to Gov. Jay Nixon on veto-proof majorities in both chambers. Ten House Democrats voted with Republicans in passing it.

Filed Under: Featured, Health & Medicine, News Tagged With: , , , , ,

A second attempt at education reform fails in the House (AUDIO)

May 9, 2013 By

For the second time, an attempt by House leadership to pass education reform legislation has failed in a late night vote.

Representative Jay Barnes speaks on the House floor on SB 125 while it's Senate sponsor, Senator Jamilah Nasheed, looks on. Barnes handled her bill in the House. (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Jay Barnes speaks on the House floor on SB 125 while its Senate sponsor, Senator Jamilah Nasheed, looks on. Barnes handled her bill in the House. (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Changes were proposed to Senate bill 125 sponsored by Senator Jamilah Nasheed (D-St. Louis City) that would lift the two-year wait before the state can intervene in a failing school district to add language to institute principal evaluations.

The plan was carried in the House by Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City), who said he would rather have offered all the provisions in SB 125.

“What I’m going to attempt to do tonight is to take a part of a bill … and we’re going to amend it down to a [principal evaluations] which I believe can and should pass this body because it got 104 votes when it was offered earlier this session as an amendment onto a bill.”

The proposal inspired impassioned comments from lawmakers including Representative Steve Webb (D-Florissant), who supported the bill.

“We’re failing. We’re failing. And while we’re talking about putting letter grades on schools, which I think we should do, let’s put a letter grade on this legislature. It’s been an ‘F.’”

Representative Vicki Englund (D-St. Louis) says the principal evaluation proposal would not have allowed school districts to do anything they can’t already.

“A lot of the things that we debate are already tools in the toolbox. It’s a matter of how the school board members choose to use them or don’t choose to use them, and there are things that make school districts different. For example, the funding level that each school district receives, in my opinion, greatly impacts the quality of the education that the children receive.”

After a close vote adopted the amendment to implement principal evaluations, the House voted down its substitute for the bill 76-82, after leaving the board open the full 30 minutes possible as supporters tried to swing votes. The Senate bill has been laid aside on the House Calendar and could be taken up again and passed in the form in which it left the Senate before the session ends next week.

The education discussion turned what had been a night of at time jovial debate by lawmakers who had just returned from a social event into a somber and tense debate.

Senator Nasheed, who had been talking to lawmakers from the side floor galleries of the House throughout the debate, left the chamber for a time after Representative Keith English (D-Florrisant) shouted at her to quit threatening people. English was a “nay” vote on the bill.

When House Majority Floor Leader John Deihl (R-Town and Country) moved for the previous question, to cut off debate and force a vote on the bill, Representative Genise Montecillo (D-St. Louis) stormed off the floor. Montecillo, often vocal on education issues, had been standing to speak throughout the debate but was not recognized to.

The House in April voted down a teacher performance evaluation proposal (see the story on that bill).

AUDIO:  Hear Steve Webb’s floor remarks, 5:47

Filed Under: Education, Featured, News Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

House adopts CCW shift from Revenue Department to county sheriffs

April 24, 2013 By

The state House wants to pull the concealed carry permitting system from the Revenue Department and put it in the hands of county sheriffs. It has given initial approval to a bill that changes conceal & carry endorsements that now go on driver’s and non-driver’s licenses into permits, and gives the power to issue those permits to county sheriffs instead of the Department.

Representative Rick Brattin (photo courtesy; Missouri House Communications)

Representative Rick Brattin (photo courtesy; Missouri House Communications)

Representative Rick Brattin (R-Harrisonville) says he filed HB 859 in response to recent issues with how applicants’ information has been handled.

“It will put a stop to the practices of the Department of Revenue where they’ve been scanning our source documentation, for what reasons we don’t know yet. This would just remove that and just simplify it for every single … John Q. Taxpayer and every person that is moving to get their CCW endorsement.”

The bill proposes transferring ID processing equipment no longer used by the Department to the state’s sheriffs.

Added to the bill on the House floor is Brattin’s amendment that would let the state’s school districts designate teachers or administrators as “school protection officers.” Those officers would be allowed to carry concealed weapons on school property, if they have a valid concealed carry status and meet other training requirements.

Brattin says that would protect schools and children, but the idea doesn’t fly with Representative Genise Montecillo (D-St. Louis), a former St. Louis school teacher.

“This is outrageous. First of all, we rarely even have places to secure our purses, let alone weapons, in our classroom … we are not trained in emergency situations like that. One class that we go take or going and getting a concealed carry weapon permit is not going to train people who do not do that on a daily basis.”

The same language has already been added to another bill, HB 436, that has been sent to the Senate.

Other provisions would eliminate the requirement that concealed carry endorsements be renewed and make them valid for life unless suspended or revoked, bar business owners from keeping employees from having firearms in personal vehicles, keep state agencies from sharing a list of Missouri concealed carry holders with the federal government and stiffens penalties for felons having or using a gun in the commission of a felony.

The package needs another favorable vote to go to the Senate.

Filed Under: Featured, Legislature, News Tagged With: , , , ,

House passes bill barring ‘webcam abortions’

April 18, 2013 By

The House has passed a bill to stop so-called “webcam abortions.” It would bar in Missouri the administering of “abortion-inducing” drugs to a woman in one location by a doctor teleconferencing with her from another.

Representative Jeanie Riddle (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Jeanie Riddle (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

It’s sponsor, Representative Jeanie Riddle (R-Mokane) says her bill, HB 400, is not about preventing abortions, but protecting the health of women seeking them.

“The physician who is going to prescribe these drugs needs to take professional responsibility for the woman taken them. Women need protection from unscrupulous medical people who want to take their money with a cushy job, no equipment to purchase, no late nights, no 3 a.m. emergency visits.”

Riddle offered statistics and argued that such drugs are dangerous to women, but Democrats rejected that argument as a scare tactic.

Representative Genise Montecillo (D-St. Louis) told her colleagues, “The risks are the same as if the woman has a miscarriage … I think that this is just another attempt to interfere with a woman’s right to make good medical decisions for herself.”

Democrats say such procedures do not currently happen in Missouri, but Riddle suggests they are becoming more common in the U.S.

The legislation would also require a physician or representative to make all reasonable efforts to have a woman who has used an abortion-inducing drug make a follow-up visit between 12 and 18 days later for an assessment of her condition.

It now goes to the Senate for consideration.

Filed Under: Featured, Health & Medicine, News Tagged With: , , , , ,

House rejects teacher performance evaluation proposal

April 11, 2013 By

The House has strongly rejected a teacher evaluation bill that was a priority for the Majority Republican leadership.

Representative Kevin Elmer (R-Nixa) sponsored the proposal that would have created a teacher evaluation system.

“To say that the system is OK is offensive to me. To say that we’re doing all we can, I contend, is untrue. To say that we accept the status quo, I say ‘No.’”

The legislation would have tied teacher performance evaluations to student growth. More than 50 members of Elmer’s own party helped vote it down.

See the legislation, HB 631

Representative Genise Montecillo (D-St. Louis) also voted against it. She says the state is already evaluating performance.

“We have a new evaluation system that we had through the waiver process and I was concerned that this would interfere with that.”

Representative Mike Lair (R-Chillicothe), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee on Education, spoke against the bill on the floor. He said it reflects a concept that is a wrong approach to education.

“I don’t want our education legislation to be put forth on a business model. If education was a business we wouldn’t keep half of the students we have. We need to educate them all. To do so, you can’t use a business model.”

Following more than an hour-and-a-half of debate that wrapped up at almost midnight, the House failed to perfect the bill 55-102.

Filed Under: Education, Featured, News Tagged With: , , , , ,
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