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Missouri’s governor to sign bipartisan broadband legislation on Thursday in Tipton

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Legislation extending Missouri’s broadband grant program through 2027 will be signed into law by the governor on Thursday morning in central Missouri’s Tipton.

Governor Mike Parson (R) will travel to Co-Mo Connect in Moniteau County for Thursday’s 10:15 a.m. ceremonial signing. The bipartisan bill is sponsored by State Rep. Louis Riggs, R-Hannibal, who will join the governor in Tipton.

State Rep. Louis Riggs, R-Hannibal, speaks on the Missouri House floor in Jefferson City on March 9, 2020 (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

Missouri’s broadband internet grant program is for unserved and underserved areas in the state. The grant program is currently scheduled to expire in August 2021. House Bill 1768 extends the program until June 2027.

In addition to extending the broadband grant program, the Riggs legislation requires the state Department of Economic Development (DED) to maintain a record of all federal grants awarded to entities to provide, maintain and expand rural broadband in Missouri.

Representative Riggs’ legislation was approved by the Missouri Senate in May by a 31-0 vote. The House approved it in May, on a 143-3 vote.

Governor Parson emphasized the importance of rural broadband, during a February address to the Missouri Farm Bureau in Jefferson City. At the time, the governor noted there were about ten Missouri school districts that didn’t have broadband.

Parson says broadband ties-in with education and workforce development.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

Free online classes available to Missourians unemployed by coronavirus outbreak

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Missouri workers who have lost their jobs during the rash of COVID-19 cases can now enroll in free online classes. The Missouri Department of Higher Education & Workforce Development has partnered with Coursera, an online learning platform with 3,800 courses.

Free online classes available to Missourians unemployed by coronavirus outbreak

Through the partnership, Missourians can also earn professional certificates from leading companies like IBM and Google that are designed to prepare people for entry-level careers like IT.

“I truly believe education changes lives,” Zora Mulligan, commissioner of higher education, says in a press release. “Coursera provides another avenue for Missourians to learn new, marketable skills and, even during this period of economic uncertainty, advance their careers.”

The registration deadline is September 30 and courses must be completed by the end of this year to receive the credential or certificate at no cost.

To register, an account in the MoJobs system is required. Anyone without a MoJobs account can create a login at jobs.mo.gov. MoJobs users will have access to a link within the site to receive an invitation from Coursera.

For more information, click here.

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Hundreds of Missouri’s state workers are getting laid off

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About 300 state workers are getting laid off and another 200 vacant positions will be eliminated. During a press conference Tuesday, State Budget Director Dan Haug shared the details.

“That’s out of a state workforce of over 50,000. We did certainly try to protect our state employees as much as possible,” says Haug.

Gov. Parson signing budget bills (Photo courtesy of his Flickr account)

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports about 200 middle managers in the Department of Social Services and 30 in the Department of Mental Health are getting their jobs cut.

“In the 25 years I’ve been working on state budgets, this is the most difficult budget that I’ve seen. Revenues declined much quicker and sharper during this downturn than even during the Great Recession,” says Haug. “Just to put that in a little bit of perspective, currently the unemployment rate in Missouri is about 10%. The high point at the Great Recession for the unemployment rate was 9.8%. So we have, in three or four months, have hit a bottom even lower than what we saw during the Great Recession.”

Gov. Mike Parson says the coronavirus continues to take a toll on the state’s financials.

“We will continue to face budget shortfalls in fiscal year 2021,” says Parson.

Parson also signed Missouri’s $35.3 billion state operating budget for the fiscal year beginning today. Haug says the governor is freezing some spending to deal with the revenue shortfall caused by the coronavirus.

State Budget Director Dan Haug

“We feel that the amount that we’ve restricted – $448 million – is sufficient to balance the FY21 budget based on our most current projections,” says Haug. “We will monitor revenues throughout the year and if we feel confident that revenues will finish the year above our current projections, we have the ability to release some of these restrictions.”

The largest state budget restriction is more than $123 million in state aid to K-12 public schools. Four-year colleges and universities are getting nearly $28 million withheld. Missouri community colleges are having $18.4 million restricted and $9.4 million in temporary assistance for needy families work programs are also getting a spending freeze.

The governor announced $11 million dollars in vetoes, including $5 million for maintenance of some low-volume highways and $1 million for the Harry Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence. Another $267,000 for the Missouri State Public Defender’s Office to hire six more legal assistants has also been vetoed.

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Missouri Supreme Court rules Legislature unconstitutionally stripped Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood

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The state Supreme Court has ruled today the Missouri Legislature violated the Constitution when lawmakers blocked Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. The Republican-controlled General Assembly’s budget writing tactic has defunded the organization more than $1 million since 2018. In the 6-1 high court decision, Judge Zel Fischer was the only one siding with the state in the case.

Missouri Supreme Court rules Legislature unconstitutionally stripped Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood

During a December court hearing about the case, attorney Chuck Hatfield, who represented Planned Parenthood, said Republican lawmakers do not want to give funding to doctors affiliated with Planned Parenthood. He said the Legislature cannot pick and choose which Medicaid providers it is going to give the funding to.

Missouri Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that lawmakers went by the book.

Planned Parenthood has 11 clinics in Missouri, but the St. Louis location is the only one that provides abortions. The locations offer other services to low-income Missourians, including birth control and cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol screenings.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

Missouri company shifts to fill major need during COVID-19

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A Kansas City business that specializes in making carts, shelving and other organizers has found a niche in the midst of the coronavirus. Susan Tripp, the founder of TrippNT, says one of her workers felt like the company had what it takes to make face shields that can be fully decontaminated. In little time, employees began cranking out the items in high demand.

“We had an email blast to all of our distributors and orders were pouring in,” she says. “And it took us about three weeks to really get geared up to make, I think we made 80,000 a day. And now it’s backed off quite a bit but we’re still in great shape. It’s very interesting to be able to turn on a dime like that.”

Tripp says the company, which has been around since 1993, has made more than one million face shields so far.

“They’re just moving heaven and earth to get caught up,” she says. “Obviously, some of our regular had to take a back seat while we were getting this done. But now that it’s pretty well under control, everything else is moving right along.”

It temporarily boosted its workforce by about 50 people to get the product out the door and into the hands of customers. It enlisted the help of a couple other nearby businesses to help cuts parts and build the shields.

“It allowed us to come up to speed a lot faster and fulfill the need when it needed to be. We were grateful they were quality people who could step up,” says Tripp. “It took a lot of people and a lot of really great minds and people who were committed, didn’t sleep, worked seven days a week, long hours, coming in early, staying late, investing in a lot of machinery.”

Tripp, who has a background as a chemist, says businesses should not sell themselves short.

“To be able to do something like this, requires a company who is not only nimble, but hungry, passionate, willing to tackle it, and have the mechanism in place. Just because you want to do it, doesn’t mean you can do it. It’s a big part of it though. We had a trifecta of perfection that allowed us to hit this hard and fast enough to fulfill a demand,” says Tripp. “It’s a little bit like putting in a special team in a football game. These people are trained to do something special. That’s sort of what we are able to do. A lot of people have it. A lot of businesses have it. They just don’t know that they have it. They need to be looking at themselves that way.”

TrippNT is one of about 60 Missouri companies in a directory listing personal protective items they sell to businesses and the general public.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

MoDOT to begin major I-70 project at east-central Missouri’s Mineola Hill next week

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The state Department of Transportation (MoDOT) says the massive project to replace the aging I-70 Rocheport bridge in mid-Missouri is still in the planning phases. MoDOT Director Patrick McKenna says the agency is making good progress on a related project to build one-point-two miles of truck climbing lanes on I-70 at east-central Missouri’s Mineola Hill.

The state Department of Transportation (MoDOT) says work will begin on July 6 to add a third lane to both eastbound and westbound I-70 at Mineola Hill in Montgomery County (fall 2019 file photo courtesy of MoDOT)

“And we’re hoping by the end of the calendar year, we’re actually going to have a climbing lane at Mineola Hill,” McKenna says.

In 2019, MoDOT received an $81 million federal Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant for the I-70 Rocheport bridge replacement and for the I-70 Mineola Hill truck climbing lanes. MoDOT says the Mineola Hill climbing lanes will generate safety and mobility benefits for both cars and trucks that travel at different speeds along that segment of I-70, which is in Montgomery County.

MoDOT says work will begin next Monday to add a third lane to both eastbound and westbound I-70 at Mineola Hill. MoDOT crews will be on-site to begin setting traffic control, as well as setting erosion control.

“We have substantial additional work on environmental work and engineering, before we get to the point of putting out an RFP for construction services on that,” says McKenna.

Construction at Mineola Hill is expected to be done by next fall. Columbia-based Emery Sapp and Sons is the prime contractor, and Barlett and West is handling design services.

As for the I-70 bridge in Rocheport, more than 12 million vehicles cross it every year. That includes three million trucks.

“And that equals to about 100 million tons of freight, which equals more than $154 billion annually so many trucks,” U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville, told Missourinet in 2019.

Rocheport, which is just west of Columbia, is in Congresswoman Hartzler’s district. The current Rocheport bridge is 60 years old, and MoDOT says it’s in poor condition.

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Doctor’s credentials reportedly stolen, used to help 600 Missouri patients get medical marijuana cards

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The state health department has launched an investigation after an unauthorized physician signature was used to help about 600 Missouri patients get certified for medical marijuana use. Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Spokesperson Lisa Cox tells Missourinet an involved party notified the state of suspected case of the fraud, and then the agency worked to find additional affected individuals.

Doctor’s credentials reportedly stolen, used to help 600 Missouri patients get medical marijuana cards

“What we’ve found was that a doctor who is perfectly capable of certifying patients if he or she chose to, their name and credentials were being used without their knowledge to actually certify these patients,” says Cox. “It’s primarily affecting the St. Louis area, is what we’ve found. There were some patients in the northern part of the state.”

Cox says all of the roughly 54,000 medical marijuana patient applications received have been reviewed for good standing and for red flags or discrepancies that indicate the need for additional checks. On top of that, the department does regular random checks.

Missouri’s medical marijuana process allows patients to request certification virtually. Cox thinks the patients got an unauthorized signature primarily through telemedicine visits.

“What the investigation is, is trying to determine who this person was that was possibly offering these telemedicine visits to patients who unknowingly maybe weren’t being seen by an actual doctor,” says Cox.

Patients impacted are being notified and given a deadline to submit a valid doctor’s approval to the state. If a valid certification is not received by the deadline, the individual’s license will be revoked, pursuant to 19 CSR 30-95.030(3)(B)1.C, and a pro-rated refund of the original $25 registration fee for the amount of time left on the deactivated license will be provided. If patients contact DHSS and are working to make an appointment or are struggling to do so, the state could try to resolve the issue on a case by case basis.

Some clinics are even offering free appointments to help the defrauded patients get a valid doctor’s approval.

The suspected fraud case has been referred to the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and the Board of Healing Arts for further potential action.

Missouri could start selling medical marijuana later this summer, possibly in August, to patients with qualifying health conditions.

$2 billion in unemployment claims paid in Missouri during pandemic; work search requirements to resume July 5

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State officials say the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DOLIR) has paid more than $2 billion in unemployment claims during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Director Anna Hui briefs Capitol reporters in Jefferson City on June 16, 2020, as Governor Mike Parson listens (photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

DOLIR Director Anna Hui says initial unemployment claims have dropped from about 100,000 in late March to about 20,000 in early June. She says America’s unemployment program was designed and is intended to be a temporary, partial replacement of income.

“Since March 28, eligible Missouri claimants have been receiving an average weekly benefit payment of nearly $900, which includes the $600 federal supplement,” Hui says.

Director Hui tells Capitol reporters in Jefferson City that a system that rewards individuals to be unemployed is unsustainable.

“According to a recent University of Chicago study, two-thirds of people getting unemployment are receiving more than what they earned from their jobs,” says Hui.

Director Hui says that study found that 20 percent of those on unemployment are receiving two times or more in their benefits, than what they used to make.

DOLIR says that starting on July 5, Missourians who want to continue to receive unemployment benefits will be required to perform three work search activities per week. Those activities include filing an application, attending a job fair, and job interviews.

Hui says the work search waivers were put in place during the height of the pandemic and were designed to help the economy, businesses and families during a time of total shutdown.

The state Department of Economic Development (DED) says Missouri’s May unemployment rate was 10.1 percent. While that is an improvement from April’s 10.2 percent rate, DED notes it’s three times higher than the May 2019 rate.

One issue that several rural Missourinet listeners have raised is the digital divide, specifically the lack of broadband access in parts of rural Missouri. Missourinet asked Director Hui about that issue, during the recent media briefing at the Capitol.

State officials have announced today that Missouri Job Centers have started reopening to the public. The St. Louis, St. Charles and Springfield facilities are now open.

Job seekers and displaced workers who have questions or who lack internet access can still access services by phone, by calling 1-888-728-5627.

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Lake of the Ozarks company gets big sales boost since state reopened, crowded pool parties on the news

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The largest vacation rental company at the Lake of the Ozarks was facing potential layoffs around April 30 due to coronavirus restrictions. Since the state reopened in May, the business has done an about face. Russell Burdette with Your Lake Vacation tells Missourinet the phones have been ringing off the hook.

Lake of the Ozarks company gets big sales boost since state reopened, crowded pool parties on the news

“Traditionally, June is not a very busy month compared to July because kids are still getting out of school,” he says. “So usually Memorial Day weekend, we usually fill up maybe 50-60% max. This is the first Memorial Day weekend that we’ve ever sold out in 35 years. And normally this time of year, we would have, out of 100 properties, we’d have at least 20 or 30 sitting there empty.”

The local population is about 5,000. Burdette says over Memorial Day weekend, that figure swelled to about 500,000 people.

He says the company’s customers have been tired of being stuck at home during the pandemic.

“The big three things that we heard that were going to benefit us was that people weren’t going to fly like they did before, they were looking for a drive to destination, they wanted a private home or condominium where they could stay apart from other people and then they wanted a place where they could do things outdoors. We heard that right at the end of April,” he says. “We said ‘Wow. When our state opens up, we are primed to succeed.’”

The company has also experienced a boost in business since international news showing crowded area pool parties over the Memorial Day weekend. Burdette says some people now know the vacation spot exists.

“Even if they don’t come now, they’ve probably marked that they’re going to look at us in the future. Because they’re like ‘Oh, we didn’t know there was a lake that was 100 miles long right smack dab in the middle of the United States and that you can actually rent a home or condo right on the water,’” he says.

Weekends in July are booked but you might be able to snatch up a good deal on a Monday through Thursday rental. August still has some openings.

He expects to blow 2019 sales out of the water within the next month.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

UPDATE: New $25 million hospital planned for southeast Missouri’s Bootheel; old facility to be demolished

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(Reporters Steve Patton and Monte Lyons at Missourinet Kennett affiliate KBOA contributed to this story)

A Georgia-based company now says it will build a new $25 million hospital in southeast Missouri’s Kennett, rather than renovating the former Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center. It closed in 2018.

Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center in southeast Missouri’s Kennett closed in 2018, and the old facility will be demolished (May 14, 2020 file photo courtesy of Jim Grebing at Kennett Economic Development)

Consultant Kerry Noble, a former chief executive officer at the Pemiscot Memorial Hospital in Hayti, is working with Main Street HealthVentures. He says that the new plan is to tear the former hospital down, and replace it with a state-of-the-art 49-bed full service facility.

“So we’ll be demolishing the old building and putting up a new structure, a new state-of-the-art, it will be a very high-efficient facility,” Noble says.

Noble and Main Street HealthVentures say brand-new heating and cooling systems will be installed, which will mean lower utility costs and greater patient comfort.

The company originally planned to renovate Twin Rivers, when they announced their plans in May. Mr. Noble now tells Missourinet Kennett affiliate KBOA (AM 1540) that building a brand-new facility is best for safety code requirements.

“There were a lot of conditions, standards that were going to be difficult to meet and we had requested waivers, or exemptions, from some of those standards, and of course now that’s no longer going to be an issue,” says Noble.

Kennett, which has about 10,000 residents, is located in the Bootheel, which is the state’s poorest region. Nine of the state’s ten poorest counties are in southeast Missouri.

Kennett Mayor Chancellor Wayne describes the plan as a big step forward for health care in Kennett and southeast Missouri. Supporters of the new hospital say it will impact about 70,000 residents across southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas.

The city has a large elderly population. Kennett residents have had to drive to Cape Girardeau, Sikeston and Arkansas for emergency room care and for hospitalization.

The state Hospital Association (MHA) says ten rural Missouri hospitals have closed since 2014, including Kennett. Five of the ten closings happened in the southeast Missouri district of U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem.

Congressman Smith has described those hospital closings as unacceptable, saying people die when hospitals close.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet