News

Columbia Mayor Bob McDavid says offering additional air service to travel hubs like Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta is a major goal of city and regional planners.

State education officials could step in quicker to assist failing Missouri school districts under legislation backed in the House.

Districts that lose state accreditation currently are given two years to improve before the state officials can intervene. The new legislation removes the waiting period.

When the state Board of Education revokes a district's accreditation, it then would decide whether to set conditions for the local school board to remain in place or determine when an alternative governing system for those schools would take effect.

 Missouri lawmakers have rejected a plan that would have increased property taxes on the state's best farmland.

Property taxes for farms are based on the land's "productive value." Farms are divided into eight categories based on land quality. The State Tax Commission recommended increasing productive values for the four highest grades.

The Senate voted 19-8 on Thursday to reject the proposal. The property tax changes were for 2013 and 2014.

Legislation cracking down on unlicensed day care providers evoked emotional testimony in a House committee hearing.

Missouri ‘s unemployment rate fell by half a point to 7.5 percent in January - the lowest level in over 3 years, according to the latest state report.

Storm teams with the National Weather Service spent much of Wednesday studying storm damage in Southern Missouri.

The American Soybean Association is pushing for U.S. trade representatives to negotiate better trading terms with Europe, looking for the European Union to ease the strict restrictions it imposes on genetically modified soybeans. The group petitioned a U.S. trade representative who is part of a new working group with the European Union to work on its behalf. 

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is releasing more than $5 million that had been withheld from public education because of budget concerns. 

Gov. Jay Nixon's administration says three people have been killed in severe storms that swept across southern Missouri.

Nixon cited the three fatalities in a news release as he headed to view the damage.

Opponents of a controversial Kansas lab designed to study and combat biological diseases have recently found new momentum, as work on the Department of Homeland Security project stalled.