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The Missouri House has given first-round approval to the state budget for next year.  As St. Louis Public Radio’s Marshall Griffin tells us, Republican leaders pushed through their plan to restore higher education cuts proposed by Governor Jay Nixon by refusing to fund a program for blind residents.

Sixty-two percent of working-age women have jobs, but they still earn just 74 cents on the dollar, compared to men. But that disparity varies by region; in some rural counties, women earn fully half what men do. In this week's Health & Wealth update, a new report on how women in Missouri are faring in health, work, education, and civic engagement. With a state legislature that's three-quarters men, will lawmakers do anything about the disparities?

The Missouri House is debating all 13 bills Tuesday that make up the state’s proposed budget for next year.  Lawmakers are offering up several amendments to the budget – one in particular would have shifted 150-thousand dollars from the state’s biodiesel fund to Alzheimer’s patients.  It was sponsored by Independent House Member Tracy McCreery of St. Louis County.

It appears the Missouri Supreme Court might not rule on legal challenges to congressional and state House districts before the candidate filing period ends next week.

The Missouri Senate has rejected an attempt to set up a state-run health insurance exchange.

The exchanges are part of the federal health care law approved in 2009. States are required to create exchanges by 2014 so that individuals and small business can compare health insurance plans.

Another group has organized a protest against the Missouri House Speaker's plan to put controversial conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh in the Hall of Famous Missourians

House Democrats are backing legislation they say would toughen Missouri’s ethics standards.  As Marshall Griffin tells us from Jefferson City, the bill would restore many provisions recently struck down by the State Supreme Court.

In an archaeological ceramics class at MU, students are learning how humans in the past made pottery. But about three years ago, anthropology professor Todd VanPool started another class in response to a growing demand for professional archaeologists. Over the summer, students can earn credit for fieldwork at a dig site in New Mexico.

“They can learn how to, uh, use the tools properly, how to fill out the forms and do all the things that we expect from professional archaeologists,” VanPool said.

A new petition is seeking to put in the Boone County ballot a measure that would contribute to funding for youth mental health services. KBIA’s Paige Sinker reports on this issue.  

Missouri House Democrats are calling for new ethics legislation after the state Supreme Court rejected much of the most state's most recent version because of how it was approved.