Politics

The commission that picks finalists for the Missouri Supreme Court will interview 18 applicants to replace Judge William Ray Price Jr.

The commission said the pool includes three women and one racial minority. The commission selects three finalists, and Gov. Jay Nixon makes the final appointment.

Applicants include at least five who have worked for Nixon or his administration.

Former vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is backing Sarah Steelman in Missouri's Republican U.S. Senate primary.

Steelman touted Palin's endorsement as a potential boon in a GOP primary in which all three main candidates have been trying to appeal to conservatives.

Palin's statement praised Steelman as a "commonsense conservative woman" who has stood up to the political establishment "to stop out of control spending and the destructive debt it leaves in its wake."

Officials at the Missouri Lottery have no strategy to generate an additional $35 million that legislative budget writers and Gov. Jay Nixon's administration had hoped would help avoid cuts to government services.

The Missouri attorney general's office has deposited the state government's $38 million share of a national mortgage settlement.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster reports raising more than a half-million dollars during the past quarter for his re-election campaign.

Candidates filed reports with the Missouri Ethics Commission laying out their fundraising activities from April through the end of June.

Koster, a Democrat, reported that his campaign raised $572,000 during the past three months and had nearly $2.4 million in available cash at the start of July.

Gov. Jay Nixon is building a big bank account for his re-election campaign.Finance figures released Monday show Nixon raised $2.1 million from April through June and had $7.6 million in his account at the start of July. 

Nixon's campaign said it was his strongest fundraising quarter this election cycle and that his bank account is twice as large as it was at a similar point in July 2008.