News

Missouri is preparing to launch a $5 million ad campaign to urge residents to get the coronavirus vaccine as appointment times begin to go unfilled in some places even though the state expanded eligibility to everyone age 16 or older.

Called Stronger Together, the campaign will begin next month and will provide vaccination information through radio, TV, print and social media messages.

Creating a fund covering mental health treatment for police officers was one of several bills passed by the Missouri Senate on Thursday.

The bill would create the Critical Incident Stress Management Program within the state Department of Public Safety. The program would “provide services for peace officers to assist in coping with stress and potential psychological trauma resulting from a response to a critical incident or emotionally difficult event.”

Coronavirus vaccine supply is starting to outpace demand in Missouri, even after the state expanded eligibility, raising worries among some health care providers.

Early on, mass vaccination clinics in rural areas sometimes had excess doses, but demand had remained strong in more populous areas until recently.

The slowdown is occurring even though the state deemed anyone old enough to get the shot eligible last week and most residents remain unvaccinated.

State data shows that just 32.8 percent of residents have received at least one dose as of Wednesday.

The Missouri House wants to redirect Medicaid expansion funding to services for people with disabilities, the elderly and other vulnerable groups.

The GOP-led House on Thursday voted 143-1 to pass an alternative plan for how to spend the Medicaid expansion money.

Missouri voters last year amended the state Constitution to extend access to the government health care program to thousands more low-income adults.

The Missouri tourist town of Branson is ditching its mask mandate early after electing a new mayor who ran on platform that called for doing away with it.

Newly elected Mayor Larry Milton said that the “city heard your voices loud and clear" after the Board of Alderman voted 6-0 on Tuesday night to repeal the public masking ordinance effective Friday. The ordinance was first enacted July 31 after extensive discussion amid rising COVID-19 case counts.

The city of Ashland’s insurer paid a six-figure sum to former Police Chief Lyn Woolford to settle a civil claim against the city after Woolford was removed from the job by former Mayor Gene Rhorer.

Details of the agreement are outlined in a settlement document approved by U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey in October and obtained by the Missourian through a open records request.

Missouri House members are upset with the head of the state's labor department after the agency it placed liens on the properties of some people who mistakenly received unemployment benefits.

Lawmakers told Labor director Anna Hui Tuesday that they believed the agency agreed last month to stop or slow down collections of unemployment benefits. The Legislature is considering a bill requiring the state to forgive most of the federal payments, which increased dramatically during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Missouri House has advanced a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent.

The GOP-led House gave the proposal initial approval in a voice vote Wednesday. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 15 states have adopted similar provisions. Federal law prevents states from moving to daylight saving time permanently, so the Missouri bill would only take effect if Congress changes federal law.

Leaders of a nearly all-white northwest Missouri school district have narrowly voted to keep the high school’s “Savages” nickname but will phase out the use of Native American imagery.

The Maryville Daily Forum reports that the Savannah R-3 Board of Education’s 4-3 vote on Tuesday night came after months of dueling petitions and heated debates.

Activists, including those that originally petitioned the board last summer to change the mascot, hoped to have the name and image eradicated.

The St. Louis County Council in a split vote has declared it has no confidence in county Police Chief Mary Barton.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the council's 4-3 vote Tuesday fell along party lines.

The nonbinding resolution condemned Barton’s leadership, saying the chief was incapable of leading the St. Louis County Police Department “in the right direction.”

The Missouri tourist town of Branson is ditching its mask mandate early after electing a new mayor who ran on platform that called for doing away with it.

Newly elected Mayor Larry Milton said that the “city heard your voices loud and clear" after the Board of Alderman voted 6-0 on Tuesday night to repeal the public masking ordinance effective Friday.

The ordinance was first enacted July 31 after extensive discussion amid rising COVID-19 case counts.

Missouri has joined other states in suspending the use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine while federal agencies look into six cases in which women who received the single-dose drug developed blood clots.

After years of debate, Kansas City will have a street named for Martin Luther King Jr.

The city's parks and recreation board on Tuesday approved a proposal to rename a 5-mile route along thoroughfares that run east to west after the civil rights icon. City officials and civil rights activists celebrated the decision and vowed that the move was just the first step in larger plans to honor King, and to help foster racial unity in the city.