Sidney Steele

The Missouri Department of Transportation’s chronic lack of funding isn’t very surprising anymore. Just last November, Missouri voters rejected Proposition D, which would have increased the state’s gas tax by 10 cents and used the funds to boost spending on roads and bridges.

Without the additional funding, MoDOT counts on federal grant money to address infrastructure problems like the one posed by Missouri’s aging bridges.

In his Aug. 29 newsletter, U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., announced that MoDOT will receive a $20.7 million federal grant for the state’s bridge replacement program. To highlight the significance of the challenges, Graves said, “The average bridge in Missouri is 48 years old—most were only designed to last for 50 years.”

The problem sounds severe and a little dangerous, so we decided to see if the numbers hold up. To a degree, they do — Graves took the sentence from the MoDOT website.

But that doesn’t mean it’s time to panic every time you drive over a bridge.

On this edition of Intersection, we talk with state Reps. Martha Stevens and Kip Kendrick, both Democrats from mid-Missouri leveraging their local community involvement into their legislative work in the superminority party in Jefferson City.

Stevens has worked as a professional social worker and has focused on health care policy since being elected to the state legislature in November 2016. Kendrick has served in the legislature since November 2014, focusing on health care policy and serving on the House Ethics and Higher Education committees. 

Producer Sidney Steele talks with the two legislators about payday lending, Medicaid, health care access, and their plans for the upcoming state legislative session in January 2020. 

 Last month, Columbia saw the deadliest month from gun violence since 2001. There were more deaths in September 2019 than the entire previous year.

As gun violence rises, addressing mental health continues to be discussed in tandem with gun control. On Friday, the mayors of St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia and Springfield met with Governor Mike Parson to address the problem of violent crime in their communities.

This week on Talking Politics, Sidney Steele sits down with MU Professor of Communications Dr. Cassandra Kearney to discuss her research on the construction of rhetoric surrounding mass shootings and how legislators have been discussing increasing gun violence in Missouri.

The local group Race Matters, Friends is calling for the resignation of Columbia Public Schools’ chief equity officer Carla London.

The group officially made the call last week in a letter saying, “The district has been unable to provide RMF with evidence that Ms. London’s equity training program is meaningfully addressing the racial disparities in out-of-school suspensions, harassment, bullying and attendance.”

On campuses across mid-Missouri students and faculty are wrapping up the semester, and on this edition of Off the Clock we visit a unique end-of-term tradition hosted by MU's Ancient Mediterranean Studies department: The Homer-athon. It's a celebration of "The Iliad," in multiple languages, and KBIA's Olivia Love captured the languages and the sounds of the recent 25th annual Homer-athon, on May 10th. 

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for many counties in mid-Missouri through Thursday morning.

Operators of Bagnell Dam have been increasing the amount of water they release to avoid flooding at Lake of the Ozarks and on the Missouri River. In preparation for heavy rainfall, Bagnell Dam at the Lake of the Ozarks operated at its maximum water output, which is 37,000 cubic feet per second, Tuesday and Wednesday.

On today's episode of Talking Politics, KBIA's Sidney Steele visits Mexico, Missouri to get to know Mayor Ayanna Shivers. Shivers is the first African-American woman to be mayor of Mexico. She discusses her concerns and goals for the community. You can see the full story here.

As a part of the Unbound Book Festival, eight authors will be speaking to Columbia Public Schools Students in classrooms across the district on Friday. For the third year, the “Authors in the Schools” project will be coming to Columbia.

Middle schoolers will hear author Jacqueline Woodson speak at the Missouri Theatre as a part of the Unbound Book Festival. Woodson is a children’s and young adult author and will be the keynote speaker for the event. 

Blake Willoughby is the youngest candidate for the Columbia Board of Education, by a sizeable margin. While some might see this as negative, Willoughby sees this as one of his greatest advantages.

“I bring a fresh perspective of being a young, community engaged, artist-educator,” Willoughby said. “I am the closest in age to understanding what our kids are navigating when they graduate high school and become life-ready.”