Jefferson City

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Lawmakers “invaded” the authority of the Missouri Conservation Commission when they tried to limit the use of its dedicated funds, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled recently.

In the long-anticipated decision, the court split 4-3 over whether appropriation bills could bar the commission from spending money on land acquisition or for payments to replace lost property taxes from conservation lands.

The majority decision, unsigned but supported by Chief Justice Paul Wilson and judges Mary Russell, Robin Ransom and George Draper, upheld a decision from Cole County Circuit Judge Cotton Walker, who found the commission can spend appropriated funds for any constitutional purpose.

The state constitution spells out the duties and powers of the commission and provides a source of funds to carry out its mission, the opinion states.

“These provisions do not, however, leave any room for the General Assembly to interfere with the Conservation Commission’s performance of its constitutional purposes,” the majority wrote.

The decision came almost 20 months after the court heard arguments in the case, one of the longest consideration periods in memory. The court typically delivers a decision in a case in four or five months.

The Conservation Department did not respond to a request for comment on the decision.

The case is being closely watched, not just because of its impact on the powers of the General Assembly over the Department of Conservation, but also because of a pending decision, also from Walker, on the spending authority of the Highways and Transportation Commission.

While the constitution does offer some latitude to the Conservation Commission about exactly how to use appropriated funds, it does not allow the commission to ignore legislative decisions, the dissent by Judge Patricia Breckenridge stated.

Judges W. Brent Powell and Zel Fischer joined in the dissent.

The constitutional authority of the commission is subservient to the Legislature’s appropriation authority, Breckenridge wrote.

“That language does not convey the voters’ intent to grant the Conservation Commission powers within the power of appropriation,” Breckenridge wrote. “Instead, that language conveys only the intent that conservation funds must be spent by the Conservation Commission for the purposes designated in the constitution.”

Background

The particular situation that triggered the lawsuit came in August 2020. The commission approved $1 million to buy 510 acres of imperiled prairie habitat in St. Clair County as an addition to the Linscomb Wildlife Area and $900,000 for payment in lieu of taxes on conservation lands.

In the appropriations for that year, lawmakers had not included money for the payments in lieu of taxes and struck language from the appropriation bill allowing land acquisition. When then-Commissioner of Administration Sarah Steelman refused to honor payment requisitions, the commission sued.

In the majority opinion, the judges wrote that by removing the language allowing land acquisition and refusing to appropriate tax payment funds, lawmakers “invaded the constitutional authority of the Conservation Commission by attempting to limit the constitutionally enumerated purposes for which the Conservation Commission could use its funds.”

The Conservation Commission was created by an initiative petition in the 1930s to take protection of land and wildlife out of political hands. Its powers were expanded, and a one-eighth-cent sales tax enacted, in the 1970s to strengthen the department.

That history, as well as the language of the constitution, shows the intent to limit legislative power over the agency, the majority wrote.

“The very reason behind the Conservation Commission’s creation was to remedy the failure of existing government bodies in the 1930s, including the General Assembly, to set aside politics and properly manage Missouri’s conservation needs,” the opinion states.

The key for Breckenridge — and a point that will be important when Walker rules on the Highways and Transportation Commission lawsuit — is whether the constitutional language shifts appropriation power to the commission.

It does not on land acquisition, but it does on payments in lieu of taxes, she wrote. The constitution directs the commission to set the amount and lawmakers cannot change it, she wrote.

Many areas of the constitution and statutes direct that money shall be spent for a particular purpose, but that does not appropriate money for those purposes, she wrote.

In contrast, she wrote, the language governing highway money “provides funds in the state road fund ‘stand appropriated without legislative action’ to be used and expended by the highways and transportation commission.”

In the highways commission lawsuit, Walker is being asked to decide whether employees of the Department of Transportation can be paid more than lawmakers allowed in appropriation bills.

Walker heard arguments in the case in February 2022. He has held his decision, attorneys in the case have said, to learn the results of the conservation case.

During this year’s legislative session, Republican lawmakers upset over the lawsuit tried unsuccessfully to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot making highway funds subject to appropriations.

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On Wednesday, June 14, Ameren Missouri traveled to the Samaritan Center in Jefferson City for their annual air conditioner giveaway day.

The giveaway is designed to help vulnerable neighborhoods stay cool now that the temperature is getting warmer in mid-Missouri.

Ameren Missouri, which has provided gas and energy services to the state for over 100 years, donated 100 Energy Star rated window air conditioners to the Samaritan Center. These ACs cost less than a dollar a day to use.

“Since the Samaritan Center already has a great relationship with the community and the surrounding towns in Jefferson City, we saw them as a logical partner with the AC giveaway because they reach out to those in need in our communities,” Lori Hoelscher, Ameren Regional Account Executive, said.

The Samaritan Center is an interfaith organization that was started by Marylyn DeFoe, who is now the director, 37 years ago. Since then, it has been run out of a basement, a classroom, a convent and now the current location. Everything at the Samaritan Center’s main building and warehouse was donated by people or organizations within the community.

“Our main focus is to help people who are struggling through life,” DeFoe said. “As you know we’ve had so many struggles with COVID and so many things happening in the last three to five years. We’ve gone through the floods and all kinds of stuff here in Missouri, but we just keep going and help people out.”

The donation celebrates the 23rd anniversary of Cooldownmissouri.org’s “Save our Seniors” (SOS) Cooling Summer Project. Ameren Missouri has partnered with this project for 18 years this year.

Over the almost two decades of partnership, Ameren Missouri has helped deliver almost 10,000 window ACs to seniors, people with disabilities and low-to-moderate income families.

“I just know working with people over the years, people are grateful to just have an air conditioner in their homes because there’s no way they can afford it on fixed incomes,” DeFoe said.

These communities are encouraged to apply for energy assistance funds by visiting Cooldownmissouri.org or by calling 314-241-0001 or 314-834-0034, which are their hotlines for seniors and people with disabilities only.

Cooldownstlouis.org is a bistate nonprofit that provides education and resources to help vulnerable citizens, especially seniors, low-income families and the physically disabled. The organization works with over 34 agencies to make sure utility bills are paid and the community’s citizens have access to energy-efficient air conditioners.

“We want to encourage, especially our elderly in our community, to run the AC units because they only cost a couple of dollars a day, and it’s on those days when it’s extremely hot that we want our customers, friends and neighbors to stay safe in the heat,” Hoelscher said.

The Samaritan Center offers other services, like food and clothing pickups, medical and dental clinics, legal care programs, tax assistance and more. The pantry hours are Monday-Thursday 10:00 a.m. – Noon and Thursday 4 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

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For Debbie Vaughan and Karen Dumey, the ice cream social was just the beginning.

“This was our opening celebration,” Dumey said. The rest of their day would be going to drop off a quilt top and going to craft stores.

Wednesday’s “opening celebration” was the 65th annual St. Mary’s Hospital Auxiliary Ice Cream Social at the Cathedral of St. Joseph Undercroft. The auxiliary raises money for St. Mary’s Hospital patient services.

Attendees could purchase tickets for cake and ice cream or purchase lunch including burgers, hot dogs, sides and drinks.

This year the funds will be going to new over-bed tables for the hospital Intensive and Progressive Care Units, said Beverly Stafford, St. Mary’s director of volunteer services.

Janet Wear-Enloe, director of business development and marketing at St. Mary’s, said the volunteers running the ice cream social wanted to do something that would directly impact patient care services and address an immediate need. The tables are used by every patient for 36 beds total between the ICU and the PCU, and are used as bedside or over-bed tables for eating and placing flowers and cards.

The new tables will be made of a solid surface material similar to kitchen countertops and will prevent infection, Wear-Enloe said. The new tables will have more height options and a better surface than the previous tables. The tables are something the ice cream social funds will be able to immediately purchase and be installed in hospitals.

“We are always looking for whatever the immediate need is of the hospital,” said Suzette Ryder, auxiliary board member and volunteer. “Especially for the patients’ benefit.”

The event featured a silent auction, quilt raffle, ice cream and cake, lunch items, a gift shop and book nook. A quilting group makes the quilt just for the ice cream social, Stafford said.

Dumey said the event was well organized, and Vaughan said the event had a larger crowd than they had expected.

Stafford said the auxiliary hoped to raise a similar amount as it had in the past, recognizing that it’s becoming harder to raise funds in Jefferson City than it has been previously. In past years, they have raised as much as $18,000 a year.

Ryder said the event is St. Mary’s biggest fundraiser of the year.

Last year, the event was at Selinger Center at St. Peter Church since the event’s traditional location, the Undercroft, was being renovated. The event was canceled in 2020 and modified to a drive-thru event in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emily Scheulen, the ice cream social chair, said she was happy to have everyone back at St. Joseph Cathedral.

People come to the event from nearby communities including Fulton, California and Tipton, Stafford said.

“To me, that’s what really kind of excites me about it — is it feels like a reunion — and you see people that maybe you only see at this event, and they’re from all over,” Stafford said.

A lot of retirees from the hospital will come to the event. Stafford said her favorite part of the event is seeing all the volunteers coming together to serve the community.

“This is very special,” Scheulen said. “You know, you get to see old friends and people you don’t get to see often.”

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In the accompanying video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzCip7OaxgQ, Beverly Stafford, St. Marys director of volunteer services, talks about the importance of the 65th annual St. Marys Hospital Auxiliary Ice Cream Social as guests enjoyed cake, ice cream, burgers and hot dogs.

    Josh Cobb/News Tribune photo: Jefferson City locals gathered at the Cathedral of St. Joseph on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, for St. Mary’s Hospital’s 65th annual Auxiliary Ice Cream Social. Cindy Nichols helps to prepare a meal for one of the patrons.
      Josh Cobb/News Tribune photo:  Jefferson City locals gathered at the Cathedral of St. Joseph on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, for St. Mary’s Hospital’s 65th annual Auxiliary Ice Cream Social. The event is put on annually to raise money for various projects. This year the money is going towards bedside tables for patients of St. Mary’s Hospital.

Originally Appeared Here

The Missouri Department of Transportation plans to build three bridges on Highway 137 in Texas County under a five-year plan of construction and bridge work released June 7.

The draft fiscal year 2024-2028 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) was presented to the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission. The draft five-year program funding from general revenue — passed by the Missouri General Assembly — to widen and improve I-70, fix low-volume minor roads, upgrade railroad safety crossings and more. A 30-day public review and comment period began June 7.

In Texas County, about $13.7 million in projects are included in the five-year plan. In addition to the bridges, road resurfacing work is planned.

The STIP makes available $14 billion of federal and state revenues for all modes of transportation over the next five years. Of the $14 billion, the draft STIP details $10.5 billion in road and bridge construction contractor awards, averaging approximately $2.1 billion per year.  It also includes a record $3.4 billion in state general revenue funded projects from the Missouri General Assembly subject to governor approval of the final budget.

“Over the past two years, the cost of doing transportation improvements has experienced record inflation ranging from 20-30%. Aside from the new funding from the (Missouri) General Assembly, this year’s program didn’t add a significant number of projects to the last two years as we manage the fiscal constraints of the funding,” said MoDOT Director Patrick McKenna. “We are able to continue our asset management efforts while also making critical improvements and upgrades to corridors and safety features across the state.”

The draft fiscal year 2024-2028 STIP lists transportation projects planned by state and regional planning agencies for fiscal years 2024-2028 (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2028).

HOW TO MAKE COMMENTS

The proposed program is available for public review. Those interested in seeing the program or offering comments can contact MoDOT by email to STIPcomments@modot.mo.gov, by calling customer service at 888-ASK-MoDOT (275-6636), or by mail to Transportation Planning, Program Comments, P.O. Box 270, Jefferson City, Mo., 65102. The program is also available on MoDOT’s website: https://www.modot.org/DRAFTSTIP. The formal comment period ends July 6.

Following the public review period, the comments will be presented to the commission, which will review them and the final transportation program before considering it for approval at its July 12 meeting.

Here are local projects included in MoDOT’s proposed 2024-2028 highway and bridge construction schedule:

•Highway 137 pavement resurfacing from Highway 17 to U.S. Business 60. The construction outlay is $2.82 million in 2026-2027.

•Highway 137 bridge replacement over Pine Creek. About $2.06 million in construction is slated for 2024-2025.

•Highway 137 bridge replacement over Big Creek. Work is estimated for 2024-2025 and is estimated at about $1.65 million.

•Highway 137 bridge replacement over South Prong Jacks Fork. Work is to be completed in 2024-2025 and is estimated at about $2.51 million.

•Highway B pavement resurfacing from U.S. 63 to end of state maintenance. Slated for 2026-2027. Cost: About $2.8 million.

•Highway K pavement resurfacing from Highway KK to Highway 17. Engineering would occur over the next five years. Project estimate for 2028 is $680,000.

•Highway VV pavement resurfacing from Highway 137 to end of state pavement in Dent County. Set for competition in 2025-2026. Cost is about $1.2 million.

Originally Appeared Here

Photo courtesy DepositPhotos

The Louisiana Department of Health could not say Friday what a surprise $100 million state funding reduction in the agency’s budget might mean for state health care, though it is expected to balloon and could possibly affect low-income residents’ access to medical services.

“LDH is aware of the budget cuts the Louisiana Legislature made in the final hour of the 2023 legislative session, and LDH is evaluating the impact on services the Department provides,” wrote Kevin Litten, spokesman for the agency. “The Department’s priority is to continue services to our most vulnerable residents uninterrupted.”

Gov. John Bel Edwards, health care lobbyists and several state lawmakers in both parties were blindsided Thursday evening when House and Senate leaders announced during the final minutes of their two-month session that state health care spending would be drastically reduced.

The impact of the reduction has the potential to grow to $500 million because the state uses its health care money to draw down more federal funding, advocates and the governor implied.

The reduction could specifically fall on hospitals that receive extra money to treat people with publicly-funded Medicaid insurance, and the loss of funding may cause those institutions to pull back on their services for low-income patients.

That a massive loss of health services would be on the table this year was mystifying to the governor, who noted Louisiana has an unprecedented amount of money to devote to state spending. It’s expected to bring an extra $2.2 billion over the next year.

“I don’t have a problem making cuts when necessary, but we have a $2.2 billion surplus,” said Sen. Jay Luneau, D-Alexandria, who voted against the budget plan over the health care reduction. “Why are we cutting the poorest of the poor?”

Never-ending growth

The push for the health care reduction came from the Louisiana House, where conservative Republicans have long complained about the state’s ever-growing health care costs.

Many House members insist the health department has enough fat to sustain a $100 million loss without giving up much in the way of services.

“I don’t believe it will hurt them in the end,” House Conservative Caucus Chairman Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, said in an interview Friday.

Approximately $20 billion of the state’s $44 billion budget passed Thursday is devoted to health care, and the governor had proposed increasing state funding for those expenses by $205 million over the current spending level. House conservatives argue pulling back $100 million from that increase shouldn’t have an overwhelming impact on services.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerome Zeringue, R-Houma, also believes the health department and other state agencies are “squirreling away” funding in anticipation of a change in governor next year.

Edwards, a Democrat, could be replaced by a Republican who might try to slash government spending, and agencies are hanging onto money to soften the impact, he said.

The legislators’ health plan also directs the state to reduce some of the spending in one specific way. Of the $100 million reduction, $22 million must come from funding for the state’s Medicaid disenrollment efforts.

Louisiana has started removing people from the Medicaid rolls after a three-year pause in doing so because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The state expects reducing the rolls to take about a year, but legislators are trying to force the health department to act faster through the $22 million cut.

They want the Medicaid purge to happen over nine months instead of 12. But state health officials have repeatedly said that speeding up that process is more difficult than House members suggest.

Louisiana Health Secretary Stephen Russo told lawmakers last month he couldn’t shorten the disenrollment timeline without federal approval — a process that could take several weeks.

Russo also said the state could face large federal fines if the Biden administration determined it was kicking people out of Medicaid recklessly, so it behooves the state to move through the program at a deliberate pace.

Very few options

There also aren’t many easy places to make the other funding cuts required in the health department.

Over 70% of the state’s $20 billion health care budget is federal money. The $100 million cut would have to come exclusively from the state general fund portion of the spending plan, which is approximately $3 billion.

But almost every state dollar spent on health care is used to draw down multiple federal dollars for those same programs. So when a state dollar is cut, it has a multiplying effect.

A large portion of Louisiana’s health care spending is also tied up in legally binding private contracts the state will still have to pay. The private organizations that run most of the state’s Medicaid program, for example, are estimated to receive $10.1 billion in this budget cycle, according to a financial report from December.

Louisiana’s health care costs also grow, in part because legislators have mandated certain increases in spending.

By law, the state has to raise nursing home rates every other year, which boosted health care funding by $126 million alone in the budget passed Thursday. Most of that money is from federal sources, but $31.8 million of that increase is from state general funds.

Legislators also included language in the budget saying none of the reductions could come from “waiver or disability services”— programs that provide care to seniors, children with chronic conditions and others. The directive essentially puts hundreds of millions of dollars off limits, leaving people with experience in health care budgeting to wonder where the $100 million cut will come from.

“This should have been discussed at great length,” said Sen. Fred Mills, R-Parks, who voted against the budget because of the health care reduction. “We should have had public hearings for days on this.”

As chairman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, Mills said he may schedule a series of public legislative meetings now so the $100 million reduction can be discussed in more detail.

Who knew what and when 

It’s not unusual for lawmakers to vote on the budget plan during the final moments of the legislative session, but they have typically been prepped about what the major changes to the spending proposal are ahead of time.

But this year, only a very small group of legislators understood that a massive reduction to health care spending had been proposed before the session’s last hour. Most thought a large cut to health care services would never seriously be considered because the state is so flush with cash.

“It’s going to be difficult to explain how you have a surplus of $2.2 billion, and you still cut LDH by $100 million, and the cut was only discussed in the last hour of the session,” Sen. Cameron Henry, R-Jefferson, said.

Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, said he became aware the House leadership wanted to reduce health spending by $100 million Wednesday night, about a day before most other lawmakers. But he didn’t know there were restrictions on where the money could come from within the health care programs.

At a Wednesday meeting with House leaders, Cortez said he “begged” for copies of the budget documents that would have outlined the proposed cuts to health care and other changes in more detail. But he didn’t receive that paperwork until Thursday evening, right before the budget votes. At that point, he didn’t have enough time to brief senators on the plan and solicit feedback from them. They just had to take their votes.

“If I’m disappointed by anything, I’m disappointed about not having the opportunity to be transparent with the senators,” Cortez said. “It was a little bit unfair to the rest of the senators.”

Cortez said he would try to mitigate fallout in health care services during the monthly meetings of the joint legislative committee on the budget, where lawmakers have some authority to move around money outside of a lawmaking session.

A veto fix? 

The governor has also said he is going to attempt to reverse — or at least lessen — the health care reductions, though Edwards wasn’t ready to reveal his plan for doing so.

“Stay tuned,” he said Thursday when asked about the strategy.

A few legislators believe the governor might be contemplating a line-item veto of the $100 million budget reduction, though that could create problems in other parts of the spending plan.

If Edwards reverses the $100 million health care cut, he’ll have to remove the same amount of money from another section of the budget to keep spending in balance.

This could mean cuts to projects and other initiatives that legislators prioritized. Many lawmakers only agreed to spend more state government money than expected this year because they were assured that it would go toward infrastructure projects in their home districts. If the governor starts shifting that funding into health care, it will likely frustrate lawmakers.

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The Capitol is a lot quieter than when we are in session, but there is still a lot of activity in and around this building.

As I look out over the Missouri River on the beautiful fountains below, youth groups and families are constantly milling around the Capitol Complex with the Law Enforcement Memorial, the Veterans Plaza, Gold Star Families Memorial Monument and of course the Bicentennial Bridge. We certainly have a lot to be proud of living in Jefferson City.

Much of what I do in the interim is visiting with constituents, talking to civic groups and planning for next session. One of the other things that happen this time of year is the governor signing bills, and I am blessed to have had Gov. Parson sign two of my bills.

My House Bill 131 was signed into law Wednesday. The Office of Administration asked me to file the biweekly pay bill and helped me get it through to the governor’s desk. The bill will change the state employee pay schedule from being paid on the 15th or 31st to being paid every two weeks.

One of the focus areas for me and my colleagues in the House and Senate is to address the real life issues our state employees face every day. With the 8.7 percent pay increase combined with the increase we approved last year, we are slowly making headway with their compensation package and retaining more of these civil servants.

Sadly too many of our state workforce have to have a second job and some even a third. The steps we are taking will address issues they have and hopefully keep them in our workforce.

The second was my House Bill 127 which eliminates the Personnel Advisory Board; it was included in Senate Bill 111. The Office of Administration over time changed their processes and that made the board obsolete. The elimination of the board will improve efficiency in the operation of the state’s personnel system by allowing the Division of Personnel to take necessary actions without arranging and convening a meeting of the board. The actions taken by the board at such meetings have become largely ministerial over the last 10-plus years.

The board’s rule-making authority will be transferred to the Division of Personnel, which in practice has already fallen to the division for the last several years. The process for making and amending administrative rules is governed by statute (Chapter 536) and requires publication and the opportunity for public comment, removing any concern that elimination of the board could result in lack of transparency in rulemaking. This statutory transparency will be coupled with the oversight of the commissioner of administration.

In other action taken by the governor’s office this past week, Senate Bill 13 was signed into law. The bill is a financial institutions bill that had many provisions as listed below.

This act is substantially similar to SB 1096 (2022) and certain provisions in SCS/HB 2571 (2022).

Authority of the Division of Finance: (Section 361.020) The act stipulates that the Division of Finance is in charge of the execution of the laws relating to banks, trust companies, and the banking business of the state; laws relating to persons and entities engaged in the small loan or consumer credit business in the state; the laws relating to persons and entities engaged in the mortgage business in the state; and the laws relating to persons and entities engaged in any other financial services related to business over which the Division of Finance is granted express authority.

The act provides that the compensation and necessary travel and other expenses of the members of the State Banking and Savings and Loan Board shall be paid out of the Division of Finance Fund.

Current law provides that a majority of the members of the State Banking and Savings and Loan Board constitutes a quorum. This act provides that three members of the board shall constitute a quorum.

The division is permitted to provide administrative services to the board to assist the board with fulfilling its statutory responsibilities.

The act repeals an obsolete requirement that the result of all examinations of banks and trust companies during a biennial period be embodied in a report made by the director of the Department of Commerce and Insurance to the General Assembly, such reporting requirement having previously been repealed.

Furthermore, the act clarifies the requirements for issuing a notice of charges with respect to a director, officer, employee, agent or other person participating in the affairs of a bank or trust company regulated by the division under Chapter 361. Specifically, whenever the director has reason to believe from any examination or investigation made by the director or his or her examiners, that any such corporation, foreign corporation or director, officer, employee, agent or other person participating in the conduct of the affairs of such corporation is engaging in, has engaged in or is about to engage in.

The Missouri National Veterans Memorial (MNVM) is excited to announce the Military Trails of Missouri program to honor our state’s military heritage sites. This initiative is designed to encourage more Missourians to visit these sites that recognize the sacrifices of our state’s veterans and military personnel. Twelve military heritage sites were selected across the state, including NMVM in Perryville, the Soldiers Memorial in St. Louis, the Veterans Memorial Museum in Branson, and the Museum of Missouri Military History in Jefferson City. Patrons can receive a coin to commemorate their visit to each site. Upon visiting all 12 sites, they will receive a completion coin to celebrate their accomplishment.

Finally, with summer comes family vacations and time to visit our beautiful state, and when making your plans, consider a trip to the Capitol and the Capitol Complex. We’re right here, and it will bring memories for a lifetime. This is the people’s House, and you are always welcome to come by and visit.

State Rep. Dave Griffith, R-Jefferson City, represents Missouri’s 60th District and shares his perspective on statehouse issues twice a month.

Originally Appeared Here

Faith Maternity Care exists to serve women who choose to carry their babies to full-term, by providing a home for expectant mothers, along with community client services for moms who already have a place to call home. A hidden gem for our mothers is the Baby Boutique. Our “learn while you earn” program allows residents to earn Baby Bucks through completing certain programs and pursuing educational opportunities. Mothers have a myriad of classes they are taking, both online and in person, where they are discovering healthy choices and habits as a parent, including nutrition, budgeting, positive relationships, faith, career goals, and mentoring sessions. Our moms earn Baby Bucks upon class completion, whichempowers our moms to contribute to the needs they have, for providing a way forward as a Faith Maternity Care mom. The Baby Bucks are used to purchase items in our Baby Boutique, where mothers may shop for items needed during their pregnancy, for their babies, and for future needs.

This past week, our staff refreshed the basement space that houses our Baby Boutique. As seen in the pictures, the room had become quite sad looking after a water leak, which caused us to pull carpet and address issues to repair the space. The team set to work on sealing the floor and painting it a calming fresh gray, along with adding new shelving to hold boy and girl clothes and a rack for maternity clothes and organizing diaper donations. With the help of our donors, FMC stocks the boutique with the everyday necessities a mom needs. It’s a great project to become involved in, and we are always happy to receive donations for gently used baby items and maternity clothes. New donations are a treasure as well, for diapers in sizes 2-4, baby wipes, diaper cream, toiletries, paper towels, and laundry detergent. What mom doesn’t love fun wishes like nail care and polish, bath and foot scrubs, cosmetics, hair accessories, earrings, and flip flops? We recently added a new shopping category for moms, focusing on when they graduate from FMC and move into their new, safe home. “Your Next Chapter” donated items could include kitchen, bathroom, and general household basics, like flatware, toasters, sponges, cooking utensils, towel sets, throws, and pillows. Though gently loved donations are greatly appreciated, our moms are especially excited to purchase brand new items with their Baby Bucks. If you have donations to share with our moms, please reach out to our staff at 573-642-7414, to schedule a convenient time to deliver your items.

Another way to serve our moms is on the Faith Maternity Care board of directors. We are seeking two to three additional members, especially as we look to possibly expand into the Jefferson City area for a transitional program. We are looking at Jefferson City because of the increased client access to public transportation, housing, and employment opportunities. Areas of experience and expertise for board consideration include professional backgrounds with legal, financial, banking, real estate, pastoral, insurance, business owner, and/or civic leadership involvement. Our current board professional diversity includes business owners, Fulton Chamber leader, doctor, nurse, educator, and substance use project manager. All board members are pro-life. For additional information, please reach out to board president Jennifer Books via text at 573-489-1431. As we are all on this journey to help others, it never fails that faith always finds a way.

Contributors: Jennifer Books is the Faith Maternity Care board president, and Shelley Knight is the executive director.

Originally Appeared Here

WASHINGTON (AP) — This week’s Supreme Court decision ordering Alabama to redraw its congressional districts was seen by many minority lawmakers and voting rights activists as a stunning victory with the potential to become a major stepping stone for undoing political maps that dilute the strength of communities of color.

Hank Sanders, a former Alabama state lawmaker who has long been politically active in the state, knew there would be a decision since the court heard arguments in the case last fall. He was not anticipating being happy with the outcome, given that previous rulings of the conservative-leaning court had essentially gutted some of its most important provisions.

“I was afraid they were going to go ahead and wipe out section 2,” he said, referring to the part of the Voting Rights Act at stake in the Alabama case.

He was at his law office Thursday in Selma, scene of one of the most pivotal moments in the Civil Rights Movement, when news of the 5-4 ruling in favor of Alabama’s Black voters was announced.

“It was a surprise that was good for my day,” he said.

How the decision will affect similar lawsuits against political maps drawn in other states is unclear, although voting rights groups say the ruling provides firm guidance for lower courts to follow.

The court majority found that Alabama concentrated Black voters in one district, while spreading them out among the others to make it much more difficult to elect more than one candidate of their choice. Alabama’s Black population is large enough and geographically compact enough to create a second district, the judges found. Just one of its seven congressional districts is majority Black, in a state where more than one in four residents is Black.

Similar maps have been drawn in other states, primary by Republican-controlled legislatures.

Kareem Crayton, the Brennan Center’s senior director for voting and representation, called the court’s decision “a welcome surprise” and said challenges to the maps in Louisiana and Georgia were the most similar to the Alabama case.

While it was considering the Alabama case, the Supreme Court had placed a hold on a lower court ruling in Louisiana allowing creation of a second majority-Black district. That’s now likely to be lifted. A federal judge last year also ruled that some of Georgia’s U.S. House and state legislative districts likely violated the Voting Rights Act, but he had allowed the districts to be used in the 2022 elections because it was too close to the election to redraw them.

Maps in all three states could have to be redrawn for the 2024 elections.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, said in a statement that the court’s action reaffirmed his own belief that Louisiana’s map, which was drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature, violated the law.

“As I said when I vetoed it, Louisiana’s current congressional map violates the Voting Rights Act,” he said. “Louisiana’s voting population is one-third Black. We know that in compliance with the principles of the Voting Rights Act, Louisiana can have a congressional map where two of our six districts are majority Black.”

Rep. Troy Carter, a Black Democrat representing Louisiana’s lone district that is majority Black, said the Legislature should immediately convene to draw a second majority-minority district.

“This Supreme Court ruling is a win not just for Alabamians but for Louisianans as well,” Carter said in an emailed statement. “Rarely do we get a second chance to get things right — now Louisiana can.”

In Georgia, Bishop Reginald Jackson, a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits challenging the state’s congressional map, said he was ecstatic when he heard the news about the ruling and hopes it will boost their case.

He said he became involved in the lawsuit amid concerns that the state’s Black population had increased while the number of Black congressional representatives had decreased with the last round of redistricting.

“So how could you have less Black representation when you have more Blacks moving into the state than before?” said Jackson, who presides over 534 African Methodist Episcopal churches in Georgia with over 90,000 parishioners

The Alabama case, along with pending lawsuits in Georgia and Louisiana, means Black voters will likely have an opportunity to elect candidates in three additional districts, said Marina Jenkins, executive director of the National Redistricting Foundation, one of the organizations that has spearheaded voting rights challenges in the states.

She said litigation in Texas by other plaintiff groups could mean additional seats there where minority voters “have the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice that don’t exist now.”

Texas state Rep. Victoria Neave Criado, a Democrat who chairs the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, said the case was a “major win for voting rights.”

She said following recent decisions by the current court in other areas she considers fundamental, such as last year’s overturning of the constitutional right to abortion, she was concerned about the direction the justices would take with voting rights and was relieved to see Thursday’s outcome.

“As we are seeing the Latino community rise in many ways, we want to ensure that Latino power is translated into Latino political power,” Neave Criado said.

Latinos and whites share an equal proportion of the Texas population, about 40% each, according to 2022 Census figures.

Nina Perales, vice-president of litigation with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the ruling closes the door on Texas using arguments similar to those made by Alabama as the cases there go forward. Perales leads the litigation for a similar case out of Texas, which is based on the redistricting maps created in 2021.

In addition to the Voting Rights Act challenge to Texas’ congressional districts, similar section 2 claims have been brought against numerous voting districts used for state legislatures and local governments around the country.

Attorney Mark Gaber argued a case this week alleging Washington’s state legislative districts diluted the voting strength of Hispanic residents and will be arguing a similar case next week involving Native Americans and North Dakota’s state legislative districts. He thinks Thursday’s ruling will strengthen the case.

In Alabama, the question is what happens next. Steve Marshall, the state’s Republican attorney general, said in a statement that he expects to continue defending the challenged map in federal court, including at a full trial.

The Rev. Murphy Green, a resident of Montgomery, said he is just glad to get to the first step with the court decision.

“I was surprised, especially when I think of the makeup of the court,” he said, praising God for sending the Legislature back to ”the drawing board and making it mandatory that they create a second Black congressional district.”

He said the five Supreme Court justices in the majority must have looked at the map and the state’s population and decided “it looked ridiculous to those judges, as well.”

Rep. Terri Sewell, the lone Democrat in Alabama’s congressional delegation, said she expects the case will be sent back to the three lower court judges who unanimously agreed the lines drawn by the Legislature likely violated the federal law. Sewell, who is Black, fully expected the new districts to be in place in time for the 2024 elections.

Whatever the process for drawing the new lines, “They’re going to have to follow the ruling of the court,” she said, noting that a revamped congressional map would also mean her district is redrawn.

“It’s a small price to pay to carve up my district in order to be able to have two majority minority districts,” she said.

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Associated Press writers Ayanna Alexander in Washington; Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta; Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas; David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri; and Kevin McGill in New Orleans contributed to this report.

Originally Appeared Here

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey overstepped his authority when he attempted to inflate the estimated cost of a ballot measure to restore abortion rights, an attorney for Republican Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick argued in Cole County court Wednesday.

Rob Tillman, an attorney representing Fitzpatrick’s office, and Tony Rothert, an attorney representing the ACLU of Missouri, both argued Wednesday that Bailey’s role in trying to craft the fiscal note for the abortion rights petition was illegal.

Bailey has rejected Fitzpatrick’s fiscal note that the ballot measure would have no cost to the state. The attorney general has argued that it should include a projected loss of $12.5 billion in Medicaid dollars — a figure pushed by anti-abortion groups that Fitzpatrick says is inaccurate.

“The attorney general has no more than a perfunctory ministerial role in the fiscal note process for initiative petitions,” Tillman told Cole County Judge Jon Beetem. “No attorney general has ever attempted to exercise this level of discretion.”

Jason Lewis, an attorney with Bailey’s office, in response, argued that Bailey was following state law when his office refused to approve Fitzpatrick’s fiscal note.

“Of the three remaining parties in the room, only one of them has actually followed his duties under the statutes and that is the attorney general,” Lewis said. “He has done his job.”

The sparring between the lawyers for two statewide Republican officials happened during a bench trial Wednesday in front of Cole County Judge Jon Beetem. The ACLU of Missouri filed suit last month against Bailey, Fitzpatrick and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft to force them to finish finalizing the ballot initiative.

None of the three statewide Republicans appeared in court on Wednesday.

At issue are 11 versions of a state constitutional amendment that would restore abortion rights in Missouri, where the procedure is almost entirely banned. Anna Fitz-James, a retired St. Louis doctor, submitted the proposals in March.

The standoff has delayed Missouri in finalizing the initiative petition, preventing supporters from gathering signatures, an arduous, expensive and time-intensive process.

The civil liberties group is accusing Bailey of attempting to coerce Fitzpatrick into submitting a fiscal note with inaccurate information. Rothert, the ACLU attorney, on Wednesday referred to Bailey’s projections as “bananagrams.”

Bailey doubled down on his proposed fiscal note and his authority to review it in a statement to The Star.

“The state of Missouri stands to lose billions of dollars if one of these petitions becomes law, and Missourians deserve to know the cost when they go to the ballot box,” he said. “Missouri statute clearly directs my office to substantively review the impact of initiative petitions, and that’s exactly what we did here.”

Beetem, the judge, said Wednesday that the parties would have until next Wednesday to draft proposed judgments before he makes a ruling. Beetem also agreed to dismiss Ashcroft from the suit, saying that his office would be unable to complete work on the ballot measure until the fiscal note dispute is resolved.

Tori Schafer, the deputy director for policy and campaigns at the ACLU of Missouri, told reporters after the trial that the Republican officeholders were deliberately delaying the abortion petition.

“We all know why they want to deprive retired pediatrician Dr. Anna Fitz-James her constitutional right to the initiative process,” Schafer said. “They are scared — scared to let Missourians exercise their right to vote on reproductive freedom.”

Originally Appeared Here

JEFFERSON CITY — The state board of education on Tuesday suspended the license of a Hazelwood preschool teacher who broke her contract when she resigned last year.

Asueleni Deloney’s Missouri teaching certificate will be suspended for one year, the board voted at its monthly meeting.

Deloney resigned from Jana Elementary in Florissant on Aug. 30 after signing a contract the previous April for the 2022-23 school year. Hazelwood School District did not release her from the contract because they were unable to hire a replacement, according to state records.

At a state hearing in March, Deloney said she resigned because she was struggling financially after eight years as a teacher in the Hazelwood district. A union representative warned her that “it could get nasty because they need teachers in the classroom,” Deloney said during the hearing.

The hearing transcript indicates that Deloney may have taken a teaching job in Illinois, where she was issued a license in May 2022 for early childhood education.

The report on Deloney’s case does not mention questions about radioactive contamination at Jana Elementary first raised by parents in summer 2022. The school sits in the floodplain of Coldwater Creek, which was contaminated starting in the 1940s with residue from atomic weapons production.

An independent report found radioactive contamination in dust and dirt samples taken Aug. 15 from inside and outside the school.

The Hazelwood School Board shuttered the school in October, sending students and staff to several other elementary schools. The Army Corps of Engineers, which is charged with cleanup of the creek, and a St. Charles company have since said that Jana is radiologically safe.

School districts have increasingly sought to discipline teachers that break contracts as staffing shortages have grown worse since the pandemic. A 2016 Missouri law allows the state board to discipline teachers that annul their contracts.

A record high of 11 teachers faced disciplinary actions related to work contracts in the 2022-2023 school year, according to the Springfield News-Leader. In most of the cases, school boards rejected the resignations of teachers while they were under contract.

The state board of education voted Tuesday on three of the cases. The board suspended the license of Jordan York for one year after the English teacher quit the Independence School District last August for “family matters” and did not pay a fine for breaking the contract, according to state records.

The board voted against disciplining a Spanish teacher who resigned from the Hancock Place School District in south St. Louis County after signing an annual contract.

Veronica Delgado resigned in September after being threatened by students several times and experiencing severe anxiety. The Hancock Place board rejected the resignation and referred the matter to the state board. The position was never filled in Hancock Place, and some classes were taught virtually after Delgado’s resignation.

Seeking discipline for teachers who break their contracts is counterproductive and heavy-handed, Mark Jones of the Missouri National Education Association told the News-Leader.

“This does not incentivize (teachers) to try and find a new school or situation that is a better fit for them when they can basically lose their livelihood because months after signing a contract they realize maybe they need to make a different decision or work in a different setting,” Jones told the newspaper. “This is creating a very strange system … and something that works against everything that we state our values are, which is trying to keep people in the profession and respect them as educators.”

The state teacher shortage came up several times during Tuesday’s board meeting.

Nearly 20% of the teaching and administrator positions in Riverview Gardens are vacant, Superintendent Joylynn Pruitt-Adams told the board during an update on the provisionally accredited district.

In 2022-2023, Lewis and Clark Elementary had no certified teachers, with substitutes covering all the core subjects. Riverview Gardens High School had one certified math teacher, Pruitt-Adams said.

School librarians across Missouri are pulling books from shelves as they face the potential for criminal charges under a new state law that was passed at the end of August 2022.

Evening Dispatch

Your daily recap of the top stories of the day.

Originally Appeared Here