Missouri Politics

Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Board Columnist

Voting shouldn't be so difficult - especially when only one issue is on the ballot.

By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

The Missouri Government website has information related to lobbyists, lobby groups, funds contributed and to whom, and voting records of elected officials for citizens to view. What if we were able to map people with money with issues? What if we could create a narrative with this wealth of data?

By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

State elected officials, appointed officials and bureaucrats face a very bleak year when budgets require deep trimming and lobbyists have smaller pockets. This coming year, with an election and a budget war, State officials will scurry for scraps of cash. But good things could happen.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

The more Jay Nixon tries to explain, rationalize, fire and suspend people because of the E. coli communications mess, the more he slips underwater.

By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

Why the proposed high-speed rail corridor to St. Louis? What’s in St. Louis? The rail vision needs a northerly focus. We should head to Chicago instead. The food’s better and the business is more attractive.

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board columnist

The racism chatter has started again.

Missouri's Roy Blunt is in the center of it this time, with a speech to the religiously conservative Family Research Council. It started because he used a tale involving golf and monkeys.

By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

The protests recently from the various tea flavored parties have made me realize that we already have a mechanism, a system, 50 of them actually, to bring government home. In fact, I think that would be a good chant for a lot of people across the many lines of divide we see: Bring government home!

George Harris, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

Congressman Joe Wilson yelled "You lie" to President Barack Obama in last night's address to Congress and has now been coerced by his own party's leadership into giving an apology to the president. So exactly what did Mr. Wilson apologize for?

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Curious results from the latest Survey USA tracking poll taken in Missouri July 17 to 19.

Approval of President Obama's job performance actually went up four points, to 55 percent.

U.S. Sen. Kit Bond's approval rating edged down two points, to 53 percent.

By Matt Schofield, a member of the Star's editorial board

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon made the right call Tuesday releasing $1.5 million for the third annual tour of Missouri bike race.

First, the race is great advertising for the state. One of only two top level bike races in the United States, it attracts some of the world's top racers.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Tenacious, they are.

The folks who have been unsuccessfully pushing the Missouri legislature for years to change the way the state selects its judges is taking its case to the people

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Beware the Friday before a holiday. It's when officialdom lets loose of information that has to be made public, but which folks would rather keep concealed.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Say you're a single mom who's having a hard time of it. Maybe you lost a decent job so you're waiting tables or working at a dollar store to keep food on your table. Maybe you have headaches, or something worse. You think you should see a doctor, but you can't pay.

By William Eckhardt, Special to The Kansas City Star

In early April, the Missouri House of Representatives approved putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2010 to reform the Missouri Plan for selecting judges to the Supreme Court and appellate courts.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

What to read into the latest frustrating delay in the confirmation of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as health and human services secretary?

Thursday's GOP-inspired delay has pushed a Senate confirmation vote off until next week.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Someone must have slipped something in the tea.

The Missouri House observed the impending income tax filing deadline by giving first-round approval to a constitutional amendment that would increase the state sales tax while abolishing income taxes.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Why don't Republicans in the Missouri House want poor people to have health care?

Harsh as it sounds, that's the message they're sending by rejecting Gov. Jay Nixon's agreement with the Missouri Hospital Association.

Missouri lawmakers are off on spring break. It’s a rest-and-relaxation interlude they don’t deserve because they’ve yet to show much concern for helping citizens who need it the most.

House Republicans have continued their pattern of making low-income and disadvantaged Missourians bear the brunt of the state’s fiscal difficulties.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

In his lab at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kenneth Peterson uses embryonic stem cells to study how human cells develop into blood cells.

The cells come from one of the lines that were eligible for federal research money during the Bush presidency.

Matt BluntBy Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

It's outrageous that Missouri taxpayers spent more than $1.5 million in attorney's fees because former Gov. Matt Blunt's staff didn't have its act together.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

The whole nation could be watching Missouri next year if Roy Blunt matches up against Robin Carnahan to replace U.S. Sen. Kit Bond.

A couple of points:

Missouri lawmakers have appropriately rejected pay raises for themselves and statewide officials. No problem there.

But because of a quirky process that lawmakers are loath to fix, the state’s judges can’t get raises unless legislators do.

That’s unfair. Missouri’s judges, especially at the circuit and associate circuit levels, are among the lowest paid in the nation.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Missouri's GOP has unleashed a blistering attack on Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, who's now running for Kit Bond's U.S. Senate seat in 2010.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Talk about petering out.

The investigation as to what exactly happened in former Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt's office with regards to public e-mail records is being terminated with no conclusion.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Outgoing Missouri Governor Matt Blunt did his homework when considering commuting the sentences of two women who have served a total of 26 years for killing men who had severely abused and terrorized them.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Well, darn. Even the governor can't escape the long reach of the nanny state.

The Cole County, Mo., Health Department has put a damper on plans for Gov.-elect Jay Nixon's inaugural potluck dinner.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Update: It's official. Bond really is stepping down.
Over on Prime Buzz, our sister blog, Steve Kraske is quoting sources as saying Kit Bond will announce this morning that he won't seek another term in 2010.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

With his reckless e-mail policy, Gov. Matt Blunt has cost Missouri taxpayers $1.5 million.

Where do we go to get our refund?

The $1.5 million figure comes from The Associated Press, which got hold of state records through a Sunshine Law request.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Time to celebrate, environmentalists: Henry Waxman of California on Thursday convinced his Democratic colleagues to throw out John Dingell as chairman of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.

It’s little wonder Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt’s administration resisted making the e-mail correspondence of its top officials a matter of public record.

The documents, finally released, reveal an office consumed by politics and disdainful of its obligations under the Missouri Sunshine law.