Subject: Jay Nixon

• High Court Agrees: Parkus Is Too Dim to Die

  April 19, 2007

• Notes from Election Night: McCoy's

  November 5, 2008

• Yes, governor, some rednecks are racists

  November 11, 2008

• Mail

  May 18, 2000

• Grease Monkeys

  November 2, 2000

• Senator Luann Ridgeway: Patron Saint of Missouri Motorcyclists

  If Governor Jay Nixon signs Senate Bill 202 into law, Missouri motorcyclists over 21years of age will no longer be bound by law to wear helmets when they ride, except on state highways. Cyclists who love the feel of the wind in their hair (and hate to have government regulations weighing on their handlebars) have Clay County Republican Sen. Luann Ridgeway to thank if the helmet law dies at Nixon's hands this month. Ridgeway says that she's been trying to bury Missouri's helmet law since shortly

  June 2, 2009

• Urban Outfitter

  January 31, 2002

• 'tober Kill

  September 26, 2002

• Five Alive

  January 9, 2003

• Letters from the week
  of June 4

  June 4, 2009

• What was the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City doing as the housing market went insane?

  February 19, 2009

• One hot contender, Sarah Steelman takes help from the much-maligned Jeff Roe in her run for governor

  April 3, 2008

• Crow Free

  March 23, 2006

• Springfield Nazis get punked by the Jewish Community Relations Bureau

  via the Springfield News-Leaderfrom an NSM siteThe Springfield, Missouri, chapter of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi organization, thought it would be cute to adopt a section of highway along West Bypass between Sunshine and Farm Road 142. MoDOT allowed them to put up a sign along the road bearing the group's name, and members posed with it, Seig Heil-ing and whatnot (pictured). Afterward, they went home, put on their swastika-print jammies and drifted off to thumb-sucking sleep, sec

  June 3, 2009

• Fowl & Crude

  A company that wants to change the world leaves a small town gasping for air.

  November 24, 2005

• Too Dim to Die?

  Nadia Pflaum

  November 10, 2005

• Union Haul

  September 8, 2005

• Railroaded

  Matt Blunt tries to sell out yet another group of innocent Missourians.

  July 14, 2005

• Independence Square

  Ken McClain gets every east Jackson County gadfly's panties in a wad. But he's really just a regular guy.

  July 7, 2005

• Unreasonable Doubt

  One jury found Ted White guilty of child molestation. A second jury says White is the one who got hurt.

  August 19, 2004

• Queer Bait

  Dems expect the gay vote — so why don’t they earn it?

  June 17, 2004

• Head Cases

  A man who had sex at Shawnee Mission Park and patrons at a St. Louis porn house carry the baton for gays and lesbians in Kansas and Missouri.

  January 2, 2003

• Minority Report

  The hate crimes task force ends up with a low profile.

  December 26, 2002

• So Long, Joe

  While Joe Armine waits to die, Missouri courts won't admit they could have been wrong.

  July 4, 2002

• Fallen Angel

  Angela Coffel, the first woman in Missouri deemed a sexually violent predator, is locked up despite overwhelming evidence that she isn't one.

  January 24, 2002

• Built to Sue

  Jeff Miller built flawed homes -- and his financing was a little too creative.

  May 24, 2001

• Running on Empty

  Gas station dealers find Big Oil blocking the way in their struggles against extinction (Part 2 of 2).

  November 2, 2000

• The Men to Call

  Charged with a serious crime? Low on funds? Kent Gipson and Sean O'Brien are the guys to call.

  April 27, 2000

• Mo. Gov. Nixon's security kicks out Liberty Restoration Project. Did they get what they deserved?

  Here's the video of the Liberty Restoration Project getting bounced from Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon's office. The "end the Fed" crowd wanted a meeting with the governor to talk about the Missouri Information Analysis Center report on the "The Modern Militia Movement," which listed Ron Paul supporters and those who oppose abortion, the federal income tax and illegal immigration as potential threats to homeland security. Instead, they met Capitol security, who showed them the door. The woman on the

  May 7, 2009

• Missouri is about to execute Dennis Skillicorn. The state’s death penalty may not outlive him very long.

  May 14, 2009

• Prison staff speaks out on behalf of death-row inmate Dennis Skillicorn

  This video is made up of interviews from people who knew Dennis Skillicorn (the subject of this week's feature story, "Dead Man") at Potosi Correctional Center, including Rick Secoy, former Potosi guard, and volunteers from Set Free Ministries and other organizations within the prison. It's part of the clemency petition, which is now in the hands of Missouri's Gov. Jay Nixon. Execution is still set for May 20, 2009.

  May 13, 2009

• Update on Missouri's death penalty study: It's alive!

  Exciting times in the Missouri legislature: H.B. 484, a bill written to create a commission to study the state's death penalty, passed by a surprisingly large margin in a 127-31 vote, after the 2-year moratorium component was removed. Now it goes to the Senate for a vote -- if they can get to it by Friday when the session ends.According to a source watching today's proceedings, H.B. 484 is no more -- it's now bill sausage. "It got tacked onto another piece of legislation -- at least that's how I

  May 13, 2009

• Dennis Skillicorn is dead, but the Public Interest Litigation Clinic is still very much alive

  Jennifer Merrigan Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon never called Dennis Skillicorn's lawyer at the Public Interest Litigation Clinic to say that he'd denied Skillicorn's petition for clemency. Scott Holste, the governor's press secretary, wrote up a press release that was sent to media outlets shortly after 5 p.m. yesterday, but nobody notified Jennifer Merrigan, Skillicorn's lawyer. As a result, Skillicorn himself didn't find out that he was denied clemency until after Merrigan read it on the The Kansas

  May 20, 2009

• Hard Line

  May 28, 2009

• Scenes from the health-care struggle in Jefferson City

  June 11, 2009

• How Jason Kander gamed the Republicans

  Kansas City Rep. Jason Kander had an expectation of progress on health-care reform when he took his seat in the Missouri House of Representatives earlier this year. The freshman Democrat thought a landslide victory for Gov. Jay Nixon, who put health care at the forefront of his campaign, would translate into a mandate to provide coverage for more low-income Missourians. "I was naively confident that the Republicans understood the mandate from the people of Missouri to restore some access t

  June 11, 2009

• One Republican state rep who gives us hope on health care reform

  While spending time at the Missouri Capitol, working on this week's feature story, just about every Democratic lawmaker and staffer I spoke to in the House of Representatives emphasized that expanding health-care access had united the sometimes-fractious Democratic Party like no other issue. Rep. Ryan SilveyThat same group think was operating on the other side of the aisle, as well. The House Republicans all dug their heels into the same ideological cement and refused to restor

  June 12, 2009

• Put 'em back on, bikers: Nixon vetoes repeal of helmet law

  Despite more than a thousand letters and e-mails begging Gov. Jay Nixon to sign a bill that would strike down Missouri's helmet law, Nixon vetoed it today. The bill would have allowed motorcycle riders 21 and over to ride helmetless on all roads except interstate highways.Missouri Department of Transportation director Pete Rahn issued this statement: "I want to thank Governor Jay Nixon for showing courageous and compassionate leadership by vetoing the repeal of the motorcycle helmet law. He has

  July 2, 2009

• A closer look at the festival-permit law

  Last week Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed House Bill 132 into law. The most publicized piece of the bill allows Kansas City "festival districts" to obtain outdoor liquor permits for special events. Previously, only entertainment districts were able to obtain such permits, and the wording on what constitutes an "entertainment district" was so narrow that the Power & Light District was the sole beneficiary (i.e., such a district must be in the "city's central business district" and "designa

  July 6, 2009

• Coming to Westport this fall ... festival drinking!

  Scott SpychalskiThe P&L won't be the only place to drink outdoors this fall.The Power & Light District won't be the only place to drink outdoors this fall. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed a bill last week to allow festival drinking permits in entertainment districts such as Westport, whose business leaders had been fighting for the permit for a long, long time. Fat City's Owen Morris has more details, but here's a primer:The permits only last for 48 hours, they're limited to two per month

  July 6, 2009

• Dear Jay Nixon: Cover kids now

  Some Missourians aren't waiting around for Washington to fix health care -- they're telling Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon he can reform it now. Kansas City's Partnership for Children has been passing around a letter to the governor (here's a PDF), arguing that he could cover an additional 90,000 kids by taking advantage of some of his special governor privileges. That way, he wouldn't have to go to the legislature, which shot down many of his proposals this year. (After observing their behavior, we wo

  July 23, 2009

• Rally to 'Put People First' and protect kids from the budget hatchet

  ​How's this for some math that doesn't quite add up?Missouri's Department of Social Services keeps track of 9,000 kids in foster care, investigates 75,000 reported cases of child abuse annually and provides 43,000 children daycare while their low-income parents go off to work. To do that -- and more -- the Child Division takes up just 3 percent of the state's multi-billion-dollar bank account. Now, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon says he needs to cut $60 million from the state's 2010 budget to make en

  July 31, 2009

• Kansas Citians come out in droves to party with the Tour of Missouri

  ​At the Capitol in Jefferson City, the Tour of Missouri bicycle race has become a political football, a passive-aggressive battle between Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder (a Tour booster) and Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon (who threatened to pull the state's funding for the event this year). In Kansas City on Sunday, the Tour was more like a massive tailgating bash, with roving revelers cruising downtown on foot and by bike, ringing cowbells and dancing in the streets. The festivities started

  September 14, 2009

• And we're back ...

  Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon​Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is still drowning in his dirty water scandal. Great analysis from the Star's Steve Kraske, who's wondering how long before heads will roll.  Nixon, a Missouri Democrat, had his worst week as guv yet over the who knew what and when scandal over his administration failing to tell the public about an E. coli outbreak at the Lake of the Ozarks in May. Lots of trouble for Nixon. Update: Chris Blank of the Associated Press analyzes the situation a

  October 5, 2009

• Nixon talks political controversy (just not his own)

  Jay Nixon​Jason Rosenbaum, our pick as Best Blogger of 2009, captured Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon's reaction (click for the video) to The Kansas City Star's big story on political consultant and former lawmaker Rod Jetton and accusations of "pay for play." In short, Nixon wants limits on campaign contributions. The Democratic governor had to be happy the spotlight was off him -- if just for a moment -- but the Lake of the Ozarks dirty water scandal keeps dogging him. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's

  October 20, 2009

• Heads start rolling in dirty watergate

  Jay Nixon​A few weeks ago, Kansas City Star political reporter Steve Kraske wondered when heads would start rolling after Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon's administration failed to tell the public in May about dangerously high levels of E. coli at the Lake of the Ozarks. The throat slashing began about a week ago when Nixon fired long-time aide Joe Bindbeutel, who is a former deputy director of the DNR. On Thursday (or Monday, depending on who you believe), another head was lopped off. This time, acco

  October 23, 2009

• Not to be outdone by American Airlines, Missouri cuts 700 jobs

  Jay Nixon dropped the ax today​Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced today that 700 jobs will be cut to make up for a shortfall in state tax revenues. Prime Buzz says the cuts are on top of $430 million in budget slashing earlier this year. Add that on top of American Airlines closing its overhaul base at Kansas City International Airport (and the announcement of 700 job cuts nationwide), and it's been a really bad day.

  October 28, 2009

• Hostage situation at the Missouri Governor Office Building in Jeff City?

  KMBC Channel 9 is reporting that there is a possible hostage situation at the Governor Office Building in Jefferson City. View Larger Map KMBC cites Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder's Twitter updates. The first came about 10 a.m. Sharpshooters on roof of Jefferson bldg. Hostage situation unfolding in Governor Office bldg. Police locked down the block. Developing ...about 1 hour ago from TwitterBerryFollowed by ...Chopper overhead as hostage negotiators are on the scene ...38 minutes ago from TwitterBerr

  November 10, 2009

• Breakfast Buffet: Friday, November 13

  A one-gallon home brew kit is the perfect starter set -- and it's now available online. [A Beer Sort of Blog]Amid the health care debate, a potential cure-all has been forgotten: Chicken Noodle Soup. [Blog Well Done]In the argument over whether to crate piglets, a Missouri pig farmer stands on the side of protecting profits and piglets from being crushed by their mothers. [Freakonomics]With hunting season kicking off this weekend in Missouri and Governor Jay Nixon's plans to bag a deer to contr

  November 13, 2009