Missouri
Governors of Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri throw collective support behind regional ‘hydrogen hub’ bid
LINCOLN, Neb. (Nebraska Examiner) — Pleasure is mounting amongst state leaders over the chance that Nebraska and two neighboring states might be named a regional “hydrogen hub,” a designation that may open a door to greater than $1 billion in federal funds for clear vitality tasks.
Gov. Jim Pillen issued a press release Thursday and included feedback from the highest state officers in Iowa and Missouri, who’ve joined with him in an settlement laying a framework for the three-state hub.
“This partnership will assist develop Nebraska and the Midwest’s financial system by opening the pathway for billions of {dollars} of recent funding into our neighborhood and a whole bunch of recent, good-paying jobs,” Pillen stated. “This hydrogen hub as soon as once more reveals Nebraska’s dedication to renewable vitality and our management in bettering our nation’s vitality safety.”
The governors signed the memorandum of understanding earlier this month for the Mid-Continent Clear Hydrogen Hub, or MCH2. Beneath that title, the trio submitted a grant utility to the U.S. Division of Vitality, which is to disburse a complete of about $8 million for as much as 10 regional hydrogen hubs.
Hub funding was put aside within the 2021 Infrastructure Funding and Jobs Act; hubs are to supply matching {dollars}.
A extra formal settlement later would set forth administration and different particulars if MCH2 have been chosen.
Additionally this week, Nebraska lawmakers gave first-round approval to a invoice geared toward strengthening efforts to turn into a hub. Legislative Invoice 565, sponsored by State Sen. Bruce Bostelman of Brainard, seeks $500,000 in state funds over two years to supply grants for extra engineering and modeling work.
As well as, lawmakers this week superior a proposal to second-round debate that may create a piece group to find out workforce coaching wants of the nuclear and hydrogen industries.
Pillen and his Iowa and Missouri counterparts stated within the settlement that the states are uniquely certified and located centrally to function a regional hub, given the presence of wind, photo voltaic, biomass, nuclear, agricultural and different vitality sources.
They cited world-leading laboratories and tutorial establishments, and oil and early-stage private and non-private hydrogen financial system growth initiatives.
“Collectively we’ve got a possibility to open new markets for agriculture whereas strengthening our dedication to American-made renewable vitality,” stated Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. “Because the areas’ main states, we perceive the ability of coming collectively to create modern options that develop our economies for the long run.”
Stated Missouri Gov. Mike Parson: “Missouri and the Midwest take pleasure in a various vitality portfolio that may solely be strengthened by this clear hydrogen hub partnership.”
The hub designation is anticipated to assist communities by drawing extra clear vitality investments and creating good-paying jobs and higher vitality safety.
The MCH2 workforce famous present regional tasks with room for progress. For instance, in Nebraska, it stated that Werner Enterprises has dedicated to utilizing new hydrogen-fueled semi-trucks and Monolith Supplies is increasing its Hallam carbon black facility.
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Nebraska Examiner is a part of States Newsroom, a community of reports bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: information@nebraskaexaminer.com. Observe Nebraska Examiner on Fb and Twitter.
Missouri
SE Missouri State Eliminates No. 5 National Seed Arkansas At Fayetteville Regional With 6-3 Victory – News18
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Read all latest and breaking Sports News on News18.com
Ty Stauss hit a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning and Southeast Missouri State never trailed in a 63 victory over No. 5 national seed Arkansas at the Fayetteville Regional on Sunday, eliminating the Razorbacks.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.: Ty Stauss hit a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning and Southeast Missouri State never trailed in a 6-3 victory over No. 5 national seed Arkansas at the Fayetteville Regional on Sunday, eliminating the Razorbacks.
SE Missouri State (36-26) advanced to play Kansas State in the nightcap. If the Redhawks win, the regional championship will be decided on Monday with a berth in the super regionals on the line.
Stauss sent a a 0-1 pitch from Gage Wood over the fence in left field for the early lead.
Josh Cameron and Ian Riley had RBI singles in a three-run fourth inning to put the Redhawks up 4-0.
Arkansas (44-16) scored its first run in the top of the fifth on a two-out solo home run by Peyton Holt.
The Redhawks got the run back in their half of the inning when Brooks Kettering homered to lead off the inning. Riley singled and scored on a Kettering single to give SE Missouri State a five-run lead.
The Razorbacks’ final two runs came in the ninth on a one-out, two-run home run by Parker Rowland.
Collin Wilma started for the Redhawks, allowing one run on one hit and two walks in 4 1/3 innings with six strikeouts. Logan Katen (2-0) got the win with 2 1/3 innings of shutout relief. Kyle Miller got the final two outs for his eighth save.
Wood (3-2) took the loss after yielding four runs on four hits and a walk in three innings. He struck out four.
SE Missouri is aiming for its first trip to the College World Series. Arkansas has made 11 CWS appearances, most recently in 2022, but has never won it.
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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Associated Press)
Missouri
KFVS-TV honored with several MBA awards
LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. (KFVS) – KFVS-TV/Heartland News was honored by several prestigious awards at the Missouri Broadcaster Association Awards Dinner on Saturday night.
Todd Richards was honored as Best Sportscaster for his story on former football player Danny Lee Johnson.
Crystal Britt was honored for her story on the Bollinger County Tornado recovery efforts in the Best Hard News category.
The KFVS Breakfast Show was honored as Best Newscast in the Medium Market Category.
Also honored as runner-up was KFVS12.com for Best Website.
Kathy Sweeney and her reports on Coroner Wavis Jordan received second place statewide in the Sunshine Hero Award.
KFVS-TV’s parent company Gray TV, also owns KYTV, KCTV, KMOV and WGEM, all which won multiple awards at the Margaritaville Lake Resort at Lake of the Ozarks.
Copyright 2024 KFVS. All rights reserved.
Missouri
Missouri has lost 200,000 Medicaid enrollees in the last year. More than half were children
Missouri’s Medicaid enrollment has shrunk by around 200,000 people since last summer, as the state continues the process of undoing a COVID-era pause on eligibility checks.
The federal suspension on annual renewals expired last year and since then, states have been undergoing the process of re-verifying each participant’s eligibility.
From June to April, Missouri’s net enrollment in Medicaid — which is also called MO HealthNet — dropped by 197,525 people.
Over half — 56% — of that net decline was among children, according to recent state data and analysis by the Center for Advancing Health Services, Policy & Economics Research at Washington University in St. Louis. There were 110,938 kids who lost coverage in that period.
The number of kids being removed has been a source of concern over the last few months among advocates. Although kids make up around half of the state’s caseload, they are also eligible at much higher household income level than adults.
As the state evaluates hundreds of thousands of current Medicaid recipients each month and processes their updated information, it continues to receive new applications.
Federal data released earlier this month showed Missouri’s application processing times have been among the worst in the nation.
Medicaid applications are generally required to be reviewed within 45 days. Nationwide, most applications were processed within 24 hours last year.
Missouri and New Mexico had the highest rates of late Medicaid determinations last year, according to the federal data, which covers October through December.
In December, more than half of Missouri’s applications took longer than 45 days to process.
Long processing times can mean low-resource and low-income patients must delay or forego needed medical care and prescriptions.
And Missouri has struggled to meet that limit in the past: In summer 2022, the federal government initiated a mitigation plan with the state to get the wait time down.
At the quarterly MO HealthNet Oversight Committee meeting last week, chair Nick Pfannenstiel, a dentist, raised concerns about processing times.
Pfannenstiel said as a provider, he has been told by state eligibility workers that the current average processing time is “60 to 90 days.” Though he knows the state is working to fix those delays, “that’s causing a lot of frustration, not necessarily from a provider standpoint only but from a patient standpoint.”
Todd Richardson, director of MO HealthNet, said that there are a “number of strategies and a lot of focus right now trying to bring that back down to the 45 day window” that is federally mandated.
Part of the issue is the agency is receiving a large number of applications, Richardson added.
From November to mid-January, during open enrollment season for the federal insurance marketplace, the state generally sees an uptick in Medicaid applications and then a decline and plateau, he said.
“We are not seeing that now,” Richardson said. “[Family Support Division] is continuing to experience a high number of daily new applications, and as a result, you can see that increase in the number of pending applications that we have.”
The number of pending applications reached nearly 53,000 in January and stands at just under 18,000 as of April.
“I know [Family Support Division] has been working exhaustively, trying to bring that number of pending applications down and I know they’ve had some success,” he said, “but there will continue to be kind of an intense review on the state’s part to make sure that we’re getting those applications as current as we possibly can.”
Baylee Watts, DSS’ communications director, said the division has “focused its staff and resources on processing applications that have exceeded 45 days” and continues training staff across several programs and “strategically reallocating staff to manage the workload effectively.”
There can be issues when a patient is on Medicaid but needs to change the category of coverage they qualify for, Pfannenstiel also noted, referring to a patient trying to convert to postpartum Medicaid as causing providers confusion as to whether the person is eligible for services.
A patient previously told the Independentshe spent more than a month just trying to switch from adult Medicaid to Medicaid for Pregnant Women. In the meantime, she didn’t go to any doctor’s appointments.
Richardson said it is currently a “manual process” for state workers to move Medicaid participants into the postpartum category. Since last year, women can receive postpartum coverage for a full year rather than 60 days.
It is also a manual process for children to receive what’s called continuous eligibility, which went into effect this year after it was federally required. That policy allows kids to stay insured for the full year after they are renewed, rather than be potentially stripped of coverage between renewals, due to something like temporary changes in income.
There are system changes to automate those processes planned for June, Richardson said.
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent, part of the States Newsroom.
Copyright 2024 St. Louis Public Radio
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