Missouri
Missouri legislature finishes chaotic session amid paralyzed Senate

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KFVS) – Missouri saw a chaotic end to the 2024 legislative session Friday after a stalled Senate skipped the final day of work.
The hotly-debated resolution to make constitutional amendments more difficult to pass on the ballot upended debate and became a “hot potato” between the House and Senate. Each chamber repeatedly referred the measure to the other, the Senate asking for a conference committee to work out the differences and the House refusing to recede from its position.
Senate leaders on Friday said this session revealed a vast difference between lawmakers who want to find compromises with colleagues and those who want to battle to impose their political will.
In the end, Democrats and the majority of Republicans sent a message that the Missouri General Assembly, particularly the Senate, must remain a place of compromise, where lawmakers find a way to work together.”
“My theory is, if you treat people with respect, you’re willing to listen to them, and you’re willing to work with them, that you can get done the things you need to get done,” said Senate Majority Floor Leader Cindy O’Laughlin.
The five-member “Freedom Caucus” faction of Republicans, led by Harrisonville senator Rick Brattin, called their party’s leaders “cowardly.”
“The Republican party has turned into feckless, spineless, ambassadors of nothing, and not fighting for what’s right,” Brattin said.
Outgoing Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, said decency and democracy ultimately overcame division and distrust.
“I think that decorum won, I think the bullies lost,” Rizzo said. “I don’t think that matters if you have a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ by your name. I think the [Senate] pushed back on being pushed around all year in the last throes of session.”
With the senate adjourned, the Missouri House spent Friday finishing several bills including a major public safety omnibus package.
That bill includes tougher penalties for hurting or killing a law enforcement dog, making it a felony to run from police, and outlawing celebratory gunfire.
But some major bipartisan bills failed to pass including open enrollment in public schools, a ban on child marriage, and Governor Parson’s top priority of new child care tax credits.
“Just because we didn’t pass legislation doesn’t mean that the issue has gone away,” said State Sen. Lauren Arthur, D-Kansas City. “If anything, it’s going to get worse, because there hasn’t been legislative action taken.”
Governor Parson declined to say whether he’ll call lawmakers back for a special session this summer, though many lawmakers predict he will do so for the general assembly to craft a supplemental budget.
Copyright 2024 KFVS. All rights reserved.

Missouri
Police standoff Wednesday night in Kansas City, Missouri, ends with no suspect found in house

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Police officers found no one inside a southeast Kansas City, Missouri, house after a standoff Wednesday night that began after a man with life-threatening wounds told officers a woman stabbed him.
Officers were sent at about 7:30 p.m. on a reported shooting in the 7500 block of East 110th Street, a department spokesperson stated in an email.
They found a man with life-threatening stab wounds who told them a woman stabbed him.
The woman was believed to be inside a house, but was not found when officers went into the house to end the standoff.
No other information was available Wednesday night.
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If you have any information about a crime, you may contact your local police department directly. But if you want or need to remain anonymous, you should contact the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers Tips Hotline by calling 816-474-TIPS (8477), submitting the tip online or through the free mobile app at P3Tips.com. Depending on your tip, Crime Stoppers could offer you a cash reward.
Annual homicide details and data for the Kansas City area are available through the KSHB 41 News Homicide Tracker, which was launched in 2015. Read the KSHB 41 News Mug Shot Policy.
Missouri
Can Kerrick Jackson Rebuild Missouri After SEC-Worst Season?

Image credit:
Missouri head coach Kerrick Jackson (Photo courtesy of Thomas Raymond/Mizzou Athletics)
Kerrick Jackson didn’t duck the reality of the moment.
He didn’t point to Missouri’s meager budget, outdated facilities or the resource chasm that separates it from the rest of the Southeastern Conference—even if he would’ve been well within his rights to do so.
Instead, after Tuesday morning’s season-ending 4-1 loss to Alabama in the opening round of the SEC Tournament, the second-year Tigers coach made clear that his team’s last-place finish was his responsibility.
“Ultimately, it’s on me,” he said bluntly. “The one thing that as I look back on the year and reflect, the team should reflect who I am as an individual and how I go about my business, and there wasn’t enough of that.”
This wasn’t postgame deflection or hollow contrition. Jackson has always been direct, always embraced accountability. It’s part of why Missouri hired him in the first place, hoping he could ignite a long-stalled engine.
That turnaround hasn’t come—at least not yet. And few coaches in college baseball face a steeper climb.
Missouri hasn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2010 and has just one super regional appearance in its Division I history. Since joining the SEC in 2013, the Tigers have finished .500 or better in conference play only once. The Big 12 was more forgiving. But there’s no going back now.
In a league defined by superlatives—biggest crowds, deepest pockets, flashiest facilities—Missouri remains the outlier. Not because it wants to be. Not because it’s unwilling to try. But because the cold truth is it lacks what most others in the SEC take for granted: real, sustainable resources.
It’s no excuse. Just reality.
“We have not necessarily invested to the level that we need to, candidly,” athletic director Laird Veatch acknowledged publicly earlier this month.
While other SEC programs are spending millions to construct rosters brimming with future MLB talent, the Tigers operate without those advantages. It’s a major handicap in a sport propelled by deep pockets.
They play in one of the conference’s smallest stadiums, with one of its smallest budgets and a limited support staff. Unsurprisingly, the program has struggled mightily to stay afloat in the nation’s most demanding baseball league.
That disparity came into full focus in 2025, a season that ended with Missouri at 16-39 overall and just 3-27 in SEC play. It was a brutal campaign by any measure, punctuated by a quiet, familiar exit in Hoover. Missouri didn’t just finish last—it finished historically last, winning the fewest amount of conference games in the SEC’s 30-game era.
“We’re an immature baseball club,” Jackson said Tuesday. “And I don’t mean that disrespectfully. It’s just the reality of what it is.”
Jackson understands the uphill nature of his current job and believes his experiences in other Division I rebuilds will ultimately help him succeed.
He knows that competing in the SEC without the same financial backing or infrastructure is like entering a Formula 1 race in a pickup. But he also knows that dwelling on disadvantages won’t move the program forward. Progress, as he sees it, starts with controlling what he can and outworking everyone else.
So for all the structural drawbacks and on-field struggles, Jackson isn’t waving a white flag. Instead, he’s leaning fully into the challenge, even if that sometimes feels unfair.
“We got to get it done regardless,” Jackson told Baseball America. “Whatever [Missouri’s athletic department] can do to assist us is phenomenal but, in the meantime, I need to keep grinding and make sure we get it done regardless of the resources we have.”
One resource Jackson knows he can count on is time. His relationship with Veatch, who hired him at Memphis in 2023, has given him that increasingly rare commodity in college athletics.
“It’s huge because I’m not looking over my shoulder,” Jackson said. “When [Veatch] comes in, I know he’s a baseball guy. I was fortunate that the guy who hired me at Memphis got the job here. He knows what I’m capable of. That’s why he hired me at Memphis. I can do the same thing here.”
Still, there’s no illusion about what that will take, especially in this league. Jackson is acutely aware of Missouri’s current place in the SEC pecking order and knows just how different things are in Columbia, where there’s less tradition, less money, less built-in support.
But that hasn’t changed his vision.
“I know this place,” he said. “I know where we’re different than the rest of the SEC. I know we have some disadvantages. That doesn’t stop me from wanting us to be one of the top programs in the country but, more importantly, to put us in position to improve and succeed.”
And despite a season that ended with just three SEC wins and more questions than answers, Jackson sees the challenge as fertile ground—not a death sentence.
“What I like about adversity is, it becomes great if you learn from it and move forward from it,” he said.
Growth won’t come overnight. But, the way Jackson sees it, acknowledging the issues is a start. And at Missouri—a place where reaching the postseason has long felt aspirational rather than expected—that start matters.
Especially if it comes with the belief—however stubborn or unorthodox—that the climb is worth it.
“As we’re the biggest story for how bad we are this year,” Jackson said, “I promise you, we’ll be the biggest story for how good we’re going to be next year.”
Missouri
GOP Senator Begs for Disaster Aid as FEMA Snubs Another Red State

Senators grilled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday over her management of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and how the agency — which President Donald Trump has sought to dismantle — is responding to a series of devastating storms across the southern United States.
During a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) asked Noem what she would do about pending federal disaster declaration requests for the state of Missouri — which has been wracked by a series of deadly tornadoes — that have not been approved by the president. Mississippi, which is still recovering from extreme weather events in March, is also waiting for approval on months-old disaster relief declarations.
“The state has pending three requests for major disaster declarations from earlier storms we’ve lost over a dozen people. Well, actually, if you count the folks we lost just on Friday, we’ve lost almost 20 people now in major storms just in the last two months in Missouri,” Hawley said.
“Will you commit to helping, for those three major disaster declaration requests that are pending, will you expedite those, Secretary Noem, and get those in front of the president, get those approved?” Hawley asked. “We are desperate for the assistance in Missouri.”
Noem replied that she would make sure the applications were put before Trump as soon as possible, and agreed to expedite individual assistance for qualified Missourians impacted by the recent storms.
A prominent Republican lawmaker like Hawley begging a Republican administration to approve emergency aid for a Republican state is a sign of how badly federal agencies responsible for the welfare of vulnerable populations have eroded under Trump.
The plea came a day after St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer told MSNBC that “FEMA has not been on the ground” and that the city does not “have confirmed assistance from FEMA at this point.”
“What we need right now is federal assistance. This is where FEMA and the federal government has got to come in and help communities. Our city cannot shoulder this alone. The state of Missouri cannot shoulder this alone,” Spencer said. “We need partners at the national level, at the federal level, to step up and help — and this is not just true for St. Louis. Cities across the nation, when they are experiencing disasters such as this, this is what the federal government is for.”
Last month, Arkansas’ Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders — who previously served as Trump’s press secretary — issued a letter to the president pleading with him to reconsider FEMA’s denial of an emergency disaster declaration request as the state recovered from a series of tornadoes in March. In her letter, Sanders wrote that “without the support of a Major Disaster Declaration, Arkansas will face significant challenges in assuming full responsibility and achieving an effective recovery from this event,” and that “supplemental Federal assistance is crucial” to recovery efforts.
The declaration was finally issued on May 13, almost exactly two months after the storms hit the state, and a month after Huckabee wrote to the president.
Meanwhile, Kentucky’s Democratic Governor Andy Beshear appeared on CNN to discuss the tornadoes that killed 19 people in the state over the last week. “I’m very concerned about cuts to FEMA or to the National Weather Service,” Beshear said. “But I want to be clear that the actual response on the ground by the Trump administration and Secretary Noem has been good. The way FEMA has treated people has been good. The president has approved each of our applications,” he added.
The disparity in response levels speaks to the scattershot, disorganized manner with which the Trump administration has handled disaster responses.
In the months since Trump assumed office, FEMA has been hit with sweeping staffing and management cuts in accordance with Trump and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiatives. In March, Noem announced that she would move to “eliminate” the agency altogether and transfer disaster management responsibilities to individual states. FEMA’s interim head Cameron Hamilton was removed from his post earlier this month after testifying before Congress that he felt the agency’s demise would be detrimental to public welfare. His replacement, former Marine Corps Officer David Richardson, sent a dire warning to staff: “Don’t get in my way […] because I will run right over you. I will achieve the president’s intent.”
During Tuesday’s Senate hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) grilled Noem on the Trump administration’s plans to gut FEMA, and how it would affect their ability to respond to disasters.
“You are losing a fifth of the workforce at FEMA. What’s your plan to replace them?” Blumenthal asked. “How are you going to meet the needs of our constituents?”
Noem dodged the question, talking over Blumenthal’s attempts to redirect her and claiming that it was actually the Biden administration’s fault that the agency was bloated and ineffective.
But as much as Trump’s Cabinet would like to place the failings of the administration at the feet of his predecessor, the states currently attempting to manage deadly disasters aren’t running to Joe Biden for assistance — they’re begging the current occupant of the White House.
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