Missouri
Missouri Southern ready to kick-off 2023 Joplin Independence Day Celebration
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Missouri
Missouri falls to Omaha in NCAA softball regional opener
Missouri, the overall No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament, opened the Columbia Regional on Friday with a 3-1 loss in nine innings to the Omaha Mavericks at Mizzou Softball Stadium.
The Tigers will have to win four games in the next two days to advance to the Super Regionals.
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 âhot potatoâ 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.â
âMy theory is, if you treat people with respect, youâre willing to listen to them, and youâre willing to work with them, that you can get done the things you need to get done,â said Senate Majority Floor Leader Cindy OâLaughlin.
The five-member âFreedom Caucusâ faction of Republicans, led by Harrisonville senator Rick Brattin, called their partyâs leaders âcowardly.â
âThe Republican party has turned into feckless, spineless, ambassadors of nothing, and not fighting for whatâs right,â Brattin said.
Outgoing Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, said decency and democracy ultimately overcame division and distrust.
âI think that decorum won, I think the bullies lost,â Rizzo said. âI donât think that matters if you have a âDâ or an âRâ by your name. I think the [Senate] pushed back on being pushed around all year in the last throes of session.â
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 Parsonâs top priority of new child care tax credits.
âJust because we didnât pass legislation doesnât mean that the issue has gone away,â said State Sen. Lauren Arthur, D-Kansas City. âIf anything, itâs going to get worse, because there hasnât been legislative action taken.â
Governor Parson declined to say whether heâll 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
Legislation enacting total ban on child marriage in Missouri dies in the House âą Missouri Independent
Child marriage will remain legal in Missouri for at least another year after Republican House leaders said they donât have enough time to pass it.
Under current Missouri law, anyone under 16 is prohibited from getting married. But 16 and 17 year olds can get married with parental consent to anyone under 21.Â
Under legislation that cleared the Senate with virtually no opposition earlier this year, marriage would be banned for anyone under 18. âIt was very surprising that the House has not allowed it to come to the body,â said Republican state Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder of Scott City, who sponsored the bill along with Sen. Lauren Arthur, a Democrat of Kansas City.
âBanning child marriage should not be controversial. When I filed this bill, I had no idea it would be controversial,â Rehder added.
The bill was stalled by a group of Republican critics in a House committee, who said it would constitute government overreach and infringe on parental rights. It finally passed out of committee this week after several of those critics were not present at the vote.Â
But House leadership told reporters Friday morning it was too late to place the bill on the House calendar for debate. Session ends at 6 p.m.Â
âThereâs some interest there, unfortunately the rules preclude us from doing that today,â said House Majority Leader Jon Patterson, a Leeâs Summit Republican.
Arthur said the failure is âshameful.â
âWhen I talk to people back home, theyâre surprised to learn that minors can get married in the first place,â Arthur said. âAnd these are the kinds of headlines that my friends who are apolitical or live in different parts of the country send me and say, âWhat is happening in Missouri?â
âIt makes us look bad,â she said, âbut more importantly, weâre not doing enough to protect young girls who are forced into marriages and their lives are worse in every way as a result.â
Twelve other states have in recent years banned child marriage.
Rehder said she was told only around 20 out of 163 House members were opposed. She also said the House could have voted to suspend its rules to allow the bill to be debated and passed before adjournment, but suggested that House Speaker Dean Plocher refused to let the bill move forward to avoid embarrassing Republicans who are opposed to banning child marriage.Â
âWe have the votes,â Rehder said, but it didnât come up âbecause the speaker didnât want to put his members in a bad situation.â
ââŠBecause you shouldnât be against banning child marriage.âÂ
Rehder said sheâs hopeful the bill will succeed next year, in large part due to the âpublic pressureâ of state and national media.Â
âYou cannot sign a legal binding contract in Missouri until youâre 18. But weâre allowing a parent to sign a child into a lifetime commitment. Itâs ridiculous.â
Rehder attributed some of the opposition to generational differences.
âPeople who have been against it â the men who have been against it â who talk to me about it have said, âOh, my grandmother got married at 15.â Well, yes I did too, mine was 40 years ago,â Rehder said.Â
âAnd it didnât work out because I was operating on not an adult mindset.â
Fraidy Reiss, an activist who founded the nonprofit against forced marriage Unchained at Last was active in testifying in support of the bill in Missouri and has worked nationally to pass similar legislation. Upon hearing the news, Reiss said: âHow can legislators live with themselves?â
She added that âdozens of teens will be subjected to a human rights abuse and legally trafficked under the guise of marriage in the coming year,â due to the failure to pass the legislation.
ââŠHow will they explain that to their constituents?âÂ
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