Missouri
updated
10:27 a.m.
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While digging around on the Web, I came across a couple of blog posts concerning Claire McCaskill. In response to a letter concerning the miscues of Democrats in Congress, McCaskill sent the blogger this response boasting about her wise stewardship of tax dollars - and addressing none of the concerns about which the blogger had contacted McCaskill. This inappropriate, one-note response struck me.....
Show Me Progress - Fri 11:23 p.m.
Leave it to republicans. Our friends at Fired Up posted on this Twitter item by Renee Hulshof, spouse of former Congressman and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Kenny Hulshof (r): My husband is convinced that the dems will get healthcare passed. This educated prediction from him is freaking me out. [Note: according to Twitter - "This person has protected their tweets."] Huh? Why, because......
Show Me Progress - Fri 6:01 p.m. - 4 clicks 
The March 11 issue of the Muleskinner, the weekly student newspaper at the University of Central Missouri, included a front page article on an unfilled Missouri Sunshine Law request pertaining to the search for a new president for the institution. This morning a significant number of newspapers were scattered about the University's visitor lot (and the University president's designated parking... ...
Show Me Progress - Fri 5:03 p.m. - 4 clicks
Roy Blunt may be a little too obsessed with Robin Carnahan; she may not be quite as powerful as he thinks. According to Big Bucks Blunt, he is opposing not "Obamacare" which seems to be the bane of most members of the Party of No, but Carnahan's government takeover - as he twittered earlier: According to @RasmussenPoll 60% of Missourians support our position on health care. Only 37% want... [[...
Show Me Progress - Thu 10:00 p.m. - 2 clicks
Earlier, I noted that State Senator Jane Cunningham attended Todd Akin's kill-health-care-reform pep rally to push her Health Care Freedom Act. This bill would put a constitutional amendement on the Missouri ballot this fall that is based on fringewingers' wistful reading of the tenth amendment, which they insist permits states, Civil War to the contrary, to opt out of federal legislation they... ...
Show Me Progress - Thu 3:01 p.m. - 2 clicks
The plan will leave the district operating 33 schools, the fewest in 120 years. The district’s enrollment in 1889 was less than 18,000 — the same as its current enrollment. At its peak in the late 1960s, Kansas City was using more than 100 buildings and serving some 75,000 students. – Kansas City Star As the school system in Kansas City, Missouri takes the national stage it...
DailyKos (Missouri) - Thu 11:24 a.m. - 3 clicks
Dungeness crab is a rare treat. You can get it fresh out on the west coast, or frozen here in St. Louis. If you steam the frozen ones, they still taste very good. Served with melted butter, garlic, lemon, white wine and french bread and you have a great meal. More and more regional delicacies can be found here in St. Louis. It's a nice add-on to our quality of life. A Dungeness crab has...
STL Rising - Thu 6:40 a.m. - 3 clicks
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for January 2010: ...The largest over-the-month decreases in employment occurred in Missouri and Ohio (-12,800 each), followed by Kentucky (-11,800), New Jersey (-9,100), Florida (-6,100), and Nevada (-5,700). Kentucky (-0.7 percent) experienced the largest over-the-month percentage decrease in employment, followed by Missouri and Nevada (-0.5 percent....
Show Me Progress - Thu 5:23 a.m. - 3 clicks
Since President Obama was to be in St. Louis today on Wednesday pushing for health care reform, Rep. Todd Akin (R - 2nd) thought he would jump the gun and rally the president's right-wing foes via a video town hall in St. Charles. Attended by about 2,200 people, the event consisted of presentations of the same ol' same ol' talking points by Akin and a handful of other retrograde Missouri... [[ ...
Show Me Progress - Wed 10:23 p.m. - 4 clicks
At St. Charles High School in suburban St. Louis this afternoon, Barack Obama laid out the argument for the health care reform bill. He was thorough. He was clear. He made that audience understand that we must have reform and that we can, even in these recessionary times, afford it. Indeed, we can't afford not to have it. I'll write more tomorrow about how he laid out that argument, but right... ...
Show Me Progress - Wed 7:23 p.m. - 3 clicks
Sometimes the scheduling just doesn't work out. I'm not in St. Louis for President Obama's visit. I wanted to be. This from the Kansas City Star on March 9th: ....Since she [Robin Carnahan] also has a couple of campaign fundraisers scheduled while she's in the capital, Zakula said the campaign is paying for the trip. Still, the president is not the most popular guy in Missouri, lately. He only....
Show Me Progress - Wed 5:40 p.m. - 4 clicks
From someone else it would sound corny but when Joplin East Middle School Principal Ron Mitchell greets his faculty each year, the message always carries a potent punch: “We’re not here to teach math,” the tall, chrome-domed Mitchell says. “We’re not here to teach science or social studies…We’re here to teach children.” ...
DailyKos (Missouri) - Wed 5:40 p.m. - 5 clicks
In the early part of the last century, St. Louis was growing rapidly. Lots of buildings were going up and streets were being widened. In downtown Dutchtown, property values were increasing and the area was thriving with activity. One block south of Meremac, off an L-shaped alley on the west side of Virginia, there's a relic from those busy times. A family operated a tin shop up on Meramec....
STL Rising - Wed 6:02 a.m. - 6 clicks
Via Think Progress, the usual suspects: ...Senator Kit Bond: The Constitution says nothing of the subject of filibuster and it says nothing of the power of a minority to defeat the president's judicial nomination.... ....It is the product of a rule of the Senate, passed many years after the ratification of the Constitution. This rule does not derive from the authority of the... [[ This is a...
Show Me Progress - Wed 5:28 a.m. - 5 clicks
Previously, from Bill Stouffer (r) in an article in the Warrensburg Daily-Star Journal: "...I'm going to stay focused on our mutual opponent, which is Ike Skelton, and his out-of-touch, liberal voting record..." And we wrote yesterday: ...It's really something to watch republican primary opponents scramble for the most extreme spot on the fringe right with all the decorum of one of those mad......
Show Me Progress - Tue 11:43 a.m. - 3 clicks
This snug row of buildings along Broadway, just a little southwest of the Off Broadway night club, has always been one of my favorites. The grade of the street and the turn in the road reminds of the style of architecture you see all around Baltimore. Some say St. Louis is the "western-most eastern US city", and buildings like this show it. The historic collection is located in the Marine ...
STL Rising - Tue 6:20 a.m. - 5 clicks
With over $400 million invested, the new River City Casino in South County raises a lot of curiosity. To find out more about it, I ventured over there this morning for a look. The location is rare in St. Louis: a true riverfront setting. Just south of the confluence...that is the confluence of the Mississippi River and River Des Peres, you find it: an entertainment oasis equal to or super...
STL Rising - Mar 5 - 5 clicks
A new rooftop deck is opening Friday atop Kelly’s Westport Inn. Actually it’s on top of Joe’s Buy the Slice Pizza, just behind Kelly’s – so technically is preserves the historic integrity of the oldest standing building in Kansas City. The 1,000 square-foot deck will hold a hundred-some people and will [...]...
BlogKC - Mar 4 - 4 clicks
With gentrification the topic of tonight's City Affair, here are some random things to consider... St. Louis city population has dropped from 800,000 + persons to 350,000. Our region has a stable population, with a 50 year history of people moving to the suburbs. The result is a lessening demand for our older housing stock, creating an inventory of vacant and abandoned buildings in the urban co...
STL Rising - Mar 4 - 2 clicks
St. Louis Post Dispatch on removal of I-70 lanes adjacent Arch, riverfront. ...
STL Rising - Mar 1 - 2 clicks
Libertarian think tank The Show-Me Institute is missing hundreds of thousands of dollars that was apparently stolen by an employee taking advantage of lax internal financial controls. The St. Louis Riverfront Times has the story. The Show-Me Institute is highly critical of government agencies and their management of public money, especially the [...]...
BlogKC - Feb 27 - 4 clicks
Sun newspapers has suspended publication of the Northland Sun Tribune, which covered northern KCMO, Gladstone, Parkville, etc. For the moment, Sun continues to publish newspapers in Liberty, Smithville, Johnson County, and south KCMO. Business Journal: NPG Newspapers suspends publication of the Kansas City Northland’s Sun Tribune ...
BlogKC - Feb 25 - 2 clicks
Today I had a hearing on SB783 , the DREAM Act, in front of the Senate Education Committee . The legislation makes certain students eligible for instate college tuition regardless of their immigration status. The bill creates the “Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act,” otherwise known as the Dream Act. The legislation requires any higher education institution in Missouri ...
Jolie Justus - Feb 24 - 4 clicks
While this blog has focused a lot of attention on the Missouri side of the river, the National Park Service has made plans to improve the east riverfront a focus of its new General Management Plan for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Just as St. Louis has spent years trying to figure out how to reconnect the city to the riverfront and Arch grounds, there has been a lot of attention ...
STL Rising - Feb 22 - 5 clicks
"City to River", a citizens group formed to advocate for improved connections between downtown St. Louis, the Arch grounds and the riverfront, has developed a plan to reconnect the city to its historic riverfront through the creation of a new Memorial Drive. Check out the group's proposal at the new City to River website . ...
STL Rising - Feb 17 - 3 clicks
...those with symbols and those without. St. Louis has a symbol: the Fleur de Lis. Can you think of any other cities with a symbol? Big cities? Does Denver have a symbol? What about Austin, Nashville, Portland, Seattle, LA or San Francisco? I don't think any of those places have a unique symbol. They all have flags , but are they recognized by a symbol? What does it say about St. Louis th...
STL Rising - Feb 16 - 5 clicks
For Immediate Release: ST. LOUIS -- Contest organizers today announced the names of nine design teams selected to advance to the next round of the competition to invigorate the park and city areas surrounding the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. The lead designers and design teams are: Behnisch Architekten, Gehl Architects, Stephen Stimson Associates, Buro Happold, Transsolar, Applied Ecological Se...
STL Rising - Feb 10
Could signs like these soon be rising in neighborhoods across St. Louis? STL Rising hopes so. Reducing speeding traffic on residential streets has been a long time effort here at STL Rising. The host of this blog has served as a St. Louis regional contact for the Keep Kids Alive - Drive 25 program for almost ten years. Just this week we received a telephone call from a nice lady in Univers...
STL Rising - Feb 10
Today I introduced a Senate Concurrent Resolution urging the Missouri General Assembly to send a message to Washington, D.C., that it is time to end the outdated military policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The following is the text from my floor speech. I will post the language of the concurrent resolution as soon as it is available online. This summer I had the privilege of attendi...
Jolie Justus - Feb 2
There was a time when mining was common practice in St. Louis. Mostly, mining was done for clay to make bricks. And back then, people probably didn't think of it as "urban mining". In those days, there wasn't much if any focus on the difference between "urban" and "suburban". Pretty much everybody lived in the City. Or on a farm. If anything, the difference was between "urban" or "rural". ...
STL Rising - Jan 28 - 6 clicks
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE St. Louis, Missouri "Extreme Makeover - Riverfront Edition", a new reality show based in St. Louis, Missouri, begins production this month for airing in the spring of 2010. "Extreme Makeover - Riverfront Edition" will showcase the efforts of the National Park Service and the City of St. Louis to revitalize the historic Mississippi Riverfront, the Gateway Arch, and d...
STL Rising - Jan 22 - 4 clicks
Here's how things look to me in the St. Louis primary election to be held a week from today: Democratic Primary All the so-called "smart money" is on St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay to win renomination and reelection easily. I think the election will be closer than most people expect, but that Slay will still win. Slay enters the campaign with enormous advantages: Financing . The last repo...
St. Louis Oracle - Jan 22
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) wasted some of her political capital this month defending the “card check” provision of the proposed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). That provision would have required employers to recognize a union as soon as a majority of workers signed cards saying they wanted a union, without a secret-ballot election. While supporting that provision in a conference call with Miss...
St. Louis Oracle - Jan 22 - 3 clicks
With the help of an architectural student, the City of St. Louis, and a local urban planner, the Southwest Garden Neighborhood Association has established a set of recommended architectural guidelines to foster new development and existing building renovations, "The Southwest Garden Neighborhood Association's Suggested Architectural Guidelines for Exterior Facades". Washington University archi...
STL Rising - Jan 22 - 2 clicks
One of St. Louis' best issues forum is now also one of her fastest. Urban St. Louis has always been filled with interesting discussions and information, but the site was so painfully slow that it was almost impossible to access. Those problems have now been solved, with all the interesting discussions continuing at the site. STL Rising will permalink Urban St. Louis on our links section. I...
STL Rising - Jan 22 - 7 clicks
Efforts to reconnect the Arch, the Riverfront and Downtown St. Louis begin today. The chosen method begins with an international design competition. The design competition program will lead to a plan for repositioning the way the Arch connects to the region. That plan comes with the possibility of substantial federal funding to make the project reality. Among the world's most famous landmarks, ...
STL Rising - Jan 22 - 3 clicks
This week, State Sen. Jeff Smith (D-St. Louis), State Rep. Steve Brown (D-Clayton) and Nick Adams, a graduate student who served as Smith’s campaign treasurer in his 2004 congressional campaign, pled guilty to federal charges concerning a cover-up of their involvement in illegal (but less serious) coordination of that campaign with purported “independent expenditures” by a separate one-man committ...
St. Louis Oracle - Jan 22 - 3 clicks
Attorney General Chris “The Imposter” Koster swept the first major scandal of Gov. Jay Nixon’s Administration under the rug. What a team player! The scandal involved the Nixon Administration’s Department of Natural Resources’ month-long delay in releasing the results of the May monthly water quality tests taken at Lake of the Ozarks until after Memorial Day weekend, so that tourists (mostly from ...
St. Louis Oracle - Jan 22 - 2 clicks
Here's something for undecided superdelegates to consider. According to comparative polling by Rasmussen Reports in 29 states, Barack Obama runs stronger against Republican John McCain than Hillary Clinton in 21 states, while Clinton is stronger than Obama in 8 states. Missouri, though, is one of Clinton's eight. Perhaps more significantly, there are five states (Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico, Ore...
St. Louis Oracle - Jan 22 - 2 clicks
The (apparently) last pre-primary survey of the Missouri governor’s race by Survey USA (released August 1) discloses an interesting non-event: In the high-visibility contest between Congressman Kenny Hulshof and State Treasurer Sarah Steelman in the Republican Primary, there is little or no difference in how the candidates perform with male and female voters. While the typical partisan gen...
St. Louis Oracle - Jan 22 - 3 clicks
