(Missourinet) – The day that Earnest Leap didn’t think would ever happen, did happen on Friday.

After more than 20 years on the sex offender registry, Governor Jay Nixon (D) pardoned Leap. With the help of Representatives Jim Neely (R-Cameron) and Paul Fitzwater (R-Potosi), dozens of state lawmakers signed off this year in support of granting Leap a pardon.

Nixon’s office called him Friday, several times in fact, to share the news with Leap. Leap was sound asleep and didn’t hear the phone ring. He eventually woke up and received the life-changing phone call.

During an interview with Missourinet, Leap tried to fight back the tears.

“I have people calling me I haven’t talked to for years, saying congratulations before I even got the pardon and all saying they knew I was innocent,” Leap said.

Leap’s son, Brodie, has maintained for years that his mother pressured him to say he was molested by his father. The couple was in the midst of a custody court battle involving their two young boys at the time.

Leap pled no contest with the promise that the record would be removed in three years, but in 1994 a federal law formed public sex offender registries and Leap was added.

Leap says he never blamed Brodie and knew that his son was coerced.

“He didn’t realize I had to register,” Leap said. “He didn’t realize a lot of those things because that’s not what, as an adult and father, that I do. When he found out about it, he was really upset. He didn’t realize it continued on and on. He has contacted a lot of people saying he wanted this corrected.”

Leap lives in the northwest Missouri town of Oakview. His home sits 990 feet from a church and school, which is 10 feet within the boundaries that a sex offender can live.

“This was affecting my family, the kids, my wife, we might have been kicked out of our home,” Leap said. “That was the biggest deal. This had to get off my family’s back.”

Now that Leap’s family doesn’t have to move and he can go about his life, his family didn’t waste any time celebrating his pardon.

(Missourinet) – A state campaign office will open Tuesday in St. Louis for Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

In a press release from her campaign, it says the office will serve as a hub for organizing activity in St. Louis to help elect Clinton and Democrats up and down the November ballot.

Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump announced Monday the opening of a state office headquartered in Jefferson City, calling Missouri a key battleground state for November’s general election.

At Tuesday’s opening, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and Clinton supporters plan to bash Trump, saying he would be terrible for Missouri’s economy and the Missouri small business community. Earlier this month, Hillary for Missouri said new analysis suggests Missouri could add 197,000 jobs under Clinton’s economic plans, while it could lose 64,000 jobs under a Trump presidency.

In a press release from Trump campaign Missouri State Director Aaron Willard, he said, “Our campaign is focused on winning Missouri, and is reaching out to Republicans, Independents and disaffected Democrats to accomplish that goal. Missouri voters recognize that Hillary Clinton represents a third Obama term, while the Trump-Pence campaign of tougher law enforcement, stopping illegal immigration and bringing back jobs is resonating strongly across the state.”

Trump and Clinton are scheduled to participate in an October 9th debate at St. Louis’s Washington University.

(Missourinet) – A western Missouri state lawmaker who unsuccessfully pushed for a ban on texting while driving is disappointed his bill didn’t pass.

Missouri law currently prohibits drivers 21 and younger from using hand-held cell phones to send, read or write text messages. State Senator David Pearce (R-Warrensburg) sponsored a bill this year that would have applied the ban to all motorists. The bill failed.

“Missouri is only one of four states that doesn’t ban texting and driving, and it’s a huge safety issue,” Pearce said.

The veteran lawmaker is leaving the General Assembly in December, because of term limits. Pearce is hopeful another lawmaker will pick up his bill to ban texting while driving for all motorists. While his 2016 bill failed, Pearce tells Missourinet it had some broad support.

“Well, insurance companies, the cell phone companies were very, very much in support of that, and of course, law enforcement,” Pearce said. “You know, you look at those folks and they deal with it everyday through the financial aspects, or worse the crashes and the deaths and the injuries that we have.”

Pearce says while concerns about the definition of texting impacted this year’s bill, those concerns can be addressed.

“But I think that we can come up with language that makes it very specific, so there’s nothing arbitrary about it so you know what texting is and what it isn’t when it comes to enforcing that,” Pearce said.

Under current state law, commercial motor vehicle drivers are also prohibited from using hand-held cell phones to text.

Pearce, who’s in his 14th year in the Legislature, represents eight counties in the Senate: Caldwell, Carroll, Howard, Johnson, Lafayette, Livingston, Ray and Saline.

(Missourinet) – A federal court prohibited the Ferguson-Florissant school district from conducting school board elections.

U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel ruled the current election arrangement violates the Voting Rights Act because it’s biased against African American voters.  The judge said racial discrimination has plagued the region and the district for a long time, affecting African American’s ability to participate in the political process.

Tony Rothert with the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, which brought the court suit, says the district’s “at-large” elections, along with the staggering of the board members’ individual races, had an adverse effect on the minority group.

“These things combined, in this school district anyhow, with some racially polarized voting to create a circumstance in which the votes of African American voters were diluted,” Rothert said.  “It made it difficult for African American voters to elect candidates that would be responsive to the needs of their community.”

Rothert contends the district’s “at-large” contests create a specific problem in Ferguson-Florissant.

“What’s unique to this district is that there’s strong racially polarized voting,” Rothert said. “White voters in the district do not vote for African American candidates as a general matter.”

In addition, he says the “at-large” elections present a problem when African Americans make up 80 percent of the student population, but only 47 percent of voters.

“(It) allows white voters to shut out, or give less voice to candidates that support the African American community,” Rothert said.

Rothert claims the problem is compounded by the district’s history of racial discrimination, as well as other elements such as felony disenfranchisement and social factors which make it less likely for African-Americans to vote in the Ferguson-Florissant district.

The judge said he hoped the ACLU and the school board would work together to find a new method of electing board members.  Rothert said if the two sides can’t come to an agreement, they’ll each return to court to present their own remedies for fixing the problem.  The school board could also appeal the judge’s decision.

Rothert says the Ferguson-Florissant district was created by a court order after some districts were created to intentionally exclude African Americans in the 1950s and 60s.

(Missourinet) – The Missouri Senate Transportation Committee Chair indicates he’ll file another bill in January to increase the tax on fuels.

State Sen. Doug Libla (R-Poplar Bluff) chairs the Missouri Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee. He describes his proposal as a use tax.

“You know you drive a little more, you pay a little more. If you drive a little less, you pay a little less,” Libla said. “If you don’t have a car, if you’re a senior citizen, you still enjoy getting the use out of roads and your products and things you need, your food and your medicine and things like that.”

Libla’s 2016 bill would have raised the motor fuel tax by 5.9 cents per gallon, from 17 cents to 22.9 cents per gallon. The Senate and a Missouri House Committee approved the bill this year, but House leaders did not bring it up for a vote.

Chairman Libla encourages residents to contact their state lawmakers about transportation.

“I think the citizens need to make sure that their representatives and senators here in the state and whoever the next Governor will be knows their feelings on it that we need to adjust our rate, which hasn’t been adjusted in 20 years,” Libla said.

Libla said the gasoline tax is how we’ve funded roads and bridges for 92 years. He said transportation is crucial for urban and rural residents, noting agriculture is Missouri’s top industry.

Libla also admits he is “not a big fan” of toll roads. He said even if voters approved toll roads, there are limitations on what could be improved.

“I-70 is the only interstate that we have that you could actually toll,” Libla said. “Now you could build a new road, but you cannot toll any of the existing interstates or any of the other existing U.S. highways.”

Missouri voters have rejected toll roads twice before: in 1970 and in 1992. Libla prefers what he describes as “pay as you go.”

(Missourinet) – State Representative Tony Dugger (R-Hartville) is resigning from office today. He tells Missourinet that he’s exploring his options, which could include lobbying. Rumors have been circulating prior to his resignation that Dugger was going to step down and pursue his own lobbying business.

Dugger spent nearly eight years in the Missouri House of Representatives. He was first elected in 2008. Due to term limits, this year would have been his last in that chamber. He did not serve in the state Senate.

The legislature passed a bill that begins this month that would require state lawmakers to wait six months after the end of their term before they can become lobbyists. If Dugger would have finished out his term, which ends December 31, he wouldn’t have been able to begin lobbying until July.

The legislature’s veto session begins September 14. Votes on override attempts on some bills could be close, including on a bill with sweeping changes to gun rights and on a bill that would require a photo ID to vote.

(Missourinet) – Missouri Governor Jay Nixon (D) said he’s been talking to state lawmakers and to County Sheriffs, in an effort to keep the Legislature from overriding his veto of a comprehensive gun bill.

Nixon told reporters Thursday at the State Fair that while he supports the Second Amendment, Senate Bill 656 would make Missouri less safe.

“A few years ago we came together and put together a reasonable way to have training and public safety and power for local officials when it comes to conceal carry,” Nixon said. “In a few limited situations where there is direct danger, we need to not take away that power from Sheriffs.”

The Governor said Missouri’s system for granting concealed permits has been in place for more than a decade, adding that it has worked. Nixon told reporters in Sedalia that he wants lawmakers to sustain his veto on the gun bill.

“But I’m hearing from Sheriffs all across the state that they don’t think the Legislature should come into power and take away their power to keep their community safe,” Nixon said.

While bill supporters say it would keep Missourians safe, Nixon says it would allow people with no training and no background check to carry concealed.

However, bill sponsor State Sen. Brian Munzlinger (R-Williamstown) said those individuals can currently open-carry. He said his bill allows them to carry concealed.

Senator Munzlinger tells Missourinet he plans to seek an override during the September Veto Session. Another supporter, State Rep. Chuck Basye (R-Rocheport), said he also intends to vote to override Nixon’s veto.

Munzlinger’s bill includes numerous provisions, including self defense, a lifetime concealed carry permit, concealed carry permit fees and the County Sheriff’s revolving fund.

(Missourinet) – A Democratic state lawmaker from Columbia claims Republicans are penalizing the University of Missouri for student protests.

Representative Stephen Webber thinks the mostly GOP legislature unfairly withheld funding for the school after campus protests over racial injustice.

“I think they did punish the university,” Webber said.  “They cut $8 million specifically out of the University of Missouri system, the Republican super-majority did, in order to punish the university.  I think that’s wrong.  I think that’s hurting students.  I think it’s hurting hard working staff and faculty members.  And it’s not moving Missouri forward.”

Webber, who’s running to replace term-limited Democratic state Senator Kurt Schafer of Columbia, is making education, including at MU, his number one issue in the election.

“I support properly funding it, fully funding it, investing in it, and keeping the legislature away from playing political games with it,” Webber said.

Republican David Pierce, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said the actual $3.7 million administrative cut was appropriate after the demonstrations drew national attention.

“I was in Washington D.C. when this was going on at a national conference,” Pierce said. “People from all over the country were coming up to me and saying ‘What’s going on?’.  It was embarrassing.  It was unprecedented.  It’s just something that we got to make sure just doesn’t happen again.”

Pierce thinks the protests along with the school’s football team threatening not to play, created the image students were running the university.  He said the funding cut was a response to a lack of leadership on campus.

MU interim Chancellor Hank Foley declined to comment on the incidents.

The state funded Missouri university system received an overall 4 percent increase from the legislature this year. The administrative cut remains in place however.

Demonstrations by students and faculty erupted over complaints the school administration was allegedly mishandling racism and anti-Semitism on campus.

Webber is facing Republican Representative Caleb Rowden of Columbia in November’s election.

Missourinet spoke with Webber, Pierce and Chancellor Foley Thursday at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia.

(Missourinet) – U.S. 5^th District Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D-Missouri) says he has received “an avalanche of mean-spirited phone calls” following a cyberattack last week that made public his cell phone number and personal information.

Cleaver said that he received calls from as far away as China and one from a KKK representative.

“Although I received a number of calls from N word sickos, my first caller was a very kind man from Raytown who told me how he got my number, and that he was available to provide information to investigators,” Cleaver said. “Thank God, my staff reacted quickly by contacting the Capitol and Kansas City Police. I was out of the city at a conference with babyish computer skills, but a CNN commentator, upon hearing about the hacking, asked for my phone and began taking steps to prevent further intrusion into my personal information.”

Cleaver has also changed his phone number and because his home address in Kansas City was also listed, law enforcement entities have taken steps to assist in his residential security.

The hacker, who used the monic Guccifer 2.0, also unloaded similar information on his website of nearly every Democratic Member of the House of Representatives, a number of Republicans and hundreds of Congressional staff members and campaign personnel.

In a conference call, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) warned her colleagues to take appropriate steps to protect themselves. She said that she had received “obscene and sick calls.”

The information was reportedly stolen during a hack of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The Capitol Hill Police and cybersecurity experts are investigating the attack.