(Missourinet) – Presidential candidate Jill Stein is petitioning to be on the Missouri ballot.

The last time the Green party was on Missouri’s election ballot was in 2000. State Green party coordinator Elston McCowan thinks enough signatures were gathered to put presidential candidate Jill Stein on the general election ballot in November.

“We are certainly going to be successful now because we only needed 10,000 signatures and we actually turned in nearly 30,000 signatures,” McCowan said.

He said the party went from about 13,000 to 25,000 signatures in 10 days because many Bernie Sanders supporters turned to the Green party.

“The Green Party has been around for a long time,” McCowan said. “People are picking and joining the Green Party because they are displeased with the Republican Party and they’re displeased with the Democratic Party. They are finding an alternative in the third party and they’re finding out that these issues that they’ve been espoused upon, the Green Party has been sharing that and espousing upon that for decades.”

Election officials are evaluating if enough valid signatures were turned in by Stein supporters.

The Party is petitioning to be on the November ballot in at least 47 states, which could be enough to win an electoral college vote.

(Missourinet) – Independent non-profit Pew Charitable Trusts ranks Missouri 8th in the country in its election administration performance assessment.

Secretary of State Jason Kander (D) says Missouri was ranked 13^th before he took office in 2013.

Pew also analyzed the 2014 election cycle through its Elections Performance Index.

Missouri was recognized for its performance in five key areas:

• Online voter registration
• Data completeness
• Low rate of voter registration rejections
• Low rates of provisional ballots cast and rejected
• Low rates of rejection among military and overseas absentee ballots

Kander touts being the first secretary of state to allow Missouri voters to complete and submit a voter registration application online. He also credits debuting in 2014 the first-of-its kind Military and Overseas Voting Access Portal, which allows Missourians abroad or serving away from Missouri to securely register to vote and request and receive absentee ballots for all local, state and federal elections.

(Missourinet) – An audit of the records system used by Missouri courts shows a lack of safeguards to identify inappropriate activity.

Critical case information can currently be modified, with no way to track or identify who made the changes, when they were made, or under what authority.

When asked if the lack of oversight means inmates could be released from prison years before their terms were up, State Auditor Nicole Galloway said, “Theoretically that could occur”.

Currently, court records system users have passwords, which they’re unable to change, even though individuals with administrative privileges can view those passwords. The audit report said this arrangement increases the risk of misuse without detection.

Galloway said she is also concerned about the audit’s finding that 12 former employees still had active accounts.

“Only people that should have access to the information should have the ability to login and look at it,” Galloway said. “If you are no longer employed, your account should be deactivated.”

The Office of State Courts Administrator (OSCA) oversees the records system.  The audit made recommendations to the office on how to improve accountability.

“There can be reports that are printed to show when system changes are made to make sure they’re accurate,” Galloway said. “Broadly what we’re recommending is oversight and safeguards, not only to prevent errors from occurring, but also to detect them once they have occurred, whether it’s intentional or unintentional.”

The audit said OSCA lacks long-term planning with the court record system, despite spending $218 million in 11 years.

Galloway notes the office plans to replace the current arrangement with a new system, but only has a one-year plan in place.  She said “What we’re asking for is some long range planning of ‘How much is it going to cost, what kind of services are you going to get out of this system, and are the goals in spending millions and millions of dollars’”.

(Missourinet) – An initiative petition to ban the Missouri legislature from imposing service sales taxes will go before voters this year.

The measure is among several petitions certified Tuesday by the secretary of state’s office for the November ballot.

Known as the Taxpayer Protection Amendment, it would prohibit taxes on any services provided to customers.

Scott Chartin with Missourians for Fair Taxation, which filed the petition, said service sales taxes are in place in some other states.

“For example in North Carolina, you would have always paid for a new transmission part,” said Chartin. “But now if you get that repair done to your car, you also pay a sales tax on the labor of the mechanic.”

The Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature recently expanded service sales taxes as part of a move away from income taxes.  Democrats typically oppose service taxes, claiming they dis-proportionally impact low-income people.

The secretary of state’s office says the cost of banning such taxes is unknown, but could have significant impact on state and local governments.

If passed by voters, an amendment to the state constitution would prohibit the imposition of service sales taxes in Missouri.  Slightly more than 218,000 valid signatures were required to get the proposal on the ballot.  Missourians for Fair Taxes secured a total 228,401 valid signatures.

The measure will appear on the ballot as Constitutional Amendment 4.   The three other initiative petitions certified Tuesday included two proposals to raise cigarette taxes (although pending litigation will affect which one stays on the ballot), and one proposal to limit campaign contributions.

(Missourinet) – An addition to the city limits sign entering Nixa, Missouri, stoked interest and raised eyebrows before it was taken down.

Someone had posted a professional looking sign with the caption “Home of Jason Bourne” directly below the official signpost listing the town’s population.

Jennifer Williams with the state Transportation Department said the sign may have entertained people, but was also a traffic hazard.

“I think there were several people who had stopped to have their photo taken, or take a selfie with the sign, which I can understand is quite funny, but also quite dangerous alongside a busy road,” said Williams.

Williams noted MoDOT sent a crew member to go take a look at the placard.  She said the sign was a magnetic strip, which was easily removed.  The agency had been originally concerned someone had drilled into the signpost or caused structural damage.

Williams said the added sign, in addition to being a hazard, was illegal.

“The statutes are pretty clear that there can’t be any signs on the roadway like that that are not official signs, that have not been approved and gone through the process,” said Williams.

The “Home of Jason Bourne” placard was placed on the city limits sign entering Nixa on Massey Avenue.

In the Robert Ludlum series of novels and films, the fictional Jason Bourne character was born in Nixa, Missouri.  The fifth installment of the movie series is now showing across the country.

(Missourinet) – What started out as a calm day for the second anniversary of Michael Brown’s death, quickly changed Tuesday evening during a protest in Ferguson when gunshots were fired.

About 75 protesters were lined up along Florissant Avenue when a car came speeding by and hit one of the protesters. Some witnesses tried to block the car from fleeing the scene. The vehicle backed up and sped off, causing several to pull out guns and start firing at the vehicle.

The man injured by the car was taken to the hospital in a private vehicle. His condition is unknown. No other injuries were reported.

Protesting ended shortly after.

The demonstration was a reminder to the community about a life lost two years ago when then-Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, Jr. The killing spurred national attention over race and policing, as well as weeks of demonstrations and violence in Ferguson.

 

(Missourinet) – A state audit says the Department of Higher Education’s lack of oversight has contributed to $5 million in unpaid student loans. State Auditor Nicole Galloway, whose office conducted the audit, says the department did not correctly track or monitor records for its Advantage Missouri program, which allowed forgivable loans to students who agreed to work in high-demand Missouri jobs.

“The Department of Higher Education did not implement rules so borrowers knew exactly what the terms of the loans were. They didn’t send proper notifications to borrowers. There was no delinquent notices sent,” says Galloway.

Galloway says approximately 2,000 students received this type of loan. About 65% of them have outstanding loans.

If the department plans to garnish wages of borrowers who owe loans, Galloway says that’s very concerning.

“This could have downstream effects on the students who now all of a sudden are going to have to be expected to repay these loans. They have not received any communication from the Department of Higher Education for almost a decade and how that would affect their credit or their ability to repay these loans,” says Galloway.

The audit also revealed the potential for unauthorized access to confidential student information maintained in a department database. The database is available for use by employees of institutions around Missouri. Although users sign a user agreement, the department lacks adequate procedures to ensure only authorized personnel access the system and to remove outdated user accounts when no longer needed.

A statement from the Department of Higher Ed says no additional staff or resources were provided to manage the program when it was created. It says staff and funding cuts further restricted the department from tracking loan information. The department says it will continue to work with participants on repayment.

The department says its electronic financial aid administration system is vital to its ability to effectively and efficiently award approximately $120 million dollars in state financial aid to more than 70,000 students in Missouri each year. It says there has been no breach of security since the system was established in 2005. The department says it recently revised the system to further strengthen the protection of sensitive information necessary to award state financial aid to students.

(Missourinet)- Today is the two year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, Jr., who was shot and killed by then-Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. State Representative Courtney Allen Curtis (D-Ferguson) says his community could be tense Tuesday.

“This is the place that everybody is always going to come back to with these types of occurrences. I fully expect something to happen, but how tense it is just depends on I guess the attitudes of law enforcement,” says Curtis.

Several peaceful events have been held in Ferguson since the weekend to remember Brown, including a walk and scholarship and benefit dinner.

Curtis hopes Ferguson’s new elected officials and police chief will improve the community. He says Ferguson has made progress since Brown’s death, but not enough.

“The impact of Ferguson and Michael Brown’s death is still being felt and it is still reverberated across the country. It shows that we have a whole lot of work to do because it’s still happening,” says Curtis. “Every time it happens in another community, that an unarmed person is shot, the wounds are almost reopened because when that happens, they still mention Ferguson. We can’t get past that until there’s true change and it stops happening across the country.”

Two black men were shot and killed by police earlier this summer – one in St. Paul, Minnesota and one in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Those incidents sparked anti-police shootings in Dallas, Baton Rouge, and the St. Louis area.

(Missourinet) – Access Missouri scholarship recipients could qualify for an increase this upcoming school year.

Governor Jay Nixon (D) said the maximum award amount for Access Missouri college scholarships will increase by more than 21%. He touted the funding boost during a stop in Joplin.

Those attending four-year Missouri schools could get as much as $2,250 and those attending two-year Missouri colleges could receive as much as $1,030. The previous amounts were $1,850 for four-year institutions and $850 for two-year colleges.

“In a knowledge-based economy, the high-growth and high-tech industries of the future need well-educated workers,” Nixon said. “That’s why my administration has made college affordability a top priority, strengthening and expanding our scholarship programs and ensuring Missouri remains a national leader in holding down tuition costs.”

Access Missouri is a needs-based scholarship program to help students of low-income families attend a participating Missouri college or university, if the student meets the state Department of Higher Education’s eligibility criteria. Approximately 50,000 students receive an Access Missouri scholarship annually.

The FY2017 budget passed this year by the legislature and signed by the Governor increased funding for Missouri’s scholarship programs, including an additional $4 million for Access Missouri, an additional $2.5 million for A+ Scholarships, and $500,000 for Bright Flight.