(Missourinet) – Water rescues continue in parts of Missouri hit by flooding. Governor Jay Nixon says hundreds of Missourians have been rescued.

“Now counting as water rescues also is some folks that didn’t want to leave their homes, even though they were given the right to evacuate,” said Nixon. “They are being picked up literally off the top of their roofs by either boats or other methods.”

Hundreds of roads throughout Missouri are closed and detour routes are also in jeopardy of closing.

“The good news on this is that it’s relatively dry now and we’ve got a number of days that it’s not going to rain,” said Nixon. “While the crests are going to be historic, they won’t last as long as the 1993 floods. We’re hopeful if we can continue to win flood fights today and on into tonight and make sure folks are safe, at the backside of this we’ll be a little quicker to come down than in 1993.”

Fourteen people have been killed in Missouri, most when the vehicles they were in were swept away by flood waters. The death toll could rise. Emergency officials are searching for others reported missing.

Several cities have been evacuated, including the east central Missouri towns of Valley Park and West Alton. Nixon said residents and spectators need to stay out of evacuated areas.

“We’re going to follow the rule of law. We’re not going to let people in, except home owners and business owners when the water recedes,” said Nixon.

Nixon said clean drinking water and sewage issues are a concern in flooded areas. A water treatment plant in east central Missouri’s High Ridge was destroyed Tuesday by flooding. Several other facilities in Missouri are near rivers and could also be at risk of severe damage.

(Missourinet) – Governor Jay Nixon received a phone call Wednesday from President Barack Obama, vowing to provide federal assistance to deal with Missouri’s communities devastated by flooding. Obama asked Nixon for the latest information on flood relief efforts and told Nixon that White House staff is monitoring the events closely.

Obama also gave his sympathies for those killed. At least fourteen Missourians have died as a result of flooding since last Friday, 12 of which were caused by vehicles being swept away by flood waters.

Flooding has caused evacuations in several cities, including the east central Missouri towns of Valley Park and West Alton.

Hundreds of roads throughout Missouri are closed and detour routes are also in jeopardy of closing.

Some farms are flooded and livestock is unaccounted for in Missouri according to Rhonda Devault with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in the eastern Missouri town of Union. Some Missouri farmers are scrambling to transport their grain before it’s destroyed by flooding.

Nixon has activated the National Guard to help with evacuation and assistance. He said hundreds of Missourians have been rescued from flood-stricken areas.

(Missourinet) – A state lawmaker wants to make it easier for Missourians to freeze their credit or for parents to freeze their children’s credit.

Missouri law waives the charge to a consumer of freezing his or her credit if the individual is the victim of identity theft.

Representative John McCaherty (R-High Ridge) wants to bar credit reporting agencies from charging a fee any time a consumer wants a freeze enacted.

“We want to make it preemptive,” McCaherty told Missourinet. “There’s no reason in the world, if you’re not going to use your credit … then there’s really no reason for us to charge that fee.”

He says credit reporting agencies would still be able to collect fees for credit reports or from people who request credit information. He says the bill is about making it easier for people to protect themselves from credit thieves.

“I don’t think the consumer ought to have to pay to protect their own information,” said McCaherty.

His bill would also allow parents to freeze the credit of their children under 16. He says with social security numbers issued right after a child is born, a person’s credit could be stolen before he or she would ever try to use it.

“Social Security cards are issued pretty much right off the bat,” said McCaherty. “Here we have Social Security Numbers out there, names, legal birth, credit history – that’s all someone needs in order to steal somebody’s identity.”

He’s proposing both changes in the session that starts a week from tomorrow.

The legislation is HB 1618.

(Missourinet) – U.S. District court judge Nanette Laughrey issued Monday a preliminary injunction blocking the Missouri Department of Health from revoking the license of the Columbia facility.

Planned Parenthood President and CEO Laura McQuade said the court decision allows the organization to restore medically induced abortions as soon as a physician with hospital privileges is found.

“For the moment, it takes the politics out of the issue in terms of the license. The likelihood that we can reinstitute abortion services in mid-Missouri today, is much greater than had that license been revoked,” said McQuade. “The judge ultimately ruled on equal protection grounds. She found that equal protection was not applied to Planned Parenthood in this case. Planned Parenthood, as an ambulatory surgical center, was treated dramatically differently from other ambulatory surgical centers throughout the state of Missouri.”

In September, the University of Missouri ended the privileges Dr. Colleen McNicholas claimed allowed her to perform abortions, which would have cost the facility its license.

Senator Kurt Schaefer, chairman of the Senate’s ‘Sanctity of Life’ committee investigating Planned Parenthood, released a statement on the ruling.

“There is no apparent federal question presented in this case which would give a federal court jurisdiction to issue an injunction,” said Schaefer.

He also said a 2010 settlement agreement between Planned Parenthood and the State of Missouri specifically prohibits Planned Parenthood from bringing its claim in any court.

Whether the state will appeal the ruling is unknown. The Department of Health can’t revoke the Columbia facility’s license until the case is resolved, which Judge Laughrey wants to happen by May 1.

(Missourinet) – Rain has finally stopped falling, but officials say conditions are still dangerous in much of Missouri.

Some parts of Missouri have received a foot or more of rain, and runoff is continuing to fill lakes, creeks, and rivers, with some of those predicted to reach crests higher than ever recorded.

Highway Patrol Superintendent Bret Johnson says Missourians shouldn’t let their guard down.

“This event and the hazard is not over. We ask all drivers to please avoid driving through any standing water on the roadway,” said Johnson.

Governor Jay Nixon adds, the levels of some rivers could continue to rise.

“The water continues to rise in the eastern side of the state and will for the better part of the next two to three days,” said Nixon. “We’re a long way from the finish of this.”

Nixon said events like the storm of the past few days take on a somber tone when people lose their lives. At the time he spoke to reporters, 10 people were confirmed dead in connection to the storm. Crews were still searching for three others. Nine of those ten died when their vehicles were swept away by flooding.

Nixon and members of his administration implored drivers not to try to cross high water.

“The vast, vast majority of folks that lost their life here drove into water,” said Nixon.

Some critics have accused Nixon’s administration of being unprepared for this storm, but he disagrees.

“We saw this weather event coming. Our folks at SEMA as well as [the Highway] Patrol prepositioned resources prior to the first rain coming and we had folks out in the field working with local folks during the entirety of this response, and we continue today to remain in constant contact,” said Nixon. “I would recommend any of those critics feel free to give us a call sometime at three or four in the morning and see who’s working and who’s not.”

(Missourinet) – A consolidated stealth operations and nuclear alert facility will be built at Whiteman Air Force Base near Warrensburg. West Central Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (R-Missouri) said a $1.1 trillion spending package passed last week by Congress includes funding for the project.

“They house all the B-2 bomber operations and this has been something the commanders have been wanting and they have been needing at Whiteman Air Force Base for a long time,” said Hartzler.

The bill passed also includes building in Missouri twelve of the Navy’s primary fighter jets.

“These are the Navy’s number one attack aircraft and they need more of them with all of the operations,” said Hartzler.

Hartzler is pleased that Congress increased funding for national defense.

“Not that we have all the funding that we need to replace all the cuts that we’ve had over the last few years, but we will have stable increased funding for the next two years,” said Hartzler.

The bill provides an additional $1.3 billion for operations to counter the Islamic State group, following the Obama administration’s announcement that 9,800 troops will remain in Afghanistan through most of 2016. It also includes $572.7 billion in defense spending, roughly the amount the Obama administration requested.

The bill’s $514.1 billion in base discretionary funding would be $23.9 billion more than the amount allocated in fiscal 2015.

(Missourinet) – A petition has been approved to allow Missouri cattle producers to vote on a proposed state beef checkoff program. The vote among producers will be whether to establish a $1.00 per head checkoff in addition to the national checkoff. That money would be spent to increase demand through research, education and promotion.

Missouri Ag Director Richard Fordyce said he based his decision to hold a vote on testimony from more than 75 producers at a public hearing earlier this month in Sedalia.

“A common theme emerged through the testimony that producers really wanted an opportunity to vote on whether to move forward in collecting a dollar state specific checkoff on beef cattle,” said Fordyce.

Voting begins January 4. In order to vote, cattle producers have to register online at www.agriculture.mo.gov or at their county FSA office. Producers can also request a voter registration form by phone or by email, which is listed at www.brownfieldagnews.com.

Voter registration ends March 4 and ballots will be mailed out a month later. Results will be announced April 25.

Governor Jay Nixon is preparing the budget plan that he will offer to the legislature next month.

First he and budget makers in the House and Senate will try to agree on a consensus revenue estimate – a prediction of how much revenue the state will have to work with, on which to base the proposed budget. Last year Nixon and the legislature didn’t agree, but he expects there will be agreement this year.

“I think everybody’s in the same zone, around 4.1-percent [growth] for next year,” said Nixon. “I anticipate that not being a problem this year.”

Nixon said two budget priorities will be K-12 and higher education. He already announced in September a plan to keep the state’s colleges and universities from increasing tuition.

“The deal that we constructed with the 2-year and the 4-year [institutions] to freeze tuition next year for $55.7-million in performance funding is important,” said Nixon. “It continues us on the path we’re on to make college more affordable and it’s one of the reasons why I think the economy is moving forward.”

Nixon said he also wants to build on the creation of 31 community mental health liaisons, who work with law enforcement to refer people with behavioral problems to programs in which they can receive help. He says those have resulted in more than 15-thousand such referrals for service.

“I think you’re going to see us talk about, what’s that mean? How can we – if folks are engaging with law enforcement and are a danger to themselves or others what do we do as a state to make sure we get those folks in meaningful treatment that lets them live better lives,” said Nixon. “I think in the mental health area you’re going to see a relatively significant push to make sure we’re following through on things we’ve started.”