By Mike Lear (Missourinet) – Same-sex couples began getting married in Missouri Friday after the U.S. Supreme Court made such marriages legal nationwide. Now, LGBT activists are looking to their next goal.

State Representative Stephen Webber (D-Columbia) says Missouri next needs to pass a law barring discrimination against members of the LGBT community.

“People can still be fired for their sexual orientation. Newly married gay couples can be denied housing,” said Webber. “This is not the end. This is an important step, but we’re going to continue pushing forward until everybody in the state has complete equal rights.”

The Missouri Nondiscrimination Act has once been passed by the state Senate, but never in the state House.

Diane Booth, who married her partner in Iowa in 2013, says a nondiscrimination act needs to be passed at the federal level.

“You can be fired at will. You can be refused service in a restaurant. Heck, they’re even trying to refuse people selling flowers and baking cakes,” said Booth.

By Alisa Nelson (Missourinet) – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill would like the number of older Americans in the workforce to increase. During a bipartisan Senate panel hearing tasked with doing just that, McCaskill said they have just as much to offer as the younger generation.

“More than nine in ten workers over 50 have a computer, tablet or smart phone,” said McCaskill. “So don’t tell me that you can’t teach an older dog new tricks and don’t tell me that older workers cost too much. Many baby boomers are dealing with a much different work landscape than the one they entered decades ago. We are a competitive bunch. So I have trouble with this concept that we can’t adapt to changing technologies to stay relevant in today’s economy.”

McCaskill said more than 1 in 5 Missouri workers is 55 and older.

The AARP says adding a worker over 50 is not that much different to a company’s bottom line than adding younger workers. McCaskill said she agrees with that statement and said older Americans need to continue working.

“Some older workers want to stay employed to feel productive and challenged. I hasten to say that I believe the majority of older Americans are doing so out of necessity.”

McCaskill criticized the Missouri Legislature for not expanding Medicaid and says the federal money could make a big difference for older, hard-working people.

By Mike Lear (Missourinet) – The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex couples have a right to marry, striking down bans in Missouri and other states.

The court ruled 5-4 in a case that originated in four states; Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, saying gay couples have a fundamental right to marry.

“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family,” wrote Kennedy. “In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than they once were.”

Chief Justice John G. Roberts wrote a dissenting opinion saying the Constitution had nothing to say about same-sex marriage.

“If you are among the many Americans – of whatever sexual orientation – who favor expanding same-sex marriage, by all means celebrate today’s decision,” wrote Roberts. “Celebrate the achievement of a desired goal. Celebrate the opportunity for a new expression of commitment to a partner. Celebrate the availability of new benefits. But do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it.”

Missouri elected officials and lawmakers have weighed in on the ruling , some with praise, others saying it undermines states’ rights.

“The history of our country has always been one of moving toward inclusion and equality,” wrote Missouri Attorney General and Democratic candidate for governor, Chris Koster. “I applaud the court for their courage and strong sense of fairness. Missourians should be seen as equals under the law; regardless of their gender, race, or whom they love.”

Koster also dismissed appeals in cases related to same-sex marriage in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Governor Jay Nixon (D) wrote in a statement, “Today’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges is a major victory for equality and an important step toward a fairer and more just society for all Americans,” Gov. Nixon said. “No one should be discriminated against because of who they are or who they love. In the coming days, I will be taking all necessary and appropriate actions to ensure this decision is implemented throughout the state of Missouri.”

St. Louis Congressman William Lacy Clay (D) said in a statement, “This landmark ruling in Obergefell v Hodges affirms the fundamental constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law for every American, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. No one has the right to tell someone else who they can love. And no one has the right to define someone else’s family.

“This decision is a major advance for civil rights and a victory for millions of LGBT Americans who deserve the freedom to marry and to have that life commitment legally recognized in every state.”

West-central Missouri Congresswoman Vicky Hartlzer worked to support the ban on same-sex marriage that was added to Missouri’s constitution in 2004. She issued a statement saying, “I am disappointed in the Court’s decision to stifle the voices of Missouri’s voters. Decisions on marriage policy should be left in the hands of the 50 states, allowing those who wish to define marriage as being between one man and one woman, as we did in Missouri, to do so. Today’s ruling tramples on the voice of the people. I will continue to champion marriage as the union between one man and one woman so every child has the opportunity to have both a mom and a dad.”

By Mike Lear (Missourinet) – The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Affordable Care Act authorized federal tax credits for eligible Americans in both states with their own exchanges, but also in Missouri and 33 other states using federal exchanges.

The ruling is a win for President Barack Obama over challengers who argued the federal government should not be able to give subsidies to individuals in states that lacked their own exchange. Such a ruling could have removed subsidies from an estimated 6.4-million Americans unless Congress or those 34 states’ legislatures acted.

Missouri Democrats are praising the ruling, and called on the Missouri legislature to accept federal money to expand Medicaid eligibility under the Act.

St. Louis Congressman William Lacy Clay (D) said in a statement, “I am very gratified that the high court has upheld this essential funding mechanism for the Affordable Care Act, landmark legislation which I helped shape, that is now working well for over 16 million Americans. The ACA is now the settled law of the land. And the endless, politically motivated attempts to weaken or overturn it must end.”

Clay added, “Now is the time to fully implement the law, especially in states like Missouri where the state legislature continues to throw away $5.4 million a day in federal funds that taxpayers have already sent to Washington by refusing to expand Medicaid under the ACA. The time for political posturing and empty excuses is over. They must act without delay to allow their most vulnerable constituents to receive affordable healthcare coverage, just like they do.”

Governor Jay Nixon (D) echoed Clay’s sentiments.

“Today’s ruling is good news for hundreds of thousands of working Missourians who will continue to have access to affordable health coverage through the federal exchange,” said Nixon. “However, it is important to note that there are hundreds of thousands more Missourians who continue to be denied access to affordable health care due to the Missouri legislature’s inaction on Medicaid.

“Today’s ruling by the Roberts Court to uphold the Affordable Care Act a second time removes all doubt that the ACA is and will remain the law of the land. There are no more excuses for continuing to send our tax dollars to other states and denying 300,000 working Missourians the opportunity to access affordable health care coverage through Medicaid expansion. I look forward to working with the General Assembly next session to finally bring our tax dollars home and provide affordable health coverage to hundreds of thousands of hard-working Missourians through Medicaid expansion.”

Senator Claire McCaskill (D) said on Twitter, “Supreme Court decision on healthcare law=common sense. Time for Rs to stop the bashing and start working w/us to make it better.’

Attorney General Chris Koster, Missouri’s lone Democratic candidate for governor in 2016, said in a statement, “Republicans and Democrats both agree that America’s health care system has long needed to change. For too long, those with insurance have had to pay more to offset the cost of care for those without insurance. This had a negative economic impact for consumers and the economy as a whole.

“The Affordable Care Act has succeeded at adding hundreds of thousands of Missourians to the rolls of the insured, and continues to reduce costs. But its effect on Missouri’s economy could be even more beneficial. Studies have estimated it could create up to 24,000 jobs in our state and generate billions in labor income. This is why Republicans like Kit Bond and business groups like the Chamber of Commerce support Medicaid expansion.

“Today’s ruling was a positive step forward. The subsidies are an important part of building our health care infrastructure and providing affordable care to low- and middle-income families. I hope our state legislature will now see the economic value in Medicaid expansion and bring Missouri’s tax dollars back to our state.”

Missouri Republicans, on the other hand, expressed disappointment in the ruling, and vowed to continue fighting the healthcare reform law.

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (R) said in a statement, “For more than five years, I’ve heard from countless Missouri workers, seniors, and families who are facing higher costs and fewer choices due to the president’s health care takeover. And Missourians recently learned more bad news when the Obama Administration announced premium rate increases for our state in 2016 of up to 34 percent.

“This law has been one false promise after another. First, the president promised people if they liked their health care, they could keep it. He insisted that not having coverage would result in a penalty, not a tax, and he promised affordable health care to millions of Americans who now find they cannot afford it.

“While I’m disappointed that the Court didn’t ultimately accept what the law actually said, I’ll keep fighting to protect Missourians from the president’s flawed health care plan and replace it with a patient-centered system that lowers costs, increases choices, and provides greater access to quality care.”

Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves wrote, “I strongly disagree with today’s ruling, but it does not change my resolve to fully repeal Obamacare. The president’s health care law has led to higher costs, fewer jobs, and tremendous uncertainty for families and small businesses.”

Graves continued, “What’s worse, Obamacare takes healthcare decisions out of the hands of patients and doctors and leaves them up to bureaucrats in Washington. Regardless of the outcome of this ruling, I will continue working to replace Obamacare with patient-centered, free market reforms that protect Americans from this harmful law.”

East-central Missouri Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer wrote, “Today the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare in the case of King v. Burwell. While I had hoped for a different outcome, this does not mean that I will give up the fight to chip away at the costly and job killing components of the president’s failed health-care law. I will continue to listen to the people of the 3rd District and work with my colleagues to repeal the most onerous pieces of Obamacare and am also looking ahead towards a future where real solutions can be made – solutions that focus on freedom, empowerment, flexibility, and putting doctors and patients back in charge of health-care.”

West-central Missouri Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler wrote, “Obamacare has been a disaster since its inception. This ruling does nothing to help the American people get out from underneath the clutch of an onerous federal mandate and bolsters a bad law, making it more difficult for Congress to work towards real, patient-centered reform to our broken health care system. Moreover, it sets an extremely dangerous precedent that the executive can unilaterally alter laws – a job constitutionally delegated to the elected representatives in Congress. I am extremely disappointed the Supreme Court failed to rebuke President Obama’s continued executive overreach of legislating from the Oval Office.”

(Missourinet) – Governor Jay Nixon (D) has signed a bill that doubles to $400 a week the amount of money crime victims can receive if they have endured physical of psychological injury as a result of violent crime.

The Crime Victims Compensation fund pays what are deemed “reasonable” medical and counseling expenses and lost wages.

“This change was long overdue given that the cap hasn’t been raised since the program was established more than 30-years ago,” said Nixon. “In addition this bill gives the crime victims’ program the authority to negotiate the costs of medical care and other services directly with providers on behalf of the victim.”

“We have a moral responsibility to help victims of violent crimes and their families so that they are not victimized again by the financial burden of medical costs and lost wages,” said Nixon.

The program also helps the families of those killed in violent crimes by assisting with funeral costs.

By Mike Lear (Missourinet) – Governor Jay Nixon (D) says his decision on a bill supporters say addresses problems with Missouri’s student transfer law will be announced soon.

The bill backers say is an answer to the problems caused by the transfer law would allow charter and virtual school expansion in St. Louis and Jackson Counties, let students transfer from poor-performing schools to better-performing ones in the same district, to charter schools, or to a virtual school, and would have the Department of Education accredit schools within districts.

Nixon says he’s close to saying whether he’ll endorse or reject the bill.

“We’re in the final stages of our review and you can expect a decision on [House Bill] 42 in the next couple of days, not weeks,” Nixon told reporters Wednesday. “We’re just getting to that time where we’re getting the details, we’re finishing up the review on that one, so stay tuned. That one’s going to come relatively quickly here.”

Senate sponsor David Pearce (R-Warrensburg) says he has no idea what Nixon will do.

“Somebody asked me this morning and I said, ‘Hey, give me a coin and I’ll flip it. Then I’ll have a better idea for you,’” Pearce told Missourinet.

Opponents, chiefly Democrats from St. Louis and Kansas City, say the bill won’t help struggling St. Louis schools and have urged Nixon to veto it. Their chief criticism about the bill is that it doesn’t limit the amount of tuition receiving districts can charge struggling districts for the students they take.

Proponents say the bill will help struggling schools like Normandy and Riverview Gardens, in the St. Louis region, by offering students options for a better education close to home.

If Nixon chooses to veto the bill, supporters would have to come up with more votes in the state House to overturn him. It received 84 votes on passage, but 109 would be needed to overturn a veto. In the Senate it passed with just enough votes for an override, at 23.

(Missourinet) –  A 16-year-old Versailles girl is still missing after the vehicle she’s believed to be in was spotted Tuesday night in Columbia. Versailles City Marshal Chad Hartman says they are still looking for Kiaira Lazae Burris and she could be with 20-year-old Antonio Jerel Primer, Jr.

“Kiaira was seen at approximately 7 p.m. at a residence in Columbia, Missouri. The residents at the Columbia address had no information as to where she was going or who she was with.”

Last night Burris’s mother received a phone call from an unknown number. Burris was crying and described as “distraught.” An unknown male voice was heard saying, “I hid the body,” several times before the call disconnected.

Hartman says Kiaira’s mother also received a text early this morning.

“She received a text from an internet app advising her that it was Kiaira and she was fine and at home,” said Hartman. “Officers were dispatched to Kiaira’s home address, where officers on the scene spoke with family members and they had not seen Kiaira.”
Burris is described as a black female, age 16, height 5’7″, 175 lbs, brown hair, brown eyes, with a tattoo of a rose outline on her left arm, last seen wearing a brown and tan sleeveless sundress, black sandals with pearls, and carrying a black backpack containing clothes.
Primer, Jr. is described as a black male, 6′ 6″ tall, weighing 250 pounds, with brown eyes.

Authorities are also looking for a dark gray or dark green Chevrolet Malibu with tinted windows and front end damage.

Anyone with information on Burris, Primer, or their vehicle is asked to contact the nearest law enforcement agency or the Versailles Police Department at (573) 378-5481.

(Missourinet) – Conservators at the State Archives in Jefferson City have been working to preserve everything that came out of the time capsule removed from the State Capitol last week.

 Dozens of books and newspapers, pictures, and at least one unexpected item, a brass tube, were taken out of the time capsule sealed in the State Capitol cornerstone in 1915.

Senior Conservator Lisa Fox says she was surprised at their condition, having worked with 100-year-old capsules before.

“Way too often, water has penetrated the box and we encounter just slime and mold, and virtually nothing salvageable,” Fox told Missourinet. Instead, she found the capsule’s contents largely dry.

The team will use various measures with each item. The newspapers could require the careful addition of moisture to keep the pages from cracking when unfolded. Envelopes that have been sealed for 100 years will also require some water.

“Because the envelopes are sealed and we’re conservators, we don’t just grab a letter opener to open them,” said Fox. “We’ll introduce sort of some humidity to be able to open up the envelopes in a non-destructive way and then remove the contents and see exactly what’s in them, and see how that matches up to what was written on the outside.”

“Two or three of those things were supposedly addresses by various dignitaries and I don’t know if transcripts exist elsewhere of those,” Fox added.

She says the item that seems to have aroused the most curiosity is that brass tube. It’s engraved, “East Gate Lodge #630 – A.F. & A.M. Kansas City, Missouri.”

“What was it used for? Is anything in it?” Fox says people want to know. “I tried to sort of gently rotate it to see if anything was moving inside, like if there had been soil or grain or anything like that,” said Fox.

She says researchers are calling Masonic lodges to see if there is a record of it. Meanwhile, the Archives’ staff is debating whether to open it.

Fox says special care will be needed for the books found in the capsule, some of which did have dormant mold.

“The paper in those books is mostly in pretty good shape, but we have a chemical fume hood and we work with the books in there. Vacuum the dormant mold spores off and we have some dry methods of cleaning the mold off,” said Fox, who said special lights will also help remove the musty, moldy smell of the items.

She says while handling objects that have been sealed away for 100 years, she does feel a sort of connection to those who last touched them.

“While we were … not opening the newspapers but separating the stack so we could see which newspapers did we have and which towns and dates, and they were all June 23 and June 24, 24 being the date of the cornerstone laying. Then in the middle of the stack there’s one dated May 11 of 1915, and immediately I asked the person beside me, ‘May 11? What is that?’ Then I turned it over to the right side of the front page and in blue pencil someone had written, ‘Article on Page 4 about Capitol,’ and I just felt it was like a handshake across the century.”

The items from the capsule will eventually be featured in a display in the State Museum, housed in the Capitol. A new time capsule will be sealed in the cornerstone in a ceremony July 3.

(Missourinet) – Governor Jay Nixon (D) has signed into law a bill to require insurance companies to consider the mental health needs, and not just the weight, of individuals with eating disorders.

Missouri law already requires that insurance companies cover treatment for mental health issues, and that includes eating disorders, but patients have had claims denied due to a lack of specific guidelines.

“What we’re saying is basically the insurance companies just have to abide by the current laws that are out there,” said Senate sponsor, David Pearce (R-Warrensburg).

Eating disorders are life-threatening and can require long periods of treatment to overcome. Pearce says unfortunately, some people have gone without coverage for some of the help they need.

“The patient going through eating disorders would be in a hospital or a residential treatment facility, and once they reach a certain, ideal weight then they were dismissed, or perhaps maybe their organs had started functioning at a certain level, then they were dismissed,” said Pearce.

Pearce says without mental health treatment, patients can relapse.

“We have seen patients who have declined, and some who have even died,” he said.

“What this does, it basically says they will be treated on the mental side. It also says these patients will receive treatment that’s recommended by the American Psychiatric Association, which does include almost all aspects of eating disorders,” Pearce told Missourinet.

In a statement, Governor Nixon said, “Like many mental health problems, a person suffering from an eating disorder may have no outward signs of their struggle. By requiring insurance companies to consider the comprehensive health needs of these individuals, and not just their weight, we can help Missourians struggling with these disorders receive the care they need to recover.”

Nixon added, “I want to thank Senator Pearce and Representative [Keith] Frederick for their work to bring this issue to the forefront and get this lifesaving legislation to my desk.”

Pearce says he got involved with the issue because of family in his hometown, Warrensburg, who had a daughter that died due to an eating disorder.

The law will affect policies bought, renewed, delivered or issued for delivery on or after January 1.