(Missourinet) – A Cole County Judge has heard arguments in a lawsuit brought by a liberal activist group against the Missouri Senate.

The Senate has asked Circuit Judge Jon Beetem to dismiss the suit filed by Progress Missouri, saying it has violated the state’s open records and meetings law by not letting that group make video recordings of hearings.

Jeremiah Morgan with the Attorney General’s Office, representing the Senate, said the state Constitution’s provision giving the houses of the general assembly the power to set the rules of their own proceedings allows Senate committee chairs to determine who can and who can’t record committee hearings. He said the Senate’s rules allow members of the Capitol Press Corps and the Senate’s communications staff record hearings, and Progress Missouri can get a copy of the communications’ recording.

Progress Missouri’s attorney, Christopher Grant, says his clients aren’t arguing that everyone must be allowed to record, but said the Senate is not consistent in how it applies its own rules and says communications doesn’t record every hearing. He cited a couple of hearings in the past session that Progress Missouri was denied permission to record, and communications didn’t record or didn’t record completely.

Grant argued that the Senate’s interpretation of the Constitution could allow it to write a rule to exempt itself from a law.

“I suppose under the Attorney General’s interpretation that the Senate could draft a rule that says no person can take notes at a meeting, or we’re only going to allow supporters of a bill at a meeting,” said Grant.

Beetem gave both sides 10 days to file any proposed orders they want him to consider.

(Missourinet) – Missouri’s two U.S. Senators are backers of an effort to encourage the use of more private dollars to support road, bridge, sewer, and other infrastructure projects.

Senators Roy Blunt (R) and Claire McCaskill (D) are both supporting a bill that would create an infrastructure financing authority. It would offer loans and loan guarantees to help states and local governments fund infrastructure projects.

Blunt sees it as being less of a highway and bridge bill.

“Principally it would be looking at infrastructure projects that relate to water and sewer and wastewater facilities and energy, as opposed to transportation infrastructure,” said Blunt. “You know in St. Louis, a part of the wastewater system was built when Abraham Lincoln was president. It’s amazing how long wood will last when you keep it perpetually under water, but it’s not going to last forever.”

McCaskill says the proposal would help Missouri better leverage private money for infrastructure needs without the use of federal tax money.

“The United States-and my home state in particular-is in an infrastructure crisis,” said McCaskill. “At a time when Congressional leaders have failed to produce or let us vote on a long-term highway bill, this is an innovative approach that can help in Missouri and in states across the country to start tackling our highest priority infrastructure needs.”

The BRIDGE Act, standing for Building and Renewing Infrastructure for Development and Growth in Employment, is backed by a bipartisan group of 9 other senators.

(Missourinet) – A house committee is laying the ground work to move the state’s Medicaid recipients to privatized care. Supporters and opponents are sharing what they believe it will mean for Missouri.

Dr. Chuck Hollister with the Missouri Psychological Association says he’s concerned the state will lose more Medicaid providers.

“Your Medicaid providers haven’t received an increase in reimbursement in over 25 years,” said Hollister. “There is no money left for managed care to earn a living on. When you talk about managing care, there’s nothing to manage.”

Mark Bradford with the Ozark Psychological Association says there needs to be a bigger network of providers and they need to be paid in a timely manner.

“In the managed care network, if you ask them ‘will you do work for them?’ a lot of times those providers will balk and stall because they don’t want low pay and slow pay.”
Supporters argue there are already enough Medicaid providers.

Managed care is only used throughout central Missouri, but a statewide expansion was built into the budget passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Jay Nixon. That means an additional

200,000 parents and children on Medicaid will be covered under managed care rather than fee-for-service. Under the plan, the elderly, blind and disabled would be exempt.

(Missourinet) – Conservation experts from the Missouri State Archives carefully opened this morning the 100-year-old time capsule that was removed last week from the cornerstone of the Missouri Capitol, and removed its contents.

The Capsule contained dozens of books, manuals, newspapers, a Bible, and at least one unexpected item – a metal tube that reads, “East Gate Lodge # 630 – A.F. & A.M. Kansas City, Missouri.”

The tube was not opened, nor were the books or the newspapers, so that archivists can begin work to preserve them for future display.  One commented that the contents were in better shape than he had expected.

“I expected them to be a lot drier and crisper,” he commented.  “The challenge is going to be opening them up and flattening them.  We have a procedure in the conservation lab where we gently introduce humidity in a vapor form so that we very slowly open them up without cracking them.”

Below is a series of screen caps taken from a Periscope live feed that the Missouri Office of Administration offered this morning of the opening.  Those streams can still be viewed for a time on a smart phone or tablet by finding @MOGov on the Periscope app.

The office also reminds the public they can still offer submissions for what should be put in the capsule that will be sealed July 3 in the Capitol cornerstone.  Those ideas can be submitted by going tomo.gov/timecapsule or using the hashtag #MOTimeCapsule on Twitter, until midnight Saturday night.

(All photos courtesy Missourinet)

(Missourinet) – Major flooding is expected on some of the state’s smaller rivers in the next two days, as the remnants of Tropical Storm Bill hit Missouri.

The National Weather Service is predicting what remains of Bill to reach southern Missouri around midnight Friday morning, and it could dump another three to give inches or rain on the southeastern two-thirds of Missouri.

“By the time this is done, we fully expect to see some locations in Missouri will receive 10-plus inches of rain by the time the week is done,” according to Warning Coordination Meteorologist Jim Kramper.

The smaller rivers are the ones Kramper says the Weather Service is the most concerned about.

“The Meramec at Valley Park, the Illinois River at La Grange, the Black River, the Big River, potentially the Bourbeuse, the Gasconade, the Maries, the Moreau River … those smaller rivers are the ones that are going to react very, very quickly, especially once we do get that rainfall from Bill coming up here,” said Kramper.

The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers will remain in flood stages, but are only expected to reach what the Weather Service terms, “moderate,” flooding at most locations.

“The exception for the Mississippi will be … Chester, Illinois. It is expected to hit major flood level,” said Kramper.

The Mississippi River at Chester is expected to reach 41.9 feet. At 35 feet, U.S. Highway 61 in St. Genevieve County begins to flood.

“Anyone that’s living in low-lying, flood prone areas, living near creeks and streams, really needs to monitor the river forecast. Also anyone that travels regularly on roads that are along streams and creeks and low water crossings, they really need to monitor the situation in the next few days,” said meteorologist Gary Schmoecker.

“We already had one death last evening in Sullivan,” said Schmoecker. “Sometimes when you get heavy rain and flooding, people are aware usually where the low water crossings are but sometimes you get an event like this that produces some very unusual flooding … certain areas may have flooding that is very unusual that hasn’t happened before in many, many years.”

Kramper says the Weather Service will also be watching the remnants of Bill for possible severe weather.

“Tropical systems have a lot of rotation involved with them,” said Kramper. “If by chance the cloud shield weakens for a while during the day Friday, we get some sunshine popping up, that will get some thunderstorms popping up in those bands that we’ll see from Bill and that could lead to some small supercell storms that could have a lot of rotation.”