(Missourinet) Governor Jay Nixon has announced Boone County Treasurer Nicole Galloway will be Missouri’s next state auditor.

Galloway will serve the remainder of the four-year term that began in January. Nixon appointee John Watson has been serving as auditor since February 27 and will resign that role when Galloway is sworn in. He was named interim auditor after the suicide of Tom Schweich at his home in Clayton, February 26.

Nixon named Galloway, a Democrat, to the position despite the fact that no Democrats ran for the office in the 2014 election cycle. Under Missouri law, when a vacancy occurs in the state auditor’s office the governor must immediately appoint an auditor to fulfill the remaining term.

Galloway became Boone County Treasurer in 2011 and was elected to a four-year term in 2012. She received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Missouri in 2008 after graduating in 2004 from the Missouri University of Science and

Technology with degrees in Applied Mathematics and Economics. She lives in Columbia with her husband Jon and two sons.

According to the Boone County Treasurer’s Office’s website, Nixon has previously tapped Galloway to serve on the Missouri Technology Corporation to focus on entrepreneurship and attract growing and emerging high-tech companies to Missouri. She has been

appointed to the Missouri County Employees’ Retirement Fund’s board of directors by the County Treasurers’ Association and serves on the board of the Heart of Missouri United Way.

(Missourinet) – The prospects for passage during the current session of the Missouri legislature of a bill to provide more state transportation funds might be greater in one chamber than the other.

The findings of the state auditor that the Department of Transportation used about $7-million in road funds for things like administrative leave for outgoing employees and settlement of litigation has been called a misuse by some.

House Speaker John Diehl (R-Town and Country) said it’s “disturbing.”

He in February requested that two of the House’s committees work together to draft a report on the state’s options for funding transportation. He originally wanted that report in March, but said Thursday that with the audit’s findings, that report and the overall funding issue might be on hold a while.

“It could well be in light of this audit and some of the other proposals that it’s something that we’re going to carry over into next session,” said Diehl. “It’s something that we have to get right. It’s something that has to get addressed.”

Senate President Tom Dempsey (R-St. Charles) is less bothered by the audit’s findings.

“I don’t like to see that they misused $7-million, but that $7-million was spent on addressing problems within the transportation budget that needed to be addressed and I just don’t think it’s that big of a problem,” Dempsey told reporters Thursday.

The Senate could this week debate a proposal sponsored by Senator Doug Libla (R-Poplar Bluff) that would raise Missouri’s gas tax by 2 cents a gallon per year for each of the next three years. That would generate enough money to keep Missouri from losing federal transportation dollars that match the money the state puts toward transportation.

Dempsey said that bill could be changed so that it would only raise the gas tax 2 cents, because some lawmakers question whether raising it 2 cents a year for three years would be constitutional.

Diehl said there are members in his chamber with such concerns.

“We’ve talked to Senator Libla a few times and I think there are some changes being made to that,” Diehl said. “We’ll just see what the Senate gets out.”

The chambers resume work today with committee meetings followed by the full Senate convening at 4 p.m. and the full House at 5 p.m. This week a conference between the two chambers will also be working on the proposed state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, and the scheduling of those conference committee could affect other debates.

PURDY, Mo. – Gov. Jay Nixon visited Edgewood Dairy Friday, a pasture-based dairy farm in Barry County, to sign House Bill 259, the Missouri Dairy Revitalization Act; and Senate Bill 12, an omnibus agriculture bill.

“Agriculture is our state’s number one industry and the bills I’m signing today will help to further strengthen this important sector of our economy,” Gov. Nixon said. “Missouri’s dairy industry supports more than 23,000 jobs and contributes $2 billion to our state’s GDP. By supporting our dairy farmers and encouraging more young people to pursue careers in agriculture, the Dairy Revitalization Act will yield tremendous benefits for our rural communities and our entire economy.”

The Governor was joined by Representative Bill Reiboldt (R-Neosho), who sponsored the Missouri Dairy Revitalization Act.

“As our state’s largest industry and the lifeblood of rural Missouri, we must work to ensure every sector of the agricultural industry has an opportunity to grown and succeed,” Rep. Reiboldt said. “I appreciate my colleagues in the legislature and Gov. Nixon for coming together to support this bi-partisan legislation that is so important to hundreds of farm families across our state.”

To encourage more young people to pursue a career in agriculture, House Bill 259 authorizes up to 80 scholarships of $5,000 each for students pursuing two- or four-year agriculture degrees. An eligible student must be a U.S. citizen and a Missouri resident who has graduated from a Missouri high school with at least a 2.5 GPA. Eligible students must sign an agreement to work in the agriculture industry in Missouri for at least two years for every year they receive the scholarship, among other provisions.

This legislation also establishes a premium assistance program to assist Missouri dairy farmers with the cost of participation in the federal Margin Protection Program, which was created in the federal Farm Bill of 2014. The federal Margin Protection Program assists dairy farmers by providing payments to the farmer when the dairy margin drops below $4. House Bill 259 allows Missouri dairy farmers who participate in the federal margin protection program to apply to the Missouri Agriculture Small Business Development Authority for reimbursement of 70 percent of their federal premium.

Additionally, this legislation requires the University of Missouri to perform an annual study of the dairy industry in Missouri, and calculate the estimated sales tax revenue generated each year in Missouri from dairy products.

The Governor also signed today Senate Bill 12, an omnibus agriculture bill. This legislation contains several provisions relating to agriculture, including increasing the weight limits on vehicles hauling livestock and grain on Missouri highways during harvest season.

“Last fall, Missouri farmers saw record harvests throughout the state, but our existing weight limits hampered the ability of Missouri’s farmers and producers to get the job done,” Gov. Nixon said. “By establishing an increased limit during times of harvest, we can help Missouri’s farmers and ranchers continue to feed, fuel and clothe the world.”

A $12.5 billion industry, agriculture ranks number one in Missouri. The state is home to nearly 100,000 farms and 300,000 Missourians are employed in agriculture-related occupations. Missouri also ranks in the top 10 states in a diverse array of agricultural goods and commodities, including corn, soybeans, cotton, rice, cattle, chickens, hogs and turkeys. Over the past five years, Missouri agricultural exports, shipped to more than 150 countries, have increased by more than a billion dollars.

(Missourinet) – A Missouri congresswoman has stopped by a Columbia elementary school to eat, and discuss federally regulated school lunches.

On Thursday, U.S. Representative Vicky Hartzler visited with Jefferson Middle School students, Principal Greg Caine, and Columbia Public Schools Nutrition Services Director Laina Fullum. Hartzler has co-sponsored a bill that would reduce federal mandates on school lunches.

“This is a problem not only statewide, but nationwide,” said Hartzler. “Kids are not eating the food, there’s a lot of waste, and it’s costing school districts a lot of money, and that’s not good.”

First lady Michelle Obama has made the nutrition of school lunch part of her mission while her husband has been in office, but Hartzler thinks some of the regulations Obama has endorsed need to be adjusted. Hartzler said the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 had good intentions, but the program is not working.

“I think a one-size-fits-all solution be mandated from Washington doesn’t work in many areas, and I think it’s playing very true here that it’s not working in these new food guidelines for our local schools,” said Hartzler. “I want to enable our local school districts to have more flexibility in how they serve nutritious foods and I’m hopeful that will increase the amount of healthy foods kids will eat ultimately.”

Hartzler said many of the students brought their own lunch, so she asked them why.

“One of the reasons was they said it was the way that the food looked, they didn’t think it was very appetizing, others had just been in a habit of doing that for a while,” said Hartzler. “The principal brought up a good point in that he thinks that we should make sure that the kids want to eat the lunch program and they want to eat healthy foods and that should be our goal.”

Provisions in the bill would maintain sodium requirements and restore whole grain requirements to 50 percent.

“The regulation to say that basically no salt in food makes it unpalatable,” said Hartzler. “Requiring 100 percent of the foods to be whole grain doesn’t really work when you’re talking about macaroni and cheese that looks brown.”

Hartzler is also concerned about the mandated calorie cap schools must abide by and wants to amend the legislation to allow for more flexibility. Hartzler said the 800 calorie limit is not enough for many junior high and high school students growing fast or involved in sports.

(Missourinet) – The Missouri Supreme Court has rejected the claim that a man scheduled to be executed next week is not competent to be executed.

Andre Cole is scheduled to die Tuesday evening by lethal injection for the 1998 stabbing death of a friend of his ex-wife’s. Cole’s lawyers offered the findings of a psychiatrist that Cole is depressed and has symptoms of psychosis, specifically delusions that keep him from understanding why he would be executed.

The Court found that he is competent, in part, by reviewing audio recordings of telephone conversations in which it says Cole demonstrated that he understands his sentence and the reason for it.

Cole’s lawyers still have multiple avenues to attempt to delay or halt his execution. It is scheduled to take place between 6 p.m. April 14 and 5:59 p.m. April 51 at the prison in Bonne Terre.

Cole was convicted of stabbing Anthony Curtis 21 times, after going to confront his ex-wife about the back child support he owed to her. He then attacked his ex-wife, Terri, stabbing her repeatedly, but she survived.

(Missourinet) – The next step in the legislative budget process is for the House and Senate to work out the differences between their two budget proposals, and there are some big differences.

The biggest is that the senate adopted the proposal of its budget committee chairman, Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia), to lump together in two pools the money for the Departments of Mental Health, Health and Senior Services, and Social Services, and to cut 4- to 6-percent from them. He also proposed giving those agencies more flexibility to decide where it would spend the money they are appropriated.

That’s a drastic shift in how those agencies are funded, but Schaefer says those agencies’ year-to-year increases have prevented money from going to other things, like education, for years, and he’s willing to fight for his plan.

“I’m adamant in the fact that we’re going to rein in welfare growth. We still provided the department more than they spent last year, but we’re going to rein in that growth,” Schaefer told reporters.

House budget committee vice-chairman Scott Fitzpatrick (R-Shell Knob) said the House only began looking at that proposal Tuesday, and hasn’t decided what position the House’s budget conferees will take when they meet with their Senate counterparts.

“To be quite honest with you, I’m still getting meetings organized, trying to figure out exactly what all the changes entail and what the impact of those changes are,” Fitzpatrick told Missourinet.

Kansas City Democrat representative Jeremy LaFaver says Schaefer’s plan gives up legislative budget power.

“We can argue about yay, nay on little programs, but from a procedural standpoint the biggest piece that the legislature has to do is make sure that the governor, or the executive, spends money the way we’re asking them to,” said LaFaver on the House Floor, Wednesday. “To do something in a block grant like this just completely throws out any fiscal oversight that we ever have, over the two biggest budgets.”

St. Louis Republican representative Marsha Haefner chairs the budget subcommittee that deals with those three agencies. She is concerned those 4- and 6-percent cuts run deep.

“Cutting a budget by 4-percent makes really good fiscal sense but there are some items in that bill that we have worked long and hard to improve in the mental health community, such as behavioral health centers for children and adults, prevention and treatment, our state hospitals, our habitation centers, and our developmentally disabled community,” Haefner told fellow lawmakers. “A 4-percent cut on these programs alone would be catastrophic.”

Those changes affect more than just the budgets for those three agencies. For example: $10.1 million that Schaefer cut from them was added to the Senate’s proposed funding for K-12 education.

The House and Senate have named the budget conferees for each of the 13 budget bills. Republican leadership wants the budget bills out of conference and passed on to the governor by the end of next week.

(Missourinet) – Missouri’s recent showers and warm nights could be making mushrooms prized by Missourians grow. A warm spring rain can be just the right thing to get morels to start popping up.

Former Missouri Mycological Society president and author of ‘Missouri’s Wild Mushrooms’ Maxine Stone said with a few more warm days, mushroom hunters should be finding more morels.

“All we’ve needed is a nice sunny warm day because we’ve had all this rain, I’m going to be out tomorrow,” said Stone. “People in the southern part of Missouri are finding them already, so we’re hoping for a good season.”

President of the Mid-Missouri chapter of the Mycological Society Malissa Briggler said it depends on the spring time, but April is usually the ideal time for morel hunting.

“Honestly, I think it’s shaping up to be a pretty typical year,” said Briggler. “Anytime I’ve seen the may apples coming up, usually that’s a good sign that the morels are going to be starting to come up to.”
Stone told Missourinet what a morel should look like.

“A morel is either black, or yellow, or grey, and it has ridges and pits,” said Stone. “When you cut it down from the top to the bottom, it’s totally hollow inside.”

Stone said those who are morel hunting for the first time should go with people who know what the mushroom looks like and one should never eat a wild mushroom without positively identifying it first.

“I think first time around if you’re going to eat a mushroom, I wouldn’t go by a picture,” said Stone. “Either take it someone who knows what they’re doing or take some really good pictures of the mushrooms and send them to someone who knows what they’re doing.”

Briggler said mushroom hunters should look near dying trees.

“Certain species are better than others, but as the roots are decaying, it releases a substance in the soil that allows those mushrooms to grow at a greater quantity,” said Briggler.

Stone said dying elm trees are the best place to find morels.

“Not dead elms and not live elms… around one tree you might find 20 or 40,” said Stone.

Briggler said some avid mushroom hunters keep tabs on secret spots.

“A lot of times they’ll be popping up at the same spot the next year, so you kind of want to guard your area closely, so you don’t let your secret out and you might have somebody beat you to the spot next year,” said Briggler.

Briggler said people do not need a license to hunt morels, but hunters should get permission from landowners and check regulations on public land before collecting mushrooms.

Stone said one should always cook a wild mushroom before eating it. Stone’s favorite way to cook morels is by sautéing them up with onion, cream, and cognac over pasta and bread, but she said some people prefer to fry them.

“Don’t listen to the people who say bread them and fry them,” said Stone. “That’s the old school, they love their breaded and fried morels.”