Free Republic

KMOV anchorman Larry Conners has been “advised” by KMOV’s parent company Belo Corp. to not make statements, post on Facebook, or participate in interviews concerning a recent controversy over Facebook comments he made about the Internal Revenue Service. Conners has hired St. Louis attorney Merle Silverstein. Silverstein issued a letter to media outlets claiming that the corporate order “is the only reason for his silence.” Conners wrote Monday night that shortly after he interviewed President Obama and his wife in April of 2012, the IRS “started hammering” him.

Larry Connors, the KMOV anchor who asked Barack Obama some tough questions about his family's vacation habits and claimed earlier this week that he might have been harassed by the IRS as a result, has been taken off the air.

JEFFERSON CITY — Less than six months after the state Revenue Department began scanning driving applicants’ personal documents into a state computer system, Missouri lawmakers sent the governor legislation Wednesday that would force the department to stop.

About an hour ago, Jason Smith’s campaign reported receiving the endorsement of Governor Palin: “Jason has worked tirelessly to build on the foundation of his humble beginnings and is a responsible and respected leader in the Show Me State. In Washington DC, Jason will maintain that innate sense of his community and will bring his commonsense conservatism to the halls of Congress. Jason recognizes that government is the problem, not the solution. He will protect our 2nd Amendment rights and work to promote a culture of life. We must all work together to send Mr. Smith to Washington on June...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. • The uncle of a Democratic Missouri lawmaker has pleaded guilty to voter fraud in an election that his nephew won by a single vote — a circumstance that the lawmaker described Tuesday as "an unfortunate situation."

St. Louis Reporter Larry Conners revealed via Facebook yesterday that he has been “hammered” by the IRS since his much-discussed interview with President Obama. Conners, a veteran reporter, asked tough, but fair question during the interview which was slammed by progressives in media. Conners says: Shortly after I did my April 2012 interview with President Obama, my wife, friends and some viewers suggested that I might need to watch out for the IRS. I don’t accept “conspiracy theories”, but I do know that almost immediately after the interview, the IRS started hammering me. At the time, I dismissed the “co-incidence”,...

NIXA, Mo. —The Nixa school district is refusing to allow students to wear T-shirts emblazoned with the Confederate flag to memorialize a classmate's death. The Springfield News-Leader reports that students wanted to wear the shirts on the anniversary of a Colby Snider's May 1, 2012, death from carbon monoxide poisoning. Besides the Confederate flag, the shirts included the slogan "heritage

Both houses of the Missouri legislature approved a Second Amendment preservation bill, which now goes to the governor for his signature or veto. Missouri Legislature Sends Gun Grab Nullification Bill to Governor The New American 11 May 2013 Less than one week after being passed by the state Senate, lawmakers in the Missouri state House of Representatives approved a bill protecting the right of citizens of the Show Me State to keep and bear arms. By a vote of 116-38 on May 8, the House signed off on HB 436 — the Second Amendment Preservation Act.The measure now awaits...

With a veto-proof majority, the Missouri legislature approved a popular bill protecting private property and due process rights by banning a deeply controversial United Nations “sustainability” scheme known as UN Agenda 21. The legislation, SB 265, now heads to Democrat Governor Jay Nixon, who has not yet taken a public position on the issue. ~snip~ The widely criticized UN scheme, adopted by governments and dictatorships worldwide at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro more than two decades ago, has been marketed as a way to make humanity more “sustainable.” According to UN documents, however, Agenda 21 essentially seeks to...

JEFFERSON CITY — Republican state senators reacted with outrage Wednesday as federal fraud investigators testified that they had sought three times to obtain a list of Missouri's concealed gun permit holders, which the lawmakers denounced as an unjustified invasion of privacy.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon repeatedly denied knowing anything about Missouri illegally sharing its citizens private CCW information with the federal government, even after his own head of Missouri Highway Patrol contradicted him in a public hearing. Now we’ve learned that Nixon not only knew about the violation of Missouri law, but he was thanked in a letter by Janet Napolitano: DHS- Letter to Nixon- REAL ID Compliance — ongoing MO CCW Scandal (image of letter is available at site) Missouri law — signed into effect by Gov. Nixon himself — prohibits full compliance with the Real ID Act. This includes...

When I started setting up The Torch, I did a lot of research on what left leaning sites were focusing on Missouri. The bulk of the links I reviewed I found at the official website of the Missouri Democratic Party.What I didn't expect to find was a website selling me on the theraputic effects of Japanese massage aromatherapy, but that's exactly what I found when I went to the link posted on the Missouri Democratic Party's website for the Missouri House Democrats. Seriously, see for yourself. First, open this link in another tab or window.Now, under "Meet the Party," click...

HILLSBORO • In just a few short months, Sherrie Gavan said, her son went from a straight-A student who loved baseball and scuba diving to a listless teenager with a short fuse. Then she figured out the cause: heroin addiction, an epidemic that has upended life for countless parents across the St. Louis area in the past five years. Gavan told a court on Tuesday that she took desperate measures to get her son, Clayton, now 19, clean. She slept next to him as he shook and sweated through withdrawals. She enrolled him in a new school to keep him...

Nearly six months after losing a Senate race and becoming a political punch line, former Rep. Todd Akin weighed in again on his controversial remarks about rape and pregnancy, saying in a recent interview he has "relived" the episode "too many times." In an interview with CNN affiliate KSDK in St. Louis, the former Missouri congressman also hit back at Karl Rove, founder of the independent group American Crossroads, for his new group designed to recruit GOP candidates that won't make the same mistake as Akin. Facing one of the most vulnerable incumbent Democrats, Claire McCaskill, in last year's Senate...

(CNN) - Scientists in Uruguay announced Wednesday the birth of the first genetically-modified phosphorescent sheep. Nine sheep were born in October 2012 at Uruguay's Institute of Animal Reproduction, in an experiment done in partnership with the Institut Pasteur. According to the scientists, the sheep developed normally, without showing any difference with their non-modified counterparts. Uruguayan scientists used a gene from a jellyfish which is responsible for production of a green fluorescent protein.

Former Rep. Todd Akin said he regrets the comments he made about “legitimate rape” which derailed his Missouri bid for U.S. Senate last year. In an interview with KDSK-TV on Thursday, the 65-year-old was asked whether he would take back the controversial comments. “Of course I would,” the former congressman replied. “I’ve relived them too many times. But that is not reality.” …

A distraught mother came to News 4 after her 20-year-old daughter was fired after missing work for training duties with the Missouri National Guard. Morgan Johnson was sworn in to the Missouri National Guard on April 18 and told her boss at the Crystal City Subway she would miss work to train with her unit that next weekend. She was fired the following Monday even though a federal law protects her from losing her job over military service.

The Missouri House of Representatives passed a nullification bill April 18 prohibiting the enforcement of federal gun grabs within the sovereign borders of the Show Me State. By a vote of 115-41, state lawmakers approved the Second Amendment Preservation Act (HB 436), with nine Democrats crossing the aisle and voting “aye.” A nearly identical companion bill is currently working its way through the state Senate. It's sponsored by reliable friend of the Constitution, state Senator Brian Nieves. HB 436, which is sponsored by State Representative Doug Funderburk, was approved by the entire House fewer than 24 hours after passing the...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — The Missouri House has given it's preliminary stamp of approval to looser gun laws. As many of our national leaders push for more restrictions, Missouri is moving in the opposite direction. Groups like the Brady Campaign have given Missouri failing grades for the strength of its gun laws, but the state house is considering more freedoms when it comes to guns and few people in the Ozarks are complaining. --------------------------cut-------------------------- There are actually 24 pieces of gun legislation in the Missouri House right now. The proposals in this bill would ban the enforcement of federal gun laws,...

Police officers generally must try to get a warrant before forcing uncooperative drunken-driving suspects to submit to a blood test, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The natural dissipation of alcohol in a person’s bloodstream does not justify an exception to the general constitutional requirements of a warrant, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the majority. She said such emergencies must be determined by the circumstances in a case-by-case examination and rejected the notion that officers face a “now or never” situation in obtaining blood alcohol tests. “In those drunk-driving investigations where police officers can reasonably obtain a warrant before a blood...

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 123 NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 935 AM EDT THU APR 18 2013 THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN ILLINOIS CENTRAL AND EASTERN INDIANA SOUTHERN LOWER MICHIGAN NORTHWEST OHIO OHIO LAKE MICHIGAN * EFFECTIVE THIS THURSDAY MORNING AND AFTERNOON FROM 935 AM UNTIL 500 PM EDT. ...THIS IS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION... * PRIMARY THREATS INCLUDE... SEVERAL INTENSE TORNADOES LIKELY SEVERAL SIGNIFICANT DAMAGING WIND GUSTS TO 80 MPH POSSIBLE A FEW VERY LARGE HAIL EVENTS TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER POSSIBLE THE...

Is N.Y.'s Gun Confiscation Scheme Tied to Larger Federal Plan? Written by Dave Bohon A report from TheBlaze.com alleges that the state of New York is using its recently enacted NY SAFE Act as justification to confiscate firearms from law-abiding citizens — specifically individuals who have been prescribed anti-anxiety medication. But some Second Amendment advocates allege the scheme is part of a larger federal gun control plot. According to the Blaze, on April 1 a legal gun owner in upstate New York, later identified by a Buffalo newspaper as 35-year-old David Lewis, “received an official notice from the state ordering...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A top official in Gov. Jay Nixon's administration abruptly resigned Monday, becoming the first person to step aside amid a controversy over the way Missouri gathers information about people with concealed gun permits... --snip-- Long and other members of Nixon's administration have said those scanned documents are being kept on a state computer server and not shared with the federal government or other entities. But during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week, the head of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said his agency had twice obtained a separate electronic list of concealed gun permit holders...

WEST PLAINS, Mo. — At 8:30 on a cloudy, frigid morning late last month in this folksy Ozark town, the superintendent of an area school strolled through the glass doors of the local newspaper office to deliver a news release. Hours later, the content of that release produced a front-page headline in The West Plains Daily Quill that caught residents off guard: “At Fairview School Some Employees Now Carry Concealed Weapons.” That was how most parents of Fairview students learned that the school had trained some of its staff members to carry weapons, and the reaction was loud — and...

A St. Louis County police records clerk was stumped when a concealed-carry permit applicant presented a certificate showing he had received the required eight hours of firearms training that very day. She looked at her watch. It was about 1:30 p.m. March 5. She asked exactly when he took the class. It started at 10 a.m., he said. She alerted supervisors.

Bat Man: A Chicago store owner beats off two armed thugs with a baseball bat as Missouri illegally shares concealed carry records with feds and New York matches private health records with gun permits to take firearms. President Obama, who campaigns for gun control between concerts at the White House and golf outings with Tiger Woods, once famously used the metaphor that in politics if they bring a knife to a fight, you bring a gun. On Tuesday, in the gun-controlled murder capital of Chicago, the president's hometown, store owner Luis Quizhpe, an Ecuadorean immigrant, had no gun, but he...

They keep telling you they have noting but good intentions, that to worry about the feds coming for your guns makes you part of “the black helicopter crowd.� But then things like this happen: In Missouri, federal investigators have demanded and obtained from the state government — apparently twice — the entire list of Missouri concealed weapon permit holders.As Matt Drudge notes, the Columbia Daily Tribune reports that in November 2011 and January 2012, the state highway patrol asked for and received the list of about 185,000 concealed weapon permit holders from the motor vehicle department — the only state...

Apparently the Missouri Department of Revenue keeps the list of all CCW permit holders and marks their driver license with a special indicator. Mo Highway Patrol requested a list of all and twice provided it to Social Security Administration.

JEFFERSON CITY – The Missouri State Highway Patrol has twice turned over the entire list of Missouri concealed weapon permit holders to federal authorities, most recently in January, Sen. Kurt Schaefer said Wednesday. Questioning in the Senate Appropriations Committee revealed that on two occasions, in November 2011 and again in January, the patrol asked for and received the full list from the state Division of Motor Vehicle and Driver Licensing. Schaefer later met in his office with Col. Ron Replogle, superintendent of the patrol. After the meeting, he said Replogle had given him sketchy details about turning over the list,...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —Kansas City police uncovered an underground suburb used by the homeless on the city's northeast side. "This one kind of goes back, and that's deep," Kansas City police Officer Jason Cooley said. KMBC's Haley Harrison reported that a homeless outreach group said it was unlike anything they've ever seen. The subterranean refuge has caves and tunnels. Harrison was with police as they went in to break up three homeless campsites near Interstate 435. "The tents over here, I can guarantee you they're still lived in because of the condition they're in. They're clean. They were more than...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Two women and a teenage boy were arrested Sunday afternoon after a series of fights marred Free Day at the Kansas City Zoo. Kansas City, Missouri Police arrested 40-year old Minnie Davidson for resisting arrest. Another woman, Drucilla Davidson, 20, and a 15-year old boy were both charged with assault on a police officer. The largest fight took place at closing time in the parking lot near the main entrance. But Mary Summers from Independence, Mo., told FOX 4 there was also a huge brawl earlier in the day in the Africa section of the zoo....

“Hi,” she says, striding into the room with a smooth gait and a low, sure voice. “I’m Chelsea!” The handshake is confident, the eyes firmly fixed. With the ease of her father and the directness of her mother, Chelsea Clinton is stepping out into the world. At 33, she wears her political royalty in triplicate: There are her famous parents, of course, but also her mother-in-law, former Pennsylvania congresswoman Marjorie Margolies. After several years in the private sector (with McKinsey & Company, then with a hedge fund), Clinton has emerged onto the civic stage in her own right, graceful and...

Senate votes on climate change and the Keystone XL oil pipeline laid bare divisions among Democrats — and underscored why the White House, not Congress, will be where the critical climate decisions reside in President Obama’s second term.Several votes during the freewheeling debate over a nonbinding budget plan provided a political barometer of where the chamber, including vulnerable Democrats, stand on the topics. Advocates of the proposed pipeline scored a symbolic victory Friday when 62 lawmakers voted for an amendment backing the project to bring oil from Canadian tar sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries. Seventeen Democrats supported Sen....

Obama quietly signs bill shielding airlines from carbon fees in EuropeBy Keith Laing - 11/27/12 02:02 PM ET President Obama has signed into law a bill that requires U.S. airlines be excluded from European carbon emissions fees. Environmentalists had framed the bill as the first test of the president's commitment to fighting climate change in his second term and urged him to veto it. Obama quietly signed it Tuesday over their objections. "The Obama administration is firmly committed to reducing harmful carbon pollution from civil aviation both domestically and internationally, but, as we have said on many occasions, the application...

At least four states won’t enforce new sweeping insurance market reforms rolling out next year with the health law — leaving federal health officials in Washington to pick up the slack, yet another wrinkle in Obamacare implementation. Insurance regulation is a huge responsibility that’s been closely guarded by the states. That’s why the Obama administration and those closely watching the rollout of Obamacare believe that even states that have sworn off the law’s coverage expansions will still enforce its new measures — including new benefit mandates, cost-sharing guidelines and rules on how insurers rate customers — to retain control over...

Must we really endure the charade of one congressional Democrat after another grandstanding about their phony "evolutions" on gay marriage? No one on either side honestly believes McCaskill suddenly changed her mind on this issue between election day last year, when she defeated Todd Akin, and today. Like her pal Barack, her stance on SSM shifted at some point in the fairly distant past but she kept her mouth shut about it lest it jeopardize her precious Senate seat. At least The One came clean about his beliefs before he faced the voters a second time (thanks in part to...

(Reuters) - A private, four-year Missouri college is so concerned about mounting debt of college graduates in the United States that it no longer will take students who insist on taking out loans. The policy on loans set by College of the Ozarks, an evangelical Christian school of 1,400 students located in a rural area near Branson, Missouri, may be a national first, according to Roland King, vice president for public affairs at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. College of the Ozarks is unusual, however. All students work on campus, and they do not pay tuition, said...

A federal judge has struck down a Missouri law exempting moral objectors from mandatory birth control coverage because it conflicts with an insurance requirement under [Obamacare].

Police say a St. Louis resident shot and wounded an intoxicated intruder early today at a home in the Tower Grove South neighborhood. The home is in the 4000 block of Humphrey Street, near Roger Place. St. Louis police said the shooting happened at about 1 a.m. The intruder, 32, was shot in the leg and is expected to survive. He was in serious but stable condition at a hospital. It's unclear if the intruder was trying to burglarize the home or if he thought he was home. Police said the intruder was clearly intoxicated. The 47-year-old resident's teenage daughter...

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) complained Monday she was subject to a very uncomfortable screening by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). McCaskill tweeted about the experience before boarding a flight on Monday. The senator, who has complained about the TSA's security techniques in the past, tweeted that she was selected for a pat down and that the experience was not a pleasant one. "‪Today in my airport screening, test on my hands was positive," McCaskill wrote to her 89,100 followers. "Got private, more aggressive pat down. OMG. #veryuncomfortable‬."

(TRIMBLE, Mo.) A man police say was shot by a bank employee during an attempted robbery is now charged. The U.S. Attorney's Office charged Michael Oliva, of Liberty, with attempted robbery. Court documents show Oliva pointed a realistic plastic gun at a teller at the First Security Bank in Trimble on Friday. The teller dropped to the floor but a second bank worker who saw the hold-up grabbed a gun and fired two shots. One shot hit Oliva in the jaw. He ran out of the bank with no money and led police on a high speed chase. Oliva was...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— In a ruling issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Burlison v. Springfield Public Schools, the court deemed a Missouri school district’s policy of imposing a “lockdown” of the school for the purpose of allowing the local sheriff’s department, aided by drug-sniffing dogs, to perform mass inspections of students’ belongings to be a “reasonable procedure to maintain the safety and security of students at the school,” and not a violation of the Fourth Amendment rights of students. Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute had challenged the school district’s practice of conducting random lockdowns and...

The Department of Homeland Security is attempting to backdoor gun registration in the State of Missouri. According to talk show host Dana Loesch: "Department of Revenue is working with the Department of Homeland Security to install new hard and software to obtain data on Missouri citizens and transfer this information to DHS and unnamed third parties, says Kinder. Kinder and the Stoddard County Prosecutor today took legal action and held a press conference outlining the infringement on civil liberties as posted by the DoR and DHS. The move by the departments is related to the Real ID. Griffin went to...

Gets Shot in the Face With Very Real .357 Magnum Armed with a realistic plastic replica handgun, a 34-year-old man on Friday attempted to rob a bank in Trimble, Mo., according to police. Unfortunately for the robber, one of the bank’s employees was able to retrieve a very real Smith and Wesson .357 revolver and shoot the suspect in the face, effectively ending the robbery attempt. The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri said Monday that Michael Oliva has been charged in federal court in connection with the attempted bank robbery and leading police on a high-speed chase....

http://www.redstate.com/2013/03/04/missouir-state-senators-mike-parson-and-tom-dempsey-begin-obamacare-sellout/ Missouri State Senators Mike Parson and Tom Dempsey are working toward a cave on Obamacare as best they can in Missouri. Senator Parson has filed SB 456, a “shell” of legislation into which multiple sources in and around the Missouri legislator expect they’ll put an expansion of Medicaid. Over 70% of Missourians voted to oppose implementation of Obamacare in a ballot initiative, but several people I’ve spoken to said this legislation would act as an end run around the will of the people and be focused on Medicaid, without focusing on state exchanges, mandates, etc. The result would still...

Cape Girardeau police officer ordered to pay fees in flag lawsuit By Scott Moyers ~ Southeast Missourian A federal judge ordered Cape Girardeau police officer Matthew Peters and the state of Missouri to pay more than $62,000 in attorneys' fees and costs in connection to an arrest he made in 2009 for flag desecration.

LIBERTY, MO (KCTV) - A bank robbery suspect is in a Kansas City hospital. He was shot while trying to hold up a bank in Trimble, MO. MOREAdditional Links It all started shortly after 1:30 p.m. Friday at the First Security Bank located on U.S. Highway 169 in Trimble. First Security Bank is not a traditional bank where just anybody can walk in, so police said the suspect was most likely buzzed in before he pulled a gun and demanded cash. That's where things took an unusual turn. Trimble Police Chief Larry Fish said a civilian inside the bank pulled...

An armed man attempted to rob the First Security Bank in Trimble, Mo. Friday afternoon, March 1, according to Kansas City’s KCTV 5 News. However, the attempt landed the would-be robber in the hospital with a gunshot wound, as he didn’t anticipate to be met by an armed citizen. The man entered the bank, pulled a gun and demanded money. He was shot, then attempted to flee in his vehicle. Speculation is that he was shot by a bank employee, but this yet to be confirmed; only that he was shot by an armed civilian.

In keeping with restrictions in State Statutes, and faced with federal encroachments of the 2005 Patriot Act, the Missouri Department of Revenue has been requiring Missouri citizens processing driver license applications and renewals to present what is commonly referred to as “source documents” to prove identity and residency. These required documents include birth certificates, Social Security numbers (in violation of original federal laws related to them), and any documents tracing legal name changes such as marriage and/or divorce documents. Alternative military documents are acceptable when applicable. Despite assurances to the public that providing these source documents would be a “one...

(CNSNews.com) – First lady Michelle Obama is praising what has often been one of the left’s biggest targets, Walmart, for helping to fight obesity and “food deserts” in the United States. “At Walmart, you can believe that as America’s largest retailer, you have an obligation that goes far beyond the bottom line,” Obama said Thursday at a Walmart in Springfield, Mo. “You know that every day, with the products you sell, you’re helping parents get by on a budget -- which is what everybody in this country is trying to do. You’re helping kids get the nutrition they need to...