Free Republic

Tonight driving home - very thin layer of ice on I-64 (Highway 40). No traction. Traffic jammed. Slipping and sliding at 10 miles per hour. NOT A SALT TRUCK IN SIGHT. I-70 from Columbia to St. Louis was arguably the worst stretch of road in the nation, with crashes, closings, backups of many hours. Yet MO Highway 141 was deiced. County roads were deiced. Even my podunk street had large chunks of salt on it, just like in the old days. I noticed something like this before in the last couple of years. What the hell is up? Anybody know?...

Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature took the first step Wednesday toward overriding a veto of a voter photo ID requirement as it met in a short session to also consider a measure significantly relaxing the state’s gun laws. The sweeping guns legislation would allow most adults to carry concealed weapons without needing a permit while also expanding people’s right to defend themselves both in public and private places. The elections law change would require people to show a government-issued photo ID at the polls, if voters also approve a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot. Both measures passed earlier this year...

Former Navy SEAL officer Eric Greitens won the Republican primary for Missouri governor Tuesday after a hard-fought race in which he cast himself as a conservative outsider willing to use his military bravado to blow up perceived corruption in government. Greitens prevailed over another self-described outsider, businessman John Brunner, and a pair of more experienced Republican leaders — longtime Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and former Missouri House Speaker and U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway. He will face Attorney General Chris Koster, who easily won the Democratic gubernatorial primary, in the Nov. 8 general election. The Missouri governor's office will be open...

SIKESTON, Missouri — On a Friday evening in late July, Catherine Hanaway stood before 50 attentive citizens of a small town in southeastern Missouri—men in slacks and sneakers, women with nicely done hair. Her 6-foot-tall frame swayed slightly as, with her usual frankness, she made a spirited case to be the next governor. The country is breaking down, the former federal prosecutor told the group gathered in the newly opened headquarters of the local Republican Party—police ambushed and murdered in Dallas, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Ballwin, Missouri—three shootings and eight dead in 10 days. As people nibbled cupcakes topped...

Before August 9, 2014, Jay Nixon was an unfamiliar name. The Democratic governor of Missouri for five years, before that its attorney general for 16 years, had managed to govern far from the scorching rays of the national media limelight, and in doing so he accrued a not-unimpressive résumé in the Show Me State. Then 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Mo., and Governor Nixon found himself in the national spotlight — to which he has responded with something less than aplomb. Two days after the shooting, Nixon asked the Department of Justice independently to investigate Brown’s death, and...

Missouri lawmakers passed a sweeping expansion of gun rights Friday, allowing people to carry concealed guns without needing permits while also expanding their right to stand and fight against perceived threats. The legislation, which goes to Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon, was among the most prominent measures passed by the Republican-led Legislature on the final day of its annual session. Under the measure, most people could carry concealed guns, even if they haven’t gone through the training now required to get a permit. The legislation would also expand the state’s “castle doctrine” by allowing invited guests such as baby sitters to...

The co-chairman of a reform panel formed after the Ferguson police shooting of Michael Brown said Monday that the group’s report calling for police departments and municipal courts to be merged and other changes “reveals uncomfortable truths about this region we call home.” Rich McClure and other Ferguson Commission members acknowledge in their 198-page report that the panel has no power to enact any of the proposals. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said he backs the recommendations and during a news conference declared: “I commit to you today that these tireless efforts will not be in vain.” “Together we will lead...

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon received a $50,000 donation from the United Auto Workers international headquarters in Detroit days after his June 4 veto of a bill that would stop employers from having workers pay union dues as a condition of employment.

Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed Republican legislation Thursday that would drop thousands of low-income families from Missouri’s welfare rolls by paring back benefits to what he said would be one of the shortest time periods in the nation. But Nixon’s veto may be only a last-grasp attempt to stop the tougher restrictions. Republicans, who hold overwhelming legislative majorities, said they expect to get the two-thirds vote needed in each chamber to override his veto. Missouri’s legislation would reduce the lifetime limit for receiving TANF benefits from five years—which is the national norm—to three years and nine months, starting Jan. 1....

FERGUSON, Mo. — Peering outside the office window of his tire shop, John Zisser grumbles about the pile of burnt rubble that lies on the opposite corner of a busy intersection. “If you come here to my shop and you see that,” he says, as gestures out the window, “is that going to give you a warm, fuzzy feeling like you want to come back here to do business?” “Short answer: no, no it’s not,” he says. Zisser, 55, has owned and operated Zisser’s Tires in this city since 1987. He says the still-visible damage from the November protests that...

The mayor of Ferguson said Wednesday that he had tried in vain to urge Gov. Jay Nixon to deploy the National Guard in his town as people burned and looted buildings in protest of a grand jury’s decision in the Michael Brown case. […] Nixon declared a state of emergency a week before the grand jury decision and had said the National Guard would be available to help local authorities “protect life and property” in case protests turned violent, as they did after Brown was shot Aug. 9 (Mayor James) Knowles (III) said he originally was told by St. Louis...

Missouri took a step toward joining 24 other states with right-to-work laws when its House voted to bar the collection of fees from workers who choose not to join a union. The vote of 92 to 66 with two lawmakers voting present, marks an advance for supporters of right-to-work because a similar measure last year had failed to achieve a constitutional majority of 82 lawmakers in favor. […] The measure still faces a second House vote and would have to be approved by the Senate before going to Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon, who opposes right-to-work. …

Protesters and Looters Burn Business District to the Ground— And the National Guard was nowhere in sight. Now we know why… And top state Democratic leaders all knew about this. Governor Jay Nixon (D-MO) ordered the National Guard out of Ferguson before the verdict was announced. And….. TOP MISSOURI DEMOCRATIC LEADERS including Claire McCaskill, Lacy Clay, Chris Koster, Mayor Francis Slay and St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley all knew about this order.

St. Louis city officials said Wednesday that the owner of the Rams isn’t returning their calls, so they plan to work directly with the NFL on efforts to keep a team—any team—in St. Louis amid speculation the Rams are headed back to Los Angeles. Billionaire owner Stan Kroenke is part of a joint venture that announced plans Monday for an 80,000-seat stadium in the Los Angeles suburbs, a move that could soon return the NFL to the nation’s second-largest market and the home of the Rams from 1946 until they moved to St. Louis in 1995. The move would have...

Ohio Gov. John Kasich will roll out “responsible” tax plans that protect against revenue gaps. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Arizona’s new Republican governor are delaying big dreams of nixing the income tax as they face budget shortfalls. And Missouri Republicans, once jealous of their neighbor Kansas’ massive cuts, are thankful they trimmed less. Call it the Brownback effect. Story Continued Below . . Republicans once idolized Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback as a tax cutting superstar — now he’s a lesson in what not to do. “It’s a cautionary tale on a national scale … Many of us felt that...

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A state lawmaker from St. Louis is asking a legislative committee to investigate whether St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch "manipulated" the grand jury in the Michael Brown case. A joint House and Senate committee is investigating why Gov. Jay Nixon did not use National Guard troops to prevent burning and looting in Ferguson on Nov. 24, the night McCulloch announced that the grand jury would not indict Ferguson officer Darren Wilson in the August shooting death of Brown....

March 30, 2012 Coulter likens Zimmerman ‘lynch mob’ to another Democratic Party ‘outgrowth’: The KKK Jeff Poor The so-called “Justice for Trayvon Martin” movement has had its share of stumbles along the way, from Spike Lee’s tweet of shooter George Zimmerman’s incorrect home address to other social networking vigilantes calling for Zimmerman’s death. On Friday’s “The Laura Ingraham Show,” conservative commentator Ann Coulter, author of “Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America,” gave her reaction to the events and likened them to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan as an “outgrowth” of the Democratic Party. “It’s shocking,” she...

Governor Jay Nixon finally explained why he did not send the National Guard to Ferguson, Missouri. –We Didn’t want a Kent State situation. On early Tuesday morning, November 25, 2014, Ferguson Mayor James Knowles told FOX 2 anchors that he had repeatedly requested the National Guard… But his requests were ignored. “I know I’ve been on the phone in contact with the County Executive’s Office. I know he has requested. I am requesting. I’ve requested the National Guard troops to come out from their command post to help restore order along the business district. We have not seen that… Those...

Governor Jay Nixon refused to give Ferguson National Guard protection to punish them for refusing to fire Darren Wilson and chief of police Tom Jackson, Gotnews.com has learned.

Governor Jay Nixon refused to give Ferguson National Guard protection to punish them for refusing to fire Darren Wilson and chief of police Tom Jackson, Gotnews.com has learned.