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Tag Archives: Missouri Senate

SB 9 in the special session: anticipation

02 Sunday Aug 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in Missouri General Assembly, Missouri Senate, Resist

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

#resist, First Amendment, General Assembly, missouri, Missouri Senate, protest, SB 9, Special Session

“Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.” – Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755)

A bill, introduced in the current special session of the Missouri General Assembly:

SB 9 – This act creates the offense of unlawful traffic interference if, with the intention to impede vehicular traffic, the person walks, stands, sits, kneels, lays, or places an object in a manner that blocks passage by a vehicle on any public street or highway.

This offense is a Class A misdemeanor if a person blocks a public street for the first violation and a Class E felony for any subsequent violation.

This offense is a Class E felony if a person blocks an interstate highway.

This offense is a Class D felony if a person blocks a street or highway as part of an unlawful assembly.

Some details:

[….] (2) “Unlawful assembly”, two or more persons who meet for the purpose of violating any of the criminal laws of this state or of the United States.

Do meetings in offices in the capitol building qualify? Just asking.

2. A person commits the offense of unlawful traffic interference if, with the intention to impede vehicular traffic, the person walks, stands, sits, kneels, lays, or places an object in such a manner as to block passage by a vehicle on any public street, highway, or interstate highway. [….]

In Warrensburg, Missouri on May 31, 2020:

When you can’t hear or see dissent than there is no First Amendment.

Previously:

George Floyd – Protest – Warrensburg, Missouri – Sunday afternoon, May 31, 2020 (May 31, 2020)

George Floyd – Protest – Warrensburg, Missouri – Sunday afternoon, May 31, 2020 – part 2 (June 1, 2020)

So, today in Jefferson City (July 30, 2020)

How not to escalate (July 31, 2020)

Law and oh-dare (August 1, 2020)

SB 147: the legislative effort to increase organ donations

18 Saturday May 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in Missouri General Assembly, Missouri Senate

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

David Sater, General Assembly, missouri, Missouri Senate, motorcycle helmet, organ donation, SB 147

“I think there’s a limit of what government should be involved in our lives.” – Sen. David Sater (r)

SB 147 was introduced by Senator David Sater (r). The bill summary:

[…]
MOTORCYCLE HEADGEAR (Sections 302.020 and 302.026)

…This act also provides that qualified operators who are 18 or older may operate a motorcycle or motortricycle without a helmet if he or she is covered by a health insurance policy or other form of insurance which will provide the person with medical benefits for injuries incurred as a result of a motorcycle or motortricycle accident. Proof of such coverage shall be provided on request of law enforcement by showing a copy of the qualified operator’s insurance card…
[…]

And:

[….]
Motorcyle helmet law

The House and Senate signed off on a package of transportation-related changes in state law, including one that would lift the requirement that all riders wear protective headwear.

Motorcycle riders under the age of 18 would still need to wear a helmet. Those over 18 could go without if they have health insurance.

During earlier debate, lawmakers agreed motorcyclists should wear helmets, but some said the choice should be a matter of personal freedom.

“I think there’s a limit of what government should be involved in our lives,” Sen. David Sater, R-Cassville said.
[….]

“…some said the choice should be a matter of personal freedom.” Like, maybe, personal medical decisions? Just asking.

He’s no where close to connecting the dots here, is he?

Previously:

HB 126 and HB 127: catering to their single issue base (December 3, 2018)

Gov. Mike Parson (r): Alabama, hold my beer… (May 15, 2019)

Gov. Mike Parson (r): New York is shorthand for what? (May 16, 2019)

Medieval (May 17, 2019)

Sen. Denny Hoskins (r): post session victory dance over any individal woman’s personal medical decisions (May 17, 2019)

Campaign Finance: very interested

14 Tuesday Nov 2017

Posted by Michael Bersin in campaign finance, Missouri General Assembly, Missouri Senate

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

campaign finance, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission, Missouri Senate, republicans

Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission for the republican state senate campaign committee:

C071094 11/14/2017 MISSOURI SENATE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE Dealers Interested in Government PO Box 245 Jefferson City MO 65102 11/13/2017 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

Yep, that’s a lot of interest.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: restocking the cupboard (November 7, 2017)

Campaign Finance: paying it backwards (November 10, 2017)

Campaign Finance: paying it backwards

10 Friday Nov 2017

Posted by Michael Bersin in campaign finance, Missouri General Assembly, Missouri Senate

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Caleb Rowden, campaign finance, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission, Missouri Senate, republicans

Caleb Rowden (r) [2016 file photo].

Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission for the republican state senate campaign committee:

C071094 11/10/2017 MISSOURI SENATE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE Friends of Caleb Rowden 3504 Mexico Gravel Rd Columbia MO 65202 11/8/2017 $15,000.00

[emphasis added]

Recharging. They’ll always have all the money they’ll ever need.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: restocking the cupboard (November 7, 2017)

Campaign Finance: anticipation

01 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by Michael Bersin in campaign finance, Missouri General Assembly, Missouri Senate

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

campaign finance, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission, Missouri Senate

Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission for the republican state senate campaign committee:

C071094 11/01/2017 MISSOURI SENATE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE Friends of Todd Richardson 28 N 8th Street Suite 317 Columbia MO 65201 10/31/2017 $10,000.00

C071094 11/01/2017 MISSOURI SENATE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE Kansas City Power & Light PO Box 418679 Kansas City MO 64141 10/31/2017 $10,000.00

C071094 11/01/2017 MISSOURI SENATE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE Ketchmark & McCreight PC 11161 Overbrook Road Suite 210 Leawood KS 66211 11/1/2017 $25,000.00

[emphasis added]

Where could they be thinking of spending all that money? Just asking.

Previously:

About those television ads in the 8th Senate District special election (October 29, 2017)

Campaign Finance: Who needs millionaires or PACs when you can do it yourself?

22 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by Michael Bersin in campaign finance, Missouri General Assembly, Missouri Senate

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

18th Senate District, campaign finance, Cindy O'Laughlin, missouri, Missouri Senate

This morning at the Missouri Ethics Commission for a republican candidate in the 18th Senate District:

C171187 07/22/2017 Missourians For O’Laughlin Cindy OLaughlin 499 N 4th Shelbina MO 63468 Leo O’Laughlin Inc 7/22/2017 $100,000.00

[emphasis added]

Instant campaign. Isn’t that nice?

The committee:

C171187: Missourians For O’laughlin
Committee Type: Candidate
Party Affiliation: Republican
1103 East Briggs Drive
Macon Mo 63552
Established Date: 07/17/2017
[….]
Candidate
Cindy O’laughlin
Election History

Election Outcome Political Office
8/7/2018 Primary Election State Senator District 18 Missouri State Senate

They’re not wasting any time. The 18th Senate District seat is open in 2018.

Stephen Webber (D): service

31 Wednesday Aug 2016

Posted by Michael Bersin in Missouri Senate

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

19th Senate District, ad, Caleb Rowden, missouri, Missouri Senate, Stephen Webber

Stephen Webber (D) [2016 file photo].

Stephen Webber (D) [2016 file photo].

Stephen Webber’s (D) campaign has a new television ad out:

Stephen Webber (D): This is the last place I came before I deployed to Iraq. And the first when I came home.

Al Shattuck: Webber served two tours of duty in Iraq.

Al Barnes: He’s one of the best leaders I’ve ever had.

Voice: Webber was our squad leader and he definitely looked out for us.

Nic Gibbons: Webber always led from the front. He was the first vehicle, he’d lead on the patrol every single time. And he did it humbly, too.

Aaron Schulz: The reason he was in front is because if something happened he wanted to be the one up there that was in harm’s way.

Voice: When we first arrived in Fallujah it was a totally different world.

Voice: There was improvised explosive devices. We had snipers, firefights. It takes a real leader, someone like Webber that keeps his team and his squad on point all the time.

Bryan Miller: I was in the Humvee with Webber when we hit an IED. Forty pounds, C4.

Aaron Schulz: He got everybody home safe.

Voice: I believe in him as a person, as a leader, and as a friend.

Stephen Webber (D): No matter what I faced in Iraq or here at home, these names and the memory of their sacrifice humbles me and gives me the strength to serve.

[Stephen Webber for Missouri Senate]
[Paid for by Citizens for Stephen Webber, Barbara Schneider, Treasurer.]

Previously:

Campaign Finance: propping up (July 1, 2016)

Campaign Finance: a friend (August 21, 2016)

Jessica Podhola (D) in the 11th Senate District – January 21, 2016

21 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by Michael Bersin in Missouri General Assembly, Missouri Senate

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

11th Senate District, General Assembly, Jessica Podhola, Missouri Senate

Jessica Podhola (D), a candidate in the 11th Senate District, held a campaign event near the square in Independence, Missouri this evening. Over fifty individuals attended the gathering.

Jessica Podhola (D).

Jessica Podhola (D).

Rachel Gonzalez, a Democratic Party activist, introduced Jessica Podhola.

Rachel Gonzalez, a Democratic Party activist, introduced Jessica Podhola.

Jessica Podhola (D): …I think we need people in Jefferson City that understand how hard it is to get up at five-thirty in the morning and drop your kids off at day care and then go and paint for eight hours a day, or hang drywall, or go work on iron, or lay pipe. I’m married to a union plumber. The work that we do is so important. You know, I’m not rich. I’m like a lot of the people in my district. I have had to rob Peter to pay Paul. I have had to call the utilities and say, can I pay you in two weeks when I get paid, is that okay? [voice: “Yes ma’am.”] We are the 11th District. I’ve raised my children here, it’s such a special place to call home….

Jessica Podhola (D) speaking at her 11th senate District campaign event in Independence, Missouri - January 21, 2016.

Jessica Podhola (D) speaking at her 11th Senate District campaign event in Independence, Missouri – January 21, 2016.

Previously:

Jessica Podhola (D) running in the 11th Senate District (December 1, 2015)

Campaign Finance: nicely timed (December 24, 2015)

Private “safe spaces” for state senators, not for protesters.

08 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by willykay in Missouri Senate, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Melissa Click, missouri, Missouri Senate, republicans, Ron Richards

Ironic twist: Missouri legislators want to banish journalists from Senate floor – where they have traditionally occupied their own table – because Ron Richards, Senate Leader Pro Tem, was  “angry after an incident last year in which a private conversation between senators was posted to a social media site by an individual sitting at the press table.” Guess he thinks the Senate floor, arguably a public space , is instead a “safe space” for senatorial chit-chat.

Personally, I’m inclined agree that posting a overheard conversation was not ethical in the strictest sense unless the reporters contacted those involved for more follow-up, but, you know, that’s just me. I don’t actually know the rules journalists follow in these cases and believe that journalistic standards of ethical behavior, whatever they are, should prevail in the absence of other guidelines. At least most journalism schools advertise that they teach ethical standards for journalists which is more than we can say about the practices of Missouri lawmakers who have shown themselves resistant to delineating any ethical standards to govern the free-for-all over which they preside.

I also agree that Mizzou Professor, Melissa Cllick, was probably out of bounds to try to banish journalists from a public space during the protests earlier this fall, although  I’m shocked, shocked I tell you, that over a hundred Missouri lawmakers, those same fellows who are chagrined by the violation of their safe space on the publicly owned and maintained floor of the Statehouse, are willing to sign a letter to the Mizzu administration demanding that Click be fired. Seems to me it’s up to the administration to determine the appropriate punishment – which they did, and which seems more than adequate given the ambiguity of the situation.

That ambiguity stems from the perception of public space. Can one can designate a private area in the midst of a public access area?  The quad where the students were gathered is a public access area and the consensus seems to be that one cannot establish private areas there. Yet no one would argue that journalists have be admitted to private meetings in areas designated private even in public buildings, offices, say, and certainly not in businesses or homes.  Click was attempting to bar journalists from a specific part of that quad where protesters had gathered to regroup and strategize, not activities that one necessarily wants reported. It seems to be a bit gray to me and certainly doesn’t require that Click be sentenced to  the ninth circle of hell.

By the same measure does the floor of the Senate constitute a public area or not?  Can conversations held within hearing distance of journalists be considered privileged because they take place in a “private” aura?  Ron Richards clearly thinks so. Democratic Senator Jill Schupp doesn’t think so. Doesn’t look like it to me either. There’s that “grayness” thing. But if a university quad is considered public and the the floor of the Senate, where the public’s business is – publicly – done, isn’t, something is seriously wrong somewhere.

It’s likely that lawmakers often talk about things that involve us all and that we can be said to have a much greater vested interest in learning about than the discussions of a group of demonstrators whose actions were being copiously reported.It leads one to ask just what Ron Richards and his GOP colleagues are so worried about the public learning if journalists have access to their on-floor shenanigans.  Last minute arm-bending or lobbyist largess, or should I say “committee contributions,” when the vote is close? Or maybe just the latest juicy gossip about carrying-ons and business-as-usual in our Republican legislature?

I can’t see much difference between the temper tantrum that Richards is throwing and the somewhat overheated behavior of Melissa Click. Shouldn’t somebody organize a letter-writing party to try and get Ron Richards fired?  (Or do we have to wait for an election?) Don’t most of us agree that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander?

Image

License Bureau Blues

26 Friday Apr 2013

Tags

Conceal and Carry Permits, DMV, license bureau, Missouri Department of Revenue, Missouri License Bureau, Missouri Political Cartoons, Missouri politics, Missouri Republican Party, Missouri Senate

Posted by Michael Bersin | Filed under Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

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