Fertilizer spill kills 750,000 fish | Missouri GOP wants to eliminate corporate income tax | Kansas Man Sues Tennessee GOP Congressman | Missouri legislature defunding STL? | Texas Immigration Law Back On ICE | Alabama Election Blowout Win… for a Democrat? | Missouri AG gets slammed
On this episode of The Heartland POD for Friday, March 29, 2024 - a Flyover Friday including:
- Fertilizer spill kills hundreds of thousands of fish
- Missouri GOP cuts taxes… for corporations
- Kansas Man Sues Tennessee law maker
- Missouri legislature defunding STL?
- Texas Immigration Law Back On ICE
- Alabama Election Blowout Win… for a Democrat?
- Missouri AG gets slammed
- Arizona state senator’s personal abortion appeal
- Missouri GOP members tripping over each other to file for… Secretary of State?
SOURCES: Missouri Independent; Lawdork.com; Kansas City Star; 1819 news; Democracy Now, associated press; St. Louis pos
Revisiting A story From last week: 750,000 fish have died in the fertilizer spill
https://missouriindependent.com/2024/03/28/fertilizer-killed-more-than-750000-fish-iowa-missouri/
A fertilizer spill this month in southwest Iowa killed nearly all the fish in a 60-mile stretch of river with an estimated death toll of more than 750,000, according to Iowa and Missouri conservation officers.
That is the biggest fish kill in Iowa in at least a decade and the fifth-largest on record, according to state data.
And it could have been worse: Fish populations were likely smaller than normal when the spill happened because of cold water temperatures and low river flows.
“Thank goodness, in a way, it happened when it did,” said Joe Larscheid, chief of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ fisheries bureau. “But this is a big one. It’s a lot of river miles that have been impacted.”
Missouri GOP Tax Cuts To Phase Out Corporate Taxes
https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-house-again-votes-to-cut-corporate-income-taxes/
The bill sponsored by state Rep. Travis Smith of Dora would cut the tax rate, currently 4%, to 3% on Jan. 1 and make another one percentage point cut each year until the tax is eliminated in 2028.
“When you reduce the corporate income tax you are helping workers more than anything else because the corporation is not going to be paying those taxes,” Smith said. “They’re putting it back in improving their facilities and paying wages.”
The corporate income tax is paid by larger companies with many stockholders. A fiscal note for the bill estimates it would reduce state revenues by at least $884 million when fully implemented. The state collected $13.2 billion in general revenue in the fiscal year that ended June 30.
The bill passed on a 100-50 vote with Republicans voting for it and Democrats opposed.
“We are one of the lowest corporate income tax states in the nation,” said state Rep. Joe Adams, a University City Democrat.
Legally, Adams noted, corporations are people with many of the same rights as humans.
“As people they should pay part of the freight for the operation of the government of this state,” Adams said.
Texas Immigration Law On ICE
https://www.lawdork.com/p/fifth-circuit-texas-sb4-stay-denial
Texas’s new immigration law creating Texas crimes of “illegal entry” and “reentry” and setting forth a process for removal of people convicted of those state laws will remain blocked for now, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled on Tuesday night in a decision holding that Texas’s S.B. 4 is likely preempted by federal law on multiple grounds.
“The Texas laws at issue permit state authorities to prosecute an individual for being unlawfully present and remove individuals who are unlawfully present or removable, without any consultation or cooperation with the Attorney General of the United States,” Chief Judge Priscilla Richman, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote for the court’s 2-1 majority keeping S.B. 4 on hold.
it is the first ruling of substance analyzing S.B. 4 from an appeals court, which is good whenever courts take actions — but particularly when those rulings are affecting the enforcement of national and state laws. And, second, this is same panel of judges that will be hearing the merits of the S.B. 4 next week, meaning we have a fairly good idea that the same outcome will likely result from the full appeal.
The immediate question is whether Texas seeks further review, from the full Fifth Circuit en banc or from the U.S. Supreme Court, on its stay pending appeal request, or whether the parties wait for the April 3 arguments on Texas’s appeal of the preliminary injunction before taking any further action.
For now, though, Texas’s S.B. 4 remains blocked and will remain blocked for the duration of the Fifth Circuit appeal.
Republicans in Missouri Continue Going After St Louis
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/government-politics/measure-targeting-st-louis-earnings-tax-passes-missouri-house-heads-to-senate/article_b0b9f348-ec59-11ee-9492-8b5dfe93499d.html
Kansas Man Sues lawmaker for comments after super bowl parade shooting
https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article287072190.html
Denton Loudermill, a Johnson County resident, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas against U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, who last month shared a photo of Loudermill and erroneously wrote that one of the Kansas City shooters had been identified as an “illegal alien.” Burchett’s false post caused Loudermill to receive death threats, incur damages totaling more than $75,000, anxiety and loss of sleep, according to the lawsuit, which accuses Burchett of false light invasion of privacy. The lawsuit asks a judge to issue damages “to punish” Burchett or deter him and others from similar conduct in the future.
Missouri Budget Slashed, Without A Chance To Ask Why
https://missouriindependent.com/2024/03/26/democrats-gripe-over-limited-time-for-debating-proposed-50-billion-missouri-budget/
The biggest fight Monday between Republicans and Democrats on the House Budget Committee as they finalized a spending plan for floor debate was over the time allotted to do the work, not any particular item in the $50.7 billion plan.
Throughout the daylong hearing, Democrats said state Rep. Cody Smith, the committee’s chairman, wasn’t allowing enough time to propose amendments or hear why he cut $2 billion from Gov. Mike Parson’s January budget proposal.
And to show their displeasure when the time came to vote, many Democrats voted “present” and state Rep. Deb Lavender, D-Manchester, invoked a little-used rule to force a reading of each roll call and how members voted as each of the 17 spending bills was completed.
Smith had no patience for that maneuver, and the committee voted to suspend the rule on “verifying the roll” to speed up its work.
Smith delivered his budget proposal to the committee on March 14 but declined that day to answer questions about his changes. On Monday, when the committee convened shortly after 10 a.m., Smith said he would allow four hours for discussing amendments.
Alabama Democrat Blows Out GOP Opponent
https://1819news.com/news/item/hd10-lands-62-powell-38-after-democrat-special-election-blowout-republicans-asking-what-happened
State Rep.-elect Marilyn Lands (D-Madison) won the special election for House District 10 on Tuesday, making her the first net-gain Democratic pick-up in the Alabama Legislature since 2002.
1819 News surveyed local and state Republicans, political consultants and elected officials to find out what they believe occurred and what they see for the future.
One prominent GOP official said that national Democrats had nationalized this small campaign around abortion to scare Republicans in other states and help them fundraise off the issue.
One complaint was that the Republican nominee, Teddy Powell, took too much of a moderate approach and said that if Republicans were to win in purple districts, they must run as full-on Republicans, just as Lands ran as a full-on Democrat — even more so in a special election where turnout is smaller and only the parties' most loyal show up to vote.
However, the consultants did mention that this race would be a potential pick-up for Republicans in 2026 when the next gubernatorial election occurs, and more turnout will be expected.
Arizona State Senator Shares Her Abortion Story, In Real Time
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/3/27/eva_burch_arizona_abortion
Democratic Arizona state Senator Eva Burch made headlines last week after speaking on the floor of the state Senate about her plans to obtain an abortion after receiving news that her pregnancy was nonviable. Arizona has banned all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. “I felt like it was really important for me to bring people along, so that people could really see what this looks like,” says Burch, a former nurse practitioner who worked at a women’s health clinic before running for office, about why she decided to publicly tell her story. “I wanted to pull people into the conversation so we can be more honest about what abortion care looks like” and “hopefully move the needle in the right direction,” she adds.
Missouri Attorney General Gets Slammed
https://apnews.com/article/dei-diversity-school-beating-missouri-hazelwood-928cd2980047d9f6c37351901f7d0e29
Days after Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey blamed an after-school fight on a school district’s diversity programming, a lawyer for the majority Black district in suburban St. Louis said that the state’s chief attorney is showing “obvious racial bias.”
Bailey, who is campaigning to keep his seat, said last week that he is investigating possible violations of the state’s human rights laws by the Hazelwood School District, after a March 8 fight left a girl hospitalized with severe head injuries.
Bailey blamed the school district’s diversity, equity and inclusion programming as a cause for the fight, which St. Louis County police say happened after school hours in a neighborhood about two blocks from Hazelwood East High School. He said were it not for the programs, a school resource officer would have been present at the school.
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