Opinion

Many bills filed in the Missouri General Assembly are dead on arrival, and that is for the best. But some bills are DOA because they make lawmakers uncomfortable.

The Mssouri General Assembly should pass a 12.5-cent increase in the motor fuel tax, without the opt-out plan, and Gov. Mike Parson should sign the bill into law.

Oats Transit is closely watching proposed state legislation that, if passed, would allow concealed-carry permit holders to lawfully bring firearms on public transportation. It raises serious concerns not only for the safety on our buses but also our funding as a private, non-profit transportation provider.

If I became a state lawmaker (do not worry, I think too much of you, and lack the prerequisite ego, to actually run for the job), then I would be in a position to tell voters how stupid they are. Right?

Gov. Mike Parson tweeted that Missouri COVID cases and hospitalizations are down, which definitely is worth celebrating, but the rest of his message establishes a false equivalency.

The Excelsior Springs City Council’s decision to hire a private firm, Orion, to manage the city’s golf course may have been an act of genius, or not; but the timing seemed unnecessarily rushed, which naturally raises eyebrows.

It’s apparent to me that this is just another cover-up by the city manager and city leadership. Their mismanagement in building a restaurant and calling it a clubhouse is laughable. Then, to compound the problem, they decided to create a housing development. Granted, the old clubhouse needed some refurbishing and cleanup. But what the city manager and friends built was a restaurant to compete with independently owned eateries in town. The actual section used for the golf patrons and members isn’t any bigger than my kitchen. I’ve played and been a member for years and have seen its condition go from good to bad several times, all due to the city’s mismanagement.

This can be the year we scale up solutions that embrace a culture of health and expand family prosperity. Access to a good job, education, health and whole-family well-being are the foundations of family prosperity – as is an inclusive and expansive definition of family that honors the multitude of ways in which we live and care for one another.

After the insurrection, and barbed wire-topped fencing and troops in Washington, D.C., for Inauguration Day, I reflected on Missouri’s 2018 Senate Republican primary. Republicans had a chance to pick a war hero, business owner, civic leader, family man and Christian author, Air Force Lt.

Nursing homes across the nation, and here in Ray and Clay counties, have endured the COVID-19 pandemic with varying degrees of success. Without a doubt, success would have been far greater if nursing home leaders had been warned early on by those in the know – as revealed in tapes from the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward – about the threat to life the virus represented.