IMPEACHMENT HALT TAKING ON TENNESSEE

Sen. Josh Hawley has proposed a Missouri will need to get more out
Senate rule change to dismiss the of forwards Reed Nikko, Jeremiah
impeachment articles should the Tilmon Jr. and Mitchell Smith to
House not present them soon beat the Volunteers
Page 3A Page 1B

Tuesday, January 7, 2020 • COLUMBIA’S LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER • COLUMBIAMISSOURIAN.COM • 75 CENTS

Mayor announces task force to address violent crime spike

Some officers included in the
multi-department task force
will be federally deputized ‌
BY IAN MCMANUS
news@columbiamissourian.com
Mayor Brian Treece announced a
violent crime task force composed
of several local law enforcement
institutions Monday, following a
recent spike of violent crime in the
city and state.
The task force will include four
members of the Columbia Police
Department, four from the Boone
County Sheriff’s Department, one
from MUPD and two from the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms. Some of the officers
included will be federally depu-
tized.
The federal government has
stricter gun regulations than the
state of Missouri, and the depu-
tizing of officers and partnership
with ATF, a federal agency, appear
to be an attempt to circumvent the
state’s looser regulations.
“Missouri is one of those states
that really hamstrings local gov-
ernments and cities because of the
preemption ordinance,” Treece
said, referring to a state ordinance
stating that local law can in no way
supersede state law in “the entire
field of legislation touching in any
way firearms, components, ammu-
nition and supplies.”
Columbia recorded 12 firearm
homicides last year, the most
since 2001, when Missouri State
Highway Patrol data became avail-
able. That includes a period in
September where five gun deaths
occurred in only 10 days.
“We can’t enact additional laws
when it comes to licensing or sale
and transfer or insurance or back-
ground checks,” Treece said. “We
need Jeff City to act on that. And
if they’re not going to act, we’re
going to use the full weight of our
collective agencies to break and
disrupt that cycle of violence.”
Gov. Mike Parson met with
Treece, as well as the mayors of
Springfield, Kansas City, and St.
Louis on Nov. 25 as part of an
ongoing series of conversations
concerning solutions to violent
crime.
Treece said that group had
identified three major areas for
improvement in their communi-
ties: improved witness protection,
increased mental health interven-
tion and improving the ability to
prosecute cases at a federal level,
provided Missouri’s regulations
remain lax in comparison.
The mayor stated that the Colum-
bia Police Department has been
working to improve mental health
intervention by referring individu-
als to emergency rooms and work-
ing with a mental health liaison.
He added that the city has lobbied
the governor’s office for additional
resources to improve local officers’
abilities to offer witness protection
immediately, as it is enforced at a
state level.

Redistricting
changes to
be discussed
by legislators
BY LILLIE HEGEMAN
news@columbiamissourian.com
From its early days of gather-
ing signatures in the beginning
of 2018 to the final week of the
2019 legislative session, Clean
Missouri has been at the center
of public, legislative and judicial
debate.
And that’s not going to change
as lawmakers begin the 2020
legislative session on Wednesday.
The Clean Missouri initiative
petition passed with 62% of
the vote in November 2018 and
changed the Missouri constitu-
tion to:
■■ Limit lobbyist gifts to law-
makers to $5 or less.
■■ Require state legislators
to wait two years after leaving
office before they can become a
lobbyist.
■■ Tighten limits on campaign
contributions legislators can
accept.
JASON VANCE/Missourian ■■ Require state legislators to
Jenna Keffer, 13, and Ethan Estrada, 13, paint the Hallsville section of the Boone County Bicentennial Puzzle Mural on Friday at the Hallsville Fairgrounds. The eight sections of abide by Missouri’s open-records
the mural will be assembled and displayed at the Boone County Historical and Culture Center in Columbia. law.
■■ Drastically change the

Hallsville paints its history

process and criteria for draw-
ing state legislative districts
and create a “nonpartisan state
demographer” position to carry
out the task.
When the amendment passed,
however, legislators were not
done with the debate.
In March 2019, some lawmak-
BY ANNIE JENNEMANN mural, held a community input ses- post office. Self said the post office ers proposed resolutions to alter
news@columbiamissourian.com sion last fall to find out the “top 10 is so important because the man for or repeal the portion that most

K
ids from the Hallsville
Go-Getters joined artist
and educator Stacy Self
recently at the Bob Lemone
Building in Hallsville to paint a
mural portraying their town’s his-
tory.
Hallsville’s piece will be part of a
larger mural in the shape of Boone
County, portraying icons of its his-
tory as part of the county’s bicen-
tennial celebration in 2020.
Self, who is in charge of the
treasures” of Hallsville from the
town’s residents. She has held simi-
lar meetings in other Boone County
towns.
“There’s no wrong way to do this,”
Self told the kids Friday before
they began to paint. “You can do
anything you want; it’s not a paint-
by-numbers.”
Self explained some of the dif-
ferent parts of the mural, which
included the Red Top Christian
Church, the Finger Lakes and the
who the town is named, John Hall, troubles some of them: the redis-
was the postmaster. tricting changes.
As she poured different paints
onto palettes, Self, who goes by the Clean Missouri changes
nickname Wildy, began directing
Prior to the passing of Clean
the kids to which paints they should
Missouri, legislative district
use.
maps were to be drawn by sep-
“I just opened this one yesterday,” arate House and Senate inde-
Self said, as she tried to open a bot- pendent citizens commissions
tle of red paint. appointed by the governor.
Self has been an artist for over 25 In the Senate, the Republican
years and has participated in Roots and Democratic parties would
Please see MURAL, Page 4A each nominate 10 people to serve
on the commission. Then, the
governor would select five of
each party’s nominees for the
Senate commission.

Proposed Airbnb rules

TODAY’S WEATHER
Similarly, House Republicans
PARTLY CLOUDY
and Democrats would nominate
48/26
two people for each of Missouri’s

would limit Columbia renters

eight congressional districts, and
INDEX the governor would select one of
the two for a 16-person House
Abby7A
commission.
Classifieds5B These commissions only had
Nation8A Property owners would The proposed ordinances during “daytime and work
to consider equal population,
require building owners to hours,” to qualify for “host-
Obituaries2A have to be on-site live in the residence for at ed” status.
whether the land is contiguous
Opinion5A when guests are and compactness when drawing
least 270 days of the year If the owner is not avail-
Sports1B the districts.
Sudoku6B
present, rules suggest in order to rent out their able during those times, “That was a process that had
property as an short term an “agent” is required
TV schedule 8B not only individuals from across
BY TYLER MESSNER rental. That would qualify to be designated by the party lines but from all three
news@columbiamissourian.com the properties as “hosted,” owner. The agent would be branches of government trying
Our 112th year/#82 according to Tim Teddy the city’s point of contact to draw the fairest districts pos-
2 sections Those looking to provide and Pat Zenner, the direc- and needs to be available sible,” Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon
16 pages Airbnb or other short-term tor and development ser- 24/7 and have a Columbia Spring, said.
rental services in Columbia vices manager of the city’s address, according to the Amendment 1 designated a
would have to meet new Community Development department’s presentation. “nonpartisan state demographer”
guidelines under proposed Department. Any short-term rental to take on the task. In the new
ordinances discussed by Owners would also be that doesn’t meet these system, the partisan-appointed
the Columbia City Council required to be on-site when
6 54051 90850 3 on Monday. guests are present, except Please see RENTALS, Page 4A Please see CLEAN, Page 4A
Page 4A — TUESDAY, January 7, 2020
Jenna Keffer, 13, Ethan Estrada, 13, and Stacy Self work on the puzzle mural that showcases the “Treasures
of Boone County.” Self, an artist from Columbia, was commissioned to create the mural for the Bicentennial
of Boone County. Each of the eight sections are being painted by people in that section. The puzzle will be put
together and displayed at the Boone County Historical Society and Culture Center in Columbia. After the display
each section will be returned to the area to be displayed.
Community unified
by painting together
MURAL from Page 1A
N Blues, Art in the Park and
more. She is also the owner of
WildysWorld! Muralmakers
Studio, which offers mural
parties, small group sessions,
private lessons and more.
Hallsville is the second-
to-last community to com-
plete its panel of the mural.
The first six were Harris-
burg, Sturgeon, Centralia,
Rocheport, Columbia and
Ashland. The final section to
be painted is Cooper’s Land-
Concerns
arise over
amount of
guests in
rentals
RENTALS from Page 1A
conditions would be con-
sidered “unhosted” and
would require a condition-
al-use permit from the city,
according to the ordinance.
The ordinances also
limit the amount of guests
allowed in a short-term
rental at one time.
In single-family dis-
trict zones, three guests
at maximum are allowed
in an rental at one time,
according to the proposed
ordinances. In higher den-
sity residential districts, a
maximum of four guests
are allowed at once.
Property owners can
request an increase in the
maximum amount of guests
allowed, Assistant City
Counselor Jose Caldera
said. Factors such as num-
ber of bedrooms available
and rooms’ square footage
would be taken into account
in those cases.
Mayor Brian Treece
had concerns about family
accommodations because of
the proposed guest limits. A
family of four, for example,
would exceed the limit set
for an short-term rental in
a typical single-family resi-
dential area.
A property owner
couldn’t rent out individual
bedrooms of a unit to sep-
arate guests at the same
time under the ordinances,
Zenner explained.
Teddy emphasized that
short-term rental codes are
still in their infancy, with
Airbnb only being 8 years
old. He said that short-term
rental issues arise in cities
when the services such as
Airbnb are unregulated and
track their own data.
The proposed ordinances
will be brought to a pub-
lic hearing Jan. 21 and be
voted on by the council
Feb. 3.
Supervising editor is
Galen Bacharier.
ing, which residents will paint
from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday while
they listen to live music.
Each mural panel was cut
from a 4-by-8-feet piece of
plywood. Once all of the piec-
es are completed, Self will
bring the mural together by
painting the finishing touches
and making sure the commu-
nity art flows together neatly.
“I clarify, unify and ampli-
fy,” Self said. “After all eight
pieces are completed, they
will be installed on the wall.”
Multiple 2020 proposals prefiled
CLEAN from Page 1A
state auditor is to present a
list of qualified applicants
to the Senate majority and
minority leaders for approv-
al. If they agree, the demog-
rapher will be selected
through a random lottery.
When creating the map,
this chosen person then has
to consider six criteria:
1.  Districts should still
be equal in population..
2.  Districts should not
marginalize minority com-
munities in the political
process.
3.  The overall map of
districts should promote
“partisan fairness and com-
petitiveness.”
4.  Districts should be
contiguous.
5.  Districts should follow
political subdivisions as
much as possible (county
lines, city lines, etc.).
6.  Districts should be
“compact in form.”
Some Clean Missouri
opponents take issue with
language in the amendment
that requires the demogra-
pher to consider “partisan
fairness and competitive-
ness” before contiguity and
compactness.
Eigel said he believes
the changes would create a
redistricting process that
would be influenced by par-
tisan politics.
“The Clean Missouri ini-
tiative that was passed by
the people last year proba-
bly suffered from one of the
most dishonest public politi-
cal campaigns that I’ve ever
seen in my time in politics,”
Eigel said. “This was sold to
the public as an ethics bill
to try to clean up and pro-
vide accountability but was
actually a cover that was
designed to hijack our redis-
tricting process and move
us from a system that had
wide input from multiple
sources ... to a process that’s
primarily controlled by one
partisan-elected statewide
position.”
Rep. Kip Kendrick, D-Co-
lumbia, said the push by
Republicans to repeal Clean
Missouri is a gerryman-
dering attempt that would
put them “in a position to
redraw maps that benefit
the majority party,” or the
Republican party.
PHOTOS BY JASON VANCE/Missourian
The mural will be on dis-
play at the Boone County
History and Culture Center
in March. At the end of the
year, all of the pieces will be
returned to their communi-
ties.
Meanwhile, Self said she is
figuring out how to transport
the panels.
“I need a trailer,” she said.
“I’m working on getting a
trailer.”
Supervising editor is Galen
Bacharier.
“What it comes down to is
the majority party is afraid
of losing power within the
redistricting process,” Ken-
drick said.
“The Clean Missouri pro-
cess allows for more fair
and impartial redistricting
to happen ... it’s better for
the democracy.”
2019 proposals
In the 2019 legislative
session, six resolutions were
presented to either change
or repeal the amendment’s
redistricting changes:
■■ Senate Joint Resolution
23 (Eigel).
■■ SJR 29 (Sen. Dave
Schatz, R-Sullivan).
■■ House Joint Resolution
46 (Rep. Phil Christofanelli,
R-St. Peters).
■■ HJR 47 (Rep. Curtis
Trent, R-Springfield).
■■ HJR 57 (Rep. Jeff
Pogue, R-Salem).
■■ HJR 48 (Rep. Dean
Plocher, R-St. Louis).
Each resolution would
have amended the consti-
tution and sent the issue
back to the voters, which is
required when changing the
constitution.
HJR 48 was combined
with other legislation and
made it the furthest, passing
through the House in late
April. The resolution would
have replaced the “nonpar-
tisan state demographer”
with the original House
and Senate commissions,
reversing the changes made
through Amendment 1.
In order to be sent back
to the voters in future elec-
tions, the resolution would
need to be passed by the
“I know that the Democratic caucus will fight
very hard to ensure that the voice of the voters is
upheld.”
Jessica Estrada works on the Hallsville section of the Boone County Bicentennial Puzzle Mural on Friday at the
Hallsville Fairgrounds. She is program leader of the Go-Getters 4-H Club and brought members to paint the
mural.
Senate as well. This, howev-
er, did not happen before the
2019 session concluded.
Most Democratic legisla-
tors support the Clean Mis-
souri redistricting changes.
Marc Powers, spokesperson
for the House Democrats,
said only one Democrat —
Rep. Maria Chappelle-Na-
dal, D-St. Louis — voted
for HJR 48 when it passed
through the House in 2019.
Kendrick said he finds
efforts to push for majority
control “extremely frustrat-
ing.”
“It doesn’t lead to good
outcomes,” Kendrick said.
“And in fact, it has led to
more partisan divide and a
greater divide in communi-
ties.”
What about 2020?
The issue will continue to
be a focus of the 2020 legis-
lative session.
“I expect the Republicans
will be interested in pushing
something, a joint resolution
to put the question back
before the people and dress
language up that makes it
look like it would be a bipar-
tisan commission,” Kend-
rick said.
And Republican legisla-
tors have, in fact, begun to
bring back the issue. Begin-
ning in early December, leg-
islators began filing propos-
als for potential discussion
in the next legislative ses-
sion. Four legislators have
filed resolutions that would
accomplish similar things to
those proposed in the 2019
regular session.
“We’re trying to go
through this process to
MARTHA STEVENS
D - Columbia Representative
COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN
identify a better method and
a better process to put in
front of the Missouri peo-
ple,” Eigel said.
Trent prefiled HJR 76,
which includes the same
alterations as HJR 48, which
was passed by the House in
2019.
Eigel prefiled SJR 54 with
only slight changes from the
SJR 23 he proposed in 2019.
Eigel’s resolution would
remove the “nonpartisan
state demographer” position
and put control over the
redistricting process back
in the hands of the House
and Senate commissions.
Eigel also suggests the
“partisan fairness and com-
petitiveness” consideration
should be considered the
last priority, below prior-
ities like equal population
of districts, contiguity and
preserving the community
interest.
“Partisan fairness — not
only is that very possibly a
subjective term, but I don’t
like the idea of creating
districts based on party
affiliation,” Eigel said. “I
think that’s a bad way to go
and that will actually lead to
gerrymandering.”
Sen. Dan Hegeman, R-Cos-
by, and Sen. Cindy O’Laugh-
lin, R-Shelbina, prefiled
SJR 38 and SJR 49, respec-
tively. Both resolutions,
like Eigel’s, would leave the
redistricting responsibility
to the commissions. (Hege-
man is the uncle of reporter
Lillie Hegeman).
Hegeman’s and O’Laugh-
lin’s resolutions, however,
have a few distinctions from
Eigel’s.
Although the “partisan
fairness and competitive-
ness” criteria is still the
bottom priority, SJRs 38
and 49 both give higher
precedence to the criteria of
ensuring that districts are
not marginalizing minority
communities in the political
process and drawing the
districts in a way that would
follow political divisions
as closely as possible. Both
Hegeman and O’Laughlin
suggest that following such
divisions would help pre-
serve communities.
SJRs 38 and 49 would
add a new limitation on the
process of challenging the
redistricting plan. “Only
an eligible Missouri voter
who sustains an individual
injury by virtue of residing
in a district that exhibits
the alleged violation and
whose injury is remedied
by a differently drawn dis-
trict, shall have standing,”
according to the resolutions.
Any action would need to be
filed in Cole County Circuit
Court.
None of these resolutions
are guaranteed to make it to
a floor vote in the upcoming
session, but Democrats plan
to defend the amendment if
it is discussed.
“I’m sure for the Repub-
licans, they’re going to try
to push this issue to try to
repeal the Clean Missouri
ballot initiative,” Rep. Mar-
tha Stevens, D-Columbia,
said. “But, I know that the
Democratic caucus will
fight very hard to ensure
that the voice of the voters
is upheld.”
If these resolutions pass
both the House and the Sen-
ate, the issue will come to
another public vote.
Further discussion
Eigel said he thinks there
will not only be continued
discussion of the Clean Mis-
souri initiative, but there
will also be further dis-
cussion about the initiative
petition process in general.
There have been complaints
from all sides that the pro-
cess can be dominated by
special interest groups with
large funding.
Supervising editor is Mark
Horvit.
COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN
WHAT OTHERS SAY
Mo. voter-ID ruling is
message for GOP to stop
impending democracy
T
he Missouri Supreme
Court on Tuesday issued
a decisive blow to state
Republicans’ ongoing vot-
er-ID mischief, hopefully laying to
rest a sorry chapter in the history
of voter suppression. The court
confirmed a lower court decision
that said the state has to stop tell-
ing voters they need a photo ID to
vote, and that if they don’t have
one, they can’t be compelled to
sign an affidavit swearing to their
identities.
Before anyone counters that
those requirements sound like
common sense, remember two
things the purveyors of this law
have always tried to get people to
forget: One, the current voter-reg-
istration system already validates
voters’ identities, prevents dou-
ble-voting and provides serious
penalties for violations; and, two,
there’s no indication that system
doesn’t work.
The whole voter-ID scheme has
always been a solution in search
of a problem — one that, conve-
niently enough for Republicans,
makes voting more difficult for
demographic sectors that favor
Democrats. It has always smacked
of an ulterior motive since the
procedure was unnecessary and
redundant.
The law dates to a 2016 Republi-
can-backed referendum that relied
on a core fiction of today’s nation-
al GOP: that individual voter fraud
is rampant. In fact, all indications
are it almost never happens today,
thanks to effective modern vot-
er-registration processes. It was
America’s top Republican, Presi-
dent Donald Trump, who inadver-
tently proved how the voter-fraud
narrative is a scam. He loudly cre-
ated an ad hoc voter-fraud com-
mission to root out this supposed
problem, then quietly disbanded it
WHAT OTHERS SAY
It’s time to reassess
gambling in Missouri
M
issouri —and more
specifically, Jefferson
City — has had a love-
hate relationship with
gambling.
In 1984, state voters authorized
the Missouri Lottery, making it
the 23rd statewide lottery.
A decade later, both city and
state voters approved riverboat
gambling at the same election.
Gambling opponents, surprised
at the outcome, formed opposition
and brought the issue back to the
ballot. Voters reversed course,
creating a sticky mess with a Las
Vegas developer it had contracted
with to put a gambling boat not far
from the Capitol.
Missouri voters approved
pari-mutuel wagering at horse
tracks in 1984 but authorized only
limited simulcasting. That’s where
people wager on races shown on
television screens, not live races.
In 2008, the long-defunct Missouri
Horse Racing Commission met for
the first time in a decade to try
to revive the idea of bringing live
horse racing to Missouri. The push
didn’t get to the starting gate.
Some local churches, like nation-
al ones, staunchly oppose gam-
bling. But that hasn’t stopped its
spread.
One lawmaker wants to bring
riverboat gambling to Lake of the
Ozarks.
Also, our state is looking at
sports betting, which will likely be
a topic during the newly started
legislative session.
Meanwhile, the state is in a
quandary over the spread of
unregulated and untaxed video
gambling terminals. You can find
them at gas stations and conve-
nience stores throughout the state.
The industry responsible has
apparently tweaked what is simi-
lar to slot machines in an attempt
to make them legal.
The Missouri State Highway
OPINION
WRITE • REFLECT • RESPOND • COLUMBIAMISSOURIAN.COM
ST. LOUIS
POST-DISPATCH
after commissioners found noth-
ing.
Voters should decide for them-
selves if the real reason for the
GOP obsession with making it
more difficult to vote has anything
to do with the fact that voter-ID
rules disproportionately burden
the poor. Low-income voters are
less likely to have driver’s licens-
es or other photo identification
on them — and they tend to vote
Democrat.
In a 5-2 ruling, the state
Supreme Court upheld a low-
er-court ruling that doesn’t over-
turn Missouri’s voter-ID law but
orders the state to stop misleading
the public about its requirements.
The law provides methods other
than a photo ID to vote — such as
presentation of a voter-registra-
tion card or utility bill — but state
promotional material has made it
seem a photo was mandatory.
Voters who use an alternative
ID method previously had to sign
an affidavit attesting to their iden-
tities. The ruling puts an end to
that, saying the language of the
affidavit was contradictory and
misleading.
We would have preferred a clean
overturning of this entire law as
an unconstitutional impediment
to voting. But in a practical sense,
the state court’s decision comes
pretty close to that. To Missouri
officials who might be tempted
to keep this fight alive, we would
strongly suggest working to
appeal to voters, rather than work-
ing to hamper them.
Copyright St. Louis Post-Dis-
patch. Reprinted with permission.
JEFFERSON CITY
NEWS TRIBUNE
Patrol maintains they’re illegal.
Gov. Mike Parson said he’s not
convinced, and a court case could
help determine whether they are
games of chance (illegal) or games
of skill (legal).
The Missouri lottery, which has
seen a revenue decline in recent
months, fears the machines are
eating into their profits. They
want the machines gone. They’ve
gone so far as to warn retailers
that they could face prosecution
for having them in their stores.
The lottery is already dealing
with an advertising budget that
has been slashed from $16 million
to $5 million by the legislature.
We’re no lawyers, but we believe
the industry promoting the gam-
bling machines may have inge-
niously come up with a loophole to
allow their gambling devices.
All of this brings up the ques-
tion: Should our state be so con-
cerned with limiting gambling?
Don’t get us wrong: We’re not
big fans of gambling in any form.
There’s not much redeeming
about it morally or financially.
It seems like the people who can
least afford to gamble are the
ones spending the most amount of
money.
But we can’t put the genie back
in the bottle; it’s here to stay. Gov-
ernment can’t protect us from
ourselves on this one, and it can’t
legislate morality.
So why not let the free market
reign? Set the necessary regula-
tions, collect the taxes and let the
chips fall where they may.
This was originally published by
the Jefferson City News Tribune.
Distributed by The Associated
Press.
The enemy is us
S
pecial counsel Robert Mueller
warned last July that the Rus-
sians had conducted a “sweep-
ing and systematic” campaign
to undermine the last presidential
election, and that a new attack was
already underway. “They’re doing it
as we sit here,” he told a Congressio-
nal committee.
But a more serious threat to the
integrity of American democra-
cy comes from within, not from
abroad. It comes from state and
local Republican officials, who are
mounting their homegrown version
of a “sweeping and systematic”
assault on any voters likely to sup-
port Democrats.
Journalist Ari Berman, who
wrote a book on voter suppression
titled “Give Us the Ballot,” told
NPR: “You’re seeing a national
effort by the Republican Party to
try to restrict voting rights, and it’s
playing out in states all across the
country.”
Added the Washington Post edito-
rial page: “Republicans throughout
the country have embraced voter
suppression as a strategy for party
survival.”
That suppression campaign takes
many forms, but they all have one
larger goal: “party survival” in the
face of what Sen. Lindsey Graham,
a staunch ally of President Trump,
once called a “demographic death
spiral.”
A core Republican constituency,
older men without college degrees,
comprise a rapidly shrinking part
of the electorate. They are being
replaced by younger voters, many
of them women, who are more likely
to back Democrats.
Instead of trying to win over
those new voters, the GOP is active-
ly driving them away with hostile
policies on issues like immigration
— along with sticking with the over-
all party strategy of discouraging
them from voting at all. Here are
some of the main battlefronts:
■  Voter ID laws. Three political
scientists from the University of
California at San Diego wrote in the
Washington Post that voter ID laws
“have spread rapidly in the past
“I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with
it are, to the full measure of their responsibility, trustees for the public;
that acceptance of a lesser service than the public service is betrayal of
this trust. I believe that clear thinking and clear statement, accuracy and
fairness are fundamental to good journalism.”
CONTACT US
WRITE: Letter to Editor, P.O. Box 917, Columbia, MO
65205
EMAIL: letters@ColumbiaMissourian.com
FAX: 573-882-5702 CALL: 573-882-5700
General Manager: Bryan Chester • chesterb@missouri.
edu
Executive Editor: Ruby L. Bailey • baileyru@missouri.edu
Opinion Editor: Jeanne Abbott • abbottjm@missouri.edu
Friday & Saturday, January 17-18, 2020 — Page 5A
mile a polling place is moved away
from a black community, voter
participation drops 5%. “Long lines
cause people, whose paychecks are
getting nibbled away waiting in the
queue, to leave and not vote,” she
told the Post.
■  Intimidation of voters. A
study by The Atlantic and the
Public Religion Research Institute
turned up a consistent pattern of
discrimination. They found that
STEVEN ROBERTS 9% of nonwhites said their voting
credentials were challenged, as
opposed to 3% of whites. And non-
whites were three times more likely
than whites to have trouble finding
“A more serious threat to their polling place on Election Day.
the integrity of American “Roughly one in 10 Hispanics said
the last time they or someone in
democracy comes from
their household tried to vote, they
within, not from abroad.” were bothered at the polls,” says
Dan Cox, the institute’s research
director.
10 years,” and are now in force in
33 states. “These laws have a dis-
■  Intimidation of election work-
ers. Tennessee is the latest state to
pass a “draconian new law” aimed
proportionate effect on minorities,
which is exactly what you would at inhibiting workers who sign up
expect, given that members of new voters, reports the Brookings
racial and ethnic minorities are less Institution. “If the Tennessee law is
apt to have valid photo ID,” they allowed to stand, it will undermine
concluded. voter registration efforts and keep
■  Purges of voter rolls. A recent eligible voters off the rolls,” warned
study by the House Administration Brookings.
Subcommittee on Elections reports There are a few remedies here.
The Senate should follow the House
that between 2016 and 2018, 17
and pass a bill putting teeth back in
million people were thrown off the
the Voting Rights Act, which was
voting rolls. Some, of course, had
gutted by the Supreme Court in
died or moved. But many others, the
2013 — but that’s a faint hope while
study found, were still eligible to
Republicans control the chamber.
vote and had been purged unfairly.
Activists must keep suing states to
■  High tests for registration. block their suppression efforts, and
Georgia has a particularly devious hire extra field workers to facilitate
rule, stopping people from register- registration efforts.
ing if they make a single error on The voting public has to under-
their application — a hyphen out of stand what’s happening and raise
place, a name spelled differently. their voices in defense of democra-
The Associated Press reports that cy.
53,000 applications were denied in The main threat to the American
2018, almost three-quarters of them system is not orchestrated by Mos-
from people of color. cow. To quote the cartoon character
■  Fewer polling places, shorter Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and
hours. This is a widespread tactic he is us.”
— limiting voting access in heavily
Steven Roberts teaches politics
Democratic areas. Political scientist and journalism at George Washing-
Carol Anderson of Emory Univer- ton University. He can be contacted
sity calculates that for every extra by email at stevecokie@gmail.com.
WALTER WILLIAMS, FOUNDING DEAN,
MISSOURI SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM
ABOUT THE OPINION PAGE
The Missourian’s Opinion section is a public forum for
the discussion of ideas. The views presented here are
those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the
views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If
you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a
response or an original topic of your own, use our online
submission form at
columbiamissourian.com/letters.
COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN Thursday, January 23, 2020 — Page 5A

OPINION
WRITE • REFLECT • RESPOND • COLUMBIAMISSOURIAN.COM

WHAT OTHERS SAY

Winter can be the ‘most
loneliest’ time of the year

W
ith holiday festivities over and
recent winter snow and ice, many
mid-Missourians might tend to get
a dose of cabin fever. Then when
it’s time to go to work or get some necessary
errands done around town, getting out in the
cold and snow may seem like a royal nuisance.
But imagine not being
able to get out — even
when the weather is nice?
Or rather than having a
hectic to-do list, not hav-
ing enough activity to fill
one’s day.
There are a good num-
ber of folks around town
who are in such a spot.
STEVE Some are disabled or elder-
ly or in some other situa-
SPELLMAN tion making them a shut-in.
I visited several shut-
in’s Sunday afternoon in
the bone-chilling cold. These were folks who
are members of my church but are unable to
make it to weekly services.
The conversations centered around their
health status, the quality of care they were
receiving and the weather. There was also fre-
quent references to family photos, the pride of
a granddaughter’s accomplishments in school,
a son who was having to move out of state for a
job opportunity, a new great-grandchild.
It means a lot for older folks living alone
to have a network of family and friends who
check up on them, often daily. One elderly
woman is so thankful for having an adult
daughter and son-in-law who live in town and
are more than happy to zip over to help with
anything and everything at the drop of a hat.
She is so looking forward to them including her
in a family gathering three hours away — a
journey utterly impossible on her own.

Undoing ‘Clean Missouri’ bill,

Most people value staying in their own home
if at all possible and sometimes go beyond the
time it is safe for them to do so. Some have a
realistic plan about how they can maintain a

favoring party lines senator’s goal

care support network, while others lament their
personal finances for the seemingly inevitable
day when moving into a care facility is neces-
sary. One conversation revealed a basic under-
standing of the concept of Medicare spend-
down, where nearly all one’s savings must be

consumed before any nursing home bills will be
covered by the program on a senior’s behalf.
Since my last turnout serving home commu-
nion about a year ago, three members had since
passed away. One’s health just kept going down-
hill. Another had been taking blood treatments
for a disease for 15 years and finally was over-
taken by his chronic condition. Cancer claimed
a middle-aged fellow who left behind three
adolescent girls.
In visiting with older folks, it’s difficult to
think this might be the last encounter you will
have with them. I don’t know how many times I
have seen an obituary of some acquaintance in
the paper and think back to the last time I saw
him or her. How I could have more cherished
those moments. All the things I wish I would
have asked them.
Such a realization was clear last spring vis-
iting my uncle, who also had been worn down
over several years with cancer. Shaking his
hand goodbye felt like a final goodbye. Sure
enough, he passed away in the fall, and his
funeral nearly filled their little country church
with people touched by his life.
Funny how that happens with some folks,
living alone in their twilight years, but their
funeral is crowded. Maybe it should be the
other way around: What if shut-ins were typi-
cally exhausted by a parade of daily visitors,
then their funerals were attended by many who
had been already paying their respects while
the dearly departed was still among the living?
Beyond the conversations about family and
old times and such, every person I saw Sunday
was genuinely thankful for the 15- to 30-minute
visit, while several specifically thanked the
church for “not forgetting me.”
This time of year is especially tough on the
elderly and those living alone. The flowers
aren’t blooming, there aren’t enough sweaters
to feel warm and taking a short walk out to
get the mail can be dangerous. One woman
said taking one breath of the frigid air into her
fragile lungs, she’s just asking to get sick ... and
perhaps risking her life.
If you are active, youthful and have your
health, please count your blessings. With busy-
ness being the norm much of the year in many
households, the infrequent wintry day to stay
home with something good to read and a cup of
hot herbal tea is just fine.
Steve Spellman hosts “The Mid-Missouri
Freedom Forum” at 5 p.m. every Tuesday on
KOPN/89.5 FM.
CONTACT US
“W
e the People of the United
States, in Order to form a
more perfect Union, estab-
lish Justice, insure domes-
tic Tranquility, provide for the common
defence, promote the general Welfare, and
secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves
and our Posterity, do ordain and establish
this Constitution for the United States of
America.”
A democracy is government established
of, by and for the people.
James Madison defined a “republic” as
a system of government where the people
elect representatives.
There are times when the people self-gov-
ern by introducing ballot initiatives, usually
on a state level, when the representatives
fail to govern per the people’s wants or
needs.
That was the case with the 2018 passage
of Amendment 1, the “Clean Missouri”
proposal that included measures to limit
the power of lobbyists, reduce campaign
finance contributions and create a new
redistricting process. And the vote was
overwhelming with 62% of the voters
approving the proposition.
This was a bipartisan movement, with
Independents, Democrats and Republicans
voting to eliminate gerrymandering in the
state. The idea is to have a nonpartisan state
demographer, selected by the state auditor,
develop the district lines in a fair manner,
not giving any one party an advantage.
The Republicans currently hold a super-
majority in the state legislature, and for the
last two decades the Republican legislature
redistricted state Senate and House dis-
tricts according to the U.S. census. Needless
to say, the ruling party designs the districts
to favor that particular party.
The Republican Party believes that this
new amendment to our state constitution is
unfair, that an independent demographer
could not possibly divide the state into fair
districts and that the position would be
ABOUT THE OPINION PAGE
The Missourian’s Opinion section is a public forum for the
discussion of ideas. The views presented here are those of
the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to
contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original
topic of your own, use our online submission form at
columbiamissourian.com/letters.
DAVID ROSMAN
biased to the party of the auditor. Its mem-
bers also believe that if the new methodol-
ogy takes place, they will lose their advan-
tage at the polls.
As of the opening of the 2020 legislative
session, the Republicans have introduced at
least four bills that would negate the will of
the people. Let’s look at a bill — SJR54 —
from Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring.
Eigel believes that the Clean Missouri
amendment of 2018 hid from the public the
rules on redistricting. Nothing can be fur-
ther from the truth. The initiative petition
clearly stated in the first line that “Shall
the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
change process and criteria for redrawing
state legislative districts during reappor-
tionmen ... .”
Reviewing the news stories of 2018 and
2019, as well as Ballotpedia.com, it is quite
evident that members of the voting public
knew exactly what they were voting for.
Discussions concerning lobbying restric-
tions and campaign finance reform took a
second seat to the redistricting/gerryman-
dering portion of the amendment.
Under Amendment 1, the auditor would
then provide the majority and minority
leaders of the Senate with the names of
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU
The Missourian encourages readers to share their opinions. Letters should be no
more than 400 words and addressed to letters@columbiamissourian.com; longer
pieces will be con­sid­ered for guest columns. Here are a few more ways to include
your voice:
three demographer candidates. Upon agree-
ment, the new nonpartisan state demogra-
pher would be responsible for preparing
new redistricting plans for the state House
and Senate districts.
Eigel wants to undo the amendment to the
state constitution to incorporate two sitting
boards, one for the state Senate and one for
the state House, to decide on the redistrict-
ing.
As stated in the resolution: “This amend-
ment repeals the position of nonpartisan
state demographer and gives authority for
redistricting the House of Representatives
to the Independent Citizens House Redis-
tricting Commission. The Independent Cit-
izens Senate Redistricting Commission is
responsible for redistricting the Senate.”
It is going back to the old ways that would
guarantee a Republican supermajority
remains in both houses.
In short, this is insulting to Missouri vot-
ers in an attempt to negate the amendment
that would provide equity to both parties
regardless of who is in the auditor’s office.
There is no precedent for this action by
either party. This is where Missouri citizens
should draw a line in the sand and vote to
remove those who support this effort to
legislatively remove the essence of a state
constitutional amendment.
Laws are designed to protect the minority
from the abuse of the majority. In this case,
the minority is the lack of Democratic rep-
resentation in the state legislature.
I am advocating that elections be fair to
both parties in every state district and that
everyone eligible gets to vote for his or her
state and federal representatives in a fair
and open election process.
David Rosman is an award- winning edi-
tor, writer and professional speaker. You
can read more of David’s commentaries
at ColumbiaMissourian.com and Inkand-
Voice.com.

WRITE: Letter to Editor, P.O. Box 917, Columbia, MO
65205
EMAIL: letters@ColumbiaMissourian.com
FAX: 573-882-5702 CALL: 573-882-5700
General Manager: Bryan Chester • chesterb@mis-
souri.edu
Executive Editor: Ruby L. Bailey • baileyru@missou-
ri.edu
Opinion Editor: Laura Johnston • johnstonlc@mis-
souri.edu
LOG ON to columbiamissourian.com to create or join discussions on
our articles and columns.
“I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with
it are, to the full measure of their responsibility, trustees for the public;
JOIN US at facebook.com/ColumbiaMissourian to respond, share
that acceptance of a lesser service than the public service is betrayal of
and ask questions.
this trust. I believe that clear thinking and clear statement, accuracy and
fairness are fundamental to good journalism.”
WALTER WILLIAMS, FOUNDING DEAN, FOLLOW US on Twitter @CoMissourian to stay on top of the news
MISSOURI SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM and share your thoughts.
 GRAIN BELT EXPRESS FANS MOURN BRYANT
The Missouri House passed a bill A day after Kobe Bryant’s tragic
that would deny eminent domain passing, people around the
to a transmission project meant to world and in Columbia paid their
deliver wind-generated power respects to the all-time NBA great
Page 3A Page 1B
Tuesday, January 28, 2020 • COLUMBIA’S LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER • COLUMBIAMISSOURIAN.COM • 75 CENTS

Damaged church raising money for repairs

Bricks fell from
Wilkes Boulevard
United Methodist’s
antique bell tower
BY CRYSTAL COX
news@columbiamissourian.com
Wilkes Boulevard United Meth-
odist Church is known for feeding
and serving Columbia’s homeless
population.
Now the church needs help.
Two weeks ago, the church’s
antique bell tower began to crumble.
Bricks near the top of the tower top-
pled to the sidewalk, leaving a gap-
ing hole, Pastor Brad Bryan said.
To fix it, the congregation faces
two options: replace the missing
bricks at a cost of $15,000, or com-
pletely reconstruct the tower for
$40,000 to $50,000 — money the
church doesn’t have.
The church board of trustees
must make the decision based on
cost and durability, but the cheaper
option is problematic, Bryan said.
“The rest of the tower would still
have 100-year-old brick,” he said.
“It might not last through summer
thunderstorms or another winter.”
Instead, he wants to go with the
more expensive option — tear down
the bell tower and reconstruct it so
it would last much longer.
Built in 1916, the tower houses an
antique brass bell from 1853 that
the church cannot ring for fear of
further damage.
Bryan, who has been with the
church for six years, said the bell
tower’s condition has worsened over
time. He believes the recent winter
weather may have caused the bricks MADI WINFIELD/Missourian
to finally loosen and fall. Mickey Ramey prepares to brew a pot of coffee Sunday at Wilkes Boulevard United Methodist Church. Ramey works at Wilkes to help fight homelessness in Columbia, which he largely
attributes to systemic problems with drugs and addiction. “I don’t like being older, but I really like being born when I was, because we were the last generation to grow up without a
Please see WILKES, Page 4A major drug epidemic,” Ramey said.

Missouri police dog is saved at Columbia residents

MU Veterinary Health Center experience mail delays
BY GRACE ZOKOVITCH
news@columbiamissourian.com
Retired police dog Lor spent a
long career saving human lives;
when a tumor ruptured in his
small intestine, MU veterinarians
got to return the service.
According to his owner, former
Deputy Sheriff James Craigmyle,
Lor had an illustrious career
in the Greene County Sheriff’s
Office. His eight years of track-
ing down missing kids, drugs and
criminals impacted countless
people. Lor retired in November
2019, and in January 2020, he was
diagnosed with a life-threatening
condition, according to an MU
press release.
After a Springfield veterinarian
diagnosed Lor, Craigmyle brought
him to the MU Veterinary Health
Center. The college’s vets gave
Please see DOG, Page 6A
BY VIVIAN KOLKS
news@columbiamissourian.com
The U.S. Postal Service website
promises that “neither snow nor
rain nor heat nor gloom” could
prevent it from distributing the
packages and messages entrusted
to it. But in the last week, some
Columbia residents experienced a
delay in mail delivery because of
extreme winter weather.
Mary Stephenson, a Columbia
resident with a self-described
“rural mailbox,” reports that mail
deliveries have been inconsistent
in her neighborhood since Wednes-
day and that she received deliver-
ies only twice during the week.
The delay is a result of Friday’s
snowstorm, said Bart Green,
Columbia’s postmaster.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE “Some employees do use their
Lor, left, greets his owner James Craigmyle on Jan. 13 in Columbia. Craigmyle and Lor personal vehicles, and they don’t
worked for the Greene County Sheriff’s Office for eight years before retiring in 2019. have four-wheel drive,” Green
said. “For the safety and protection
of our employees, we determined
that it was not safe to deliver mail
last Friday.”
There are two post office stations
in Columbia, and Green said that
the postal service uses workers
from both locations to make deliv-
eries.
“We got bad weather down here
over the weekend,” Green said.
“It’s difficult to get people out
there, especially in those rural
areas.”
Green said that any person with
missing mail can contact the post
office.
As of Monday afternoon, Ste-
phenson had yet to receive her
mail and has been unable to reach
anyone at the post office.
“The highway is clear,” she
said, “there’s no reason why they
couldn’t have gotten out here.”
Supervising Editor is Molly Hart.

Committee approves bill to alter ‘Clean Missouri’ amendment

TODAY’S WEATHER
PARTLY CLOUDY
33/28
BY IAN MCMANUS
INDEX news@columbiamissourian.com
Abby7A
JEFFERSON CITY — Leg-
Classifieds5B
islation revising the “Clean
Nation8A
Missouri” amendment and
Obituaries2A
regulating a controversial
Opinion5A
substance that can be used as
Sports1B an intoxicant was approved by
Sudoku6B a House committee Monday.
TV schedule 8B Members of the House Gen-
eral Laws Committee voted
Our 112th year/#97 along party lines to send what
2 sections is effectively a redaction of
16 pages a portion of the Clean Mis-
souri amendment to the full
House for a vote. Approval by
the legislature would send a
revised version of the original
Clean Missouri amendment
6 54051 90850 3 back to voters. The Amend-
ment — instituted after it was
overwhelmingly approved by
voters in 2018 — made a num-
ber of changes to state law.
Proponents of the amend-
ment — largely Democrats in
the legislature — argue the
bill served to limit the influ-
ence of lobbyists and make
the drawing of legislative
districts less partisan, which
it did by limiting lobbyist
gifts and giving redistricting
responsibility to the state
demographer. They also say
it is unfair to put the same
amendment up to voters a sec-
ond time, particularly after it
received 62% of the vote.
Those supporting a new vote
on the amendment don’t see a
problem.
“If the Clean Missouri con-
cept was so good and passed
before so overwhelmingly,
then the logic should dic-
tate that if the voters like
what they voted on the first
time, they’ll vote this one
down,” said Chuck Basye,
R-Rocheport.
GOP lawmakers making the
push to put the changes back
on the ballot in November
argue the amendment was too
complicated and voters didn’t
understand many of the issues
at hand, particularly related
to redistricting.
The new bill brings the
lobbyist gift limit from $5 to
zero while leveling campaign
contributions across both
houses by lowering the
amount receivable by state
senators. They have made
clear, though, that undoing
the redistricting changes is
the real priority. “I think that
the voters decided that based
on the totality of the proposal
that they were for it, obvious-
ly,” said Rep. Curtis Trent,
R-Springfield, who backs the
legislation. “But if they were
presented with a proposal
with a different formulation,
I think they might like it even
better.”
Clean Missouri took the
redistricting process out of
Please see CLEAN, Page 6A
Page 6A — TUESDAY, January 28, 2020
Concerns raised about medical marijuana licensing process
Several Missouri
applicants have filed
formal appeals after
noticing scoring
irregularities
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY — Several
would-be marijuana busi-
ness owners in Missouri
who failed in their bids for
licenses are raising questions
about how the state selected
winners and losers.
The Missouri Department
of Health & Senior Services
has been announcing licenses
as the state prepares for the
expected start of medical
marijuana sales this sum-
mer. Last week, the state
Police dog settles into retirement as a community hero
DOG from Page 1A
him a 50-50 chance of sur-
vival going into the surgery,
according the university’s
press release.
Under the care of his vets,
Lor managed to pull through
and made a full recovery.
Craigmyle said that Lor
received a clean bill of health
at a recent follow-up in
Springfield.
Lor was brought to work
for the Greene County police
in 2010. The department
applied for a dog through
an overseas animal broker
and, Craigmyle recounts, the
young German Shepard was
the most well-suited police
dog the vendor had seen in
years. The Czech-native dog,
then known as Loris, made
his way across the ocean to
Greene County. In Missouri,
he quickly adopted the name
Lor, gained a stellar reputa-
tion for his exceptional nose
and friendly demeanor and
cemented a lifelong partner-
ship with Craigmyle.
“The community sees him
as a hero. I see him as a part- tunity to witness the extent of touched,” Craigmyle said.
ner,” Craigmyle said. “I would these devotees’ compassion
do anything for him, and I
know he would do anything
for me.”
During their time together
Committee sends bill meant to regulate, label kratom to House floor
CLEAN from Page 1A
the hands of elected officials
and gave the responsibility
to the state demographer, a
nonpartisan position vetted
by the state auditor, current-
ly Nicole Galloway, a Dem-
ocrat.
The issue is particularly
contentious as redistricting
takes place every 10 years
with the census, and this will
be the last opportunity to put
the issue on the ballot before
the process takes place.
Republicans assert that
while the demographer
position is supposed to be
$18 million expansion planned at Missouri Holocaust Museum
The addition of 35,000
square feet will make
room for a library,
archive, classrooms and
exhibits at the historic
learning center
The Associated Press
CREVE COEUR — The St.
Louis Holocaust Museum &
Learning Center will triple
in size with an $18 million
expansion as officials seek
to reach even deeper into
issues of bias, bigotry and
hate.
Details about the expan-
sion were announced Mon-
day, the St. Louis Post-Dis-
patch reported. Officials
hope to make the building
more visible and accessible.
The museum, in the sub-
urb of Creve Coeur and
operated by the Jewish Fed-
eration of St. Louis, draws
30,000 annual visitors, about
two-thirds of whom are stu-
dents. Admission is free.
Museum officials are in
touch with about 30 Holo-
caust survivors who live
in the St. Louis area. Mon-
day’s announcement came
on International Holocaust
Remembrance Day and the
announced 192 licenses for
dispensaries, awarded from
1,163 applicants.
But several attorneys,
lobbyists and applicants told
The Kansas City Star about
what they considered incon-
sistencies and irregularities
in the scoring process used to
award licenses. Administra-
tive appeals and lawsuits are
starting to pile up — so much
so that the health depart-
ment last week solicited bids
from attorneys who could
help defend the state in legal
action.
Leisa Stevens compiled
what she thought was a com-
petitive application to grow
cannabis on 30 acres near
Kansas City International
Airport. She reviewed state
rules, hired an engineering
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE
Lor, a retired police dog, stands with his medical team Jan. 13 in
Columbia. Lor and his police officer owner were shown on “Live PD,” a
9-1-1 responder reality show.
on the force, Lor and Craig-
myle made several appear-
ances on the show “Live PD.” Facebook were inundated
Through the show and their
work in the community, the
duo gained an extensive and
devoted fan base with over
50,000 followers just on Twit- very overwhelming to see
ter. Craigmyle got the oppor-
when Lor got sick.
Supportive messages
flooded in, Craigmyle said,
as word spread of Lor’s diag-
nonpartisan, it will end up
becoming a partisan position
because it is appointed by an
elected official.
“They’re spreading a false-
hood, and they know it,” said
Rep. Peter Merideth, D-St.
Louis.
“The reality is that just
like the current state demog-
rapher, and other similar
positions, this position is vet-
ted as applicants go through
the auditor’s office. That
simply means the auditor’s
job is to confirm all appli-
cants are qualified for the
job. All of those applications
get passed to the Senate,
75th anniversary of the lib-
eration of Auschwitz.
Don Hannon, chief oper-
ating officer of the Jewish
Federation, said he and
other officials often hear
from people who didn’t know
St. Louis had a Holocaust
museum. The museum
opened 25 years ago.
“Our goal is to make sure
that doesn’t happen in the
future,” he said. “We want to
be well-known. We want to
continue to be a resource.”
The museum’s new execu-
tive director, Sandra Harris,
said groundbreaking will be
in May and the goal is to fin-
ish by the end of 2021. The
new space will be 35,000
square feet and will include
a larger multipurpose area
with retractable theater
seating for 250 people. It
will also include a relocated
library, an archive space,
two classrooms, an exhibi-
tion space with more multi-
media displays and a space
that can house temporary
exhibits.
Museum officials have
raised about $14 million and
also received a $750,000
National Endowment for the
Humanities challenge grant.
firm and an attorney, and
invested about $160,000 in
personal retirement funds.
In late December, Stevens
learned she didn’t land one of
60 cultivation licenses. The
more she dug into her score-
card — graded by a third-par-
ty firm hired by the health
department — the more puz-
zled she became.
She received zero points on
several questions despite pro-
viding lengthy responses. She
filed a formal appeal.
“Some of these just seem
like mistakes,” Stevens said.
“The state just turned this
over to a scoring company
so they really don’t have any
responsibility for this. So it’s
kind of a mystery.”
Owners of a Sarcoxie nurs-
ery argued in a lawsuit that
nosis. Craigmyle’s accounts
on Twitter, Instagram and
with messages every day
expressing concern and wish-
ing Lor well.
“It’s very humbling and
just how many lives he’s
Lor and Craigmyle are now
back to settling into retire-
ment at home. Craigmyle
expressed gratitude that
Lor’s gotten to regain his
which actually appoints the
position,” he said.
He went on to note that
the Senate has accepted for
review six of the seven appli-
cants for the position that
Galloway has confirmed;
the one rejected applicant
was turned down because
of inadequate qualifications
rather than a partisan view.
The committee also agreed
unanimously to send a bill
called “The Kratom Con-
sumer Protection Act” to the
House floor.
The bill would set up regu-
lations for the substance kra-
tom, an extract from a tree
This image provided by TR,i Architects on Monday shows a rendering of the planned $18 million expansion of the St. Louis Holocaust Museum &
Learning Center in Creve Coeur. Museum officials say they hope to make the museum more visible and accessible. The museum draws about 30,000
visitors annually.
The museum’s lessons go
beyond the Holocaust, with
details about genocides
the state’s limit on cultivation
licenses violates the Missouri
Constitution’s “right to farm.”
Owners of a dispensary pro-
posed for Independence filed
suit to challenge that city’s
zoning regulations on mari-
juana businesses.
Greg Wu, co-chair of the
cannabis law practice group
at Kansas City’s Shook,
Hardy & Bacon firm, is rep-
resenting several applicants
in their appeals.
Wu said he hears some
common threads. Many of
those who applied for multi-
ple licenses copy and past-
ed their answers on basic
questions, yet those identical
answers received wildly dif-
ferent scores.
The health department
hired a third-party scorer to
Lor, a retired German Shepard police dog, sits after a successful small intestine surgery Jan. 10 in Columbia.
“Lor was a fantastic police dog due to his courage, heart and relentless drive,” said his owner, James Craigmyle.
“Whether it was sniffing out illegal narcotics or apprehending suspects who had fled from the police, he was a
phenomenal asset to our team.”
youthful spirit and can enjoy
time with cheese and toys.
“Lor helped bridge the gap
in Southeast Asia that can
be turned into a number of
consumable products that at
least somewhat replicate the
effects of opiates. The FDA
does not recognize kratom
as a controlled substance,
but this proposed act would
demand kratom products
be labeled accurately and
not include substances that
could interact with kratom’s
effects. It would also prohib-
it the purchase of kratom to
minors under 18.
Kratom is a controversial
substance that has gained
popularity in the United
States recently. Some feel
across the world. It encour-
ages visitors to consider
their own biases.
COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN
ease concerns about favorit-
ism in the bidding process.
Bidders were evaluated on
their methodology, qualifi-
cations, performance and
cost. A bidder could score
a maximum of 218 points,
according to bid evaluation
records obtained by The Star.
The winning bid — by Wise
Health Solutions, a new joint
venture of Veracious Inves-
tigative & Compliance Solu-
tions LLC and Oaksterdam
University — scored 120.
Veracious Investigative &
Compliance Solutions was
formed in 2018 by Chad War-
ren Westom, former bureau
chief for the Nevada Divi-
sion of Public & Behavioral
Health, which regulates that
state’s medical marijuana
program.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE
between law enforcement and
the community,” Craigmyle
said. “He is nothing short of
it is a useful tool for those
trying to escape opioid
addiction, while others say it
can be used to get high. The
substance is outlawed in sev-
eral states, but the federal
government has yet to take
action on it.
“I have heard from people
all over the state, really,
who said that consumption
of this substance was some-
thing that had really helped
them, had helped break their
addiction to opioid drugs,
had helped relieve mild pain
that they had, and there
were a lot of local govern-
ments that were considering
TR,I ARCHITECTS VIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
It includes more than
12,000 artifacts, includ-
ing letters, photographs,
Westom told The Star that
the scoring process included
many checks and balances to
ensure the identity of individ-
ual applicants was unknown
to the scorers. He acknowl-
edged variations in scores
were possible: Each question
within a facility type was
judged by the same person,
but Westom said “it was not
logistically possible” to have a
single scorer judge a specific
question for all facility types.
“For a given specific ques-
tion, there may have been
different scoring perspec-
tives from one facility type
to another, because of differ-
ences between the profes-
sional perspectives of scorers
assigned to that facility
type and specific question,”
Westom said.
a hero.”
Supervising editor is Molly
Hart.
banning this substance,”
said Phil Christofanelli, R-St.
Peters, sponsor of the bill.
He noted that St. Charles
has passed a resolution
similar to his own but that
county regulation wasn’t the
most efficient way to create
a better system.
“I think instead of hav-
ing a patchwork regulatory
structure across the state
that we should have uniform
rules about the consumption
of this substance, and that’s
best done through the state
legislatures.”
Supervising editor is Mark
Horvit.
artwork and uniforms and
patches that survivors wore
in concentration camps.
 STATE OF THE UNION
President Donald Trump addressed
a divided Congress on Tuesday,
praising America’s ‘comeback’ in
the wake of his impeachment trial
Wednesday, February 5, 2020 • COLUMBIA’S LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER • COLUMBIAMISSOURIAN.COM • 75 CENTS
Senate grants initial
approval for a Clean
Missouri amendment
BY MOLLY JACKSON
news@columbiamissourian.com
JEFFERSON CITY — In 2018, 62% of Mis-
sourians voted for the Clean Missouri amend-
ment that put the job of redrawing state legisla-
tive districts in the hands of a nonpartisan state
demographer.
Now, Republican lawmakers want to repeal
the amendment by bringing the issue back to
the polls in the fall.
The Senate gave initial approval Tuesday
evening to SJR 38, a constitutional amendment
that would give the mapping power back to
bipartisan commissions appointed by the gov-
ernor.
The proposal, by Sen. Dan Hegeman, R-Cos-
by, also would change the priorities of factors
that are considered during the redistricting
process.
“We would like to go back to a bipartisan
commission that will emphasize compactness
and keeping communities of interest together
over other aspects,” Hegeman said.
Democratic lawmakers called the new plan
“Dirty Missouri.” They said downgrading the
Please see CLEAN, Page 8A
Buttigieg, Sanders
lead as Iowa releases
partial caucus results
The Iowa Democratic Party has
released partial results of its kickoff
presidential caucus after long delay
BY STEVE PEOPLES, THOMAS BEAUMONT
AND ALEXANDRA JAFFE
The Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Democratic
Party released partial results of its kickoff presi-
dential caucus after a daylong delay late Tuesday
showing former Midwestern mayor Pete Butti-
gieg with a slight lead over progressive Vermont
Sen. Bernie Sanders in the opening contest of the
party’s 2020 primary season.
The results followed 24 hours of chaos as tech-
nical problems marred the complicated caucus
process, forcing state officials to apologize and
raising questions about Iowa’s traditional place
atop the presidential primary calendar.
It was too early to call a winner based on the
initial results, but Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth
Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden and
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar were trailing in
the tally of State Delegate Equivalents, according
to data released for the first time by the Iowa
Democratic Party nearly 24 hours after voting
concluded.
The results reflected 71% of precincts in the
state.
The two early leaders, Buttigieg and Sanders,
were separated by 40 years in age, conflicting
ideology and more.
Sanders, a 78-year-old self-described democrat-
ic socialist, has been a progressive powerhouse
for decades, while the 38-year-old Buttigieg’s
early standing cemented his transformation from
a little-known Indiana mayor to a legitimate force
in the 2020 contest. Buttigieg is also the first
openly gay candidate to earn presidential prima-
ry delegates.
“We don’t know all of the numbers, but we
know this much: A campaign that started a year
ago with four staff members, no name recog-
Please see CAUCUS, Page 8A
TODAY’S WEATHER
SNOW & WINDS
30/22
INDEX
Abby7A
Classifieds5B
Nation8A
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Opinion6A
Sports1B
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TV schedule 8B
Our 112th year/#103
2 sections
16 pages
6 54051 90850 3 The parade is set to begin
Page 8A
John Sam Williamson looks out onto the Missouri River on Dec. 11 near Columbia. Williamson had 60 acres of corn and about 285 acres of soybeans destroyed
in the 2019 flood. Despite flooding on his land, Williamson has never considered moving. “It’s worth it,” he said.
WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS
Levee failure causes massive losses to Missouri farms
BY CAITLYN ROSEN AND SETH BODINE • Missourian
Snow advisory threatens travel plans to Chiefs parade
BY JESSICA BLAKE
news@columbiamissourian.com
Winter weather advisories in
Missouri are creating a sense
of high alert as Kansas City
Chiefs fans from across the
state will be flocking to the
Power & Light District down-
town for the Chiefs Kingdom
Champions Parade on Wednes-
day morning.
Columbia is expected to be
hit with 4 to 6 inches of snow
through Thursday morning,
according to the National
Weather Service, after a light
wintry mix and below-freezing
roads Tuesday night. Columbia
Public Schools are not in ses-
sion Wednesday, according to
district spokesperson Michelle
Baumstark.
Kansas City is expected to
receive 2 to 3 inches around the
parade area, but accumulation
will increase to 3 to 5 inches as
drivers head east.
ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL
Missouri men’s basketball scored
just 18 first-half points and never
recovered, losing its sixth straight
road game, 68-51 to Texas A&M
Page 1B
EMMALEE REED/Missourian
J
ohn Sam Williamson hadn’t lost a result of flooding, 1.2 million acres of
a crop since he started farming in farmland were underwater in Missouri,
1975. That is, until 1993. according to Missouri Department of
“That was a 500-year flood,” Wil- Agriculture spokesperson Sami Jo Free-
liamson said. man.
Williamson’s 1,100 acres, most of Many farmers invest in safety nets
which has been in his family since 1835, like building levees and investing in
had water flowing 5 feet over the top of crop insurance. But damaged levees and
his levees. All of his crops were lost, and higher insurance premiums may hurt
he didn’t have crop insurance. He’s still farmers in the upcoming planting sea-
thousands of dollars in debt from the son, in what is already predicted to be
flood. a wet year. And as more crops are lost
When last year’s severe floods hit his from flooding, some speculate Missou-
farm, he had crop insurance as a safety ri’s economy will feel the ripples.
net but still had losses. He lost about
half of his soybeans and half of his corn. Levee failure
And some crops, he didn’t even plant — The failure of the levee system caused
about 420 acres worth. much of the damage across the state.
Standing beside the Missouri River, Levees are embankments created to
he recalled at least seven floods. Some protect land from flooding. At least 73
years, the levees held; other years, they levees in Missouri and Kansas were
didn’t. breached or overtopped in 2019.
It’s an experience many farmers have Aside from getting rid of the water,
faced. When a flood hits, it can cause a the immediate problem following the
dramatic loss of crops and income. floods was repairing breached levees,
Farms shared heavily in the damage a complicated process that still isn’t
expenses, and crop insurance policies finished. This problem has been further
paid more than $344 million to Missou- complicated because the Missouri River
ri farmers as of November from both remains higher than usual.
excess moisture and floods, according to
the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As Please see FLOOD, Page 4A
at 11:30 a.m. at Sixth Street I-70 and Highway 50 as they go Western University and Univer-
and Grand Boulevard, heading east, and I would expect haz- sity of Central Missouri have
south on Grand and then west ardous conditions,” he said. all created petitions to cancel
on Pershing Road, ending at Because of the weather, Sgt. classes through Change.org.
Union Station. There will then Scott White, public information The only university to cancel
be a celebration rally held at officer of the State Highway classes as of Tuesday after-
1:30 p.m. at Union Station. Patrol Troop F, which patrols noon was the University of Mis-
“I think everybody coming in 13 counties in mid-Missouri, souri-Kansas City. University
for the parade won’t have that said there will be 45 officers on officials said the closure was
big of an issue, but everyone duty Wednesday. because of bad weather com-
leaving the parade definitely “We’re keeping an eye on bined with the 2020 Super Bowl
is gonna have some hazardous both the Kansas City parade parade.
conditions on the roads,” said and also the winter weather,” “We were thrilled to watch
National Weather Service mete- White said. “We would remind the Chiefs beat the 49ers on
orologist Jimmy Barham. people that the weather poten- Sunday and love that our cam-
Barham predicted light tially is going to be pretty poor pus community came out in
on-and-off snow with minimal (Wednesday), if they do decide force to support the state’s NFL
accumulation in the Kansas to go to the parade that they team,” MU spokesperson Chris-
City area into Wednesday leave plenty early,” he said. tian Basi said. “While we are
morning. He said fans can Reflecting enthusiasm for the planning a campus celebration,
expect snow throughout the Chiefs, students across Kansas likely later in the semester, we
parade but that the heaviest and Missouri have written peti- are not canceling classes.”
snow will pick up around the tions asking for class cancella- For more information on the
start of the celebration rally. tions Wednesday. parade, visit the Kansas City
“If they leave in the after- Students at MU, Kansas State Sports Commission and Foun-
noon before sunset, they’re University, Pittsburg State dation’s website.
probably gonna run into some University, Northwest Missou- Supervising editor is Galen
pretty good snow rates along ri State University, Missouri Bacharier.
Page 8A — Wednesday, February 5, 2020
Redistricting is focus Tech problems invite renewed scrutiny of caucus
of debate over Clean
Missouri proposition
CLEAN from Page 1A
criteria of “competitiveness”
and partisan “fairness”
would take away the ability
to have competitive elections.
Sen. Jill Schupp, D-Creve
Coeur, said the Republicans’
proposal was “undermining
what the people already
voted for.”
But after several hours of
filibustering, the Democrats
said they had made their
point and would stop talking
and allow a vote.
“They have the votes to
stop debate, so at some point,
you have to point out major
flaws in the bill and continue
to oppose it throughout the
session,” said Sen. Lauren
Arthur, D-Kansas City. “We
think it’s important that
elections are competitive and
fair. It still speaks volumes
that that is at the bottom of
their list in terms of priori-
ties.”
Trump boasts of economic gains on eve of impeachment verdict
BY JONATHAN LEMIRE
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Stand-
ing before a Congress and
nation sharply divided by
impeachment, President Don-
ald Trump used his State of
the Union address Tuesday
to extol a “Great American
Comeback” on his watch,
just three years after he took
office decrying a land of
“American carnage” under
his predecessor.
The partisan discord was
apparent for all to see as the
first president to campaign
for reelection while facing
impeachment vigorously
made his case for another
term: Republican legislators
chanted “Four More Years.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelo-
si ripped up her copy of
Trump’s speech as he ended
his address.
“America’s enemies are on
the run, America’s fortunes
are on the rise and America’s
future is blazing bright,”
Trump declared. “In just
three short years, we have
shattered the mentality of
American decline and we
have rejected the downsizing
of America’s destiny. We are
moving forward at a pace
that was unimaginable just
a short time ago, and we are
never going back!”
Offering the nation’s eco-
nomic success as the chief
rationale for a second term,
Trump’s speech resembled a
lower-volume version of his
campaign rallies, offering
something for every section
of his political base.
But while he tweets daily
assailing his impeachment,
Trump never mentioned the
“i-word” in his 78-minute
speech. He spoke from the
House of Representatives, on
the opposite side of the Cap-
itol from where the Senate
one day later was expected
to acquit him largely along
party lines.
Pelosi, a frequent thorn in
TRIVIA
NIGHT
Sponsored by Columbia Insurance Group
and Lori Neidel Law Office
Supporters of the group
that got Clean Missouri on
the ballot criticized the pro-
posed revisions.
“We can’t let a handful
of politicians and lobbyists
overturn the will of the peo-
ple,” Rod Chapel, president
of the Missouri NAACP State
Conference, said in a news
release.
The proposed revision of
Clean Missouri deals with
more than redistricting,
though that was the focus
of the debate. The plan also
would ban lobbyist gifts to
legislators, instead of allow-
ing for $5 gifts, as is the case
now. It would lower the limit
for campaign donations to
senators by $100.
The proposal still needs
another vote in the Senate. If
approved by the House, it is
expected to be on the Novem-
ber ballot.
Supervising editor is Vir-
ginia Young.
Trump’s side, created a viral
image with her seemingly
sarcastic applause of the
president a year ago. This
time, she was even more
explicit with her very public
rebuke.
Trump appeared no more
cordial. When he climbed to
the House rostrum, he did not
take her outstretched hand
though it was not clear he had
seen her gesture. Later, as
Republicans often cheered,
she remained in her seat, at
times shaking her head at his
remarks.
Trump, the former reality
TV star, added a showbiz
flavor to the staid event: He
had wife Melania present
the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, the nation’s highest
civilian honor, to the divisive
conservative radio host Rush
Limbaugh, who recently
announced he has advanced
lung cancer.
He stunned a young student
in the gallery with a scholar-
ship. And he orchestrated the
surprise tearful reunion of
a solider from overseas with
his family in the balcony.
Even for a Trump-era news
cycle that seems permanent-
ly set to hyper-speed, the
breakneck pace of events
dominating the first week of
February offered a singular
backdrop for the president’s
address.
Supreme Court Chief Jus-
tice John Roberts, who has
presided in the Senate over
only the third impeachment
trial in the nation’s history,
was on hand again Tuesday
night — this time in his more
customary seat in the audi-
ence. Trump stood before the
very lawmakers who have
voted to remove him from
office — and those who are
expected to acquit him when
the Senate trial comes to a
close.
The leading Senate Demo-
crats hoping to unseat him in
November were campaigning
in New Hampshire.
Columbia Metro Rotary
CAUCUS from Page 1A
nition, no money, just a big
idea — a campaign that some
said should have no business
even making this attempt
— has taken its place at the
front of this race,” Buttigieg,
declared, his voice filled with
emotion, as he campaigned in
next-up New Hampshire with
his husband looking on.
Buttigieg’s early rise was
rivaled for possible impor-
tance by the struggle of
another moderate, Biden.
One of his party’s most
accomplished figures, the
former two-term vice pres-
ident and longtime senator
was mired in the second
tier of Iowa candidates with
almost two-thirds of precincts
reporting. Biden’s campaign
sought to downplay the
caucus results even before
they were released, hardly
a measure of strength for a
high-profile contender who
has led national polls for most
of the last year.
“We believe we will emerge
with the delegates we need to
continue on our path to nomi-
nation,” said Symone Sanders,
a senior adviser.
While all campaigns were
eager to spin the Iowa results
President Donald Trump arrives to deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the
House Chamber on Capitol Hill on Tuesday in Washington as Speaker Nancy Pelosi reaches to shake his hand.
In advance of his address,
Trump tweeted that the chaos
in Iowa’s Monday leadoff
caucuses showed Democrats
were incompetent and should
not be trusted to run the gov-
ernment.
Among Trump’s guests
in the chamber: Venezue-
lan opposition leader Juan
Guaidó, who has been trying
to win face time with Trump,
his most important interna-
tional ally.
The president offered
Guaidó exactly the sort of
endorsement he’s been look-
ing for as he struggles to oust
President Nicolás Maduro
from power. Trump called
Guaidó “the true and legiti-
mate president of Venezuela.”
“Socialism destroys
nations,” Trump declared.
The president entered
the evening on a roll, with
his impeachment acquittal
imminent, his job approval
numbers ticking upward and
Wall Street looking strong.
He struck a largely optimistic
Friday, February 7 | 5:30 p.m.
Single Ticket - $40 OR Table of 8 - $300
Tickets include a catered dinner, beer,
Purchase tickets at: columbiametrorotary.org/trivia-night
to their advantage, there was
little immediate indication
that the incomplete results
erased the confusion and
concern that loomed over
the caucuses. It was unclear
when the full results would be
released.
During a private conference
call with campaigns earlier in
the day, state party chairman
Troy Price declined to answer
pointed questions about the
timeline — even whether it
would be days or weeks.
The leading candidates
pressed on in New Hamp-
shire, which votes in just
seven days. And billionaire
Democrat Michael Bloomberg
sensed opportunity, saying he
would double his already mas-
sive advertising campaign
and expand his sprawling
staff focused on a series of
delegate-rich states voting
next month.
The party’s caucus crisis
was an embarrassing twist
after months of promoting
Iowa as a chance for Demo-
crats to find some clarity in a
jumbled field. Instead, after
a buildup that featured seven
rounds of debates, nearly $1
billion spent nationwide and
a year of political jockeying,
caucus day ended with no
tone Tuesday night, though
even in past moments when
Trump has struck a tone of
bipartisanship and cooper-
ation, he has consistently
returned to harsher rhetoric
within days.
In the closest historical
comparison, Bill Clinton
did not mention his recent
impeachment when he deliv-
ered his State of the Union in
1999. In his address a year
ago, Trump did remain on
message, making no mention
of how Pelosi had originally
disinvited him from deliv-
ering the speech during the
longest government shutdown
in the nation’s history.
Trump spent much of the
speech highlighting the econ-
omy’s strength, including
low unemployment, stressing
how it has helped blue-collar
workers and the middle class,
though the period of growth
began under his predecessor,
Barack Obama. And what
Trump calls an unprece-
dented boom is, by many
Annual fundraiser benefits
Metro Rotary charities and
Knights of Columbus Hall, 2525 N Stadium Blvd
Doors open at 5:30, Dinner at 5:45 and Trivia at 6:30
Activities include Trivia, Raffles
and Silent Auction
soft drinks and set-ups
COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN
winner, no official results and
many fresh questions about
whether Iowa can retain its
coveted “first” status.
Iowa marked the first con-
test in a primary season that
will span all 50 states and sev-
eral U.S. territories, ending at
the party’s national conven-
tion in July.
Before he left Iowa late
Monday, Sanders said, “Today
marks the beginning of the
end for Donald Trump.”
Facing New Hampshire vot-
ers a day later, Sanders said
thank you to Iowa and, tongue
in cheek, expressed confi-
dence that New Hampshire
election officials would have
more success counting votes.
“And when you count those
votes, I look forward to win-
ning here,” he said.
For the first time, the Iowa
Democratic Party reported
three sets of results this year:
a tally of caucusgoers’ initial
candidate preference, vote
totals from the “final align-
ment” after supporters of low-
er-ranking candidates were
able to make a second choice,
and the total number of State
Delegate Equivalents each
candidate received.
The Associated Press will
declare a winner based on
LEAH MILLIS/The Associated Press
measures, not all that differ-
ent from the solid economy
he inherited from President
Barack Obama. Economic
growth was 2.3% in 2019,
matching the average pace
since the Great Recession
ended a decade ago in the
first year of Obama’s eight-
year presidency.
Trump stressed the new
trade agreements he has
negotiated, including his
phase-one deal with China
and the United States-Mex-
ico-Canada agreement he
signed last month.
While the White House
said the president would have
a message of unity, he also
spent time on issues that have
created great division and
resonated with his political
base. He attacked Demo-
crats’ health care proposals
for being too intrusive and
again highlighted his signa-
ture issue — immigration
— trumpeting the miles of
border wall that have been
constructed.
the number of state delegates
each candidate wins, which
has been the traditional stan-
dard.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who
represents Iowa neighbor
Minnesota, was also in the
early running, while outsider
candidates including entre-
preneur Andrew Yang, billion-
aire activist Tom Steyer and
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
lagged behind.
The state party told cam-
paigns Tuesday the problem
was a result of a “coding issue
in the reporting system” that
it said had since been fixed,
not of “a hack or an intru-
sion.”
Beyond 2020, Monday’s
debacle invited fresh criti-
cism about Iowa caucuses, a
complicated set of political
meetings staged in a state
that is whiter and older than
the Democratic Party in gen-
eral. Many questioned anew
whether it was a quaint polit-
ical tradition whose time had
passed.
“I think Iowa is a dumpster
fire,” said Dick Harpootlian,
a South Carolina state senator
and longtime Biden support-
er, who served as an Iowa
precinct captain for Biden on
Monday.
He also dedicated a sec-
tion to “American values,”
discussing efforts to protect
“religious liberties” and
limit access to abortion as
he continues to court the
evangelical and conservative
Christian voters who form a
crucial part of his base.
The Democrats were
supplying plenty of count-
er-programming, focusing
on health care — the issue
key to their takeover of the
House last year. Trump, for
his part, vowed to not allow
a “socialist takeover of our
health care system” a swipe
at the Medicare For All pro-
posal endorsed by some of his
Democratic challengers.
Many female Democrats
were wearing white as trib-
ute to the suffragettes, while
a number in the party were
wearing red, white and blue-
striped lapel pins to high-
light climate change, saying
Trump has rolled back envi-
ronmental safeguards and
given free rein to polluters.
Several Democratic law-
makers, including California
Rep. Maxine Waters and
New York Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, announced in
advance of the speech that
they would be skipping it,
with the high-profile New
York freshman tweeting that
she would “not use my pres-
ence at a state ceremony to
normalize Trump’s lawless
conduct & subversion of the
Constitution.”
Michigan Gov. Gretchen
Whitmer delivered her par-
ty’s official response and
drew a contrast between
actions taken by Democrats
and the president’s rhetoric.
“It doesn’t matter what
the president says about
the stock market,” Whitmer
said. “What matters is that
millions of people struggle to
get by or don’t have enough
money at the end of the
month after paying for trans-
portation, student loans or
prescription drugs.”
 CPS SURVEY POSITIVE MISSOURI FALLS TO LSU
The Columbia School Board Freshman Aijha Blackwell had the
discussed a districtwide survey third double-double of her career,
that showed improved numbers, but Missouri scored just 20 points
and it gave a financial update in the second half to let its lead slip
Page 3A Page 1B
Tuesday, February 11, 2020 • COLUMBIA’S LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER • COLUMBIAMISSOURIAN.COM • 75 CENTS

Senators follow party lines — with one exception — in Clean Missouri vote
BY ASHLYN O’HARA
news@columbiamissourian.com
JEFFERSON CITY — Clean
Missouri just got one step closer to
reappearing on November’s ballot.
The Missouri Senate voted 22-9 in
favor of Senate Joint Resolution 38,
sponsored by Sen. Dan Hegeman,
R-Cosby, on Monday, which would
change amendments that were
made to the Missouri Constitution
in fall of 2018.
Only one Republican, Sen. Lincoln
Hough of Springfield, joined Dem-
ocrats in voting against the bill.
He and other opponents said voters
already made their opinions known
when they passed Clean Missouri
in 2018, while those in favor of a
second referendum believe voters
didn’t understand what they were
doing.
The proposed changes to Clean
Missouri include:
■  Eliminating the role of a “non-
partisan state demographer” and
reverting to a system where the
lines are drawn by bipartisan com-
missions appointed by the governor.
■  Changing the lobbyist gift
threshold from $5 to zero.
■  Reducing the limit on con-
tributions given to or received by
candidates.
Hough represents Springfield,
which voted 65% in favor of Clean
Missouri. The state of Missouri as a
whole voted 62% in favor.
Hough said that while he under-
stands the desire to eliminate lob-
byists gifts, he also doesn’t want to
dismiss what voters said in 2018.
“I don’t discount what the voters
do, and I think if you’re kind of
true to your job as a representative
democracy, you listen to the people
that you represent,” Hough said,
adding that he didn’t think “we”
should pick and choose what “we”
think voters did or did not under-
stand.
Sen. Jill Schupp, D-Creve Coeur,
opposed the bill, saying that she
was confused at Republicans’ claim
that voters were confused with the
amendment when the proposed
changes would put it before them
in much the same way as it was in
2018.
“People want a fair shake, they
want their vote to count, they want
to get rid of the partisan gerryman-
dering in the drawing of districts
and I think they were very clear in
supporting ... a nonpartisan demog-
rapher who would draw those lines
seeking, where possible, partisan
fairness in how maps were drawn,”
Schupp said.
Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton, also
voiced his opposition to the bill,
joining Schupp in saying that he
didn’t want their “no” votes to be
viewed as support for lobbyist gifts.
At a meeting of the Senate Fis-
cal Oversight committee, senators
voted the resolution out of commit-
tee, meaning it could be discussed
on the Senate floor. The committee
also approved the resolution’s fiscal
note, or estimated cost if imple-
mented. If the amendment is put on
this year’s ballot, the cost is zero.
Sen. Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia,
emphasized the time-sensitive
nature of this legislation as part of
his motivation for his “yes” vote,
explaining that if the issue of redis-
tricting is not taken up now, the
chance to address what he called a
“glaring deficiency in the way maps
were drawn,” would not come again
until the next census, ten years in
the future.
District lines will be redrawn
based on the 2020 census, and this
is lawmakers’ last chance to impact
that process.
Rowden also said claims that the
bill undoes the will of the people
are “not factually true,” because
the resolution would put the issue
back in front of the voters, and that
one reason he voted yes is because
he felt there was too much power
given to the state demographer,
though that position has not been
filled yet.
“I think having a bipartisan com-
mission and multiple individuals
with multiple perspectives at the
table, I think is a much better view,
and I think actually leads to a much
fairer and more equitable map,”
Rowden said.
The resolution now heads to the
House.
Supervising editor is Mark Horvit,
horvitm@missouri.edu.

Former MU
NEXTGEN PROGRESSING faculty member
pleads not
guilty to
sexual abuse
BY DANIELLE DUCLOS
news@columbiamissourian.com
A former MU assistant research
professor has been accused of sexu-
ally abusing someone after forcing
drinks on the victim, according to a
probable cause statement by Colum-
bia police.
The suspect, Henok Woldu, 36,
pleaded not guilty to a charge
of first-degree sexual abuse last
Wednesday via electronic court fil-
ing. He waived formal arraignment
Monday in Boone County Circuit
MADI WINFIELD • Missourian Court.
The charge is related to a report-
ed sexual assault that took place
April 6, 2019, after the victim had
Construction on the NextGen been socializing with the suspect at
an unnamed place. The victim told
police that the suspect persuaded
Precision Health Institute began them to go to a “dance club” in the
Tiger Hotel where the victim was

in June, and the facility is expected

encouraged to drink more and then
suddenly felt incapacitated.
A security guard’s body camera

to open in October 2021.

footage examined later showed the
victim being removed from the
bathroom and then leaving with

The institute will be open to the suspect. The victim had clearly
been vomiting and needed help
standing and walking, according to

the entire UM System, allowing the probable cause statement.

The victim told police the suspect
took the victim to his home and

researchers access to more assaulted them while they were

incapacitated, according to the
probable cause statement.
advanced resources than their The statement also describes the
victim secretly recording a con-
versation with the suspect in which
individual schools may provide. he says he knew the victim was
incapacitated and admitted to the
Please see ABUSE, Page 3A

Pitt wins first acting Oscar, for ‘Once Upon a Time’

TODAY’S WEATHER
CALM WINDS
40/31

INDEX Hollywood icon known for
Abby7A leaving MU just credits
Classifieds5B
shy of graduating adds
Nation8A
Obituaries2A
a statuette to the one
Opinion5A he won for producing
Sports1B
BY BETH HARRIS
Sudoku6B The Associated Press
TV schedule 8B
LOS ANGELES — An
Our 112th year/#107 emotional Brad Pitt won his
2 sections first acting Oscar on Sunday
16 pages night, claiming the supporting
actor trophy for “Once Upon
a Time... in Hollywood,” while
referencing his own storied
run in the industry where he
is among the most famous and
6 54051 90850 3 revered.
Pitt, known for leaving the
University of Missouri and
its School of Journalism just
credits shy of graduating in the
1980s, beat out an iconic group
that included Tom Hanks,
Anthony Hopkins, Joe Pesci
and Al Pacino.
He was honored for his role
as Clint Booth, a stunt double
for Leonardo DiCaprio’s actor
character in the film about the
Manson family murders that
shot at locations in Hollywood
near the Dolby Theatre, where
Pitt accepted the first award of
the evening.
CHRIS PIZZELLO/The Associated Press
Brad Pitt accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting
“I’m a bit gobsmacked,” Pitt
role for “Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood” at the Oscars on Sunday at the
Please see BRAD, Page 6A Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Page 4A — Wednesday, February 19, 2020
House bill would repeal Supreme Court bail rules Turnout for chief
BY JORDAN MEIER
news@columbiamissourian.com
JEFFERSON CITY — The
Missouri Supreme Court
went too far. That’s what
Rep. Justin Hill, R-Lake St.
Louis, said Tuesday about
rules the state high court
created to avoid jailing peo-
ple simply because they’re
poor.
Hill sponsors HB 1937,
which would repeal rules
that the state’s high court
created last year to regulate
pretrial releases and bail. He
said the court overstepped
its authority.
“I’ve thought we needed
to have this discussion,” Hill
told the House Judiciary
Committee. “However, we
did not get an opportunity to
have this discussion because
it was effectively legislat-
ed by the Supreme Court
Senators consider undoing Clean Missouri Bill would affect unions’ fee collection
BY MADISON CZOPEK
news@columbiamissourian.com
JEFFERSON CITY — For
the second year in a row,
state lawmakers are trying
to exempt many of their
records from public scrutiny.
A bill, sponsored by Sen.
Ed Emery, R-Lamar, is an
attempt to undo changes
made to the Missouri Sun-
shine Law that were imple-
mented when voters passed
the Clean Missouri amend-
ment in 2018. Clean Missou-
ri, which passed with 62%
support, included language
that now requires legislative
records to be considered pub-
lic records under Missouri’s
Sunshine Law.
Emery said during a hear-
ing Tuesday that his bill will
“protect the correspondence”
between legislators and their
constituents from being sub-
ject to Sunshine requests.
But the bill goes further than
just correspondence. It would
mean any record, such as
emails or documents “related
to” a constituent, would no
longer be public record sub-
ject to Sunshine requests.
As defined in SB 613,
“constituent” would mean
any person who lives or pays
property taxes in a lawmak-
er’s district. Lobbyists’ com-
munications with lawmakers
would still be considered
public record, however —
even those lobbyists who are
a lawmaker’s constituent.
Sen. Eric Burlison, R-Bat-
tlefield, seemed to support
the provision that would
protect constituent-related
records and implied he would
like to see the law cover
communications from any
Missouri citizen. He said he’s
had correspondence with
supporters on controversial
issues — for example, mes-
sages from union workers
who supported the “right-
to-work” legislation — that,
had the communication been
subject to Sunshine requests,
could have exposed Missouri-
ans across the state to poten-
tial retribution or retaliation.
“(The Sunshine requests)
I’ve received have only
come from groups that I
would call political activist
through their rule-making
process.”
The goal of the state high
court’s rules was to change
the pretrial release system
so that it did not punish
low-income people by mak-
ing them sit in jail because
they could not afford bail.
Hill agreed that people
should not be stuck in jail
simply because they cannot
afford bail, but he contended
that the new rules have had
a major consequence: an
increase in crime.
“We essentially now just
have a catch and release sys-
tem,” Hill said.
Several sheriffs from
across the state testified
about the effect the new
rules have had on their
jurisdictions, and some
supplied anecdotes about
increases in warrants for
people not showing up for
groups,” said Burlison. “I’ve
never received a legitimate
Sunshine request. I’ve only
received ones from groups
that have clear intentions
to try to … expose any of
the supporters and create a
chilling effect on people that
support issues.”
Emery cautioned that he
doesn’t believe there is such
a thing as an “illegitimate”
Sunshine request because the
law is meant to allow citizens
to look behind the metaphor-
ical closed doors of govern-
ment. But he acknowledged
that some requests the legis-
lature has seen have been of
a political nature, although
he clarified that the bill is
not meant to prevent those
requests. He said the bill is
only meant to protect things
about constituents that might
be inappropriate to share,
such as personal medical
information or family issues.
The bill would also allow
lawmakers to close any
records “regarding proposed
legislation or the legislative
process.” This provision, in
particular, received criticism
from Sen. Tony Luetkemey-
er, R-Parkville. He said he
believes the Sunshine Law
was designed to allow access
to exactly the types of com-
munications this provision
would keep from the public.
“I think it’s inconsistent to
me that we as members of
the legislature hold ourselves
to different standards when-
ever it comes to disclosure
than we do the executive
branch, than we do our may-
ors, than we do our county
officials,” said Luetkemeyer.
“I think what’s good for the
goose is good for the gander.”
He went further to say he
fundamentally believed the
provision should be removed,
but he acknowledged that
was unlikely to occur. For
that reason, he said he plans
to vote “no.” He also advised
“having good email hygiene”
could eliminate the concerns
the bill’s provision is meant
to address.
“If you don’t want some-
thing published on the front
page of a newspaper that
is stupid, don’t put it in an
email,” Luetkemeyer said.
their court dates.
Sheriff Scott Lewis of St.
Charles County said there
has been a 30% increase in
crime in his county since
the rules were enacted, and
that with these changes and
the increase in warrants,
officers have to locate and
apprehend the missing defen-
dants.
“There is no incentive to
show up for court, so we
are spending our manpower
and our transportation costs
driving around the state,
driving around the United
States, bringing these people
back to St. Charles County,”
Lewis said.
The sheriffs said the
changes have impacted pub-
lic safety. For example, Sher-
iff Shawn Webster of Clark
County said he arrested a
man on a Monday for bur-
glary. The man was released
“I don’t see why we can’t, as
adult, professional legislators,
make that same decision
whenever we put something
in writing.”
Luetkemeyer said he
agreed with the idea of pro-
tecting lawmaker-constitu-
ent correspondence, but he
suggested changing the bill
so that its protections would
exclude correspondence with
public officials who would
otherwise be subject to the
Sunshine Law.
“For example, if my mayor
from one of my cities emails
me something,” Luetkemeyer
said, “I think that should be
fair game. You’ve got two
public officials.”
Jean Maneke, legal counsel
for the Missouri Press Asso-
ciation, also brought up some
concerns with the bill. She
said the language used in the
part of the bill that protects
constituent-related records
could, and likely would, be
interpreted too broadly.
“It doesn’t say ‘from a con-
stituent’; it says it’s a record
that’s ‘related to a constitu-
ent,’ so I think a good lawyer
could take that and apply it
to a lot of correspondence
that isn’t from a constituent
at all,” Maneke said. She
said she thought having law-
makers advise constituents
in back-and-forth communi-
cation that their correspon-
dence could be subject to
Sunshine requests was a bet-
ter way for the legislature to
demonstrate a commitment
to integrity in state govern-
ment than changing the law.
Maneke also expressed
concern about the portion of
the bill that would change the
minimum price to fulfill a
Sunshine request to $5.
“There are many people
who walk into their local
courthouse, their local city
hall … and want a copy of
one record. They pay 10
cents and they walk back
out,” Maneke said. “This is
going to make every one of
those people have to pay $5. I
think that there’s no justifica-
tion for that.”
The bill is a revised version
of a 2019 Senate bill that the
committee passed last year.
and arrested for burglary
again later that week, Web-
ster said.
However, those in oppo-
sition to the bill said the
court’s rules don’t force
judges to release defendants
with no bail, nor do the rules
prohibit bail from being set.
“All the court has to do if
they feel that cash bail is
warranted under the circum-
stances is list why that is,”
said Rep. Gina Mitten, D-St.
Louis. “It doesn’t say you
can’t do it. All that it says
is that if you’re going to do
it, you need to let us know
why.”
Hill’s bill follows a letter
he sent to the Supreme Court
in January condemning the
new rules and the way the
court went about creating
them. More than 80 lawmak-
ers co-signed the letter.
BY MARIA BENEVENTO
news@columbiamissourian.com
JEFFERSON CITY — Pub-
lic employee unions trying
to collect fees could face an
extra requirement if a bill
heard by a Missouri Senate
committee Tuesday becomes
law.
Bill sponsor Sen. Bob Onder,
R-Lake St. Louis, described
SB 701 as an attempt to ensure
that public employees under-
stand their right to join or not
join a union and to bring the
state into compliance with
a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court
decision, Janus v. AFSCME.
The case bars public employee
unions from requiring that
nonmembers pay union fees.
Missouri law currently
requires annual authorizations
from public employees before
union fees can be withheld
from their paychecks.
Onder’s bill would require
that public employees, such
as teachers, submit specific
forms each year to demon-
strate that they understand
their rights and are volun-
tarily authorizing that part
of their paycheck go toward
union fees. Employers could
face fines of $500 per violation
if they fail to use the forms.
Mark Janus, the Illinois
K-12 education bill rallies support; others
receive mixed views from public testimony
BY MIKAYLA EASLEY
news@columbiamissourian.com
JEFFERSON CITY —
Proposals dealing with the
Bible, armed resource offi-
cers and increased suicide
prevention efforts in schools
were the subject of a House
education hearing Tuesday.
While legislation that
mandates suicide preven-
tion training for teachers
received bipartisan and pub-
lic support, bills that would
allow Biblical texts to be
taught in schools, mandate
armed school resource offi-
cers and establish private
school scholarship funds
heard opposing testimony.
HB 1820 would require
each Missouri school district
to offer suicide prevention
training to all practicing
teachers, administrators and
licensed educators. Rep. Ann
Kelley, R-Lamar, the bill’s
sponsor, said the training
would help educators recog-
nize when students are in a
potential crisis.
In Missouri, suicide is
the second-leading cause of
death among those aged 10
to 24 in 2016, according to a
study by the Missouri Insti-
tute of Mental Health.
“As we increase the num-
ber of those trained, we will
be able to increase the num-
ber helped and ultimately
reduce suicide rates,” said
Kelley.
HB 1820 would also
require public school dis-
tricts and public higher edu-
cation institutions to print
the number for the National
Suicide Prevention and the
Crisis Text Line on student
identification cards.
The bill was supported by
both committee members
and those who testified.
HB 1345 did not receive
the same universal support.
The bill would allow school
districts to offer elective
COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN
exceeded resources
CHIEF from Page 1A
when you’re making your
decision.”
Two of the people giving
public comment were kids:
Rothie Mertensmeyer and
Colten Mayse. They knew
Woolford for his work as
a crossing guard. He was
known for wearing crazy
hats and was named Ameri-
ca’s Favorite Crossing Guard
in 2019 in a contest held by
Safe Kids Worldwide.
“Chief Woolford is some-
thing special to us, and we
want him back because he
always brought smiles to
people’s faces,” Mayse said.
City Administrator Tony
St. Romaine began working
in Ashland about five months
public employee who took his
case to the Supreme Court,
appeared at the hearing to tes-
tify in favor of the bill.
“You cannot presume that
someone knows these rights
and that they are aware of
them and can exercise them,”
he said, explaining that he has
met many public employees
nationwide who don’t under-
stand the impact of the court’s
decision.
A witness from the Macki-
nac Center for Public Policy in
Midland, Michigan, also spoke
in favor of the bill, alongside
groups such as Americans for
Prosperity and the Missouri
Century Foundation.
Opponents argued that the
bill isn’t necessary, would
place an unfair burden on
unions and modifies a recent
law that is currently under
an injunction by a Missouri
court because of free speech
concerns.
A representative of the Mis-
souri National Education Asso-
ciation said “good law” from
1983 already ensures that Mis-
souri public employees have
direction over union withhold-
ing from their paychecks.
To illustrate the burden that
the bill would place on unions,
Clark Brown of the Service
Employees International
courses to teach classes on
the Judeo-Christian Bible as
historical texts. Supporters
of the bill said that courses
would not focus on religious
aspects of the Old and New
Testament but rather on how
the text influenced Ameri-
can history and society.
“Trying to understand
Western civilization and
English literature without
the knowledge of the Bible
is like trying to understand
American history without
reading the Constitution,”
said Rep. Ben Baker, R-Neo-
sho, the bill’s sponsor.
Missouri does have exist-
ing law that allows religious
books to be used in class-
rooms for instructional pur-
poses in elective courses on
literature and history.
Some who opposed the bill
felt it would be impossible
to separate the religious
contexts from the Old and
New Testaments in a history
class. Brian Kaylor, the asso-
ciate director of ChurchNet,
said he did not believe the
texts could be “reduced sim-
ply to a class.”
“The Bible is the foun-
dational text of my faith,”
said Kaylor. “It teaches me
about God, it teaches me how
to worship God and follow
God’s commands. And that is
its whole purpose.”
Sarah Baker, a legislative
and policy director of the
ACLU of Missouri, also
testified that the bill had
constitutional problems in it
that could marginalize other
religions by singling one text
out over others.
Despite this, those who
testified in support of the
bill felt the Judeo-Christian
Bible is an invaluable tool in
understanding Western civi-
lization.
Another bill heard in the
committee that received
both support and opposition
was HB 1961, which man-
ago, but he hadn’t yet seen
a meeting this crowded, he
said.
“This isn’t the best place
for conducting large meet-
ings, but it’s all we have
right now,” St. Romaine said.
“At the time we posted this
meeting, we had no idea that
this might (draw so many
people).”
On Monday, a billboard
showed up on U.S. 63, which
included the date and time
of the meeting with the
message, “Support Ashland
Police Chief Lyn Woolford.”
It’s on a changing billboard,
so it shared its space with
several other ads, but a
photo of Woolford still shone
intermittently over the road.
Union brought along a form
reauthorizing donations to the
United Way that he forgot to
submit on time despite want-
ing to continue his support.
He contended that the peo-
ple behind the bill know that
making employees reautho-
rize their union contributions
every year could lead some to
unintentionally drop out.
The AFL-CIO and the Amer-
ican Federation of Teachers
also testified against the bill.
The General Laws Com-
mittee also heard and passed
a bill related to death regis-
tration and funeral arrange-
ments. SB 598 supporters said
it would reduce death certifi-
cate delays by allowing more
ways for doctors to input the
cause of death.
The bill also ensures that
a spouse won’t be treated as
next of kin for the purpose of
making funeral plans if the
couple has a divorce pending
and modifies the ways that
more distant relatives can
request permission from next
of kin to take charge of funer-
al arrangements.
The Fresh Start Act, SB 647,
which would make it easier
for former criminals to obtain
professional licenses, also
received committee approval,
with some revisions.
dates having at least one
armed and trained student
resource officer in every
public school building.
The bill would also allow
school districts to alterna-
tively employ trained volun-
teers who are former mem-
bers of law enforcement or
the U.S. armed forces.
“This will give a lot of
people, especially a lot of
former military men and
women, a new purpose to
protect a school full of kid-
dos,” said Rep. Dottie Bailey,
R-Eureka, in support of the
bill.
Opposition for HB 1961
suggested that student
resource officers should
remain within local juris-
diction and that there are
alternative methods to pre-
vent gun violence in schools,
including laws and education
regarding proper firearm
storage at home and expand-
ing mental health resources.
“An armed teacher or
administrator or volunteer is
much more likely to shoot a
student or a bystander than
to respond to the perpetrator
of the crime,” said Cathy
Gilbert of Moms Demand
Action, a gun control advo-
cacy group, citing a study by
Everytown for Gun Safety.
The fourth bill heard
during Tuesday’s meeting
was House Bill 2068, which
would establish the “Show
Me a Brighter Future Schol-
arship Act.”
The bill would allow tax-
payers to make tax-deduct-
ible contributions to the
scholarship fund for current
public or charter school stu-
dents to attend qualifying
private schools. Those who
testified in support said
the scholarship would give
students access to better
education, while those who
opposed believed that fund-
ing could support the public
school system.
Page 2A — Tuesday, March 3, 2020 COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN

WEATHER
League of Women Voters aiming
to educate about gerrymandering
BY SKYLAR LAIRD
news@columbiamissourian.com
Marilyn McLeod told the story
of Lloyd Doggett, a U.S. congress-
man who continued to win his seat
TODAY’S FORECAST: despite the Texas legislature ger-
rymandering his district, during
HIGH 60° LOW 39° the League of Women Voters’
People Powered Fair Maps talk
Sunny and warm. Monday.
Winds with gusts that As the Missouri legislature con-
siders modifying Clean Missouri,
could reach 28 mph.
and with the 2020 census fast
approaching, the League of Women
Sunrise 6:37 a.m.
Voters hopes to educate people on
Sunset 6:04 p.m.
the history of gerrymandering as
a political strategy and how it can
WEDNESDAY
High 61° Low 39° misrepresent populations.
“This is an important topic, and
Partly cloudy, with slower
winds than Tuesday. we need to work on it right now
because it’s happening right now
THURSDAY in the legislature and people just
High 60° Low 33° need to be informed,” McLeod
Temperature stays warm, said. “I think it’s one of those
mostly sunny. things that you don’t think about
and then, suddenly, there it is: the
FRIDAY end result.”
High 50° Low 32° Gerrymandering is the practice
Sunny but with a drop
in temperature.
of “twisting legislative boundaries
to give one party or candidates
an electoral advantage,” McLeod
Data for MARCH 2, 2020 said in her speech. In the case of
Doggett, a Democrat, Republican
demographers skewed the bound-
HIGH LOW
aries of his congressional district
55° 38° to create a higher concentration
50° Normal 30° of voters they believed would vote
against him, and even draw him
78° Record -5°
(1992) (1890) out of the district he was running
to represent.
32° Year ago 25°
McLeod also used data from past
93° -26° elections to show how redistricting
McAllen, Peter in Missouri skews the political
Texas
Nation Sinks,
Wyo. makeup of the legislature. For
example, she said, only about half
PRECIPITATION of people voted Republican in the
0.00 2018 gubernatorial election, but
Normal daily value: 0.09” the Missouri House and Senate
Total month to date: 0.00” both have about 70% Republican
Normal month to date: 0.17” representation, indicating a higher
Total year to date: 6.05” concentration of Republican voters
Normal year to date: 4.34” in some districts than in others.
CHOIR AND CANVAS
Clean Missouri aimed to elimi-
nate this practice by outsourcing
redistricting to a nonpartisan team
and making the whole process more
transparent. It was approved with
62% of the vote in 2018, but law-
makers are now working to make
amendments and put it back on the
ballot under concerns that voters
did not understand the first mea-
sure.
“So what part of this are we sup-
posed to be confused about?” Linda
Smith called from the audience
after McLeod explained the amend-
ment. The rest of the room laughed.
Gerrymandering does more than
help out candidates; it also disen-
franchises voters and makes them
feel like their voice is not being
heard, McLeod said.
“What happens when districts
are not truly representing the peo-
ple? People get very disheartened
because there’s been no incentive
for the elected officials to com-
promise if they have a guaranteed
seat,” McLeod said in her speech.
Sharon Schneeberger, a League of
Women Voters member, emphasized
transparency in increasing voter
participation.
“I want people to be able to feel
like their vote matters,” she said.
“We work hard on voter registration
and educating voters, but if you
don’t feel that your vote is making
a difference, then all of that work is
crazy.”
Ultimately, McLeod said, it comes
down to a matter of equal represen-
tation, parties aside.
“I believe everyone wants fair-
ness in their elections, and which-
ever party wins fair and square, we
want to save the American way,”
she said. “Deliberately disregarding MADI WINFIELD • Missourian
the will of the people will cause
them to ask, ‘Do voters get to pick Missouri United Methodist Church’s Chancel Choir performs Sunday
their elected officials, or do the at the church as MU art professor and interpretive visual artist
elected officials get to pick their
voters?’” Matt Ballou paints live during the performance.

LAKE LEVELS
Mark Twain��������� 608.26 Down 0.13
Lake of Ozarks������������ 655.9 Up 0.09
MISSOURI RIVER
at Jefferson City����11.92 Down 0.12
at Hermann �������������15.2 Down 0.21
at St. Charles���������18.14 Down 0.33
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IN BRIEF
Tiger Bounce closes new Tiger Bounce closed the center com- You can either purchase tickets or a to films Thursday through Sunday;
play zone from lack of parent pletely three separate times for sever- pass. Tickets can be purchased indi- admission to all fest events, parties
al days each time to make repairs.
supervision vidually at the box office starting at and concerts; ticketless walk-up priv-
Parents and community members 9 a.m. Thursday or at the door or via ileges at certain venues and ticketless
After 60 days of being open to commented with their concerns on True/False’s Q system before screen- admission via the Silver Circle Q at
the public, Tiger Bounce decided to the post. Several commenters said ings and are valid for one screening. others; and a gift bag full of items
close down its newest addition to the parents needed to watch their kids Individual ticket prices range from from local businesses.
kids play place, Tiger Town Dramat- while they were playing. Others $12 to $16, depending on where and Super Circle: The Super Circle
ic Play. expressed concerns over the compa- for which film they are purchased, package is available for $975. In addi-
The company reports the zone is ny’s lack of attention to kids. and, for those with a valid student tion to a number of prefest privileges,
being closed to the public after a
The owner was unable to comment ID, $10 to $14. Student pricing is not this pass gives you single admission
lack of parental supervision led to on the responses to the Facebook available for the closing-night film. to films Thursday through Sunday;
thousands of dollars in damages. release. She said in an email to Passes are sold on the festival’s admission to all fest events, parties
“Our staff can only supervise kids KOMU that in the next few months, website. Passes are nontransferable and concerts; ticketless walk-up priv-
so much,” Tiger Bounce owner Tedi Tiger Bounce will be working to put
and must be picked up beginning at ileges at certain venues and ticketless
Ellis said in an email to KOMU. “We something else in the space. noon Wednesday at the festival’s box admission via the Silver Circle Q
are not a daycare.” “I don’t think there’s anyone more office, located at 1025 E. Walnut St. at others; and a gift bag. Also, $410
The owner reports that the initial disappointed than myself and the (unless you hold a Super Circle pass of the purchase price may be tax
investment of $50,000 and the addi- staff, as this was something we’ve and will have it delivered Tuesday.) deductible as a charitable donation to
tional $15,000 for equipment and worked so hard on and tried to make Simple: The Simple package can be the festival.
space repairs has been a financial work for this community,” Ellis said purchased for $100. This films-only Stay Up Late: This package is $45.
hit on the company. This last week- in an email. “It just wasn’t meant to pass includes single admission to The Stay Up Late wristband gives you
end presented nearly $8,000 in dam- be.” films Thursday through Sunday and access to the fest’s late-night dance
ages in the Tiger Town Dramatic The 2,000-square-foot zone of Tiger Q admission to any film (depending party, @CTION; admission, via the Q,
Play. Town Dramatic Play is currently on space availability). to any films at or after 9 p.m.; entry
closed, but the rest of the Tiger
In a Facebook post, Tiger Bounce Lux: The Lux bundle costs $225. to all the concerts (depending on
clarified the news. Bounce center remains open from 10 Passholders have access to such space availability); and admission to
The Facebook post explained that a.m to 8 p.m. every day. perks as single admission to festival Buskers Last Stand on Sunday night
— KOMU
the company asked parents over a films Thursday through Sunday and at the Missouri Theatre.
month ago for help with child super- admission to parties and the fest’s Sunday Spree: This package is $45.
vision. The post goes into further A guide to buying tickets masquerade ball on Thursday night It grants you, with a nontransferable
detail of the damages caused within for the True/False Film Fest and Reality Bites event on Friday eve- wristband, admission, via the Q, to
the last two months. The True/False Film Fest starts ning. Free or discounted admission to any screening the Sunday of the fest;
Damages include replacing all Thursday with at least 40 films sched- music showcases is also included. the ability, beginning at 9 a.m. Satur-
the equipment and flooring twice, uled to be shown. Purchasing tickets Silver Circle: This package costs day at the box office, to pick up tick-
a destroyed bathroom and a kinetic can be complicated, so here’s a guide $565. It grants access to most hap- ets for any Sunday screenings.
sand zone after a child urinated in it. to help you navigate the options. penings, including single admission — Francesca Hecker
FAMILY SUBMITTED OBITUARIES
Dorothy Stout, Sharleen Winters,
June 25, 1932 — Feb. 28, 2020 Sept. 7, 1936 — Feb. 27, 2020
Dorothy Runbeck Stout, 87, Fashion curriculum for the Sharleen H. Winters, 83, las) Dell, Kristin Ham, Eliza- and her sister Nancy built
of Lindsborg, Kansas, died department. surrounded by family and beth (Chris) Gerling, Tommy and ran Hearts Desire Pree-
Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, at Beth- Throughout her life, she
friends, passed away peace- Ham and Amanda Stelljes; mie Baby Clothing Compa-
any Home. enjoyed traveling, baking, fully Thurs- five grandchildren, Brian, ny, providing high-quality
Dorothy was born June 25, entertaining her friends and day, Feb. Misniah, Rebecca, Justin and clothing that was sold across
1932, in Kansas City, Kan- quilting. 27, 2020, in Hannah; and 11 great-grand- the country for a number of
sas, to the late Reginald and She is survived by her son Columbia. children. years.
Dolores (Gaston) Runbeck. Carl Stout of Mooresville,
Visitation Sharleen is preceded in One of her passions later in
She married Ellis Stout on North Carolina. will be held death by her husband, Lester
life with Lester was chasing
Aug. 25, 1956. Dorothy is preceded in at 10 a.m. Winters; her parents; three
Dorothy grew up in death by her parents, hus- rocks, minerals and gems.
March 4 at siblings, Nancy Graves, Vicki They would travel from Illi-
Lindsborg, where her fam- band and son Charles E. Memorial Moore and Bruce Ham; and
ily owned and operated the Stout. nois to Arizona collecting
SHARLEEN Funeral one grandchild, Wesley Win- and selling rocks, sometimes
Runbeck Brothers Grocery The funeral will be held at Home. ters.
WINTERS going into mines, sometimes
store and the Smoky Valley 1 p.m. March 7 at Messiah Memorial Sharleen was a caring wife
Roller Mill, which her family Lutheran Church, 401 N. 1st digging in salt flats.
services will and a wonderful mother to
eventually gifted to McPher- St., Lindsborg, Kansas, with Sharleen and her late sister
follow at noon at the funeral three children plus more than
son County in 1950. It is now the Rev. Amy Truhe officiat- Nancy would collect, clean,
home with Pastor Curtis 30 foster children. She was
enjoyed by thousands of ing. There will be a visitation package and ship clothing,
Olsen officiating. Burial will able to raise a family of five
people every year that visit beginning at noon up until the toys and other needed items
Lindsborg’s Old Mill Muse- time of service. Burial will be at a later date. on very little yet still provide
Sharleen was born Sept. everything the children could to the Lakota Indians at Pine
um. Never to leave a hungry follow at Elmwood Cemetery Ridge through the Red Cloud
mouth, by the end of the in Lindsborg. 7, 1936, in Cape Girardeau, dream of, even managing to
the daughter of Charles and take the family on camping Indian School.
Great Depression, the Run- In lieu of flowers, memo- In lieu of flowers, memori-
beck Brothers Grocery would rials may be made to the Gladys (Neal) Ham. trips all over Florida and the
Sharleen is survived by West. She did this by making als may be made to St. Jude
have accrued close to $1 mil- Lindsborg Old Mill Founda-
her three children, Linda and selling candles and cakes Children’s Research Hospital
lion in today’s money writing tion. Memorials may be sent
off people’s debt rather than in care of Crick-Christians (Richard) Albertson of St. and selling cosmetic prod- or Red Cloud Indian School,
letting them go hungry. Funeral Home, 103 N. Wash- Louis, Steven (Reng) Win- ucts, beyond her everyday care of Memorial Funeral
Dorothy earned a master’s ington, Lindsborg, KS 67456. ters of Columbia and Doug duties. Home.
degree from Kansas State For more information or (D’lisa Polly) Winters of Finding a lack of appro- Condolences may be made
University and taught fashion to leave condolences online, Kansas City; seven siblings, priate clothing for preemie to the family at www.memo-
at Stephens College, where please visit www.crick-chris- Kathy Keathley, Michael babies when one of her grand- rialfuneralhomeandcemetery.
she developed the History of tiansfuneralhome.com. (Susan) Ham, Lauren (Doug- children was born, Sharleen com.
 UP TO BUSINESSES
Gov. Mike Parson said Thursday that
the state will leave safety oversight
up to individual businesses when
they are allowed to reopen Monday
Friday & Saturday, May 1-2, 2020 • COLUMBIA’S LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER • COLUMBIAMISSOURIAN.COM • 75 CENTS
COVID-19 UPDATE:
MU Health
gives plasma
transfusions to
virus patients
BY CONNOR GIFFIN
news@columbiamissourian.com
As part of a nationwide effort to find a
treatment for COVID-19, MU Health Care
has given plasma transfusions to patients
hospitalized with the virus.
The transfusions are part of a national
clinical trial to determine if plasma from
recovered COVID-19 patients might help
patients currently infected with the virus,
according to a news release from MU
Health Care.
More than 100 hospitals are participating
in the trial.
The transfusions of what’s known as
convalescent plasma have been used with
some success to treat previous coronavi-
ruses, including SARS and MERS, accord-
ing to the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Although questions still remain about
the efficacy of convalescent plasma trans-
fusions, when it comes to the more recent
COVID-19, “limited data from China
suggest clinical benefit,” according to the
same article.
In a small, uncontrolled study, “adminis-
tration of convalescent plasma containing
Please see PLASMA, Page 3A
Temporary pay
cuts, furloughs for
MU Med School
faculty and staff
BY MADISON CZOPEK
news@columbiamissourian.com
The MU School of Medicine announced
temporary salary cuts for faculty and a pay
cut or furlough for staff at a virtual town
hall meeting for employees Thursday. The
actions are part of efforts to cut costs amid
the COVID-19 pandemic.
The following measures will be taken:
■  Faculty will be required to take 10%
salary reductions for three months, begin-
ning May 1 through July 31.
■  Staff members will be asked to
take either a 10% pay reduction for three
months or one week of unpaid furlough
during that three-month period.
The decision about whether staff mem-
bers will be asked to take a 10% pay cut
for three months or be furloughed for one
week will be negotiated with departmen-
tal leaders, said Steven Zweig, the newly
appointed dean of the MU School of Med-
icine. He said anyone who has already
taken a 10% cut will not be asked to take
additional cuts.
“This mandatory action alone will save
Please see CUTS, Page 3A
TODAY’S WEATHER
MOSTLY SUNNY
76/59
INDEX
Abby5B
Classifieds3B
Obituaries2A
Opinion6A
Sports1B
Sudoku5B
TV schedule 6B
Our 112th year/#165
2 sections
12 pages
6 54051 90850
DANIEL CALLS IT QUITS
Missouri softball’s lone senior, Eli
Daniel, opts not to exercise her
extra year of eligibility and ends
her college career
Page 3A Page 1B
MISSOURI Tests: 82,152 Cases: 7,562 Deaths: 329 BOONE COUNTY Cases: 100 Deaths: 1
COLUMBIA PREPARES TO REOPEN
Columbia,
Boone County
businesses to
start reopening
Monday with
restrictions
BY SKYLAR LAIRD
news@columbiamissourian.com
Most businesses in Boone
County will be able to reopen
Monday with restrictions
intended to prevent a spike
in the number of COVID-19
cases.
Columbia/Boone County
Health and Human Services
Director Stephanie Browning
said at a community briefing
Thursday that she signed
new orders with guidelines
detailing which business-
es will be allowed to open
and how. She said the order
marks the beginning of “our
journey to a new normal.”
The new orders will take
effect Monday, which is when
DAFFY LIU/Missourian
both the county and state
Elsa Dickerson cuts packaging tape on a table at Lakota Coffee Co. in downtown Columbia. Lakota has offered pickup stay-at-home orders expire.
service to local residents during the stay-at-home order. Browning did not set a spe-
cific date for when the new
orders might end, but said
Local stores balance reopening with customer and staff safety she would reevaluate the
county’s status in three to
four weeks.
Under the new order, all
BY FRANCESCA HECKER, HAYLEY customers who don’t want to enter retail establishments, gyms,
VAWTER AND COLIN WILLARD stores yet. restaurants, churches and
news@columbiamissourian.com Curbside pickup will still be other religious gathering
offered, she said, but she asks custom- places will be allowed to
Columbia businesses are making
ers to order bakery items 24 hours reopen. Locations of fewer
plans to reopen next week after Gov.
in advance Gilion said the store will than 10,000 square feet will
Mike Parson lifted the statewide iso-
delay scheduling events and work- be limited to 25% of their
lation order for COVID-19.
shops for the safety of the public. legal occupancy, while larger
Dozens of stores are planning at
Plume is usually closed Mondays, so establishments will be limit-
least limited reopenings, while a few
regular in-store business hours will ed to 10% of their capacity.
continue to weigh when and how to
begin Tuesday . The staff has been Personal care services,
accomplish it.
trained to help keep the store spotless such as hair salons, nail
Among those re-opening next week
as customers start to return, Gilion salons and massage parlors,
is Plume gift shop and bakery on
said. also will be allowed to reopen
Route K in south Columbia. Owner but will have to maintain
Other businesses, like Pizza Tree
Kelly Gilion said she is excited to
open but wants to take into account Please see REOPEN, Page 3A Please see ORDER, Page 3A
Effort near to send Clean Missouri back to voters
BY ASHLYN O’HARA The original Clean Missouri lobbyist gifts entirely (the current sition.
news@columbiamissourian.com constitutional amendment passed Clean Missouri cap is $5) and At the Thursday hearing of the
by 62% statewide and empowered change the limit on State Senate House General Laws Committee,
A new version of Clean Missou-
a non-partisan state demographer campaign contributions from Hegeman was the only person to
ri is steps away from reappearing
to oversee redistricting. It also $2,500 to $2,400. testify in person on the resolution.
on November’s ballot following a
put in strict limits on lobbyist Critics of the resolution say it Reps. Peter Merideth and Tracy
committee vote in favor on Thurs-
gifts and lowered some campaign undoes the will of the voters, but McCreery, both Democrats from
day.
contributions for state lawmakers, supporters say putting it back St. Louis, questioned the bill’s
The proposal — Senate Joint
among other things. on the ballot still leaves the final language regarding district reap-
Resolution 38 — sponsored by
The proposed changes would decision up to voters. portionment, and what the impact
Sen. Dan Hegeman, R—Cosby,
remove the state demographer On Feb. 10, the Senate voted would be of shifting from districts
would alter changes made to the
from that role and put redistrict- 22-9 in favor of SJR 38. The vote drawn based on population to
state constitution by voters during
ing power back in the hands of fell along party lines, with the districts based on the idea of “one
the November 2018 election,
person, one vote.”
including revisions to the redis- House and Senate commissions. exception of Sen. Lincoln Hough,
tricting process in Missouri. Additionally, it would eliminate R Springfield, who voted in oppo- Please see CLEAN, Page 3A
Tiered plan will phase in employees’ return to CPS
BY JESSICA BLAKE needs,” Baumstark said. These ers who are retiring, switching department guidelines and will
news@columbiamissourian.com include custodial, nutrition and classrooms or moving to a new be addressed toward 12-month
tech services. building to pack their things. It contract employees who would
Columbia Public School Dis-
Building supervisors will will also allow teachers to gather be working through the summer.
trict employees will return to
contact employees who will be anything they would like to take Baumstark said summer
their school buildings through
required to report to work. Not home for the summer. employees include custodial
“tiered stages” beginning Mon-
every employee of the same Superintendent Peter Stieple- workers, tech services and
day, according to an email sent
type will return at once. man announced last week that administrators.
to district staff Wednesday.
Those required to return will in-person summer school is can- The final tier will most likely
The tiered plan will be similar
be encouraged to use personal celed this year. be around the fall start date, the
to one for the state announced
protective equipment and prac- The district is working on email said. At that time, the dis-
Monday.
tice social distancing following plans to allow students to trict will communicate expecta-
“Just as the health department
health department guidelines, retrieve things from their lock- tions and requirements to staff
will be phasing people back in
Baumstark said. ers and desks, she said. That as it begins to phase students
from the community, we will be
The district has ordered face timeline will be announced later. back to school.
phasing our employees back in,”
masks and gloves that will be The second tier is “tentatively Three possible scenarios were
district spokesperson Michelle
provided to any staff member planned for mid-summer, based discussed at the board meeting
Baumstark said. “We are not
who wants them, she said. on current guidelines and rec- as “re-entry structures” for
fully reopening our buildings
The first tier will also allow ommendations,” the email said. the 2020–21 school year. These
right now.”
staff to retrieve items left in Plans for the second tier are include traditional instruction, a
The first tier will address
classrooms or offices, Baum- “to be determined,” Baumstark hybrid model and one complete-
“immediate and essential
3 stark said. This will allow teach- said, but they will follow health ly online.
COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN
Parson: Safety oversight up to businesses
BY IAN MCMANUS
news@columbiamissourian.com
Gov. Mike Parson said
Thursday that the state will
leave safety oversight to
individual businesses when
they are allowed to reopen
Monday.
Parson said during a news
conference that the state
would in many ways revert
to normal operations as of
Monday, with businesses and
other institutions largely
responsible for continuing
social distancing and enforc-
ing safe behavior.
While the news conference
was centered around housing
assistance, it was while field-
ing questions from report-
ers afterward that Parson
Drury Inn’s bid to provide isolation rooms rejected
BY FRIDA QI
news@columbiamissourian.com
The only bid the city
received from hotels and
motels interested in provid-
ing housing for people in
need during the COVID-19
pandemic came from Drury
Inn & Suites on Stadium
Boulevard.
Columbia rejected it.
The city had hoped to
contract with a hotel to pro-
vide rooms for those who
could not safely quarantine
or self-isolate at home, but
the Drury Inn proposal was
deemed “unresponsive”
because it didn’t meet the
requirements of the city’s
request.
“Please cancel the RFP,”
Scott Clardy, assistant
director of public health and
human services, wrote in
an email to Sophie Heiden-
reich, the city’s senior pro-
curement officer.
The city sought up to
10 isolation rooms and up
to 15 quarantine rooms,
according to the request
for proposals. The Drury
Inn said it would not offer
isolation rooms, but it would
offer rooms for guests being
Curbside service has helped retain customers
REOPEN from Page 1A
on Cherry Street, are not
quite ready to reopen their
doors.
Realizing the luck they
have in reaching customers
via delivery and takeout,
owner John Gilberthsaid he’s
not rushing to open the din-
ing area inside Pizza Tree.
He said he simply doesn’t
want to risk it yet, especial-
ly considering takeout and
delivery are still options.
“I’m not in any hurry to
put everybody at any addi-
tional risk,” he said.
The Southern Rose Mono-
gramming and Gift Boutique
and its sister store Rosebuds
Kid and Baby Boutique in
the Rock Bridge Shopping
Center are planning to be
open to the public next week.
Both stores have been
offering curbside pick-up
for orders and delivery to
customers in Columbia and
Ashland, as well managing
its online store for custom-
ers, said owner Mackenzie
Knierim,.
The stores will be open
Monday and Tuesday for
Social distancing will still be the norm
ORDER from Page 1A
social distancing to the
extent possible. That means
a maximum of 10 people in
the building at a time with no
more than one customer for
each service provider.
Stations should be set up at
least 6 feet apart, and Brown-
ing recommended removing
“touch points” such as maga-
zines.
Child care services and
day camps will be allowed to
open with limited occupancy
and without mixing groups of
childr.
Pools also will also be
allowed to open. Pools with
attendants will be expected
to monitor and enforce social
distancing. Those without
attendants will be prohibited
from having no more than
10 people in the pool area at
a time. Pool owners also will
be expected to present a plan
asserted that Missouri will
try to reopen with as little
regulation as possible.
“If their boss calls you
and if the business owners
call you to go back to work,
you’ve got to go back to
work,” Parson said.
He went on to say that if
employees feel unsafe, they
can always exercise their
individual right to stay home,
but he did not acknowledge
that this could mean ending
their employment.
Parson also said that while
the state would do what was
needed to acquire personal
protective equipment for
state employees, he felt the
private sector would bear
the burden and various state
departments would have to
quarantined at $65 per
night.
The city had offered to
pay for rooms as needed or
to book blocks of 10 rooms
or 25 rooms and to pay for
them regardless of whether
they were occupied.
During telephone negoti-
ations with the Drury staff,
the hotel agreed to provide
isolation rooms only if the
city would lease the entire
hotel for at least two weeks,
with any renewals also
being for the entire hotel for
another two weeks, accord-
ing to Clardy’s email.
The hotel also asked that a
city liaison be present when-
ever isolated or quarantined
guests were present.
“This is not only non-re-
sponsive to the RFP but is
cost prohibitive,” Clardy
wrote in the email.
The Drury Inn on Stadium
has 122 rooms.
In its request for propos-
als, the city also asked that
hotels or motels provide
rooms with individual heat-
ing and air-conditioning sys-
tems, thermostats, towels,
sheets, pillows, telephones,
refrigerators, microwaves,
linens and trash bags.
customers who schedule an
appointment to shop private-
ly. Doors will remain locked,
but they will be fully-staffed,
Knierim said. Hours will be
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“We’re just trying to offer
our customers that are a
little more leery of coming
out just a couple days where
they can, you know, have the
store to themselves to shop,”
she said.
Officially, both stores
will reopen to the public on
Wednesday and keep their
normal Wednesday through
Saturday hours.
Customers will be directed
to check out at either store to
prevent a line from forming,
Knierim said.
“We’ve minimized the
amount of displays in our
store, currently, spaced them
out, just to give people a little
more room,” she said. The
stores are small, she said,
and previously had wall-to-
wall displays.
There will be hourly wipe-
downs of store surfaces, and
check-out counters and card
readers will be sanitized
between each customer.
to the city for how they will
monitor and disinfect their
facilities.
Larger venues such as
movie theaters, bars, bowling
alleys and playgrounds must
remain closed.
The order still limits pub-
lic and private gatherings to
no more than 10 people and
requires that they, too, main-
tain social distancing.
Employees who are able to
work from home should con-
tinue to do so, Browning and
Mayor Brian Treece said.
Browning recommended
that vulnerable populations,
including elderly people and
those with preexisting condi-
tions, continue to stay home
as much as possible.
“I implore every citizen to
be responsible, to do the right
thing, minimize your contacts
with others, ask businesses
to make the safety of their
make their own decisions.
“I think we’re all realizing
that PPE, in different situa-
tions, people are just going
to want to wear it. So, I think
the market will bear that,”
Parson said.
The governor outlined a
number of measures that
will be used to ease housing
costs for families. Over $24
million in CARES ACT fed-
eral funding will be allocated
as grants to pay providers of
essential services on behalf
of families, and $9.4 million
will be used to aid those who
are homeless or at risk of
homelessness.
Parson also said he has
been working with privately
owned utility companies to
prevent services from being
It asked that fresh linens
be delivered outside guests
doors every three days, that
guests be allowed to double
bag their dirty laundry for
pickup and that trash be col-
lected twice per day.
The city offered to pay an
extra fee if the hotel would
wash the guests’ laundry,
but the Drury Inn declined
to offer that optional ser-
vice.
Bidding hotels or motels
also were asked to provide
increased internet capacity
to guests who required it
and to deliver meals outside
the guests’ doors. Clardy
said in his email that the
Drury Inn declined to do
the latter.
Jovita Foster, vice pres-
ident and general counsel
at Drury Hotels, said in the
proposal that Drury would
only provide housekeeping
services inside the rooms
before and after a guest’s
stay.
“Drury’s employees will
deliver cleaned linens and
terry goods to each hotel
room by placing these
items in a mutually agree-
able location outside of the
occupied guest room once
Knierim said she’s pleased
interact with her customers
again: ‘It’s been lonely.”
Cajun Crab House co-own-
er Linh Nguyen said he
planned to open his lobby
Monday, but he’s remaining
cautious and could change
his mind. The restaurant
on Business Loop 70 West
recently opened a drive-thru
that has helped during the
stay-at-home order, he said.
“Our business hasn’t been
bad,” Nguyen said. “We hav-
en’t been too affected.”
Julie Cordia, owner of
Embroider It, also on the
Business Loop, said she has
no concerns about reopening.
She said her store has taken
precautions to protect cus-
tomers.
“We’re armed with
anti-bacterial spray, GermX,
all that good stuff,” Cordia
said. The store has masks
available to customers and
tissues at the outside door so
they can avoid touching the
door handle.
Embroider It rarely sees
a crowd, so Cordia said she
expects 6-feet social dis-
tancing to be easy inside the
employees and customers a
priority,” Browning said.
Browning said the decision
to reevaluate in three to four
weeks is based on the corona-
virus’s incubation period of
two weeks, plus extra time to
monitor how the number of
positive cases responds.
Browning warned that if
the number of positive cases
begins to increase once
restrictions are loosened, offi-
cials will have to start tight-
ening them again.
“If we see this curve stay
flat, we’ll begin loosening up
these regulations a little bit
more. I have to emphasize,
though: If we don’t and we
start to see a spike, then
we’ll have to step backward,”
Browning said, “And I think
that would be devastating.”
Treece said it’s important
“that without a vaccine and
widespread testing, we need
shut off.
Randall Williams, the
director of Missouri’s
Department for Health and
Senior Services, asserted
that it would likely be on
businesses to enforce ongo-
ing safety procedures when
reopening, with the state
offering little additional
oversight.
“I think it’s in the best
interest of businesses to
practice safe practices,” Wil-
liams said.
He also said he did not
believe a meat plant expe-
riencing an outbreak in St.
Joseph needed to shut down,
despite saying that 132
employees had tested posi-
tive for the virus.
a week or more frequently
upon the request of the hotel
room guest or the city and
these items will be taken
into the guest room by
the occupant of the guest
room.”
Drury Hotels sent an
email statement to the Mis-
sourian after its bid was
rejected.
“The Drury Inn & Suites
Columbia Stadium Boule-
vard continues to operate
and welcome guests as
normal. There have been
no agreements to utilize the
property for other purpos-
es.”
Drury Inn & Suites is a
hotel chain with two loca-
tions in Columbia. The other
is the Drury Plaza Hotel on
I-70 Drive Southeast.
The city has two alter-
natives, Clardy said. It
inquired with the Missouri
Department of Health and
Senior Services about the
possibility of establishing
statewide or regional isola-
tion or quarantine facilities,
but it received no response.
The other option would be
to use a city-owned building,
a possibility the city contin-
ues to explore.
store. The store will continue
to take online orders for
curbside pickup as they have
done throughout the closure.
Curbside service has
helped a number of business-
es, like Plume, stay connect-
ed with customers. Accord-
ing to Gilion, Plume has seen
50 to 100 cars every Friday
for curbside pickup.
She called it a great oppor-
tunity, saying it’s allowed her
to pay more attention to her
store’s online presence and
find new ways to connect
with the public.
“I hope we’re able to
maintain this new aspect of
online that just provides an
additional service to custom-
ers that really wasn’t there
before,” she said.
Gilion hopes to bring a pos-
itive and encouraging ener-
gy to this situation, saying
the support she’s received
from the community has
helped her get through these
unprecedented times.
“I really feel like our shop
is going to be stronger on
the backside of this, and I
feel fortunate that I can say
that,” she said.
to acknowledge that the coro-
navirus will be with us for a
while” and that restrictions
will have to remain in place.
He said city and county offi-
cials have been in talks with
colleges, public schools and
hospitals about “the unique
set of challenges” that will
occur if and when 30,000
students return to Columbia
campuses in August and Sep-
tember.
Boone County Presiding
Commissioner Dan Atwill
said the way the government
acts now will shape how the
public recalls the response
to the virus decades from
now. He said he would rath-
er the government’s actions
be remembered as cautious
and responsible, rather than
erratic.
“We have only one chance
to get this right,” Atwill said.
“There are no do-overs.”
Friday & Saturday, May 1-2, 2020 — Page 3A
Measure now goes to House
CLEAN from Page 1A
Hegeman said the change
would make sure that “illegals”
are not included in the drawing
of district boundaries.
“You seem to be dividing
Missourians into two camps:
citizens and ‘illegals,’ but there
are a whole lot of different
people here legally with lots of
different immigration statuses
and citizenship statuses,” Mer-
ideth said.
Reps. Mary Elizabeth
Coleman, R-Arnold, and Nick
Schroer, R-O’Fallon, refuted
claims that the resolution
undoes the will of the vot-
ers because the measure, if
passed, would ultimately put
the proposed changes back to
a vote in November.
“I don’t think that asking
them to make a change, if they
are interested in doing so, or to
not make a change from what
Recovered virus patients
urged to consider donating
PLASMA from Page 1A
neutralizing antibody was
followed by improvement in
the patients’ clinical status,”
according to the Journal of the
American Medicine Associa-
tion.
Convalescent plasma is col-
lected from donors who have
tested positive for COVID-19,
gone 14 days without symp-
toms, and then tested negative
for the virus. Prospective
donors can fill out an appli-
cation form on the convales-
cent plasma program on MU
State funding cuts mean
$8M loss for Med School
CUTS from Page 1A
over $9 million,” Zweig said.
Unless staff members
receive notification Thursday,
the earliest payroll period in
which the adjustments could
begin is June 1 for salaried
staff or May 3 — when the
next pay cycle begins — for
hourly staff, Zweig said in an
email to employees regarding
the announcement.
The announcement comes as
the university faces a severe
budget shortfall due to the
COVID-19 outbreak. Two
weeks ago officials announced
that, in response to the pan-
demic’s financial toll, the
University of Missouri System
could see up to 15% in budget
cuts.
The outbreak of COVID-19
has cut into the UM System’s
budget in a number of ways.
They include a $37 million cut
to state funding for the univer-
sity announced by Gov. Mike
Parson on April 1 and reduced
enrollment in the fall.
Zwieg said the cuts to state
funding will result in a loss
of close to $8 million for the
School of Medicine. Further-
more, he said the decline of
normal clinical functions will
result in a loss of professional
revenue of at least $16 million.
“Those are two financial
consequences of this pan-
demic that directly affect the
School of Medicine,” Zweig
said. “There’s never been a
time like this, when cuts from
the state are simultaneously
linked with major losses in
clinical revenue.”
These pay cuts and week-
long furloughs are not the first
steps taken to mitigate the
impact of COVID-19 on the
university budget.
UM System leadership will
take a 10% pay cut begin-
they just enacted, is in any
way disrespectful,” Coleman
said.
House Minority Leader
Crystal Quade, who is not on
the General Laws Committee,
spoke in opposition, criticizing
the attempt to undo the chang-
es before they were actually
put into practice.
The committee voted 9-4
for the resolution immediately
after testimony concluded.
“It is disappointing, but not
surprising, that Republican
leadership has chosen to pri-
oritize blatantly partisan leg-
islation to overturn voter-ap-
proved redistricting reforms
instead of focusing on the pub-
lic health threat and economic
devastation from COVID-19,”
Quade said in a statement.
Now the resolution goes to
the heavily Republican House
for what will likely be the final
vote before going to the public.
Health Care’s website.
“We are extremely grateful
to those who have already
volunteered to donate, and
we encourage others who’ve
recovered from COVID-19 to
consider donating,” Dima Dan-
dachi, an infectious disease
physician at MU Health Care
and principal investigator on
the trial, said in the release.
“We believe this trial could
be promising and it could save
someone’s life,” she said.
MU Health Care had three
inpatients with COVID-19 on
Thursday.
ning May 1 through at least
July 31. MU also rolled out a
program Monday that allows
faculty and staff to volunteer
for future 2%, 5% or 10%
pay reductions for up to three
months.
The email, which was also
sent to student employees,
made it clear that volunteer-
ing for salary cuts would not
eliminate the need for other
cost-cutting measures, includ-
ing furloughs, layoffs and sala-
ry reductions.
As of April 12, the UM
System also stopped paying
employees unable to work
remotely or work on-site
administrative leave, which
is paid time off because of
special circumstances causing
campus shutdowns.
Mike Koehler, chief admin-
istrative officer and head
of human resources for the
School of Medicine and MU
Health Care, said the savings
from the pay cuts and fur-
loughs would help reduce the
overall expenses of the univer-
sity and the health system.
Koehler said leadership has
been creating policies regard-
ing the implementation of pay
cuts, furloughs, layoffs and
terminations.
“I hope that there aren’t
many layoffs, but there will be
some,” Koehler said. “Between
the hospital and the school,
we’ve canceled over 400 open
positions already, and that will
help minimize other job loss,
but there will be some.”
The chat room function of
the virtual meeting was dis-
abled shortly after it ended.
Comments, which could no
longer be viewed, seemed to
reflect frustration and confu-
sion over both the changes and
the nature in which they were
being communicated.
COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN Tuesday, May 12, 2020 — Page 5A

OPINION
WRITE • REFLECT • RESPOND • COLUMBIAMISSOURIAN.COM

GUEST COMMENTARY

The last day of

the school year
come too soon
As mid-May approaches there will be a
silent sigh of relief across much of Missouri.
The 2019–20 school year will be officially
over. Public schools will figure out how to
let students come to school to collect their
things. And across much of the state, we can
stop pretending that
SUSAN any public education
is being provided.
PENDERGRASS The Missouri
Department of Ele-
mentary and Second-
ary Education has a COVID-19 information
page with plenty of resources and FAQs but
no real direction for what public school dis-
tricts are supposed to be doing in the wake of
the statewide closure April 9.
According to DESE, “we are simply asking
our school leaders to continue to be creative,
innovative and persistent in their pursuit to
reach students with some kind of academic
opportunity.” Pretty vague.
Other states have taken a different
approach. Florida has provided $200 stipends
to teachers who complete virtual instruction
training. And Vermont launched a statewide
online learning platform that any district can
access.
We know this lack of guidance has result-
ed in some districts developing solid plans
to have teachers take attendance, teach and
grade student work. Far too many others
have simply posted resources and links and
left it up to principals to figure it out.
Plenty of districts make it clear on their

Dirty tricks in the legislature

websites that all work is optional and ungrad-
ed. Teachers are free to innovate but in some
districts are only required to work three
hours per day.
There is no doubt that many Missouri pub-
lic school teachers are incredibly invested in

try to override public vote

their students and doing their level best to
stay in contact and teach them. But how many
others waited it out because this isn’t what
they signed up for 25 years ago? Not every-
one wanted to jump onto Zoom or Schoology.
How are they supposed to convince students
to complete work that won’t be graded?

In every district that stopped grading
schoolwork at the end of March, the burden
really fell to parents. Create a schedule! Click
on these resources! Do a fun activity from
this list! Print out these worksheets and have
your child fill them out!
That may have worked well for some par-
ents, but for others it probably worked, if it
worked at all, for a couple of weeks at most.
As a result, a lot of Missouri public school
students ended up with a four- or five-month
break from any real schooling. Will this cause
long-term damage to their academic careers?
Certainly, for those who were already
behind. Not so much for those who were doing
fine. While this school year is all but over, we
need to get really honest about next year.
Buildings may well close again. We need a
better plan to make sure that all students can
continue their education regardless.
When responsibility for education shifts
away from schools and toward parents,
authority and resources should move as well.
We should stop sending state funding to dis-
tricts and schools that can’t seem to provide
an education without a school building and
send it directly to parents in the form of an
educational scholarship or voucher instead.
“Parental involvement” has taken on a new
meaning this spring, and it’s time for the Mis-
souri legislature to get over its reluctance to
put parents in charge.
Susan Pendergrass is director of research
and education policy at the Show-Me Insti-
tute.
I
n this newspaper, John “Jack” Danforth
explained, from his point of view, how
Clean Missouri will end partisan politics
when it comes to establishing legislative
districts.
As a U.S. senator from this state, he was
not subjected to districts but represented
the entire state. Also, as he wrote, he and
Tom Eagleton (a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat)
disagreed frequently, without animosity,
and on occasion collaborated when what
they agreed on was good for the entire state
— from St. Louis to Kansas City and from
Kirksville to Cassville.
But not so with gerrymandering, where
the party in power attempts to establish
districts that, it is hoped, ensure political
continuation, to the point where many politi-
cians don’t even need to campaign.
Back when I was a lobbyist in the state
Capitol many years ago, the Democratic
Party was the one in power, and districts
were created that favored Democrats.
Now the Republicans are in power, and
they would like to establish districts that
favor their continued reign.
That is telling. It doesn’t really matter
which party is in power: Gerrymandering
occurs.
Clean Missouri, Amendment 1 to the Mis-
souri Constitution, sets out to change all
that.
Districts would be established by nonpolit-
ical considerations, and the party in power
— Republican — doesn’t like that.
KEN MIDKIFF
It doesn’t matter if Republican
or Democratic is the majority
party in Jefferson City. Fairness
in elections is not favored by the
party in power.
As Republicans see it, Clean Missouri,
which sets up districts that don’t favor any
political party, takes away control and, it is
hoped, makes elections more fair.
Again, it doesn’t matter if Republican or
Democratic is the majority party in Jeffer-
son City. Fairness in elections is not favored
by the party in power.
Contrary to claims emanating from Jeffer-
son City, the citizens of this state knew full
well what was contained in Clean Missouri.
Nothing in it was kept a secret. From the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch to The Kansas City
Star to The Rolla Daily News to this newspa-
per and all dailies and weeklies throughout
the state, the details of Clean Missouri were
made known.
But, in Jefferson City, the Big Lie from the
party in power is that when Clean Missouri
received 62% votes, those votes were cast
by persons who did not know what they were
voting for.
Caleb Rowden, our Republican state sen-
ator and one who voted for SJR 38, which
would undo major provisions of Clean Mis-
souri, has come up with another BS notion,
claiming that the process outlined in Clean
Missouri would result in “crazy legislative
districts,” as if we don’t have that now.
Speaking of Sen. Rowden, 71% of people in
his district voted for Clean Missouri.
Who is it that he is representing — his party
or his constituents? The answer is the former.
Bottom line: Republicans make up the
party in power in Jefferson City, and they
would like for it to remain that way.
IF SJR 38 gets on the ballot, vote NO.
Ken Midkiff, formerly the director of the
Sierra Club Clean Water Campaign, is now
chair of the city’s Environment and Energy
Commission and serves on the board of direc-
tors of the Great Rivers Environmental Law
Center.

TO THE EDITOR

Cross Timbers seeks its audit from state Urge governor to issue Barton reprieve
In September 2019, the city of Cross Tim-
bers, Missouri, entered into an agreement with
Missouri State
Auditor Nicole
TERRI GILLETTE Galloway’s
office for the
purposes of
auditing the
city funds for the 2019 and 2018 tax years.
The agreement was for the audit to take
three months with a price tag of $15,000 to
$35,000.
John Leiser from Galloway’s office assured
us the audit would take four to six weeks to
gather information, with an additional four to
six weeks to write the report. As of Monday,
May 11, it had been 29 weeks.
After numerous attempts to work with the
auditor’s office and its repeated requests for
information, which we have answered in a
timely manner, as well as attempts from Rep.
Vicky Hartlzer’s office to finalize the audit, we
still have no resolution from Galloway.
This is making it very difficult for Cross
Timbers to move forward with projects and
critical situations that need immediate atten-
tion until Galloway’s office finalizes the audit.
We, the people of Cross Timbers, Missouri,
ask you, Nicole Galloway, where is our audit?
Terri Gillette is the mayor of Cross Timbers.
What if you alone could save one life in
this time of too many deaths? Missouri
Gov. Mike Parson has that opportunity but
is showing total
THE REV. JANE lack of willing-
FISLER HOFFMAN ness to claim
that authority.
Next Tues-
day, Missouri
is scheduled to be the only state continuing
executions during the pandemic.
And unless Gov. Parson stops it, we will
execute a man, Walter Barton, who may not
be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The governor has even refused to meet
(virtually) with state religious leaders to
pray about and discuss this.
Minimally, a reprieve by the governor
would give defense attorneys more time to
present new evidence they believe will lead
to clemency.
If you want to help save one life, please
call the governor’s office and ask for that
reprieve.
The Rev. Jane Fisler Hoffman is a
member of the MO Clergy and Laity Alli-
ance for Alternatives to the Death Pen-
alty.

CONTACT US ABOUT THE OPINION PAGE

WRITE: Letter to Editor, P.O. Box 917, Columbia, MO 65205
EMAIL: letters@ColumbiaMissourian.com
FAX: 573-882-5702 CALL: 573-882-5700
General Manager: Bryan Chester • chesterb@missouri.edu
Executive Editor: Ruby L. Bailey • baileyru@missouri.edu
Opinion Editor: Laura Johnston • johnstonlc@missouri.edu
The Missourian’s Opinion section is a public forum for the
discussion of ideas. The views presented here are those of
the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to
contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original
topic of your own, use our online submission form at
columbiamissourian.com/letters.
“I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with
it are, to the full measure of their responsibility, trustees for the public;
that acceptance of a lesser service than the public service is betrayal of
this trust. I believe that clear thinking and clear statement, accuracy and
fairness are fundamental to good journalism.”
WALTER WILLIAMS, FOUNDING DEAN,
MISSOURI SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM
 TIPS FOR AT-HOME WORK DRAFT DREAMS ALIVE
The lack of an office space can The MLB Draft is being pared
be painful and unproductive, an down to just five rounds, but the
ergonomic expert says. One big name of MU pitcher Ian Bedell is
issue is where to position a laptop. still expected to be called June 10
Page 3A Page 1B
Wednesday, May 13, 2020 • COLUMBIA’S LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER • COLUMBIAMISSOURIAN.COM • 75 CENTS

COVID-19 UPDATE: MISSOURI Tests: 124,006 Cases: 10,006 Deaths: 524 BOONE COUNTY Cases: 100 Deaths: 1

Those on autism spectrum adapt to virtual reality Lawmakers

The switch to tech
tools has helped his
students flourish,
one educator said
BY JEFFREY ZIDE
news@columbiamissourian.com
As education moved online this
spring, Lukin Murphy saw some-
thing that surprised him.
In the new environment, his stu-
dents were thriving.
Murphy, coordinator of instruc-
tion and innovation at EnCircle
Technologies, an education service
that provides technology and social
skills classes for teens and young
adults on the autism spectrum, said
his students had better attendance
and were more socially engaged
with each other using video con-
ferences than they were before
experiencing classes via Zoom. In
hindsight, Murphy said it makes a
lot of sense.
“One of the biggest barriers to
being social is anxiety, and when
you’re at home in your safe zone and
have more control, you can always
end the chat. They’re more likely
to engage socially because their
anxiety is lower. Rather than being
socially isolated, our students are
being more social,” Murphy said.
As much of the world has been
turned upside down for teachers
and students alike in the midst of
the COVID-19 pandemic, some
surprising positive effects have
come from Zoom and other social
distancing learning tools, especially
for children and young adults on the
autism spectrum.
Lukin Murphy, coordinator of instruction and innovation at EnCircle Technologies, works at his desk last month. Murphy has noticed
that his students at EnCircle have been more socially engaged and have had a higher attendance rate since going to virtual classrooms
using Zoom, Slack and other technology apps. EnCircle is an educational service that primarily caters to teens and young adults on the
autism spectrum, most of whom want jobs in technology sectors like video game design and coding.
Murphy said student attendance is
up, as another benefit is the lack of
a need to travel.
“It removes a lot of the barriers
of transportation,” Murphy said.
“Being able to participate from the
comfort of their home is easier and
more comfortable for them.”
The teachers also like using
Zoom; they find the online platform
has worked for their martial arts,
social skills and art classes as well
as their technology classes, accord-
ing to Murphy. The students also
use other tools to communicate,
including Slack and Discord. Those
tools allow his students to “have
more control over when and how
they engage socially,” Murphy said.
He also said that two students
who felt far more comfortable with
the virtual classroom approached
JEFFREY ZIDE/Missourian
him about possibly doing the classes
remotely more consistently, even
after in-person classes are allowed
to resume.
EnCircle and Murphy are not
alone in noticing how some people
on the spectrum have a had a lit-
tle easier time adjusting to social
distancing and stay-at-home orders
Please see AUTISM, Page 4A
approve ‘bill
of rights’ for
survivors of
sexual assault
BY ASHLYN O’HARA
AND MADISON CZOPEK
news@columbiamissourian.com
Legislation creating a
“Sexual Assault Survivors’
Bill of Rights” received final
approval from Missouri law-
makers Tuesday.
Senate Bill 569, sponsored
by Sen. Andrew Koenig,
R-Manchester, strengthens
the prosecutions and investi-
gations of rapists and sexual
abusers by reforming the
tracking and processing of
forensic evidence related
to sexual assaults. The bill
outlines a survivor’s rights
related to kits, physical exam-
inations and interviews.
“We need to stop victimiz-
ing the victims and quickly
and accurately investigate the
allegations of sexual assault,”
said Rep. Hannah Kelly,
R-Mountain Grove. “Rapists
and serial rapists avoid jus-
tice when we fail to take the
steps necessary to determine
guilt and prosecute these
crimes.”
Several lawmakers spoke in
favor of the bill, which passed
by a vote of 150-3 and now
heads to Gov. Mike Parson.
Please see SURVIVOR, Page 3A

State set to get 4,000 Legislators days away from vote on
vials of remdesivir for resolution to undo Clean Missouri
coronavirus treatment BY ASHLYN O’HARA
AND GALEN BACHARIER
news@columbiamissourian.com
BY KURT ERICKSON
The Missouri House of
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Representatives has until
Virus cases
hit 10,000
ONLINE cerns from committee chair
Rep. Rocky Miller, R-Lake
in Missouri;
death total
Ozark, who said the Missouri
Go to columbiamissourian.com
for interactive modules that Republican Party told him
the resolution had unspecified
show:

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri is set to
Friday to vote on Senate
receive 4,000 vials of remdesivir to fight
Joint Resolution 38, which
COVID-19 as part of a nationwide distribution
has laid bare the divide
from the company that makes it.
Missouri Department of Health & Senior Ser- among lawmakers on
vices Director Randall Williams said the drug “respecting the will of the
voters.”
will be used to treat 600 people infected with the
Sponsored by Sen. Dan
illness, which is caused by the novel coronavi-
rus. Hegeman, R-Cosby, SJR
38 would change campaign
“We’re in the process of working with the hos-
contribution rules, eliminate
pital association to get remdesivir out to those
lobbyist gifts and — as its
patients,” Williams told reporters at Gov. Mike
Parson’s daily briefing. “It’s been shown to sig- major goal — almost entire-
nificantly reduce their morbidity.” ly undo new changes to the
The donation of the drug by California-based state’s redistricting process
Gilead Sciences Inc. was announced by feder- approved by a majority of
al health officials Saturday. The U.S. received voters, under the common
about 607,000 vials, representing about 40% of label of “Clean Missouri,” two
the global donation. years ago.
The Missourian has com-
Please see RECEIVE, Page 3A
piled 2018 Missouri voter
data, interviews with law-
makers, quotes from public
debate and lawmaker voting
TODAY’S WEATHER
records to see how the state
THUNDERSTORMS
voted on Clean Missouri in
66/61
2018, compared to where
lawmakers stand on the res-
INDEX olution to overturn its most
Abby5B prominent changes.
The Missourian’s analysis
Classifieds4B
looked at data from the Mis-
Nation6A
souri Secretary of State’s
Obituaries2A
office for 3,199 precincts
Opinion5A
in Missouri where people
Sports1B
cast votes on Constitutional
Sudoku4B
Amendment 1 in the Novem-
TV schedule 6B
ber 2018 general election.
You can find the results of
Our 112th year/#173
the Missourian’s data anal-
2 sections
12 pages ysis at columbiamissourian.
com.
Amendment 1, often
referred to as “Clean Missou-
ri,” was put before voters in
November 2018.
6 54051 90850 3 It contained a number of
n How each House and Senate
district’s lawmaker has voted
or intends to vote on the Clean
Missouri resolution.
n How each district in Missouri
voted on the 2018 amendment.
n How each county represent-
ed in that district voted on the
amendment.
measures to reform campaign
finance and lobbyists’ spend-
ing, but the biggest change it
made was overhauling Mis-
souri’s district-drawing meth-
od, shifting power from bipar-
tisan commissions appointed
by the governor to a nonpar-
tisan state demographer — a
significant change as maps
prepare to be redrawn in
accordance with the 2020
census.
The state voted to approve
Amendment 1 in 2018 with
62% of the vote.
Opponents of the resolution
say putting the issues back
on the ballot in November
undoes the will of the voters.
Supporters argue its place-
ment on the ballot still leaves
the final say to the public.
The Missouri Senate passed
the resolution Feb. 10. The
House held a public hearing
for the resolution April 30,
while Missouri was still under
the stay-at-home order issued
by Gov. Mike Parson amid the
COVID-19 pandemic.
A House committee sent
the resolution to the chamber
floor Monday despite con-
“errors” in its current form
but that further debate and
changes “would be a death
sentence” because there’s no
time left in the session.
“Here’s my prediction on
this: This is going to go down
in flames if it makes it to the
ballot,” Miller said. “Flames.
This will not pass at all. This
will be as bad as Right to
Work.” (Over 67% of voters
rejected a Republican-sup-
ported right-to-work measure
in 2018.)
“This will be three strikes
in a row against the GOP. So,
if they want three strikes in a
row, pass this. We’ll see how it
goes,” he said.
However, Miller said he
would vote in favor of the res-
olution.
Democrats have unani-
mously opposed the resolution
since its creation, many tell-
ing the Missourian they were
confident in the will of the
voters in their 2018 decision
to approve Clean Missouri.
Now the resolution awaits
final approval on the House
floor, which would place it
on the November ballot for
voters.
Abigail Shaw, Madison
Czopek, Maria Benevento,
Emily Wolf, Titus Wu, Sean
Na, Mikayla Easley, Madison
McVan, Ian McManus, Molly
Jackson, Claire Colby, Jordan
Meier, Spencer Norris, Veron-
ica Mohesky, Seth Bodine,
Mawa Iqbal, Kassidy Arena
and Natalie Sopyla contribut-
ed to this report.
exceeds 500
BY JIM SALTER
The Associated Press
O’FALLON — Both the
number of confirmed cases
and deaths from the corona-
virus in Missouri reached
somber milestones Tuesday:
Cases topped 10,000, and the
number of deaths exceeded
500.
The state health depart-
ment reported 88 new con-
firmed cases of COVID-19,
the disease caused by the
virus, bringing the total
since the pandemic began to
10,006. Thirty-six new deaths
were reported. Since March,
524 people in Missouri have
died from the virus.
St. Louis continues to be
the hardest-hit region. State
data shows that 53.4% of
confirmed cases and 70.4% of
deaths have occurred in St.
Louis city and county com-
bined.
For most people, the coro-
navirus causes mild or mod-
erate symptoms that clear up
after two to three weeks. For
some, especially older adults
and people with existing
health problems, it can cause
more severe illness, including
pneumonia.
Nearly three dozen inmates
at an eastern Missouri jail
have tested positive for the
coronavirus, along with five
members of the jail staff.
The 34 inmates included
some who showed symp-
toms and some who did not,
Please see DEATHS, Page 3A
 FIRST FRIDAYS ONE MORE YEAR
The North Village Arts District board Twelve senior Missouri athletes
has decided to hold the events in will return for another season after
June and July, but they’re talking NCAA extends eligibility following
about a drive-thru experience COVID-19 cancellations
Page 2A Page 1B
Thursday, May 14, 2020 • COLUMBIA’S LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER • COLUMBIAMISSOURIAN.COM • 75 CENTS

COVID-19 UPDATE: MISSOURI Tests: 126,935 Cases: 10,142 Deaths: 542 BOONE COUNTY Cases: 100 Deaths: 1

Missouri prepares multistep COVID-19 testing plan to roll out next few months
BY IAN MCMANUS
news@columbiamissourian.com
Missouri officials on Wednesday detailed
plans to expand and target COVID-19 testing
statewide in the coming weeks and months.
The plan includes three stages that move
from dealing with coronavirus hot spots to
methodically checking communities through-
out the state.
Randall Williams, head of the Missouri
Department of Health & Senior Services,
outlined the coronavirus testing plan during
Gov. Mike Parson’s daily COVID-19 news con-
ference.
Williams said the state is conducting rough-
ly 8,800 tests a day.
Williams said anyone showing any symp-
toms, anyone who has associated with some-
one testing positive and all health care work-
ers can now access tests.
He outlined what he referred to as the
“box-in strategy,” which involves mass test-
ing of at-risk populations where a case has
been discovered with the hope of boxing-in
outbreaks.
“If you have one patient who turns positive
or one staff member who’s symptomatic who
turns positive, we’re going to go in and check
everybody,” Williams said.
He referred to the next part of the plan as
“sentinel testing.”
As Missouri moves into June and July,
Williams said he believes there will be fewer
cases. “We’re going to go into our long-term
care facilities and our meatpacking plants
and sporadically (pick) groups to test, just to
see if anything is developing,” he said.
Finally, he explained a long-term goal,
“prevalence testing,” where health profession-
als will go into communities and test a repre-
sentative sample of the population to establish
who has or has had the virus to get a sense of
what is happening in different Missouri com-
munities.
Williams expressed optimism about Missou-
ri’s ability to contain the illness as the state
encourages people to get back to work.
“They go hand in hand. To have a good
economy, you need healthy people,” Williams
said. “To have healthy people, you need a
good economy.”

Lawmakers
put ‘Cleaner
Missouri’
on ballot
for a vote
BY ASHLYN O’HARA
AND JORDAN MEIER
news@columbiamissourian.com
JEFFERSON CITY — Mis-
sourians are once again being
asked to vote on a redistrict-
ing plan and ethics reform.
After months of debate,
lawmakers agreed to put
what Republicans are call-
ing “Cleaner Missouri” and
some Democrats call “Dirty
Missouri” on the ballot in
November.
House members voted
98-56 in favor of the measure,
with some Republicans —
including two from Boone
County — siding with the
opposition.
Senate Joint Resolution 38,
sponsored by Sen. Dan Hege-
man, R-Cosby, would undo
changes made to the state’s
redistricting process that
were approved by voters in
the 2018 election for what was
known as the Clean Missouri
amendment. It would also
eliminate lobbyist gifts and
further limit campaign con-
tributions.
Statewide in 2018, 62% of
Missourians who voted cast
their ballots in support of
Clean Missouri.
Supporters of the new
ballot measure argued that
the original constitutional
amendment was not trans-
parent enough to voters and
that they did not understand
how they were changing
Jialing Chen looks at the sunset through a window in her room April 21
the redistricting process.
They say the new process
is not nonpartisan and that
Clean Missouri changed the
emphasis on drawing dis-
tricts that are compact and
Please see CLEAN, Page 6A
STUCK INSIDE MU plans to
reopen next
week for a
limited group
of faculty
BY LAURA EVANS
news@columbiamissourian.com
MU officials provided
additional details Wednesday
on their plans to gradually
reopen the campus, begin-
ning with limited faculty
returning next week in the
first phase of the “Show Me
Renewal” plan, according to
a campus email from MU
Interim Chancellor Mun
Choi and Provost Latha Ram-
chand.
The steps, made in con-
sultation with local health
officials, are the first tangible
signs of what leaders hope
can be a return to campus
this fall by students. This
follows Choi’s previous
announcement that the first
wave of researchers would
begin May 20.
The group will be focused
on resuming research, but
some university leaders and
staff who have necessary
in-person duties will be
approved to return, the email
said.
The email asked that all
employees not in this group
continue working remotely
for the time being.
Returning faculty, staff and
students are asked to follow
health and safety guidelines
such as staying home if sick
and social distancing, the
email said.
Earlier, Choi said Environ-
mental Health and Safety
DAFFY LIU • Missourian officers will be monitoring
the activity on campus to
make sure safety guidelines
are followed.
at University Place Apartments. She has rarely stepped outside, except Faculty and staff will fill
out authorization forms to
for disposing of garbage and collecting delivered groceries, for at least a return to campus, which will
be on the MU eCompliance
month and a half. After seeing what had happened in Wuhan, China, website Friday. These forms
will then be reviewed by
Chen is afraid to leave her apartment. For more, see Page 4A Please see CAMPUS, Page 6A

Online petition solicits 13th Circuit courts to begin

TODAY’S WEATHER
THUNDERSTORMS
79/63

INDEX support for Browning regular proceedings Monday

Abby5B
Classifieds3B BY GRACE ZOKOVITCH will officially be lifted after Fri-
BY MISSOURIAN STAFF news@columbiamissourian.com day, but the courtrooms won’t be
Obituaries2A
news@columbiamissourian.com at pre-pandemic occupancy just
Opinion3A After weeks of video confer-
Sports1B An online petition encouraging support for the direc- yet.
ence trials and reduced dockets,
tor of the Columbia/Boone County Department of The 13th Judicial Circuit
Sudoku4B courtrooms in the 13th Judicial
Health and Human Services had gathered more than serves Boone and Callaway coun-
TV schedule 6B Circuit will begin regularly
ties.
1,500 signatures by Wednesday morning. hosting proceedings once again
“Starting Monday, any case
The petition, posted by COMO Speaks, says Steph- starting Monday, according to
type could be in person,” Court
Our 112th year/#174 anie Browning’s directives and guidelines during the an administrative order.
Administrator Mary Epping
2 sections COVID-19 outbreak have helped prevent the virus from Courts have been operating as
12 pages said. “Most attorneys and parties
becoming more widespread in the city and county. nonessential businesses, accord-
have contacted us saying that
As of Wednesday morning, there had been 100 con- ing to the order, which means
they want to appear over video,
firmed positive cases of the virus in Boone County. Five greatly reduced and socially
though.”
of those cases remained active, according to the city. distanced services. Under the
The courts have been in the
regulations, courts held most
“Despite attempted partisan political power grabs process of reopening since May
proceedings via video confer-
6 54051 90850 3 Please see PETITION, Page 6A ence or phone. These regulations Please see COURTS, Page 6A
Page 6A — THURSDAY, May 14, 2020
House approves amended statewide Inflammatory disease shows up
prescription drug monitoring act among children with coronavirus
BY EMILY WOLF
news@columbiamissourian.com
JEFFERSON CITY —
House lawmakers approved
a compromise to enact a
statewide prescription drug
monitoring act, setting the
stage for a potential end to an
eight-year battle.
Approved by a vote of
94-59, the Narcotics Control
Act would establish a state-
wide electronic prescrip-
tion-monitoring database
to track the prescription
of drugs with potential for
abuse. Missouri is the only
state without such a program.
Currently, a monitoring pro-
gram led by St. Louis County
covers 75 jurisdictions, about
85% of Missourians, accord-
ing to previous reporting.
In order for the bill to reach
the governor’s desk, the Sen-
ate must also approve the
legislation. An earlier version
of the bill was passed by the
body in March. It has failed
to reach the finish line for
seven years.
The version of the bill the
Browning
faces lawsuit
seeking fewer
restrictions
on businesses
PETITION from Page 1A
and misogynistic attacks on
Director Browning, we appre-
ciate the good work from our
health department, city coun-
cil and county commission,”
the petition reads. “Stepping
up and listening to Director
Browning’s solid recommen-
dations means our city and
county is being protected.”
The new petition comes
as Browning faces a lawsuit
filed by attorney Matt Woods
on behalf of Tiger Tots Child
Development Center owner
Paul Prevo. Prevo is part of a
coalition of business owners
who have protested Brown-
ing’s orders as too restrictive
and have asked that Columbia
and Boone County businesses
be allowed to operate under
the less restrictive guidelines
in the statewide order issued
by Gov. Mike Parson.
Division 1 Circuit Judge
Brouck Jacobs has been
assigned to that case and
has scheduled a hearing
for 9 a.m. Friday on Woods’
request for a temporary
restraining order that would
block enforcement of Brown-
ing’s orders.
A separate online petition
calling for Browning to be
fired had gathered 96 signa-
tures by Wednesday morning
and had a stated goal of 100.
It was posted May 1.
“Stephanie Browning has
taken away our fundamental
rights as citizens with the
unreasonable restrictions
over COVID-19,” the petition
states. “Recent data shows
the death rate for this virus
to be less than 1%, and Swe-
den has shown, by remaining
open, that herd immunity is
the best defense.”
Missouri moves ahead with Barton’s execution plan
State intends to proceed,
despite new concerns
about evidence that led
to conviction of a man
for killing a trailer park
operator 30 years ago
BY JIM SALTER
The Associated Press
O’FALLON — Missouri is
moving ahead with plans to
execute a man next week for
killing a trailer park operator
nearly three decades ago,
despite new concerns about
key evidence that led to his
conviction.
Walter Barton, 64, is sched-
uled to die by injection Tues-
day for killing 81-year-old
Gladys Kuehler in 1991. She
was beaten, sexually assault-
ed and stabbed more than 50
times in the town of Ozark,
near Springfield. The execu-
tion would be the first in the
U.S. since March 5.
House approved Wednesday
came out of a conference
committee, where lawmakers
from both the House and the
Senate worked together to
negotiate a compromise.
Initially, the Senate version
of the bill included a clause to
make knowingly distributing,
delivering, manufacturing or
producing more than 10 mil-
ligrams of fentanyl a Class B
felony. The new version does
not include the clause.
House Minority Floor Lead-
er Crystal Quade praised the
compromise. She said previ-
ously that her caucus did not
support the legislation because
of fears that the fentanyl pro-
vision would criminalize drug
users as traffickers.
Several Republican law-
makers expressed concerns
that the program would allow
insurance companies to
access Missourians’ private
data, potentially paving the
way for increased insurance
premiums.
Rep. Holly Rehder,
R-Sikeston, the sponsor of the
Summer plan is to
repopulate campus
in waves of faculty
CAMPUS from Page 1A
deans and division leaders,
the email said.
Over the summer, the plan
is to gradually repopulate
campus in more waves of
faculty, following county
guidelines and the advice of
experts at MU Health Care,
the email said.
Eventually, the hope is to
ramp up to the point where
campus is ready to fully
open in the fall, with health
guidelines permitting.
Although a full fall reopen-
ing is the current plan, MU
is asking faculty to prepare
to teach their courses online
so a quick pivot to online
or a hybrid scenario with a
mix of online and in-person
classes is viable.
“It is critically import-
Balancing the interest of justice with safety concerns
COURTS from Page 1A
11, according to previous
Missourian reporting.
Throughout the past week,
more cases — like ex parte
proceedings — have been
heard on court premises,
Epping said. These decisions
were based on the opening
guidelines laid out by the
Missouri Supreme Court and
local health officials.
“We’ve been in contact with
local health departments,
watching CDC guidelines,
talking to other counties and
county officials,” Epping said.
“We’re not medical officials,
so we’re very grateful that
we’ve had good folks giving
us good guidance.”
Three jurors involved
in Barton’s 2006 trial now
express misgivings, based on
new blood spatter evidence,
Barton’s attorney, Fred
Duchardt Jr., said Wednesday.
The NAACP and Missourians
for Alternatives to the Death
Penalty submitted more than
5,000 petition signatures
Wednesday to Republican
Gov. Mike Parson, urging
him to grant clemency.
Parson’s spokesperson Kelli
Jones said the governor’s
office anticipates that that the
execution will go on as sched-
uled. She declined further
comment.
Duchardt also has an
appeal pending in federal
court.
Key to Barton’s conviction
was blood that was found on
his clothing. Duchardt said
the blood got there after Bar-
ton and others found Kuehler
dead.
A blood spatter expert
House bill, said such a mis-
use of data would be impossi-
ble under the legislation.
“This medical data is not
allowed to be sold. It’s abso-
lutely ridiculous that that was
even said,” Rehder said. “All
of the people who are allowed
to access this PDMP are
licensed and have to follow
HIPPA law. They are medical
professionals.”
The bill gathered votes
from both sides of the aisle,
however, and Rep. Warren
Love, R-Ocala, quipped that
the lawmakers worried about
privacy probably had iPhones
in their pockets.
Rep. Justin Hill, R-Lake St.
Louis, compared the over-
sight the bill would provide to
the safety measures enacted
in response to COVID-19.
“If you’ve enjoyed this
experience under COVID-19,
of the government telling
you to wear a mask, if you’re
essential or not ... , then I
guess you’re OK with this
bill,” Hill said, “because
that’s what this bill is.”
ant for faculty and staff
assigned to teach in the
fall to begin the process of
developing eLearning ver-
sions of their courses,” the
email said.
Choi has said that MU
should “hope for the best,
prepare for the worst, but
also plan for surprises”
when it comes to the fall
reopening.
Faculty and staff groups
are in the process of plan-
ning for the fall, the email
said, focusing on “academic,
research, student affairs,
facilities and testing, contact
tracing, and quarantining
programs.”
A website for Show Me
Renewal is in development
to give updates, the email
said.
The court’s order addresses
the goal of “balancing the
interest of justice and the
health and safety of staff, par-
ties, jurors, law enforcement,
attorneys and the public.”
Safety will continue to be
a priority even after regu-
lations lift. Epping said the
courts will be taking many
precautions during in-person
proceedings, including post-
ing signs barring exposed
or infected individuals and
making masks and hand san-
itizer available.
“When people come in,
(masks) aren’t mandated, but
they may be in a particular
courtroom,” Epping said.
“We’ve also measured out
in each courtroom how many
retained by Barton’s defense
team concluded that the
assailant would have had far
more blood on his clothing.
Duchardt said three jurors
recently signed affidavits
calling the new evidence
“compelling” and saying it
would have affected their
deliberations. The jury fore-
man said, based on the evi-
dence, he would have been
“uncomfortable” recommend-
ing the death penalty.
Duchardt said he is trying
to reach the other surviving
jurors, but the coronavirus
shutdown has slowed that
effort and created other
logistical issues. For example,
with public buildings closed,
he was forced to interview
two jurors in a parking lot,
he said.
“They’re having to shout
over a wind storm by social
distancing distance to try and
talk about any of this stuff,”
Duchardt said.
BY JIM SALTER
The Associated Press
A rare inflammatory
syndrome affecting some
children with the coronavi-
rus has appeared in a small
number of cases at Missouri
hospitals.
St. Louis Children’s Hospi-
tal has treated “a few” chil-
dren with COVID-19 — the
illness caused by the corona-
virus — and for symptoms
Passage crosses party lines
CLEAN from Page 1A
instead prioritizes partisan
fairness.
Some Democrats argued
that supporters of going back
to voters did so out of fear of
losing some of their seats in
the legislature.
Rep. Dean Plocher, R-St.
Louis, called Clean Missouri
the “epitome of gerryman-
dering,” by putting the power
to pick the state demogra-
pher in the hands of a parti-
san auditor, who is currently
a Democrat. Plocher also
criticized the lack of criteria
in Amendment 1 outlining
the requirements for a state
demographer.
A key source of criticism
directed at the new resolu-
tion is the change it makes
from districts drawn on the
basis of total population,
which is how districts are
drawn at the federal level
and throughout Missouri’s
history, to districts drawn
on the basis of “one person,
one vote.” Critics fear this
could mean that some people
wouldn’t be counted when
considering population size
for each district, cutting out
children and those who are
not citizens. That could have
a disproportionate impact
on city districts that tend to
vote Democrat, they say.
Although the measure was
passed, it wasn’t strictly
along party lines.
Most of the Boone County
delegation voted against
putting the measure on the
ballot.
Reps. Kip Kendrick, D-Co-
lumbia; Martha Stevens,
D-Columbia; Chuck Basye,
R-Rocheport; and Cheri
Toalson Reisch, R-Hallsville,
people can sit in and marked
spots showing what’s appro-
priate social distancing with-
in the courtroom,” she said.
Even with regulations, the
court staff is still trying to
manage how many people
will be in the building. Start-
ing Monday, cases will be
staggered in each docket, so
people can show up at their
specific times, she said. The
times listed on the court web-
site’s docket schedule will
remain the same, but parties
will receive notice from the
clerk’s office about the time
they’re scheduled to appear.
But Epping is expecting
that crowding won’t be much
of a concern. “Most of our
cases will still be heard over
Other states have called off
executions due to the coro-
navirus. Texas, the national
leader in executions, delayed
six lethal injections. The Ten-
nessee Supreme Court moved
one to next year, and Ohio
Gov. Mike DeWine moved
some to 2022.
The Missouri execution
will be at the prison in Bonne
Terre, about 60 miles south
of St. Louis. No confirmed
coronavirus cases have been
reported there. Missouri
Department of Corrections
spokesperson Karen Pojmann
said everyone entering the
prison will have their tem-
peratures checked and will be
offered face coverings.
No witnesses for Barton
or the victim plan to attend,
Pojmann said. Eight witness-
es for the state, including
reporters, have been invited.
An Associated Press reporter
plans to be among the wit-
nesses.
COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN
similar to Kawasaki disease,
hospital spokesperson Laura
High said Wednesday. She
did not have information
about the number of cases, or
ages of the afflicted children.
Children’s Mercy Kan-
sas City spokesperson Lisa
Augustine said that hospital
is treating one patient with
the syndrome.
COVID-19 is far less com-
mon in children than adults.
Of Missouri’s 10,006 con-
all voted in opposition to the
resolution. Rep. Sara Walsh,
R-Ashland, voted in favor.
Basye, who has previous-
ly publicly been in support
of redoing Clean Missouri,
said he has spent his whole
political career in the type
of competitive district the
original Clean Missouri aims
to create. He said he thought
the new system would actu-
ally hurt Democrats.
Toalson Reisch echoed
Basye’s thoughts.
She said implementing
the existing Clean Missouri
redistricting rules would be
“an interesting experiment”
that will potentially balance
out Boone County’s districts
between Democratic and
Republican voters.
In Boone County, she said,
“We have two democrat
seats, held by Kip Kend-
rick and Martha Stevens,
which are fully Democrat
seats. So, you know, why not
make those more even 50-50
districts, you know? Might
turn all of Boone County to
Republican.”
Stevens tweeted her oppo-
sition to the House’s decision.
“It is truly a disgrace
that #MoLeg voted today to
undo the will of the voters to
reinstate gerrymandering,”
Stevens tweeted after the
vote. “But I trust voters & I
am confident that voters will
reject #SJR38.”
Walsh, the only Boone
County representative who
supported the resolution,
tweeted: “Communities mat-
ter. Contiguous districts mat-
ter. Compact districts matter.
Rural and urban Missouri-
ans, your voice matters. I
was proud to vote yes on SJR
38 today so you get to decide
video — that’s our intent.”
There are necessary excep-
tions. Tuesday, for example,
a person with a hearing
disability had to appear in
person. “So we can definitely
make those accommoda-
tions,” Epping said.
The video conference sys-
tem hasn’t always worked
smoothly. The court has used
Zoom as much as possible,
but for confidential hear-
ings, like juvenile delinquent
cases, courts are required
by the Supreme Court to
be in-person or use Scopia,
another platform. And that
has been pretty glitchy.
Other issues have arisen
when people haven’t had
access to Wi-Fi or couldn’t
Pojmann said the state wit-
nesses will be divided into
three rooms. “At this point,
we anticipate having no more
than two witnesses in each
room,” she said.
Parson allowed nonessential
businesses and institutions to
reopen on May 4 with limits
on crowd sizes and social
distancing requirements. St.
Louis city and county are
delaying reopening until next
week.
Barton’s case has been tied
up in court for years due to
mistrials, appeals and two
overturned convictions. He
has maintained his innocence
throughout.
Barton often spent time at
the mobile home park that
Kuehler operated. He was
with her granddaughter and
a neighbor on the evening of
Oct. 9, 1991, when they found
her dead in her bedroom.
Police noticed what
appeared to be blood stains
firmed cases, children under
age 20 account for 322, or
3.2%. None of Missouri’s
524 coronavirus deaths has
involved children, and gen-
erally doctors continue to
believe that most infected
children develop only mild
symptoms.
But in New York state, two
young children and a teenag-
er have died and the state is
investigating about 100 cases
of the mysterious syndrome.
on this clarifying language
on the ballot in November to
ensure we do not have gerry-
mandered districts.”
Outside of Boone County,
a few other lawmakers also
did not join with their party’s
stance. Rep. Maria Chap-
pelle-Nadal, D-University
City, said she would be sup-
porting the measure as an
advocate for black voices.
“I’m standing up because
sometimes as an African
American you don’t know
who your friends are going
to be,” she said. “I stand here
as a black woman first and
Democrat second.”
Her concern is that by
changing priorities for how
districts are drawn, it could
dilute black representation.
During the debate, Rep.
Curtis Trent, R-Springfield,
offered an amendment that
would have required people
voting in elections for the
Missouri General Assembly
to be citizens of the United
States and a resident of Mis-
souri.
Rep. Peter Merideth, D-St.
Louis, called the amendment
“nonsense” and offered his
own amendment to Trent’s
that would remove Trent’s
language related to citizen-
ship, arguing that lawmakers
have an obligation to repre-
sent every person in a dis-
trict and not just the people
who voted for them.
After more than an hour
of debate, Trent withdrew
his amendment. Any chang-
es made to the resolution
during Wednesday’s debate
would have required that
the legislation go back to the
Senate, which could have
killed the entire resolution.
get the video conference
platform to work. In most
of these instances, Epping
said, people have been able to
join by phone. In a couple of
cases, proceedings have had
to be rescheduled.
“A lot of the time, it just
requires everyone being
flexible and thinking outside
the box,” she said. “This is
unprecedented, to have court
not done in a courthouse.”
Epping said she appreci-
ated the patience of judges,
court staff, attorneys and
defendants.
“We just want all folks who
have to come into the court-
house to know we’re taking
every precaution to keep
them safe.”
on Barton’s clothing, and
DNA tests confirmed it was
Kuehler’s. Barton said the
stains must have occurred
when he pulled Kuehler’s
granddaughter away from
the body. The granddaughter
first confirmed that account,
but testified that Barton
never came into the bedroom.
A blood spatter expert at Bar-
ton’s trial said the three small
stains likely resulted from
the “impact” of the knife.
In new court filings,
Duchardt cited the findings
of Lawrence Renner, who
examined Barton’s clothing
and boots. Renner concluded
the killer would have had far
more bloodstains.
In April, the Missouri
Supreme Court denied Bar-
ton’s request for a new hear-
ing. Duchardt also argues
that Barton is incompetent
to be executed because he
suffered a brain injury as a
teenager.
 7
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they would rate the Health Department’s absentee ballot cross country championships
response to COVID-19 will be held in Columbia
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COVID-19 UPDATE: Cases: 5,399 Deaths: 13 MU TOTAL ACTIVE CASES: 68

Columbia’s deaf community shares new struggles Contractor

BY DANI MAJOR
news@columbiamissourian.com
On one of many visits to see a
veterinarian about surgery for her
dog, Ashley Pappineau encountered
roadblocks at almost every turn.
A mobile phone was required for
access to the office. Then she need-
ed reliable technology to communi-
cate with the doctor.
“It was frustrating,” said Pap-
pineau, who is deaf. “You have the
technology issues of scrambling
and freezing. I couldn’t get any ser-
vice on my phone.”
After being rerouted through
another phone company, she was
finally able to get information about
her dog and its surgery.
“It was this constant back and
forth,” Pappineau recalled. “If I
was a hearing person, it wouldn’t
be as difficult.”
As the world began to function vir-
tually during the pandemic, the reli-
ance on texting, email, mobile phones
and the internet became crucial.
For most people, the solution has
worked relatively well. For anyone
who is deaf, remote communication
has been frustrating and, at times,
impossible.
The deaf and hard of hearing
account for 10% of the Boone County
population, according to the Missouri
Deaf and Hard of Hearing website.
One big challenge they face is the
amount of time and effort it takes to
accomplish routine daily tasks.
Facial expressions and body lan-
guage are necessary aids for those
who read lips or rely on American
Sign Language. Face coverings
make it more difficult to communi-
cate and even emails and texts are
problematic, said Stephanie Logan,
who teaches ASL classes at MU and
is the executive director of Colum-
bia’s deaf crisis line, DeafLEAD.
“American Sign Language is their
first language, and English is their
second language,” Logan said. “If
Please see COVID, Page 4A
responds
to stream
pollution
BY GRACE COOPER
news@columbiamissourian.com
Denny Stephenson’s cows
aren’t white anymore.
The rock bed of Sugar
Branch, a stream that feeds
into Perche Creek and even-
tually the Missouri River, has
been covered in mud since
construction began upstream
at the new MidwayUSA head-
quarters at Route J and U.S.
40 this summer.
Stephenson’s cows have
been unable to drink from
Sugar Branch, their usual
source of water, since July.
“I raise Charolais cattle,
and Charolais cattle are
snow white cattle, just real
white,” said Stephenson, the
owner of Stephenson Charo-
lais Farms. “And they’re not
white anymore because as
they do happen to cross this
creek, and there will be dark
mud clear up to their knee
joints now from just crossing
that mud all the time.”
Stephenson filed a com-
plaint with the Missouri
Department of Natural
Resources in July, citing
sediment in the stream that
prevented his cattle from
drinking the water.
On Aug. 17, the Department
of Natural Resources issued
a letter of warning saying the
pollution was a result of Mid-
wayUSA’s contractors’ fail-
KIT WIBERG/Missourian
ure to use best management
practices on the development
Shanon Love signs lyrics projected during a church service Sunday at Parkade Baptist Church. One of the deaf ministry members
recently won second place at an event in the Special Olympics and was celebrated during the church’s Sunday school class. Please see STREAM, Page 4A

How Amendment 3 would undo 2018 ‘Clean Missouri’ reforms

BY ADAM JACKSON
news@columbiamissourian.com
Senate Joint Resolution 38 — on the
ballot as Amendment 3 — is a legis-
latively proposed ballot measure that
would repeal parts of a new redis-
tricting measure that 62% of Missou-
ri voters approved two years ago.
Since then, lawmakers have
sought to replace the changes
before the decennial census count,
when new district lines are drawn.
The 2018 “Clean Missouri” mea-
sure focused on ethics reform in
Jefferson City; changing access to
public records, limiting lobbying
power, reducing campaign finance
contributions and creating a new
redistricting process that would
empower a state demographer to
play a key role in the process.
If passed, the Amendment 3 pro-
posal on this year’s ballot would
eliminate the role of a “nonpartisan
state demographer” and would
change redistricting metrics for
drawing maps.
The census, apportionment and
redistricting are interrelated activ-
ities that affect representation.
Apportionment, or reapportion-
ment, is the process of deciding
how many seats a state will have in
the U.S. House of Representatives
when its population changes.
Redistricting is the process of
deciding how areas will be divided
into sections or districts based on
the number of seats a state has.
How districts are drawn can
affect which party’s candidates are
likely to win elections.
Here’s the current redistricting
process under Clean Missouri:
■  The state auditor would give
a list of applicants for the demog-
rapher position to the majority and
minority leaders in the Senate for
approval.
■  If the Senate members can’t
come to an agreement, the candi-
date would be picked from among
the finalists through a final lottery.
■  The demographer chosen to
draw the map can’t have been an
elected official in the four years
before or after being appointed to
the position.
Here’s the proposed redistricting
process under Amendment 3:
■  The governor would appoint
nominees proposed by House and
Senate party members to two bipar-
tisan commissions tasked to draw
Please see CLEAN, Page 3A

100 new virus cases State candidates offer

CORRECTION
Renee Hulshof, longtime co-host of “The Morning

plans for revenue issue

Meeting” on KFRU, joined the station in 2008. An arti-
cle on Page 2A on Wednesday listed an incorrect year.
reported in Boone
FROM STAFF
TODAY’S WEATHER AND WIRE REPORTS
news@columbiamissourian.com
A LITTLE RAIN
60/32 Boone County reported a
new increase of 100 COVID-
INDEX 19 cases Wednesday, the
first time the county has hit
Abby5B
triple digits since Sept. 5.
Classifieds3B
The increase in cases is
Nation6A
concerning to Scott Clardy,
Obituaries2A
the assistant director of
Opinion5A
Columbia/Boone County
Sports1B Public Health and Human
Sudoku4B Services.
TV schedule 6B “We really don’t know why
the numbers are climbing,”
Our 113th year/#22 Clardy said. “I’ve looked
2 sections back to see if there were
12 pages any significant events over
the last week, and there was
a football game. We went
downtown and pretty much
everybody was doing a great
job, so we don’t think that
6 54051 90850 3 was an issue.”
Boone County had rela-
tively low case numbers this
week and will continue to
monitor the number of cases.
“Up until yesterday or
today, we weren’t impacting
Missouri’s increase in num-
bers significantly,” Clardy
said. “Some of the counties
around us are seeing sig-
nificant increases of cases,
especially Cole County.”
Community transmission
is the primary motive for
why Boone County is seeing
an increase in cases, but
the health department still
needs to conduct interviews
to find out other possible
exposures.
The state Department of
Health and Senior Services
said in a news release that
it had solved an issue with
Please see CASES, Page 4A
BY MISSOURIAN STAFF answers to a different question
news@columbiamissourian.com will be published each day.
Answers are provided in the
Mid-Missouri’s state Senate
candidate’s words, but each
race, and three House races, was given a 150-word limit,
are contested in the Nov. 3 and edits were made if the
general election.
replies exceeded this.
In the Senate race, incumbent Here are their answers to the
Republican Sen. Caleb Rowden
following question:
faces Democrat Judy Baker.
State income is down
In the House races, incumbent
because of the pandemic.
Republican Rep. Chuck Basye
What immediate steps do you
faces Democrat Adrian Plank;
support to either cut spending
incumbent Republican Rep.
or increase state revenue?
Cheri Toalson Reisch faces
Democrat Jacque Sample; and State Senate District 19
Republican Rep. Sara Walsh
Caleb Rowden, R: The leg-
faces Democrat Kari Chesney.
islature does not have the
In an effort to help voters
constitutional authority to
make an informed decision,
increase revenue without Mis-
the Missourian sent each can-
souri voters’ approval. I’ve
didate a questionnaire asking
worked incredibly hard to keep
for their thoughts on several
taxes low for every Missouri
issues relevant to area resi-
family while funding critical
dents. Some of those questions
priorities like schools and
were submitted by readers.
Over the next several days, Please see REVENUE, Page 3A
COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN
Amendment 3 allows up to 15% leeway for ‘wasted votes’
CLEAN from Page 1A
maps, which reflects the pro-
cess in place prior to Clean
Missouri.
■  If the bipartisan com-
missions deadlock over a
map, a panel of six appellate
judges must draw the lines.
■  Redistricting plans and
maps would be submitted to
the Missouri Secretary of
State, subject to public hear-
ings.
What’s the difference?
The main differences
between the two amend-
ments are the processes used
to draw districts and what
outcomes are permissible
surrounding protections and
criteria related to fairness
and other measurements.
When Clean Missouri
passed, the state became the
first to use a mathematical
formula to try to ensure “par-
tisan fairness and competi-
tiveness,” and part of the key
changes involves a ranked list
of priorities when redrawing
district boundaries.
Here’s what the criteria
looks like:
1.  Districts should still be
equal in population.
2.  Districts should not
marginalize minority commu-
nities in the political process.
3.  The overall map of
districts should promote “par-
tisan fairness and competi-
tiveness.”
4.  Districts should be con-
tiguous.
5.  Districts should follow
political subdivisions as much
as possible (county lines, city
lines, etc.).
6.  Districts should be
“compact in form.”
Amendment 3 would consign
Online purchases tax suggested to increase the state revenue
REVENUE from Page 1A
transportation. I do not sup-
port increasing taxes on Mis-
sourians — especially during
this challenging period. I will
lead the fight to bring peo-
ple together to find the path
to beat this virus and work
toward restoring job losses
and creating new jobs that
will bring new dollars into
the state coffers the right way
(economic growth) and not the
easy way (tax increases).
Judy Baker, D: The General
Assembly should prioritize
increasing revenue before
cutting any vital state pro-
grams, including public edu-
cation and health care. We
need to immediately authorize
Boone County Commission candidate Q&A: COVID-19 response
BY MISSOURIAN STAFF
news@columbiamissourian.com
Both associate Boone
County commissioners face
opponents in the Nov. 3 gen-
eral election.
Republican Tristan Asbury
is challenging Northern Dis-
trict Commissioner Janet
Thompson, a Democrat seek-
ing her third four-year term.
Meanwhile, Democrat Justin
Aldred is challenging South-
ern District Commissioner
Fred Parry, a Republican
running for a second term.
In an effort to help voters
make an informed decision,
the Missourian sent each
candidate a questionnaire
asking for his or her thoughts
on seven issues relevant to
county government.
A question will be published
every day for seven days.
Here are their answers to
the following question:
What is your assessment of
the Columbia/Boone County
Department of Public Health
and Human Services’ han-
dling of the COVID-19 pan-
demic?
Northern District
Janet Thompson: The deci-
sions of the Health Depart-
ment have been based on the
partisan fairness and compet-
itiveness to the bottom of the
criteria list, prioritizing things
such as compact districts that
keep communities together.
Yurij Rudensky, an expert
on state legislature redistrict-
ing for the New York Univer-
sity Law School’s Brennan
Center for Justice, said the
process should be about split-
ting the state up in ways that
make sense for constituents,
rather than political parties
and nonpolitical forces.
“What I look for is whether
there are measures taken
to ensure that whoever it is
drawing districts is at arm’s
length from political interfer-
ence and influence,” he said,
“and then secondarily, wheth-
er it’s open and transparent
and if the public can oversee
the process and be confident
that there’s no self-dealing
going on behind the scenes.”
Currently, the state demog-
rapher is required to cal-
culate the average result of
the last three presidential,
gubernatorial and senatorial
elections to get an idea of the
state’s partisan makeup by
comparing the ratio of the
votes a party receives with
the ratio of seats it wins in
statewide elections.
Along with this “partisan
fairness index,” the demog-
rapher would also have
to consider the amount of
wasted votes to calculate an
“efficiency gap” to determine
whether either party enjoyed
a systematic advantage in
turning votes into seats.
Wasted votes are those cast
for a candidate in excess of
the 50% threshold needed
for victory. The disparity in
those wasted votes is the effi-
ciency gap, measuring how
the Wayfair tax to help local
governments raise more rev-
enue themselves, which has
been previously proposed and
enjoys wide support. We also
need to roll back the tax cuts
passed under the leadership
of my Republican opponent
that primarily benefit wealthy
corporate interests and the
very richest Missourians.
Luckily, voters passed
Medicaid expansion, which
will bring additional federal
money into the state and grow
the pie with new jobs. I want
to ensure we get it imple-
mented as soon as possible
and not wait until July. We
also need to make sure — all
of us, Democrats and Repub-
licans — that the federal
data and best practices.
The department has worked
with the business community,
health care providers and the
schools to create plans that
balance health concerns and
economic reality.
Especially given the lack
of a cohesive national and
regional approach to this pan-
demic, the work of local health
departments nationwide has
been extremely important.
Our Health Department
has worked tirelessly to pro-
tect our community’s physi-
cal, emotional and economic
health.
Tristan Asbury: Commu-
nity health should always be
a top priority; yet, we should
not have to choose between
community health and the
economy.
Regrettably, the area busi-
ness economy has experi-
enced a significant portion of
COVID-19’s adverse impacts.
The Health Department
has the opportunity to ensure
a stable economy by not reg-
ulating local businesses to
the point of closure.
In addition, it’s imperative
Boone County provide reli-
able and accurate COVID-19
information to our citizens
with which to make quality
2020 ELECTION
equally — or unequally —
wasted votes are distributed
among the competing parties.
Amendment 1 says the dif-
ference between the wasted
votes divided by the total votes
cast should be “as close to zero
as practicable,” though the
newly proposed amendment
would change the efficiency
gap requirement for legislative
maps and allow the threshold
to be as high as 15%.
Rudensky noted that
because of this, the partisan
fairness provision is “virtual-
ly meaningless.”
“A 15% partisan fairness
threshold means that a map
can be so disconnected from
how Missourians are voting
on a statewide basis that the
map can be completely unrep-
resentative of voter prefer-
ence in Missouri,” he said.
“The bar is set so high that
the most extreme gerryman-
dered — essentially of all
time — would be deemed fair
from a partisan-balanced
standpoint,” he added.
The idea of a threshold as
“close to zero as practicable”
is that this would help fight
gerrymandering because
planners couldn’t pack a few
districts with one party’s vot-
ers, which would leave them
greatly underrepresented in
others.
Currently, the existing
bipartisan commissions
selected by the governor still
have an opportunity to review
the demographer’s map.
However, in order to make
any changes, at least 70%
of either commission needs
to come to agreement — 12
members of the House com-
mittee or seven members of
the Senate committee.
If the bipartisan commis-
dollars promised to Missouri
through the CARES Act, as
well as any further relief
from the federal government,
actually make it to Missouri.
State House District 44
Cheri Toalson Reisch, R: No
reply.
Jacque Sample, D: I would
support taxing internet sales
to increase revenue for our
state. This is long overdue
and very much needed.
State House District 47
Chuck Basye, R: I strong-
ly believe we should open
up our economy completely
using safeguards currently in
place. Let Missouri citizens
decide what is best for their
From left, Boone County Commission candidates Tristan Asbury, incumbent Janet Thompson, Justin Aldred and incumbent Fred Parry.
decisions.
Our leaders must ensure
we are taking a balanced
approach when determining
how best to respond to this
crisis and future crises.
Decisions must be based on
a broader array of interests
(i.e. business, education, etc.)
and the impacts they may
experience.
Indirect health- and
other related impacts have
occurred to individuals and
families by not considering
the economic impacts to such
people affected by business
restrictions.
sions don’t make any chang-
es, the demographer’s map
is final.
The data and calculation the
demographer uses to make
the maps also has to be turned
over to the Secretary of State’s
office, subject to be requested
via the Sunshine Law. Citizens
will then have the opportunity
to challenge the public data
and maps in court if they don’t
meet the criteria listed in the
amendment.
Under the new proposal, a
panel of six appellate judges
must draw the lines if the
bipartisan commissions dead-
lock over a map. Redistrict-
ing plans and maps would
be submitted to the Missouri
secretary of state, subject to
public hearings.
Issues of Language
As originally written by
the Republican-led legisla-
ture, the ballot summary for
Amendment 3 didn’t mention
the elimination of the non-
partisan demographer, which
was a central component to
the redistricting measure vot-
ers approved in 2018.
Petition circulators for Clean
Missouri filed suit, arguing
that the ballot title of Amend-
ment 3 was misleading.
In August, Cole County
Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce
ruled the summary of the
amendment was “insufficient
and unfair,” adding that any
changes the amendment
makes to the Constitution
“pale in comparison to the
scope and magnitude of undo-
ing a recent voter mandate to
change Missouri’s legislative
redistricting rules.”
She said the ‘central pur-
pose’ or ‘primary objective’
of (Amendment 3) is to effec-
own personal situation.
Adrian Plank, D: First
bipartisan step is to tax
online purchases.
State House District 50
Sara Walsh, R: The gover-
nor has already announced
the immediate action of
withholds in the current
year’s budget. I serve on the
House Budget Committee
and chair the subcommittee
on appropriations for the
departments of public safety,
transportation, revenue and
corrections. The process in
setting next year’s budget
is that the House Budget
Committee will hear testi-
mony beginning in January
from all state departments
Southern District
Fred Parry: I would give
the Boone County Health
Department an A+ for its han-
dling of the COVID-19 crisis.
There is, however, consid-
erable room for improvement
in the areas of communi-
cations strategy and public
information.
Leaders from Boone Coun-
ty’s rural communities feel as
if they were left in the dark
when it came to receiving
essential information from
the Health Department.
The same is true for local
THURSDAY, October 15, 2020 — Page 3A
tively repeal Amendment 1.”
That ruling was appealed,
and the Western District
Appeals Court ruled that the
original description “fails to
acknowledge what SJR 38
would actually do — substan-
tially modify, and reorder, the
redistricting criteria approved
by voters in the November
2018 general election.”
Opponents of Amendment 1
have argued there is a danger
in attempting to make the leg-
islature reflect the total parti-
san leanings of the state.
Tina Goodrick lost her bid
for election to the Missouri
House of Representatives
in District 9 during the
recent Republican primary
after running in 2018 for
the same seat. Speaking at
a Sept. 30 forum hosted by
the League of Women Voters,
Goodrick argued that com-
munities would likely need
to be spread among several
districts to achieve balance
under Clean Missouri’s rules,
leading to the creation of odd-
ly-shaped districts.
“I see a future of having
our legislators not be from
the area where we live, but
clear over in Kansas City, and
whatnot,” she said. “It will be
drawn way out, far away from
our district and the people who
will be representing us don’t
have any idea what we need
for our district. How are they
going to feel if they’re drawn
in with the farmland?”
Sean Nicholson, campaign
manager of the push to enact
Clean Missouri in 2018 and
who is now leading the cam-
paign to defeat Amendment 3,
said that the new proposal is
“about creating a redistricting
system where lobbyists and
political operatives can draw
with regards to their bud-
get requests and expendi-
tures, including anticipated
revenues, to get a detailed
assessment of the situation.
Both the pandemic and
recent passage of Medicaid
expansion will be a large
part of the conversation as
we discuss the supplemental
budget (changes to the cur-
rent year’s budget) and plan
for next year. I don’t support
arbitrary cuts. As always I
will work closely with the
House budget chair and the
four departments to try to
continue as many existing
services while planning
for any additional cuts that
might be necessary.
Kari Chesney, D: We need
restaurant and bar owners
who felt as if the flow of
information was not handled
in a timely fashion.
Justin Aldred: The COVID-
19 pandemic was unexpected
and highlighted misman-
agement from the federal
government to the local level
across the country.
Here in Boone County we
saw our own Commissioner
Parry accuse the Health
Department of having polit-
ical bias, actively support a
lawsuit against the Health
Department and undermine
the health response of both
lines to protect their favorite
incumbents in safe districts
where they can’t be held
accountable by the voters.”
“The folks who were
behind Amendment 3 — the
politicians and lobbyists
who put it together — know
you won’t like what’s in fine
print, so it is crafted to trick
voters and deceive you into
thinking that it’s something
that it’s not,” he said.
Goodrick said the language
in the original Clean Missou-
ri amendment was just as
confusing.
“Many people thought that
they were voting to make
things environmentally friend-
ly or clean up the street, or
whatever,” she said. “I mean
seriously, they were confused.”
Rudensky said the demog-
rapher has the ability to
group communities with
similar policy interests,
rather than grouping com-
munities that secure wins
for a certain party. Political
preferences could shift while
key issues remain the same,
making a state’s legislature
more responsive.
“The entire idea of a non-
partisan demographer is to
understand where Missouri’s
relevant communities of
interest are,” he said. “With
Clean, there is transparency,
there are bipartisan checks
and balances in place.”
Independent redistrict-
ing isn’t a Democrat versus
Republican issue, he noted,
but rather a ‘people versus
political interest issue.’
“They feel disconnected
and alienate, or they don’t
understand the importance of
voting. It really turns into a
downward spiral that impacts
all aspects of our democracy.”
to take a hard look at what
the responsibility is of our
state government and wheth-
er their main job is to pro-
vide benefits for large com-
panies or support their com-
munities. I would restructure
our state tax code to ensure
our companies, which rely
on our roads for transport of
goods, our education for an
intelligent work force and so
much more, are paying their
far share. I also support the
“Wayfair” tax — which would
charge sales tax back to Mis-
souri for online purchases.
This would vastly increase
our state revenue while also
supporting Main Street shops
which must charge sales tax
in their establishments.
COURTESY PHOTOS
the city of Columbia and
Boone County.
Given all these obstacles
and the lack of resources
at both the state and local
level, I believe the County/
City Health Department has
done and continues to do the
best they can to handle this
pandemic.
I appreciate the leader-
ship and professionalism of
the Department of Public
Health and Human Services’
staff and Director Stephanie
Browning.
https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/politifact_missouri/will-children-be-counted-
if-amendment-3-passes-it-depends/article_a0e3ecca-0efa-11eb-a752-
e744b7acf0ed.html

Will children be counted if Amendment 3

passes? It depends
BY VERONICA MOHESKY
Oct 17, 2020

Amendment 3 is a hot topic on Missouri’s ballot this year. If approved,

the amendment would overturn the Clean Missouri amendment that
was passed in 2018. At stake are drastic changes in the way the state
draws political districts.

Democratic House candidate Tracy Grundy ran a Facebook ad against

the measure from Sept. 24-29. Grundy is running for House District 102,
which includes Weldon Spring and O’Fallon.

The ad claimed that Amendment 3 “for the rst time ever, would not
count children in population for redistricting.” It was seen by between
100,000 and 500,000 people on Facebook.
Grundy says she got her information from cleanmissouri.org, which
claims Missouri would be the rst and only state to disallow children in
the redistricting count if Amendment 3 is passed. Other anti-
Amendment 3 groups have made similar claims, and it has become a
talking point for opponents.

There are about 1.5 million children in Missouri.

We found that, ultimately, Amendment 3 could allow the exclusion of

children but trying to do so might not work.

One person, one vote

Redistricting occurs every 10 years after the Census calculates the
number of people living in each current district. The proposed
amendment doesn’t a ect the Census count — just what portions of the
census are used for redistricting.
Traditionally, the party in power gets to pick the districts and does so in
ways to help it win future elections. That’s called gerrymandering. The
2018 amendment upended the process by calling for a nonpartisan state
demographer and changes to the criteria for drawing the map.

The amendment this year would undo those 2018 provisions.

Where do children come into play? Here’s the actual language of the
amendment: “Districts shall be as nearly equal as practicable in
population and shall be drawn on the basis of one person, one vote.”

Sean Soendker Nicholson of the Clean Missouri campaign says

Republicans are interpreting that to mean only adults are counted for
redistricting. The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Dan Hegeman, denies
it.

In a Senate debate on Jan. 29, Hegeman responded to a question about

the wording of “one person, one vote.” He said: “The people that are able
to vote are the people that are counted.”
This sounds like only citizens age 18 and up will be counted. In an email,
though, Hegeman said this is not the case.

“Nothing in Amendment 3 prohibits the counting of children. Instead, it

mandates that the principle of one person, one vote, should apply,”
Hegeman said. “The question then becomes which ‘population’ must be
equal. Is it the population of those who can actually vote, or every
person who can be found in a district? That choice is left to the General
Assembly.”

Hegeman says that if passed, children would be excluded from the

redistricting count only if the General Assembly chose to interpret the
law as eligible voters.

Total population
This whole debate comes from the changing of one phrase. The Clean
Missouri amendment of 2018 changed “one person, one vote” to “total
population.” In Amendment 3, “total population” would be changed back
to “one person, one vote” again.

“The opponents claim that the rewriting of the language, with the
removal of ‘total population,’ would remove children from being
counted,” Hegeman said. “Which is untrue, because removing ‘total
population’ just goes back to what we had before, where children were
always counted.”
According to a written testimony from the Brennan Center for Justice to
the Missouri House of Representatives General Laws Committee on
April 30, what Hegeman is saying is plausible.

This is because of precedents set by the U.S. Supreme Court and

Missouri’s history with redistricting. Missouri has done redistricting
based on total population, just like every other state, for more than 150
years, according to the testimony. It was written by Nimrod Chapel Jr. of
the Missouri NAACP and Yurij Rudensky and Ethan Herenstein of the
Brennan Center for Justice.

The testimony goes on to say, “In 2016, the Supreme Court unanimously
held in Evenwel v. Abbott that districts drawn on the basis of total
population satisfy the “One Person, One Vote” principle.”

Is it likely?
Yurij Rudensky is a legal expert on the Redistricting Council with the
Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. Rudensky said
while there is evidence to show that Republicans want to leave out
children and noncitizens, there is a possibility that it might not happen.

Rudensky referred to the people who sponsored Amendment 3 as well

as Missouri Solicitor General John Sauer. In an oral argument on Aug.
28, Sauer explained his understanding of the amendment to a Circuit
Court judge.

“So ‘one person, one vote,’ the criteria is based on the number of actual
eligible voters in a relevant district, as opposed to an absolute
population,” Sauer said.

Just because some Republicans want it to be interpreted that way

doesn’t mean it has to be.

“You can use total population. That is clearly constitutional for a state to
draw districts that are based on total population,” Rudensky said. “The
open question is whether that is mandatory.”

If passed, the General Assembly could choose how to interpret the

language. According to a report from the Brennan Center, not counting
children or noncitizens would disproportionately a ect communities of
color.

“Only 21% of Missouri’s white population would go uncounted,”

Rudensky writes. “By contrast, 28% of Missouri’s Black population, 54%
of its Asian population, and 54% of its Latino population would be erased
when district lines are drawn.”

This would lead to an advantage for Republicans, as more older, white

citizens would be represented.

MORE INFORMATION

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Vote 'No' on Amendment 3 if you supported Clean

Missouri

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Beware of Amendment 3 when voting in November

The governor's race: Amendment 3

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Vote 'No' on Amendment 3 if you support campaign finance
reform
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Vote 'No' on Amendment 3

Veronica Mohesky
Community Outreach Team Spring 2020 Studying Convergence Emerging Media Reach
me at vmmy99@mail.missouri.edu
https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/elections/update-voters-approve-
amendment-3-rolling-back-clean-missouri-redistricting-changes/article_47692f18-1b05-
11eb-8f67-0b1e564cbeac.html

UPDATE: Voters approve Amendment 3, rolling

back 'Clean Missouri' redistricting changes
BY ADAM JACKSON AND IAN LAIRD
Nov 4, 2020

Voters narrowly approved Amendment 3 on Tuesday, undoing key

components of Clean Missouri, which voters passed only two years ago.

When nal results rolled in, Amendment 3 had 51% of the votes
statewide.

Lawmakers advanced the contentious proposal — on the ballot as

Amendment 3 — in May after voters decided to change the state’s
redistricting process in the 2018 election. Since then, opponents of
Amendment 3 have characterized the move as a ploy to undo a ballot
initiative that 62% of Missouri residents passed two years ago.

The 2018 “Clean Missouri” measure focused on ethics reform in

Je erson City, changing access to public records, limiting lobbying
power, reducing campaign nance contributions and — most
contentiously — creating a new redistricting process that would
empower a state demographer to play a key role in the process.
The Amendment 3 proposal on this year’s ballot eliminates the role of a
“nonpartisan state demographer” and changes redistricting metrics for
drawing maps. It reinstitutes much of the system that was in place prior
to Clean Missouri, with a few key adjustments.

Adrian Plank, who lost his bid for the 47th House District, said the
amendment will make it harder to “hold Republicans accountable.”

“You know, they say that Missouri is a 50/50 state,” Plank said.
“Republicans have two-thirds of the representation.”

Judy Baker, who fell to Republican incumbent Sen. Caleb Rowden, said,
“Now, maps will be drawn by politicians.”

Rowden said he thinks Amendment 3 provides a better path forward for

the state. Rowden added that if voters had rejected it and kept Clean
Missouri, “we would’ve moved ahead with the language the way that
was passed in 2018.”

Democrat Martha Stevens, of the 46th House District, said “It is clear that
Republicans want to pick their voters."

"Whether it is a president saying we should stop counting votes when he

is ahead, or a party pushing to not count people in redistricting,
Republicans know that when we count every vote and hear every voice,
they lose," she said. "It's a tragic disappointment that Amendment 3
passed.”
Any changes to the redistricting process had to be made this year,
because the process coincides with the 2020 Census. Those numbers
will be used to redraw district boundaries.

Supporters and opponents disagreed as to whether the Clean Missouri

changes will make the process less political or if it will result in districts
that better re ect the population.

In a statement, the campaign against Amendment 3 said, “We are very

disappointed that the politicians' lies and deception were e ective
enough to pass Amendment 3.”

“Nevertheless, we are committed to ensuring as fair an outcome as

possible when new maps are drawn in 2021,” the statement read.
“Amendment 3 was written to allow for truly radical gerrymandering,
but it does not require it. The broad, bipartisan coalition that passed the
Clean Missouri Amendment will be active and engaged in the 2021
redistricting process to ensure that voters and communities come rst
in new maps, not politicians.”

Opponents of Amendment 3 have traded barbs in court and on the

campaign trail regarding transparency of the data driving the map-
making process and the degree to which citizens can contest maps in
court.

Liberty Alliance USA, a conservative coalition supporting the

amendment, said in a statement that "Despite millions of dollars of out-
of-state dark money bankrolled by George Soros, Eric Holder, and a
Texas billionaire couple, Missourians stood strong for local
representation."

“Missourians should rest easy today after securing a victory for local
representation, fair maps, and ethics reform in Je erson City. George
Soros attempted to buy Missouri’s legislature, but Missourians saw
through the Clean Missouri scam,” said Liberty Alliance Executive
Director Chris Vas.

"Despite being outspent by more than 20-1 this election and over 40-1
over the past four years, the voters have clearly spoken and the will of
the people should be respected," he said.

Amendment 1
Voters rejected Amendment 1, which would have implemented term
limits to several statewide elected o ces that didn’t have them. The
amendment was losing 53% to 47% with almost all precincts counted.

It would have limited the positions of lieutenant governor, secretary of

state, auditor and attorney general to two terms. Similar constraints
have already been placed on the governor and treasurer.

Sarah Catlin, who manages a doctor’s o ce in Columbia, opposed the

amendment.

“I think we have term limits, and it’s called an election,” said Catlin, who
worked on Baker’s campaign. “We have opportunities to replace people.
I’ve seen what term limits have done at the statehouse. Now it seems like
the lobbyists are the only ones that know how things work and are
running the whole show.”
Amendment 3
TRAN NGUYEN Nov 3, 2020

Amendment 1
TRAN NGUYEN Nov 3, 2020
Adam Satrya Jackson
State reporter, fall 2020. Studying print and digital news. Reach me at
asjbhx@umsystem.edu, or (573) 356-7458

Ian Laird