Raychel Proudie

The House also passed legislation barring state funds from going to diversity, equity and inclusion programs and a bill shielding companies from having to place specific cancer warnings on pesticides.

The resolution, if passed by voters, would remove the provisions that were in Amendment 3 and instead allow abortion only in cases of rape, incest, medical emergencies or fetal anomalies.

The starting salary for an child abuse investigator is around $43,000 a year.

Only 16 investigators are looking into child abuse and neglect claims in St. Louis and St. Louis County. The head of the Missouri Children’s Division says that number should be closer to 60.

The Senate’s plan to go beyond the $860 million initially proposed to expand Interstate 70 remained in the budget agreed to by a Senate-House conference committee Wednesday night. Other Senate positions that remained were state funding for public libraries and the elimination of anti-DEI language in the budget.

The Missouri House passed legislation Thursday allowing the governor to appoint a special prosecutor in cities like St. Louis. But Republican leadership cut off debate on the bill before several Black Democrats from the St. Louis area were able to speak.

A previous version of the legislation would have taken money away from public school districts to make up for a disparity in funding for public charter schools. Now, the state would handle that responsibility.

On the last day before the legislature takes a week off, the House also passed legislation including banning discrimination in schools against traditionally Black hairstyles and creating nurseries in women’s prisons.

The legislation creates what is called the Missouri Empowerment Scholarship Account and falls in line with the Republican effort of so-called school choice.

Six Missouri state representatives are working to pass legislation to forgive some or all of the unemployment overpayments that the Missouri Department of Labor is asking 46,000 residents to pay back.