Missouri lawmakers debate video lottery machines

By Rudi Keller

Missouri Independent

Video lottery operators on Tuesday promised Missouri will reap a windfall of money for education and other programs if lawmakers will substitute their devices for slot machine-like games currently in thousands of retail locations across the state.

But opponents of a bill, which was debated by the House Emerging Issues, said legalizing video gambling in convenience stores, bars and fraternal halls would drain money from poor communities and create other problems that would outweigh any benefits.

For nearly a decade, what vendors call “no chance gaming” has survived massive enforcement efforts by the Missouri State Highway Patrol and local governments by filing lawsuits and stretching out criminal prosecutions. Part of that effort has been massive political contributions that at one point forced then-Attorney General Andrew Bailey to withdraw from defending the highway patrol in a lawsuit challenging its enforcement efforts.

Tolerance of the machines is growing thin in some communities. Springfield successfully defended an ordinance banning the machines, and Kansas City has followed suit with an ordinance banning them as a public nuisance and health hazard.

“For years, we were patient and we waited, but we’ve had enough,” Shannon Cooper, a lobbyist for Kansas City, said in testimony to the committee Tuesday night.

Under the latest plan to legalize video lottery terminals, state Rep. Bill Hardwick, a Republican from Dixon, wants to put the Missouri Lottery in charge of the games, require licenses for all retailers and vendors, and tax the profits after prizes at 34%.

Of that tax, 31% is for state education programs, split between public schools and higher education and 3% is for local governments. The official estimate is that the taxes could generate $291 million for education programs within two years, with licensing and other fees generating $55 million more for veterans programs.

Smaller amounts would be set aside to provide pensions for elected county prosecutors and support a new enforcement bureau in the attorney general’s office.

The question before lawmakers, Hardwick told the committee, is not whether there will be gambling in retail locations, but whether it will be regulated and taxed.

“There’s gaming all over the state right now, various types of games,” Hardwick said. “There’s what you call the gray machines, and no chance machines. There’s also just illegal slot machines operating. In the state of Missouri, this gaming is happening throughout the state with no rules regulations.”

Opponents of the bill argued that enforcement of current law, and perhaps a stronger law banning the games, would solve the problem.

“The General Assembly should not reward illegal activity by acting to make that activity legal after the offender has continually exploited the market,” said Ray McCarty, executive director of the Associated Industries of Missouri.

'Gray market'

The games available in most convenience stores and other retail locations are called “no chance games” because they have a function that allows a gambler to know the outcome of the next play before making a bet.

They have come to be called “gray market” machines because the vendors argue that feature means they do not violate Missouri anti-gambling laws.

The argument has started to crumble. In October, a federal jury ordered Wildwood-based Torch Electronics, the biggest vendor of the games in the state, to pay $500,000 to a competitor that provides traditional arcade games for unfairly forcing them out of 20 locations.

The jury found that the Torch games fit the state’s definition of an illegal gambling device.

And Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, who replaced Bailey after he was appointed to a top FBI job, told Missourinet that she intends to crack down on the machines.

Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd scored the only felony conviction of a “gray market” game vendor in 2020. On Tuesday night, he testified in favor of Hardwick’s bill because no other prosecutor has followed up on that success.

“The law today, sadly, just doesn’t work,” Zahnd said.

Constitutional questions

The Missouri Constitution, since 1875, has barred lawmakers from enacting laws to “authorize lotteries or gift enterprises for any purpose.” Voters have approved exceptions for charitable bingo games, the Missouri Lottery and casino gambling along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

In testimony Tuesday, committee members were told by one attorney that by giving responsibility for the games to the Missouri Lottery, the bill would fit in the constitutional exceptions.

“This is a constitutional bill, period,” said Scott Pool, a lawyer from Jefferson City.

The key element of an unconstitutional game is that there is no element of skill needed to play and nothing the player can do will enhance their chances of winning. When Missourians first approved casino gambling by statute, courts ruled games like poker or craps were games of skill, and therefore legal, while slot machines violated the lottery ban.

Only a second vote, on a constitutional amendment providing an exception, allowed the casinos to offer slot machine games.

The constitution also earmarks all tax proceeds from gambling to education programs. Casinos generated $363 million for education programs in fiscal 2025 and the lottery provided $337 million.

No revenue figures are yet available for sports wagering, launched late last year after voters approved a 2024 constitutional amendment.

Attorney Marc Ellinger, speaking for casino lobbying group the Missouri Gaming Association, said Hardwick’s bill violates the ban on laws authorizing games of chance. And, he added, it unconstitutionally diverts money from education by adding a tax for local needs.

“It cannot survive under the precedent of the Missouri Supreme Court, under the express words of the constitution,” he said.

How it would work

Hardwick’s bill would impose requirements similar to those on casino slot machines and lottery retailers who sell physical lottery tickets.

Like casino slot machines, the games would have to return at least 80% of the money bet as prizes. Casino profits are taxed at 21%.

Records produced at the federal trial showed Torch games returned about 65% of money wagered as prizes. That money is taxed as ordinary income.

Retailers would be given a year to transition from the gray market games to machines licensed by the Missouri Lottery. The machines currently in place would be removed, in part because only machines connected to the lottery’s computer system to monitor play would be legal after the year expired.

The current machines do not have that capability.

No retailer who currently has gray market machines would be excluded from being licensed as a video lottery retailer.

“That allows us to get rid of the gray machines, replace it with the licensed program, and we can still have a non-interruption in business,” Hardwick said.

He said he would be open to changes but he wants to protect the revenue of retailers who have come to depend on the money generated by the machines.

“I want your views about what you think is fair and not fair, from the small business owners point of view, from the point of view of businesses who have not participated in the gray market, from the point of view of our schools, of our police, of our veterans,” Hardwick said. “I want it to be something that’s a fair and just bill, and I know that it’s a really complicated bill.”

The bill would require retailers to put all the games in a designated location on their premises, divided from other business operations, with video surveillance and monitoring to make sure no one under 21 plays.

In past years, the legislation required that area to be enclosed and off-limits to non-players.

The loosening of those restrictions raised questions among committee members. State Rep. Josh Hurlbert, a Republican from Smithville, described what he saw when he was taking his young children to Poplar Bluff for the eclipse last year.

During a restroom stop, he said he saw a child sitting in front of one of the games.

“That kid wasn’t playing,” Hurlbert said. “He was sitting at it, watching. But that is probably something we don’t want to encourage, either.”

He made an excuse about needing to keep on the road rather than explain the machines were gambling devices when one child asked to play, he said.

An entirely separate room could be financially impossible for small retailers, Hardwick said.

“If a small business has to have a separate space, and an inability to get a construction project funded, they are disadvantaged.” Hardwick said. “So I’d like to come up with wording that doesn’t necessarily disadvantage them, that gets after the social problem.”

Communities that don’t want video lottery could, under the bill, pass ordinances prohibiting the games or banning cash prizes, said Troy Stremming, a lobbyist for J&J Ventures, an Illinois company that is a video lottery vendor.

“They could use the two provisions together, like a shield and a sword,” he said. “If they choose, by passing an ordinance, they can shield their community from lottery issuing any VLT licenses in their local jurisdiction and you’re also giving them a sword to go after the illegal operators.”

The new voices in the years-long debate over the games are state business lobbies, who see the games as a drain on the financial stability of families and employees.

Lawmakers should resist any legislation except bills to ban the games, said Jared Hankinson, vice president of government affairs for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“It creates unequal regulation within the same industry,” Hankinson said. “It retroactively legitimizes unlawful operators, and it expands high risk gambling and for vulnerable communities without safeguards.”

And, he said, the bill sends the wrong message to lawbreakers.

“This is a signal from the General Assembly that compliance with laws is optional,” Hankinson said, “and that if you operate long enough, outside of the law, eventually the legislature may change the law to accommodate you.”

Eric Schmitt calls federal immigration agents in Minnesota ‘heroes’

By Fletcher Mantooth

Columbia Missourian

U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt took to the Senate floor Wednesday to defend federal agents arresting suspected undocumented immigrants in Minnesota, calling them “American heroes.”

“We owe them our absolute, unequivocal, unflinching support,” the senator told his colleagues, many of whom are now calling for an investigation into the Department of Homeland Security after two fatal shootings in Minnesota. Schmitt’s fellow Missouri Republican, Sen. Josh Hawley, is one of the senators calling for an investigation.

During the speech, Schmitt blamed heightened tensions in Minnesota on rhetoric by the state’s Democratic leaders, calling out Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

He argued that the Democrats have a “conscious strategy” to cause chaos on Minneapolis’ streets.

“I don’t know if they really believe that we’re at war, or that ICE is the gestapo, or that Minneapolis is under Nazi occupation,” Schmitt said. “But whether or not they believe it, many of the people who hear them, who listen to them, do.”

Schmitt’s strongly worded support for President Donald Trump’s Minnesota “surge” comes as the president himself appears to be backing off in the face of criticism, some of it from members of his own party. Earlier this week, Trump made phone calls to both Walz and Frey. “We’re going to de-escalate a bit,” he said Tuesday in a Fox News interview.

Trump also reined in two of his more outspoken officials, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Immigration and Customs Enforcement commander Greg Bovino, giving Tom Homan, his designated “border czar” and a career immigration official, a lead role in Minnesota.

But Schmitt argued that Trump’s critics are blocking the president from fulfilling his campaign promise to deport people who are in the United States illegally.

“If democracy means anything at all, it means that this administration must be allowed to carry out the agenda the American people voted for,” Schmitt said.

“The deportations must continue,” he added later.

Schmitt called the shootings of two 37-year old U.S. citizens, nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday and mother of three Renee Good earlier in January, “tragic.” But he argued that Democratic officials have created the dangerous conditions in Minneapolis. “It’s not on ICE, it’s not on the Border Patrol and it’s certainly not on President Trump.”

“If it were, we would be seeing the same chaos in every city where ICE and Border Patrol carries out these operations, but we aren’t,” Schmitt said. ”There have been large-scale deportation operations in red states all across the country. Most Americans have probably never heard of them, because they went off without a hitch.”

Trump’s “Operation Metro Surge” in Minneapolis and St. Paul has put more than 3,000 federal agents in the Twin Cities, a number that, according to the Minnesota Star-Tribune, dwarfs the number of local police.

The debate over DHS tactics in Minnesota has set up the possibility of a government shutdown.

The Senate is set to consider a bundle of six funding bills this week, among them a bill to fund DHS operations. Prominent Democrats — including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. — want to amend the DHS funding bill to put restrictions on agents.

They have called for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to split off the DHS bill from the rest, allowing the other five bills to pass and avoiding a large-scale government shutdown.

Schmitt dismissed the effort as “political grandstanding,” arguing that “it would have no real practical effect on ICE operations.” This is because the Trump administration has provided the agency with enough funds to continue operating, at least temporarily.

“The fact is, the Democrats — first of all — shut the government down the first time because they wanted health care for illegal immigrants,” Schmitt said. “Now they want to shut the government down because they want to stop deportation of illegal immigrants. That’s not something we’re supportive of.”

Josh Hawley calls for investigation of ‘troubling’ Minneapolis shooting

By Molly Gibbs

Columbia Missourian

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley on Tuesday called the shooting of an ICU nurse in Minneapolis “very troubling” and added that he welcomes investigations and hearings on the actions of Department of Homeland Security agents in the incident.

Video of the incident shows DHS agents pinning 37-year-old Alex Pretti to the ground and shooting him multiple times after disarming him. There is no video evidence that Pretti ever brandished his weapon, which he was licensed to carry.

In the uproar immediately following the incident, Missouri’s other senator, Eric Schmitt, defended DHS, accusing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of engaging in a “war on law enforcement.” Schmitt’s comments came before President Donald Trump’s Monday call with Walz, and his announcement that “we’re going to de-escalate a little bit.”

Schmitt was traveling back to Washington Tuesday and was unavailable for comment.

Hawley said he agreed with Trump that it is time to “turn the temperature down” in Minnesota.

When asked about the legality of the shooting, Hawley drew on his experience as Missouri’s attorney general, saying that he oversaw many police raids and that they are always dangerous.

“I am a firm believer in qualified immunity for law enforcement,” Hawley said. “But qualified immunity isn’t total immunity. The test there is: what would a reasonable person have done in those circumstances.”

Hawley said he wouldn’t recommend people carry firearms into an area where law enforcement is known to be conducting an operation, but added that Pretti’s decision to do so did not violate any law. In Missouri, the senator noted, a person would not even need a concealed carry permit, which Pretti had.

Pretti’s death, the second of two fatal shootings by DHS personnel during the agency’s surge in Minnesota, is creating the potential for a government shutdown at the end of the week.

The Senate faces a Friday deadline to approve a package of six funding bills for federal agencies, but Democrats, and some Republicans, say they want to reconsider the DHS funding package in light of what they consider the agency’s overreach in Minnesota.

Hawley said he wants to fund the Department of Homeland Security and keep the government open. Still, he said he will defer to Majority Leader U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., when it comes to delaying or amending funding for DHS.

Fletcher Mantooth contributed to this reporting.

Missouri GOP backs income tax repeal as critics warn sales taxes hit poor hardest

By Rudi Keller
Missouri Independent

During Wednesday’s hearing on Gov. Mike Kehoe’s plan to replace Missouri’s individual income tax with an expanded sales tax, the key word was trust.

The proposed constitutional amendment giving the legislature three years to overhaul state tax policies is open-ended —- it allows lawmakers to impose sales tax on any financial transaction exchanging goods or services.

In his State of the State address, the only parts of the economy Kehoe put off-limits was agriculture, health care and real estate. And as he presented the proposal to the House Commerce Committee, House Speaker Jon Patterson said everything else was up to lawmakers.

The state’s revenue needs will be protected by revenue triggers — at levels unstated in the proposed amendment — as the individual income tax is reduced and finally eliminated, Patterson said.

“It will be up to you to decide what trigger do we want, and make sure that it’s done in a responsible way, so that we don’t have things that have happened in other states,” Patterson said.

“So we’re asking the people to trust the legislature to raise their sales tax, to raise any other taxes that they see fit and to trust politicians to make those responsible decisions,” said state Rep. Nick Kimble, a Kansas City Democrat.

“Well, not any more than they trust you now,” Patterson said, triggering a round of laughter in the packed committee room.

The proposal, as written, puts nothing off limits. It includes a three-year exemption to the Missouri Constitution’s requirements that tax increases win voter approval and that any tax “upon or measured by fuel used for propelling highway motor vehicles” be earmarked for road needs.

Patterson’s proposal seeks to end the personal income tax as early as Jan. 1, 2031. Income taxes on businesses and trusts would continue.

The committee did not vote on Wednesday. The next regularly scheduled meeting is next Wednesday and a vote could be held at that time.

If the measure is approved in both the House and Senate, it could be on a ballot as early as August.

The push to replace Missouri’s individual income tax is an effort to modernize the state’s tax structure, Patterson said. The individual income tax was first enacted in 1917 and a sales tax began in 1937.

The income tax is a drag on the state’s economy compared to states that have no personal income tax, he said. And the sales tax, which mainly applies to physical goods, is outdated because services, such as online streaming services, are exempt, he added.

“This is the first step in a long, methodical process that will take place if the citizens so choose to modernize our tax system and give people fairness in the tax system that we have,” Patterson said.

To bolster his arguments, proponents brought Aaron Hedlund, chief economist at White House Council of Economic Advisers, and Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform.

Hedlund is a former University of Missouri professor who now teaches at Purdue University.

About 25 years ago, Hedlund said, Missouri generated about 2% of the U.S. economy, while the share now is 1.5%.

“I’m sick of Missouri losing,” he said. “For 25 years, we’ve oftentimes been in the bottom 10 of economic growth. Prior to the income tax reductions that started about a decade ago, we were oftentimes in the bottom five at economic growth. People are voting with their feet, and they’re not choosing Missouri.”

Democratic members of the committee were skeptical of whether the tax proposal was the way to solve that problem. House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat, noted that Republicans have dominated Missouri politics for the past 25 years.

The GOP has controlled the state Senate since 2001, the Missouri House since 2003 and held the governor’s office for 14 of the past 26 years.

“I want to make the point that what we have been doing is not working,” Aune said. “I would posit that this is not the solution.”

Missouri’s personal income tax is almost flat, with a top rate of 4.7% on taxable incomes greater than $9,436. There are significant exemptions from the tax, including all Social Security payments, a share of retirement income and capital gains, which is profits from the sale of property or other assets.

The income tax generates about 65% of the state’s annual general revenue receipts, which were $13.4 billion in the year that ended June 30.

Sales tax is more complicated because local governments have a variety of levies they can put on the ballot. The basic state rate is 4.225%, with 3% dedicated to general revenue and the rest earmarked for public schools, conservation, state parks and soil conservation.

There are more than 50 locations in the state where the total sales tax is 11% or higher after adding local option taxes.

Matching the current revenue from the individual income tax without expanding the transactions that are taxed would require raising the sales tax to nearly 13%. .

One of the main focuses of testimony during Wednesday’s hearing was who would bear the greatest burden under an expanded sales tax. Opponents of the measure said wealthier Missourians would see their taxes decrease substantially while people of limited means will pay more in taxes.

After deductions, a married couple with a total income of about $36,000 pays no state income tax. The sales tax, however, would hit every purchase they make, opponents said.

Figures from the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy show that people in the lowest 20% of income pay about one-third more of their income in sales and other taxes in Tennessee, Texas and Florida than the same group in Missouri, said Jeremy LaFaver, a lobbyist for the Missouri Budget Project.

The top 1% of income earners in Missouri pay 5.7%, he said, while the same group in Florida pays 2.7%.

“They rely largely on consumer based taxes that impact low income, fixed income people,” LaFaver said.

For one lawmaker, reducing the burden on high-income earners is a benefit of the plan.

Wealthy individuals run the businesses that employ Missourians, said state Rep. Brian Seitz, a Republican from Branson.

“The wealthy pay way more in taxes,” he said. “The percentage may look smaller, but they actually paid quite a bit more, and they are the foundation of our state’s tax base.”

Dennis Ganahl, founder of Mo Tax Relief Now, said the transactions that would be taxed are those used by wealthier people.

“The people with the lower incomes are just buying goods,” Granahl said. “They aren’t buying CPAs or masseuses or dog walkers or hair stylists or pedicurists or manicurists. All those are services that are used by wealthier people.”

Lower income Missourians use services that would be taxed, Aune responded.

“That is one of the wildest things I’ve heard in this building, if I’m being honest,” she said. “And I’ve heard some crazy stuff.”

The Missouri Constitution currently bans sales taxes on real estate transactions and any transactions not currently taxed. Both were added to the constitution after initiative petition campaigns organized by the Missouri Association of Realtors.

The campaigns cost $4.3 million to protect real estate sales from taxation in 2010 and $5.6 million to add protections against sales taxes on services.

Jason Zamkus, a lobbyist for the realtors, reminded the committee in his testimony that voters approved both measures by wide margins. Kehoe’s statements that he wants to exempt real estate are not included in the proposal, he noted.

“While we appreciate the governor’s statement in the State of the State that it’s his intent not to impact the real estate industry, unfortunately, the proposals that are pending before you currently are silent on that issue,” Zamkus said.

The Realtors could be one of the most important opposition groups if the measure doesn’t include the protections for real estate sales.



“If we were willing to spend that much a decade ago,” he said after testifying, “we are certainly going to fight to protect it.”

Sentencing memo- Joplin man should receive light sentence on weapons charge

A Joplin man who is scheduled to be sentenced 11 a.m. February 3 in U. S. District Court in Springfield   on a federal weapons charge has a plan for changing his life, has a job lined up and is seeking help for his decades-long drug problems, according to a sentencing memorandum filed today.

In the memorandum, the attorney for Walter Carl Ritter, 60, notes that though his client is a felon and was arrested with a firearm in his possession, he was not in the act of committing a crime, but was stopped by the Joplin Police Department because he did not have a reflector on his bicycle.

While the attorney says Ritter would prefer his sentence be limited to the 10 months he has already been behind bars, he is asking for a 30-month sentence.

From the memorandum:

The circumstances of the arrest in this case do not suggest that Mr. Ritter was actively seeking to harm others. But for the lack of a reflector on his bicycle, law enforcement would have had no need to interact with Mr. Ritter because he was not outwardly engaged in any violent or otherwise concerning behavior. 

While he recognizes that any federal offense involving a firearm is serious, Mr. Ritter asks this Court to take into consideration his lack of injurious intent when fashioning a sentence.

Mr. Ritter has a history of substance abuse and mental health struggles that appear likely to have played a role in his past record of criminal convictions. His use of illegal drugs began at an early age and includes use of marijuana (11 years of age), cocaine (14), psychedelics (16), and methamphetamine (teens through adulthood). 

Use of dangerous drugs at an early developmental stage almost certainly caused damage that has followed Mr. Ritter throughout his adult life.

While he has had a few failed opportunities for treatment in the past, Mr. Ritter is at the point in his life where he knows that he has no choice but to address his addictions. Otherwise, he will continue the cycle of involvement in the criminal justice system. Access to counseling and treatment as directed by the federal probation office while on supervised release, as well as programming while serving his prison sentence in this case, will be vital to addressing his addictions.

Mr. Ritter is sixty years of age, a point at which he no longer wants to spend his time cycling between the community and incarceration. Statistics suggest that individuals of Mr. Ritter’s age tend to reoffend at a significantly lower rate, and serving the past ten months in custody, with the knowledge that additional time behind bars will be required as punishment for this offense, has opened Mr. Ritter’s eyes to the futility of continued criminal conduct. He has a plan for his life after his release, including participation in a sober living program at Souls Harbor in Joplin, Missouri. 

He has an opportunity to obtain employment at Simmons Foods in Neosho, Missouri, which if he was hired now would pay $21 per hour. 

For the first time in years, Mr. Ritter seems to be looking long term, rather than the short-term thinking that has led him down his current path.

Further evidence of Mr. Ritter’s change in thinking is his participation in Edovo learning programs while serving time in jail pending sentencing in this case. He has completed courses in job seeking with a criminal record and preparation for obtaining his GED. He has completed additional time learning about automotive repair and personal finance. He appears more focused than ever on living a more productive life upon his release from custody.

Appeals court: Joplin man who pleaded guilty to sex crimes against 5-year-old girl should have court-appointed lawyer

A Joplin man who is serving a 20-year sentence on two counts of statutory sodomy involving a 5-year-old girl will have a chance to appeal his sentence, but he faces an uphill battle.

The MissourI Southern District Court of Appeals today ruled Kenneth Raye Corcran II (DOB 2002) should have been appointed counsel to represent him in his appeal.

Jasper County Circuit Court Judge Joseph Hensley ruled against Corcran's request for counsel, because Corcran was appealing the sentence after the deadline.

The appellate panel said Hensley erred by not allowing Corcran to have a court-appointed attorney.

That attorney can deal with the timeliness of Corcran's appeal, according to the decision.

Under a plea agreement reached with the Jasper County Prosecuting Attorney's office in 2024, two of the four statutory sodomy charges were dismissed and he was sentenced to 20 years on each remaining case with the sentences to run concurrently. Corcran will be required to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence.

According to the probable cause statement, Corcran entered the child's bedroom, told her she was having a dream, removed her underwear and performed a sex act.

As he left the room, the probable cause statement said, Corcran told the girl "it was OK if it hurt a little."

A short time later, Corcran came back in the room and repeated the same acts. After leaving the room a second time, he did not return.

The probable cause statement says Corcran is not related to the child.

 

February 17 Joplin City Council meeting moved to MSSU due to expected crowd for Wildwood Ranch annexation issue

(From the City of Joplin)

The City of Joplin is announcing a change of venue for an upcoming meeting of the Joplin City Council. The second regular council meeting for February would normally fall on the third Monday of the month, February 16, but due to the President’s Day holiday, the meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 17.

The February 17 meeting will also be held in a larger venue, the Corley Auditorium at Missouri State Southern University. This change of venue is being made in anticipation of the need to accommodate a significant number of people who may attend, since the attendance at the Jan. 20 meeting exceeded the City Council Chambers’ capacity. One of the items on the Feb. 17 meeting agenda will be a second and third reading of ordinances regarding annexation and rezoning of property in Wildwood Ranch.

The City is making preparations to stream the Feb. 17 meeting live on YouTube (YouTube.com/@JoplinCityHall). Meetings in Council Chambers at City Hall are normally streamed on the City’s website and broadcast by KGCS-TV, however, the Corley Auditorium is not set up with the same streaming and broadcast equipment, resulting in the City’s ability to live stream to YouTube but not to the City website as is normal practice. The City does plan to post the recording of the Feb. 17 meeting to the City website archive of recorded council meetings within two business days of the meeting’s conclusion.

The Joplin City Council meeting scheduled for Monday, February 2 at Joplin City Hall will be held as normally scheduled, and the agenda for that meeting doesl NOT include the annexation and rezoning of land in Wildwood Ranch, nor any other issue regarding any potential data center. The City anticipates normal turnout (within the Council Chambers' fire capacity) for the Feb. 2 meeting.

Carthage man charged with molesting, sodomizing 6-year-old girl

An arrest warrant was issued today for a Carthage man charged with statutory sodomy and child molestation.

The probable cause statement, which was filed today in Jasper County Circuit Court, alleges Juan Jose Tamayo (DOB 1982), sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl. 

From the statement:

On July 1, 2025, Carthage Detectives received information from the Missouri Children’s Division that alleged the six (6) year old juvenile victim had been subjected to sexual contact by a family friend, Juan Tamayo Sanchez.

During a subsequent forensic interview with the juvenile victim, she recounted on multiple occasions that the defendant would subject her to sexual contact over and under her clothes by touching her breast, genitals, and anus.

She recounted a time when the defendant performed deviant sexual intercourse with her in the suspect's home.

The probable cause statement indicates Tamayo and a woman described as his "paramour" have not cooperated with investigating officers and that they haven't been at their home since September.

The paramour "has a daughter the same age as the victim," according to the statement.

When Tamayo is arrested, he will be held without bond.

Physical education requirements in Missouri could increase under proposed bill

By Scout Hudson

Columbia Missourian

A Missouri House bill aims to increase the physical education requirements for K-12 students.

Introduced by Rep. Bishop Davidson, a Republican from Republic, the legislation would require all students to participate in a minimum of 60 minutes of physical activity each school day. PE classes, additional recesses and other supervised physical activities could fulfill the new requirement, as outlined by the bill.

The bill does include caveats for students with disabilities.

Student-athletes, who are occasionally excused from physical education requirements, would not be exempt from the required 60 minutes of daily activity under the bill.

Legislators expressed concerns over the bill’s logistics — an additional hour of required learning could disrupt or extend the current school schedule. Davidson told a House committee Wednesday that he does not intend for the bill to add more time to the school day or detract from other Common Core curriculum requirements.

Haley Edwards, a senior at Republic High School in Greene County, testified in favor of the bill.

“We see the signs that tie (exercise) back to physical well-being and mental well-being, and I think that this bill really opens doors to be able to see those effects,” Edwards said.

The National Education Association has not yet determined whether legislative action is necessary to enact the proposed requirement, but a spokesman said the organization believes that increased physical activity would benefit students.

Otto Fajan, who testified on behalf of the NEA, said that the role of physical education has shrunk over the past century in American public schools.

“There’s a flow against (P.E.) caused by the structure of accountability,” Fagen said, “and standardized testing in areas that do not include physical literacy.”

House committee kills plan to reinstate Missouri presidential primary

By Rudi Keller

Missouri Independent

The push to reinstate Missouri’s presidential primary suffered a defeat Tuesday when the House Elections Committee voted to remove it from a wide-ranging elections bill.

On a voice vote, the committee removed the provision from the bill. The measure also extends the periodfor “no-excuse absentee” voting from two to four weeks.

The committee then voted 13-1, with two abstentions, to send the bill to the full House for debate.

The primary is unpopular with well-organized groups who prefer the caucus system traditionally used to select Missouri’s delegates to presidential nominating conventions, said the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Peggy McGaugh, a Republican from Carrollton.

A caucus is easier to control than the primary, she said. Even though Missouri’s primary is just a popularity contest — no delegates are pledged based on the result — opponents don’t want evidence they are not the majority of their party’s voters, she said.

“You can see from the people who either voted no or present that there’s a super right wing

faction that would prefer to continue doing it the caucus way,” McGaugh said in an interview after the vote.

McGaugh said she will try to restore the primary through an amendment to the bill when it reaches the House floor.

The House approved a bill re-establishing the primary last year but it died in the state Senate.

Missouri conducted its first presidential primary in 1988 but did not have a regular primary until 2000. The law authorizing the primary was repealed in 2022.

In 2024, Republicans met in caucuses to select the delegates that renominated Donald Trump, while the Democratic Party held a private primary on a Saturday morning to start the process that nominated Kamala Harris.

Under the caucus system, adherents to a party must attend a meeting where voters are grouped based on the candidate they prefer. In the Republican Party, a majority of the meeting can choose all the delegates; at Democratic Party caucuses, every candidate with 15% or more of the voters gets a share of the delegates elected at that level.

While Missouri’s primary has, at times, determined the delegate pledges, by 2012, when former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum won, it was only a popularity contest.

State Rep. John Voss, a Republican from Cape Girardeau, sponsored the amendment that stripped the primary from the bill. He said the reinstatement may be lost in the bill that makes several other changes to election procedure at the request of local election authorities.

“It should be something as a standalone piece of legislation,” Voss said. “I’m also concerned with the $9 million fiscal notes that’s attached to that, given our current financial situation.”

State Rep. David Tyson Smith, a Columbia Democrat, accused unnamed opponents of “browbeating individuals” on the committee to remove the primary.

The primary was repealed in a big elections bill in 2022, Smith said, and many legislators didn’t even know it was in the bill.

“I didn’t like how that was handled then and I was glad to see that we were putting it back in,” Smith said. “And I’m again, disappointed that it’s being kind of muscled out of here.”

While he voted against Voss’ amendment, Smith voted for the final version of the bill.

The committee also removed another provision in the bill which would have moved the line protecting voters from solicitations like last-minute candidate appeals or petition signature gathering from 25 feet to 50 feet from the entrance to polling stations.

The bill would also change where a small number of voters, eligible under federal law to register on election day, must report to cast a ballot. Instead of a local polling station, the bill would change the location to offices of the election authority.

The clerks wanted that change for better election management and they wanted to extend the no-excuse absentee, or early, voting period, McGaugh said.

ç

The ability to cast a ballot anytime in the weeks prior to Election Day gives clerks the chance to help voters with issues in their registration or other problems that could prevent voting, said McGaugh, who is a former clerk.

The early voting period was included in the 2022 bill that ended the presidential primary. That law also required voters to show a government-issued ID card, with photo, date of birth and an expiration date, prior to voting.

Republicans at the time opposed early voting and wrote the bill to end it if a court struck down the identification requirement. It was upheld by a Cole County judge in November 2024 but the decision was appealed and a ruling is pending from the Missouri Supreme Court.

McGaugh’s bill would not remove the link between the provisions of law.

The early voting period has proven immensely popular, with thousands of voters daily taking advantage of the convenience.

The presidential primary occurs just weeks before April municipal elections. Clerks were willing to support it if it was on a convenient date and lawmakers extended the no-excuse absentee period to four weeks, McGaugh said.



“They asked me to put it as part of the bill in exchange for the additional weeks of no excuse, which has been an absolute win,” McGaugh said. “It stretches out the days for people, the voters loved it, and so I was happy to have the bill for them.”