Month: March 2026

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Beginning this week, nightly lane closures will occur around Columbia to upgrade pavement markings, according to a Tuesday press release from the Missouri Department of Transportation.

Lane closures will begin Wednesday along Paris Road between Whitegate Drive and Waco Road, the release says. Closures will last from 7 p.m.-6 a.m. each day until around mid-April, according to the release.

At a January 2026 meeting, MoDOT awarded a $490,881.74 contract to Road Runner Safety Services, Inc. to upgrade crosswalk markings at:

Paris Road from Range Line Street/College Avenue to Waco Road.

Business Loop 70 from west of Interstate 70 to Range Line Street/College Avenue.

Route AC (Grindstone Parkway) from Providence Road to Highway 63.

Range Line Street/College Avenue from Brown School Road to Stadium Boulevard.

Providence Road from Interstate 70 to Route K.

Stadium Boulevard from north of Interstate 70 to east of Highway 63.

The order of work has not yet been determined, but it is set to be completed by Oct. 15.

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Marie Moyer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

As the war in Iran continues, gas prices have been climbing, with ABC reporting that costs are now at their highest level in nearly two and a half years.

According to AAA, the average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gas in Missouri is $3.43, about 10 cents more than last week. The group also reported that a gallon of gas cost around $2.54 the month prior.

In Missouri however, gas reportedly ranges from $3.13 to $3.78 per gallon, with gas typically being on the lower end on the western side of the state.

Oil prices have been fluctuating since war broke out with Iran, with the Iranian government closing the Strait of Hormuz.

Locally, Columbia is seeing some prices range from $3.39-$3.49 per gallon. Jefferson City is seeing costs from $3.26-$3.29 per gallon in some locations. Boonville is seeing the lowest prices, ranging from $3.14-$3.19 per gallon at some stations.

According to the National Association of Convenience Stores, 90% of the price of gas is determined before the retailers put a cost on the gallon. The U.S. Energy Information Administration broke down gas retail costs. They found that crude oil dictates the majority of costs, affecting 51% of the final price.

The NACS reported seeing the cost of oil per barrel even spiking by around $17 dollars in a single day.

“Retailers who may have bought fuel in a two-hour time difference might find that their wholesale cost is $0.15 different, and that’s what we’re seeing right now across the landscape,” said Jeff Lenard, who is the vice president of NACS Media & Strategic Communications.

Lenard added because gas stations receive fuel deliveries at different times, prices can change from station to station, even in the same town.

Federal and local taxes, as well as refining costs, play a major role. While distribution and marketing sit at around 18%, this can vary depending on whether the station is an individual gasoline retailer and where the gasoline fueling station is located.

“The typical markup on a gallon of gas over the last five years is about $0.38,” Lenard said.” From that, they pay about $0.20 in expenses, credit card fees, etc., so on a gallon of gas, they’re looking at maybe $0.15-to-$0.20 profit.”

Local competition and real estate costs can also affect the cost of gas from station to station.

“They [gas stations] know that somebody will drive 5 minutes out of their way to say $0.05 a gallon. They want to be as competitive as they can because if they’re not selling that gallon of gas or that fill up to that customer, the customer is also not going inside the store and buying anything else,” Lenard said.

Lenard described why rural areas tend to see lower prices.

“That’s because there’s less competition, it’s also because the real estate is lower, you don’t have those pricy four-way intersections where every retailer that wants that real estate is bidding upon that and it’s more expensive,” Lenard said.

ABC 17 News spoke with around a dozen gas customers getting gas at local stations, and all residents reported not having many alternatives in terms of price.

“What else am I going to do? I did notice that it went up, but, you know, I still need gas,” customer Chellen Logan said.

AAA reports the current national average for a gallon of regular unleaded gas is $3.97 per gallon. Missouri ranks in the top 10 states with the lowest average cost at $3.43 per gallon.

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ABC 17 News Team

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Cole County Commission is trying to figure out how to pay for victims’ advocates.

Right now, the county pays about $27,000 for two advocates and the rest is paid for by a federal grant.

County Prosecutor Locke Thompson says cuts at the federal level means less money in Missouri for those jobs. He’s asking the county to take on the full cost of those spots, which could be more than $100,000 Crime victim notifications and rights are a mandated function of Missouri courts.

Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman said Cole County will decide what to do during budget discussions in the fall.

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Mitchell Kaminski

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ) 

The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down parts of a 2022 elections law that restricted how organizations and individuals conduct voter registration drives, ruling the provisions unconstitutional limits on political speech.

The decision affirms lower court rulings that permanently block enforcement of the restrictions, which were part of House Bill 1878, a sweeping elections measure passed by Missouri lawmakers in 2022.

The law prohibited paying people to help register voters, required those collecting more than 10 voter registration applications to register with the state, limited who could assist with registrations to people who were at least 18 years old and a registered Missouri voter, and prohibited encouraging voters to request absentee ballots.

A coalition that included the League of Women Voters of Missouri and the Missouri NAACP challenged the law, arguing it violated constitutional protections for free speech and political participation in a lawsuit. 

A Cole County circuit court agreed in 2024, forcing the state to appeal the decision to the state’s supreme court. 

In its ruling, the high court found the provisions were “facially unconstitutional restrictions on core political speech,” leaving in place the lower court’s permanent injunction.

In a statement, the ACLU of Missouri and its partners said:

“The court rightfully rejected the portion of House Bill 1878 that imposed criminal penalties for political speech, voter registration, and civic engagement efforts by organizations like the League of Women Voters and the NAACP. Third-party voter registration activities blocked by the challenged legislation are critical, constitute core political speech, and are necessary to ensure that voters can get on the rolls and participate in elections. Legislation like HB 1878 was designed to block access for Missouri voters and halt the ability of civic engagement organizations to engage their fellow citizens.”

Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon says the ruling will have little immediate impact on voters, saying that since the circuit court placed an injunction on HB 1878, it could not be enforced. 

“Nobody has been signing up as a voter registration solicitor for the entire time that this lawsuit has existed,” Lennon told ABC 17 News.  “People can be free to register voters. It really only had to do with people that were volunteering or working in the voter registration space. It never affected individual voters.”

Legal experts say the ruling highlights a broader disagreement over how election laws should be evaluated.

“What’s really interesting about this is there was a sharp disagreement about which side had to prove their case. Did the people challenging these restrictions have to prove their case or did the government have to prove its case? And that’s why the judges disagreed with each other,” Dave Roland,  senior legal adviser with the Freedom Center of Missouri, said. “Now, all of the judges agreed that the part of this challenge that dealt with  restrictions on  soliciting absentee ballot applications those were unconstitutional because they were really, really broad.” 

Roland noted that while the court was divided on some issues, there was agreement on others.

“Now, all of the judges agreed that the part of this challenge that dealt with restrictions on soliciting absentee ballot applications those were unconstitutional because they were really, really broad,” he said.

Supporters of the law had argued the restrictions were necessary to protect election integrity and ensure accountability among those handling voter registration materials. But Roland said the state faced an uphill battle justifying some of those requirements, particularly the age limit.

“For example,  a couple of the restrictions that they were focused on was that you had to be 18 years old and you had to be a registered voter in order to take this one particular type of paper, piece of paper, and give it to somebody else. And so the government was saying, well, you’ve got to be 18  because you’ve got to demonstrate a certain level of responsibility. Also, you’ve got to be a registered voter because that somehow indicates some level of responsibility,” Roland said “ I don’t know exactly what one of those things has to do with the other. And if it was a different kind of information, it would be perfectly legal.  And so in a circumstance like that,  the government’s got to be able to show, there’s a reason to believe problems will result if we don’t have these restrictions.” 

The ruling is final under state law, as it was decided on Missouri constitutional grounds, meaning it cannot be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The ACLU, which represented the challengers here,  made the decision not to bring this as a First Amendment challenge.  They brought it as a free speech challenge under the Missouri Constitution. Now, Missouri’s protections for free speech are similar to the First Amendment, but they are markedly different,” Roland explained. So the ACLU is arguing that under this Missouri-specific language, this is protected speech and therefore the restrictions can’t be enforced. So because the Missouri Supreme Court was deciding this as a matter of Missouri constitutional law instead of a matter of the First Amendment,  there’s no way to appeal it to the U.S. Supreme Court.” 

In a separate decision issued the same day, the Missouri Supreme Court also ruled that challengers to the state’s photo voter ID law lacked standing to sue, leaving that law in place without addressing its constitutionality.

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