Author: KMIZ

Haley Swaino

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

More than 100 parents, teachers and students from across Missouri gathered at the state Capitol on Tuesday afternoon for Public Education Lobby Day, urging lawmakers to prioritize funding for public schools.

Advocates came together in the Capitol Rotunda after having more than 100 different meetings with legislators regarding public education funding.

“I feel pretty positive leaving today,” Sara Dillard of Francis Howell Forward, a non-partisan, grassroots organization formed by parents, said. “I know that we’ve had some good conversations and that we have some legislators in our corner. So I think that we’ve got a good fight ahead of us.”

Rally attendees spanned from Kansas City Public Schools to St. Charles, Mid-Missouri and more.

Their message centers on the need to fully fund Missouri’s public schools and protect them from what organizers describe as growing financial threats at both the state and federal levels.

“Whether it is through eliminating income tax, which will deplete the budget for any kind of public services in the state of Missouri and will absolutely be getting rid of schools. Or it is expanding voucher programs that allow people who already pay for private schools and who can already afford private schools to write off some of it. Or through charter school expansion, which is literally just letting private businesses have a stake in your child’s education. It’s putting a price tag on kids,” legislative chair of American Federation of Teachers Local 691 Carter Taylor said.

Students are also joining in the fight.

“It’s unfair that we are fighting for basic rights and like basic necessities that we need in the classroom,“ Lincoln College Preparatory Academy High School student Cairos Im said.

She took the day off school to come lobby at the Capitol alongside many others from her community.

“I think that the number here today and the work that we’ve done shows the strength of public schools and the community and how powerful we can be,” Im said.

Public elementary and secondary education accounts for more than a fifth of all Missouri’s state expenditures, according to research.

The Kehoe administration is also rewriting the state’s 20-year-old K-12 foundation formula, which has drawn criticism from lawmakers, educators and charter advocates alike for being outdated and inequitable.

The current formula is designed to reflect what is considered necessary or adequate to provide a quality education. The goal is to move from a system based on tax rates to a performance-based model that addresses student needs. 

“On every level, education is under attack in terms of their funding,” Taylor said. “It’s much easier to simply put bills in hidden language and make it harder for people to understand what it’s doing than it is to actually come out into the light and tell people directly, ‘Hey, we are trying to get rid of public education.’ Because that’s what’s at stake right now.”

A 16-member Missouri School Funding Modernization Task Force was appointed by Kehoe to establish and submit formula recommendations by Dec. 1, 2026.

The message to lawmakers at the rally was clear: keep students’ needs at the forefront as they consider tax and spending proposals in the current legislative session.

“Don’t deprioritize public education funding,” Taylor said. “They can say whatever they want about having to balance a budget and they can try to hide behind other intentions. But the truth is, we are 49th out of 50 for spending per student. We are 50 out of 50 for a starting teacher’s salary.”

Taylor said Missouri is losing educators because of the state’s lack of support.

“If we do not support educators, they can’t support students,” Taylor said. “Take care of the teachers in the school building. Take care of the support staff in the school building. And make sure that everyone has the chance to come to work to be able to teach without having to worry about whether or not there will be snacks for their students or books for the kids to read.”

The event was held at 1 p.m. Tuesday in the Capitol Rotunda in Jefferson City.

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Marie Moyer

Editor’s Note: AI has been used in background research for this article

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The battle for Missouri’s true congressional district map continued Tuesday as the state and the ACLU returned to the Cole County Courthouse for a bench trial on whether a new mid-decade congressional map is already in effect.

The ACLU, representing two Kansas City voters, is seeking a preliminary injunction to pause the use of the map established by House Bill 1.

The lawsuit, filed by the ACLU in December 2025, challenges the state’s claim that the new map is active. The group argued that the Missouri Constitution requires a law to be suspended once a referendum process begins. The group claims the map became frozen when the secretary of state received 305,000 signatures for the ballot initiative on Dec. 9. According to the lawsuit, the map should remain frozen until a public vote in the November election.

During the hearing, the ACLU argued that previous Missouri Secretaries of State and Attorneys General followed the signature drop-off rule.

The ACLU also argued the design of the legislative process matches the signature drop-off rule. The group cited passed bills become active 90 days after the end of the legislative session, the same number of days voters have to turn in petition signatures. They added if laws only become suspended at the certification of the Secretary of State, the period during which they are active violates the purpose of the referendum.

“The purpose of referendum is to suspend or annul a law that has not gone into effect,” ACLU Representative Jonathan Hawley said. “That can’t be the rule because it would allow legislation to take place in the meantime, violating the referendum process.”

Filing for Missouri’s August primary, including U.S. House seats, begins later this month. The new map would likely eliminate a safely Democratic U.S. House seat in Kansas City.

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office argued the ACLU and the group People Not Politicians, which handed in the petitions, are presenting a false narrative. State attorneys claimed a law is only frozen after the Secretary of State validates the submitted signatures. Louis Capozzi, an attorney representing the state, argued that the ACLU can only sue after that certification is complete.

The state also argued that the signature drop-off rule goes against common sense.

“In this uncertainty, who do we favor? Do we favor a duly enacted law or do we assume a referendum petition submitted by a small minority meets constitutional requirements?” Capozzi said. “We can’t just assume they have the signatures.”

The State also called into question possible connections between PNP and the ACLU, arguing that PNP’s Executive Director, Richard von Glahn, knew of the ACLU’s suit before they filed it. The State also questioned the ACLU’s donations and whether there was an overlap or funding with PNP. The ACLU’s donation sources are kept anonymous through the First Amendment.

The State previously took PNP to federal court in November, attempting to block the referendum in the first place. The case was thrown out; however, the State argues that PNP never opposed the petition review process that included validation by the Secretary of State. This is different from the ACLU whose arguments push back against the petition review process.

The State argues that if the ACLU and PNP are collaborating in litigation, while also having opposing arguments across different court cases, the ACLU’s argument is invalid.

PNP representatives were present at Tuesday’s hearing and argued that several testimonies from PNP and ACLU prove the groups are not working together.

“There’s no coordination, as we’ve told you and them repeatedly,” ACLU Representative Matthew Gordon said.

To qualify for the ballot, referendum petition signatures must equal 5% of legal voters in each of two-thirds of the state’s congressional districts. County election offices have until July to verify the signatures. The state maintains that it has not yet been confirmed if enough valid signatures were submitted to meet these requirements.

The political action committee Put Missouri First was permitted to join the lawsuit as a defendant. In court documents, the group argued it should be involved because it opposes the redistricting referendum and is responsible for funding and organizing opposition efforts.

Both parties have until Feb. 17 to submit proposed judgments for Judge Brian Strumpe’s final decision.

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Sam Roe

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia City Council discussed two potential options to build a new electrical transmission line at their council work session on Monday night. Both options would connect the Perche Creek and Grindstone substations.

The plans to build transmission line infrastructure between these two stations has been in the works for more than 10 years, but has been pushed back several times.

The two potential routes for the new line are the Chapel Hill Road route and the Vawter School-Nifong route. The Chapel Hill option would be about a half-mile shorter and use existing poles, but would cost $56 million. The Vawter School-Nifong route would cost $34 million.

The council also discussed the need to upgrade the Mill Creek substation. It will decide on which option to present to the public for public hearings at the Monday, Feb. 16 council meeting.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia Board of Education on Monday unanimously approved new language that clarifies what is a considered a weapon in its school district.

The meeting agenda says the Missouri School Boards’ Association updated its own policy to comply with Senate Bill 68, which passed last year and states districts must report all school safety incidents and credible safety threats for all incidents involving weapons.

The policy was last revised in April 2001, meeting documents say.

Banned weapons now include guns, a blackjack, concealable firearms, silencers, explosive weapons, gas guns, knives, knuckles, machine guns, projectile weapons, rifles, shotguns, spring guns and switchblade knives.

“Other prohibited weapons” includes items “used for or are readily capable of causing death or serious injury,” all knives (which includes pocketknives, anything “used or designed to be used to threaten or assault, whether for attack or defense,” anything made to resemble a weapon (unless it is authorized by a principal for an educational purpose)” and ammunition or parts of a banned weapon.

weapons document CPSDownload

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A popular Columbia restaurant has announced that it has been sold.

Billiards on Broadway announced in a Monday evening social media post that it will have new owners after 18 years in downtown Columbia.

“After 18 years, countless moments with amazing people, and almost 1 million burgers sold!!!! We want to thank everyone who has walked through our doors. We (Les and Molly) have found the perfect buyers to honor the Billiards Legacy and Brand!  Join us in welcoming new owners Bill / Lisa Morrissey and Kurt / Lauren Kingsley!  No retirement for Les and Molly, just on to the next adventure, cheers,” the post says.

Billiards on Broadway opened on March 26, 2008, according to information on its website. It is located on East Broadway in downtown Columbia between Fifth and Sixth streets.

Filings on the Secretary of State’s website shows Lisa Morrissey of Glutton Restaurant Group LLC submitted a filing for the name of the business on Dec. 17, 2025. Billiards on Broadway is also shown to be registered to the same business on Boone County’s website.

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Mitchell Kaminski

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

A bench trial began Monday in Jefferson City over the language that would place Missouri’s new congressional map on the November ballot.

The trial is the latest in a series of lawsuits challenging the congressional map the General Assembly passed during a September 2025 special session, a map that could possibly eliminate U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City–based 5th District and flip the seat to Republicans.

Sean Soendler Nicholson, a progressive political activist based in Kansas City who was hired to help defeat House Bill 1, testified as a witness for the plaintiffs. Nicholson’s testimony focused on specific wording that would appear on the ballot.

The state did not call any witnesses; instead focusing its case on the map itself. Attorneys for both sides scrutinized differences between the old and new district boundaries, including how cities and counties are divided under each plan.

Nicholson also argued historical statewide voting patterns show Democrats typically receive about 40% of the vote in statewide elections. Yet, he said, Democrats currently hold only about 25% of Missouri’s U.S. House seats, and the new map would reduce that share to roughly 12%.

Hoskins’ attorney Kathleen Hunker pushed back, arguing the case is not about the merits of the map itself, but whether the ballot summary written by the Secretary of State’s Office is accurate, fair and free of prejudice.

That issue has been at the center of the case since People Not Politicians and its director Richard von Glahn filed a lawsuit in November 2025. The plaintiffs allege the ballot language drafted by Secretary of State Denny Hoskins is unfair, misleading and not authorized under state law, arguing Missouri law does not give the secretary of state authority to draft summary statements for referendum measures.

Hoskins rejects that claim, citing Missouri statutes that require the secretary of state to prepare ballot summaries for all statewide measures, including referendums. In a brief filed with the court, Hoskins’ office argued that limiting that authority to initiative petitions would create what it calls an “absurd result,” leaving referendum measures without a legally required ballot title.

In earlier hearings, Hoskins’ legal team conceded two phrases in the original summary — describing the prior map as “gerrymandered” and saying it “protects incumbent politicians” — were unfair and overly argumentative. Hoskins asked the court for permission to rewrite the ballot language, but Cole County Judge Brian Stumpe declined to approve that request outright, instead choosing to consider it as part of the trial.

Stumpe also denied a request from People Not Politicians to depose state elections officials, ruling the case should focus on the ballot language and map.

Despite conceding that the disputed phrases should be removed or rewritten, Hoskins maintains the remaining language accurately describes the central features of House Bill 1. His attorneys argue the new map is more compact than the 2022 plan, splits fewer counties and municipalities, and better reflects statewide voting patterns — factors they say are visible to voters and tied to constitutional redistricting requirements. The brief contends ballot summaries are not required to be exhaustive or free of positive attributes, only neutral and sufficient to give voters adequate notice of what the referendum would do.

After hearing arguments from both sides on Monday, Stumpe took the case under advisement. Hunker told ABC 17 News there is no set timeline for when a decision will be issued.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A bridge replacement will begin on Feb. 18 on Interstate 70 in Montgomery County, according to a Monday press release from the Missouri Department of Transportation.

The release says the project will replace the bridge with a wider bridge and update the interchange layout.

One Wednesday, Feb. 18, the Route E/Y interchange bridge over Interstate 70 will close. There will be no north-south access across the interstate that day, but all interchange ramps will be open. Detour signs will be posted and include:

Route E (eastbound/westbound): Use the Northwest Service Road to the Route F interchange at High Hill (west) or the Routes A/B interchange, near Pendleton (east).

Route Y (eastbound): Take Veteran’s Memorial Parkway to the Route A/B interchange

Route Y (westbound): Travel west on Route Y to Route Y Spur/Fleahman Road, crossing to the north side of I-70, then turn left onto the Northwest Service Road to reach the Route F Interchange.

Traffic will also be rerouted for 24 hours beginning 8 a.m. Monday, Feb. 23 to remove the bridge.

Additional traffic impacts include reducing I-70 to one lane each way, eliminating access to interchange ramps to outer service road, a closure at Routes E/Y and local traffic needing to use Route F to access I-70, the release says.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A man who was accused of assaulting a woman in September in Audrain County was sentenced to probation on Monday, according to an email from Prosecutor Jacob Shellabarger.

Lane Miles pleaded guilty to first-degree kidnapping and second-degree domestic assault. He was originally charged with first-degree burglary, first-degree kidnapping, second-degree assault and second-degree property damage, a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to five years of probation along with a 15-year suspended sentence.

“Should he violate any of the conditions of supervision the Court put in place, Lane Miles will serve a substantial prison sentence. This was consistent with the Victim’s wishes, as she told the Court today she supported the plea agreement,” Shellabarger said in a statement to ABC 17 News.

The probable cause statement says a witness saw Miles pull the victim out of a home in Mexico, Missouri, around 2 a.m. Sept. 28. Miles allegedly dragged the victim by her hair down the stairs of the home and pulled her into a car before leaving, the statement says.

The victim later knocked on the door of the home and was let back in before Miles kicked the door in and forced the woman, again, into the vehicle, the statement says.

Miles allegedly choked the victim at one point during the assault, previous reporting indicates.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Tanner Bridge Road bridge over the Moreau River will close later this month, according to a Monday press release from Cole County Public Works.

The closure will begin Monday, Feb. 23 between Friendship Road and Route B, the release says. Don Schnieders Excavating Company, Inc. was awarded the $2.1 Million contract by the Cole County Commission in January, the release says.

The project – which includes realigning and widening the bridge — is expected to be completed by November, according to the release.

The existing bridge was built in 1960 and is listed as “poor” in the Missouri Department of Transportation’s off-system bridge replacement and rehabilitation, according to the release.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A man who escaped from the Osage County Jail in October 2023 has been sentenced to probation.

Alex Stieffermann pleaded guilty on Feb. 4 in multiple cases to several crimes, including escaping confinement, second-degree assault, stealing a vehicle, first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle and causing damage to jail property. He was sentenced to probation along with a 15-year suspended sentence, court filings show.

Court documents in previous reporting say Stieffermann had ran away from the jail after he assaulted a jail officer and took his keys.

Stieffermann allegedly hit an officer “multiple times” and took his facility keys. Stieffermann made it to a kitchen area and hit another officer with a fire extinguisher, according to the statement. The officer was brought to an emergency room after suffering from a head injury, the statement says.

Stiefferman then escaped from the jail using the facility keys, but was later found in Linn, documents say.

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