MOScout Daily Update: KCStar on Williams - News-Leader on Tidball - New Budget Subs Drop - Reopen Plan Coming Today and more...

Driving the Day

The legislature returns to Jefferson City today. 

Senate has a few hearings scheduled for this week. But the main focus will be the budget.  The House dropped new versions of the budget over the weekend.  Find the summary sheets here.

·         One budget watcher says, “Thing I would watch the most in the House is to see if [Budget Chair] Cody Smith can get the votes on HB3 [Higher Ed] with the sizeable cuts he made…”

And

More important to residents and business owners of the state, Governor Mike Parson promises to unveil the roadmap to reopening the Missouri economy.

According to his tweets, there will be two “phases” to the plan.  Look for the details at his 3PM briefing.

·         Dr. Randall Williams has said that the ability to do saturation testing in specific locations is a key component to their plan.

Star Documents Williams’ Missteps

Kansas City Star does a critical deep dive on DHSS Director Randall Williams. See it here.

·         He was named North Carolina’s top health official in 2015, shortly after authorities had advised hundreds of residents living near coal ash pits across the state to avoid drinking their well water. There were concerns that elevated toxin levels posed a contamination risk.  Months later in 2016, over the objections of some government scientists, Williams’ signature appeared on a letter telling those same residents the water was safe.

·         Late last month, a Facebook post by one of Williams’ top deputies only deepened the misgivings of critics. Adam Crumbliss, director of community and public health for DHSS, posted a message that compared the risk of coronavirus to that of common strains of influenza. It echoed much of the conservative social media commentary at the time… Parson’s campaign Facebook account liked the post.  Crumbliss told The Star in an email that he wasn’t trying to play down the risk of coronavirus.

·         State Rep. Jon Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican and chairman of the House special committee on disease control and prevention, said he felt Missouri was “way behind the curve” on COVID-19 but nevertheless defends Williams’ work.

·         Lawmakers cut eight positions from Williams’ department as punishment for his refusal to release information about an outbreak of the tick-borne Bourbon virus., which he argued was confidential. And under his watch, DHSS has twice been found by courts to have violated the state’s Sunshine Law.

·         Williams’ advised Parson to veto funding for a program aimed at getting critically ill patients to hospitals that could best care for them. It nearly resulted in the governor being overridden by a legislature dominated by his own party.

·         The Missouri House launched an investigation earlier this year into the rollout of the state’s medical marijuana program, focusing on accusations of conflict of interest both within Williams’ department and the third-party vendor hired to review and score applications. The program has also drawn FBI scrutiny.

·         Williams’ department refused to renew the license of a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis in June 2019…. As part of the legal discovery process, it was revealed that state investigators, looking for evidence of failed abortions at the clinic, had compiled a spreadsheet of patient information that included dates of women’s menstrual periods. The revelation ignited a furor.

Springfield NL: Tidball in Foster Dispute

Springfield News Leader reports that Jennifer Tidball, director of the Missouri Department of Social Services, is personally involved in a foster dispute.  See it here.

·         A Missouri mom says she is in an unfair battle with the state Children's Division as she tries to reunify with her children… Attorney Daniel Miller is representing the twins' biological father, who also does not want his rights terminated. Miller called the situation a "complete conflict" of interest. "This is just wrong," Miller said. "If (Tidball) were not the director of the department, if she were somebody two or three steps down the chain, they would have probably been fired for this."

·         Richard Wexler is a child welfare advocate and the executive director for the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform… Wexler called such a scenario a "blatant conflict of interest." "I have heard of cases in which there were blatant conflict of interests involving case workers or their supervisors," Wexler said. "I've been doing this for 40 years and I have never heard of a situation in the country where children were taken from a mother and placed with the person in charge of the entire agency."  "How in the world does anybody expect these children to get a fair shake?" Wexler questioned. "You are not supposed to become head of a state social services agency or director to go and take custody of a poor person's kid for your very own."

eMailbag

So in space to 48 hours you have two very negative and fairly devastating stories on two of the top three medical officials in state government. All while state is at the height of a public health crisis. In normal administration it might be time for a change in leadership, instead we can all look forward to the governor doubling down…

More on Meatpacking Problems

A recent lawsuit filed against Smithfield Foods alleged that conditions in a Missouri plant made workers suspectable to contracting COVID-19.

Now USAToday has published an in-depth report about how meat processing plants across the country are hotpots for the coronavirus.  See it here.

More than 150 of America’s largest meat processing plants operate in counties where the rate of coronavirus infection is already among the nation’s highest, based on the media outlets’ analysis of slaughterhouse locations and county-level COVID-19 infection rates.  These facilities represent more than 1 in 3 of the nation’s biggest beef, pork and poultry processing plants. Rates of infection around these plants are higher than those of 75% of other U.S. counties, the analysis found.   And while experts say the industry has thus far maintained sufficient production despite infections in at least 2,200 workers at 48 plants, there are fears that the number of cases could continue to rise and that meatpacking plants will become the next disaster zones. "Initially our concern was long-term care facilities," said Gary Anthone, Nebraska's chief medical officer, in a Facebook Live video Sunday. “If there's one thing that might keep me up at night, it's the meat processing plants and the manufacturing plants."

Legislative Priorities in Mini-Session

·         Southeast Missourian Op/Ed:  When it comes to the social justice issue of shared parenting, our momentum in Missouri before the crisis was right on target to pass this session. There is still no reason that passage shouldn't still occur.  Thanks to the efforts of two of Cape Girardeau's finest, state Sen. Wayne Wallingford, and state Rep. Kathy Swan, the momentum for their shared parenting bills is still there…. Along with a majority of legislators who have signaled they are in favor of reform, Gov. Mike Parson has positively weighed in on this topic. In December, he signed a proclamation declaring April 26 as Shared Parenting Day. This was done at the request of the National Parents Organization (NPO)….

·         Building denizen: As a lifelong Republican who has no problem with tort reform, politically I have to scratch my head and wonder what are House and Senate leadership doing still pushing a bill that undermines two rising National stars in the GOP, Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt.   Hawley is banking his political future on investigating China for everything and Schmitt filed a landmark lawsuit against the Chinese Communist Party.  Continuing to make a priority out of SB 591, at this time, which would prohibit Schmitt from recovering tens of millions of dollars from China, whether a reality or not seems like a really bad vote for a Republican with any political aspirations.  It also seems like really bad timing to restrict the use of MMPA claims with all the stories of people getting ripped off on COVID-19 equipment.  It doesn’t take a political genius like Jeff Roe or Scott Dieckhaus to write those hit pieces in a Republican primary…

New Committees

Michael 'Mickey' R Younghanz formed a candidate committee (MO4Mickey Younghanz) to run for Senate 17 as a Republican.

Ann L Zimpfer formed a candidate committee (Committee to Elect Ann Zimpfer) to run for House 95 as a Democrat.

Marvin Manring formed a candidate committee (Manring4MO128) to run for House 128 as a Democrat.

North County Alive PAC was formed.  Its treasurer is Malcolm A Scott.

Lobbyists Registrations

John Gaskin and Richard McIntosh added VRA Formulations, and ADX LLC.

Birthdays

Happy birthday to Wiley Price IV, Ryan McKenna, Chris Vas, and Tony Dugger.