MOScout Daily Update: MOScout Readers Poll (Who Will Win Best Dressed 2021?!) and more....
MOScout Readers’ Poll 2021
The ever-popular “readers’ poll” is back. Take it here.
I’ll publish results tomorrow.
And Something New: 2022 Session Pundit Contest
While the readers’ poll looks back, the “2022 Session Pundit Yes/No Contest” looks forward. 12 yes/no questions. Email me your answers (dave@moscout.com) by midnight tonight. Winner to be determined 6:01 PM May 13, 2022.
Session
1. At least one day of session will be cancelled due to COVID.
2. The much-rumored grand juries in Jefferson City will result in at least one indictment before the end of session.
3. More than six legislators/former legislators will be appointed to positions by Governor Parson and confirmed by the Senate during session.
4. Chief of staff Aaron Willard will leave the 2nd floor before the end of session.
Legislation
5. The legislature will pass a new income tax cut.
6. The legislature will pass a Texas style anti-abortion bill.
7. The legislature will explicitly not fund Medicaid expansion.
8. The legislature will revise SAPA.
Filing
9. Candidate filing dates will be modified.
10. Mark McCloskey will file for US Senate.
11. Jeff Roorda will file for state senate as a Republican.
12. A state senator will file to run against Congresswoman Cori Bush.
Tiebreaker: how many bills will be TAFP?
New DMH and DOR Directors Coming
Media advisory: On Wednesday, December 29 at 1 p.m., Governor Mike Parson will hold a press conference at the State Capitol to introduce and announce the new Directors of the Missouri Department of Mental Health (DMH) and the Missouri Department of Revenue (DOR).
Calvert Exits Page Administration
Post-Dispatch reports that “Winston Calvert, chief strategy officer and chief adviser to [Sam] Page, will become CEO of The Equity Network, replacing Bob Gioia, who is retiring, the county announced Monday. The Equity Network includes Equity Homes and The Community Impact Network, two nonprofits linked to the Alvin Goldfarb Foundation, a philanthropy formed by the late Alvin Goldfarb, the former CEO of Worth Stores Corp., a women’s apparel chain…”
NYTimes on Cattle Farming Blues
NYTimes has a long article about the plight of cattle farmers. While the dateline is from Shepherd, Montana, its relevant to Missouri’s farmers too. In fact, it quotes a Missouri cattle farmer.
The distress of American cattle ranchers represents the underside of the staggering winnings harvested by the conglomerates that dominate the meatpacking industry — Tyson Foods and Cargill, plus a pair of companies controlled by Brazilian corporate owners, National Beef Packing Company and JBS. Since the 1980s, the four largest meatpackers have used a wave of mergers to increase their share of the market from 36 percent to 85 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.nTheir dominance has allowed them to extinguish competition and dictate prices…
In the rolling hill country of northern Missouri — a tableau of grain farms dotted by compact towns — Coy Young, a fifth-generation rancher, has concluded that raising cattle is pointless… “You’re feeding America and going broke doing it,” he said. “It doesn’t pencil out to raise cattle in this country anymore.”
Mr. Young, 38, carries credit card debts reaching $55,000. He plowed most of that debt into artificial insemination technology aimed at producing premium breeding cows. His payoff was supposed to come early last year, with a sale that Mr. Young anticipated would fetch $125,000. But the day that he trucked his herd to a nearby auction, panic over the pandemic assailed markets. Traders in Chicago pushed down the price of live cattle by more than 10 percent. Mr. Young received a bid of only $32,000…
A week later, the bank began calling Mr. Young demanding repayment. Sinking into despondency, he waited for his wife to drive to her nursing job — their means of paying the bills. He planned to kill himself, he said. When she pulled back into the driveway, having forgotten something, he reconsidered. “You put your heart and soul into something, and then you lose your ass,” he said. “You don’t see any other way out.” He plans to sell off his herd early next year and start a barbecue catering business.
NFT Fundraisers?
Axios reports that a US Senate candidate in Arizona is giving an NFT to max donors. Read it here. Will one of Missouri’s candidates glom onto the idea.
Blake Masters, co-author of tech pioneer Peter Thiel's blockbuster "Zero to One," and now a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Arizona, is offering NFTs with a limit of 99 copies. The NFTs will go to donors who give the maximum of $5,800 — half for the primary, and half for the general election if he wins…
Lobbyists Registrations
Sam Alpert added Building Owners & Managers Association KC; and deleted Heartland Apartment Association.
$5K+ Contributions
The Madison PAC - $21,750 from Blue Cross and Blue Shield Kansas City.
Sander for Missouri - $20,000 from Christopher Sander.
Uniting Missouri PAC - $10,000 from Charter Communications.
Uniting Missouri PAC - $10,000 from Cheyenne International LLC.
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to James Harris, LuAnn Madsen, Renee Hulshof, and Sue Entlicher.
MOScout Schedule
Another short week for me. There’ll be a quick update tomorrow morning, and then I’m taking off Thursday and Friday for a long New Year’s weekend.