According to the Center for Investigative Reporting, the wait time for veterans to receive benefits has skyrocketed from 116 days in 2009 to 330 days now. In response, US Representative Bill Enyart is sponsoring legislation to try to reduce that wait.

What the bill would do is pay partial, provisional benefits for veterans whose cases aren't handled within 125 days after they are submitted. Currently, that would apply to more than half a million veterans.

Employees at a Jimmy John’s franchise in St. Louis’ Soulard neighborhood staged a walk-out today.

The workers are seeking $15 an hour, rather than the $7.35 minimum they currently make.

In a statement, workers also complained of being publicly disciplined for trivial incidents and forced to wear signs.

Shamniqua Clark says it was the right decision for her to take part in the walk-out.

Governor Jay Nixon (D) is threatening to lay off state workers unless Republican lawmakers fully fund the Missouri Department of Revenue's Motor Vehicles Division for a full fiscal year.

The warning comes one day after House and Senate budget negotiators agreed to only fund the state division for eight months, as a means of pressuring state Revenue officials to stop scanning and storing source documents of driver's license applicants.  Nixon says he'll treat the 8-month appropriation as a full year's funding if GOP leaders don’t reverse themselves.

The company that owns the Bridgeton Landfill is offering to cover the cost of hotel stays for nearby residents who want to get away from the smell.

On Tuesday, Republic Services sent a letter to 270 households within a one-mile radius of the landfill, saying the company would pay for residents to move to a pet-friendly hotel between May 20 and June 14.

Somehow the notion that the 1950’s were an idyllic time in America continues to exist and people continue to idealize that decade in terms of gender confidence, family values and strong American ethics. No one remembers that 37% of (mostly poor) women worked outside the home, 11% of the population was gay and racism was rampant. Welcome to Maple and Vine , HotCity Theatre’s second production of their 2013 season. Directed by Doug Finlayson, Maple and Vine harkens back to the beginnings of HotHouse Theatre, when the scripts were provocative and surprising.

Research has told us, over and over, that the benefits of early childhood education are significant.  Nobel Prize winning economist Dr. James Heckman asserts that early childhood education improves the productivity of both our children and society.    

Republicans in the Missouri Senate have scaled back a proposal to cut state taxes in order to emulate tax cuts in neighboring Kansas and Oklahoma.

Governor Jay Nixon (D) has strongly objected to the bill's sales tax hike, saying it would hurt the poor and elderly the most.  That provision has been dropped.  House Bill 253 would now cut the personal income tax rate by half a percentage point and the corporate rate by three points, and phase them both in over the next 10 years.  Republican Will Kraus of Lee’s Summit is handling the measure in the Senate.

Missouri House and Senate budget negotiators have crafted a final version of next year's state budget.

The nearly $25 billion spending plan includes a $66 million increase for K-12 schools, and a $25 million hike for state universities and community colleges.  It still does not include the Medicaid expansion proposed by Governor Jay Nixon (D), which disappointed committee member and State Senator Kiki Curls (D, Kansas City).