Tagged: Joseph Keaveny

A State Senator from St. Louis is continuing his campaign to increase the fine in Missouri for not wearing seat belts.

This will be the fourth time Democrat Joseph Keaveny has sponsored legislation to raise Missouri’s seat belt fine from $10 to $50.  Opponents have either voted it down in committee or never brought it up for a vote each time.  Keaveny says this time his message will focus more on the lack of seat belt use by teenagers.

“In Missouri we average about 77 percent, (and the) teenage buckle-up rate is about 66 percent," Keaveny said.  "The majority of people aren’t killed as a direct result of the collision, but they’re being ejected from the car.”

Missouri lawmakers last year came the closest they’d ever come to restoring local control over the St. Louis Police Department, which has been under state control since the Civil War.

A bill that would have given control of the department back to the city passed the House, but Senate leaders refused to pass it unless they got their way on tax credit reform, which didn’t happen. This year, the local control battle never got off the ground in Jefferson City. 

St. Louis Public Radio’s Marshall Griffin talked with Mo. state Senator Joseph Keaveny (D, St. Louis) to find out why.

A Senate committee was hearing from Missouri residents today about health insurance exchanges.

Every state is required by the year 2014 to set up an online exchange where customers can buy health coverage.  States that fail to do so will have one created for them by the federal government, as part of the Affordable Care Act.

State Senator Joseph Keaveny of St. Louis city is a member of the committee.