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Missouri House votes to limit transgender student athletes

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:10 GMT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Transgender girls and women would no longer be allowed to play on the same team as other girls and women under a bill passed Monday in Missouri's Republican-led House.Lawmakers voted 104-46 to send the measure to the GOP-led Senate, which passed similar legislation earlier this year.The ban would apply to student athletes in grade 6 through college, including teams at private schools. Public K-12 schools and colleges would lose state funding for allowing transgender girls to play sports with other girls.Republican bill sponsor Rep. Jamie Burger, of Benton, said allowing transgender girls to play with other girls will “wipe out female sports as we know it.” Top story: Overland armored car robbery video reveals surprising actions “Biological males are bigger. They are stronger. They are faster," Burger said on the House floor late Monday. “The majority of women simply cannot compete.”Democratic Rep. Keri Ingle, of Lee's Summit, said children “don't ha...

Limit on foreign ownership of farmland clears Missouri Senate

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:10 GMT

A bill that would prohibit any further foreign ownership of Missouri land was passed in the Senate on Monday.The Senate amended a bill from the House to add an emergency clause and expand the definition of what is included as a foreign business. The bill also requires a 30-day notice to the Department of Agriculture in cases of transfers involving land that is already owned by a foreign entity.Current law limits foreign ownership of Missouri land to 1% of the total acreage.Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, argued on the floor that the legislation limited individual property rights.The vote was 31-3 in favor.“It’s regulating what private property owners can do with their property. We’re adding additional restrictions to property owners in this state,” said Hough.Support for the bill was bipartisan, with Sen. Doug Beck, D-Affton, and Sen. Tracy McCreery, D-Olivette, expressing their support on the Senate floor.“This has never been about putting people out of business or bei...

Remains of Springfield, Missouri man found in Iowa

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:10 GMT

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Deputies in southern Iowa reported that they have found human skeletal remains and have identified them.On March 6, 2022, a 2015 Chevrolet Spark was recovered from I-29. It was determined that the Chevrolet belonged to a Springfield man. When authorities tried to contact the man, it was found that he had left his last known address on Feb. 28, 2022, without telling the people there where he was going.On March 20, 2023, the remains were found near the Missouri River near Hamburg, Iowa. A man was scouting the area for deer when he found them. Iowa law enforcement began an investigation.There were several items around the skeletal remains recovered, including a gym pass and car keys that went to the Chevrolet Spark. West Springfield shooting leaves one dead, another injured The remains were determined to belong to Salvador Agustin Fonseca, 30, of Springfield."It is unknown why Fonseca had stopped at that section of interstate, but it appears that he walked west to ...

Police: Man helping get goose out of road struck, killed in Chicago suburbs

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:10 GMT

KANE COUNTY, Ill. — A man was struck and killed after helping get a goose out of traffic early Tuesday morning in unincorporated Elgin Township.At around 6 a.m., authorities were dispatched to the 1200 block of St. Charles Street on the report of a pedestrian struck.Police believe Rateb Arqan, 59, of West Chicago, pulled over on the side of the road to help remove a goose from southbound lanes of traffic. At some point, he was struck by a 2012 Chevy Express van, driven by Juan Padilla-Regalado, 29, of Elgin. Arqan was pronounced dead at the scene. Motorcyclist dead following police pursuit in Gary No citations have been issued at this time.

Parson appoints 3 new members to University of Missouri System Board of Curators

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:10 GMT

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson appointed three new members to the University of Missouri System Board of Curators on Monday.Robert Blitz, Robert Fry and Jeanne Sinquefield must be confirmed by the state Senate before joining the board, which meets Thursday.They are not included in a list of nominations to be considered by the Senate’s Gubernatorial Appointments committee, which is scheduled to meet Wednesday morning.Ahead of these appointments, the board had two open seats and three curators serving on expired terms. The board’s non-voting student representative position is also open.The UM System Board of Curators is the nine-voting-member governing body that controls MU, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the University of Missouri-St. Louis and the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla.The board cannot have more than five members of any political party. It wasn’t immediately clear what the appointees’ partisan affiliations are.Sinquefield, of Westphalia, wil...

Alicia Keys coming to St. Louis this summer

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:10 GMT

ST. LOUIS - R&B singer Alicia Keys announced that her 'Keys To The Summer' is kicking off this summer. The Enterprise Center will host one of the shows Friday, July 21. FOX 2 is giving away a pair of tickets every day this week before they go on sale Friday, April 21. To get registered, go to the contest page of FOX2Now.com. For a bonus chance to enter, follow @FOX2NOW on Instagram.Keys is a Grammy-Award winner, and is widely-recognized for songs like “If I Ain’t Got You,” “Superwoman,” and “You Don’t Know My Name.”

Handful of items left on Missouri Senate's to-do list in final weeks of session

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:10 GMT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - There's one month left in the legislative session, and Missouri Senate Leadership said it has four big priorities left to accomplish before adjourning. Unlike last year at this time, senators on both sides of the aisle say relationships are still good in the upper chamber but with some major Republican priorities still on the agenda and the House pushing for the Senate to do more, it's possible that all could change. "The one thing we know about the Senate is it can change on a dime," Sen. Doug Beck, D-Affton, said. "I come in here in a certain mood and it's easily changed within 20 minutes."The Missouri General Assembly is in the home stretch of the 2023 legislative session. With four weeks left, Senate Leadership said there are four big issues left to tackle, along with next year's budget.  Top story: Overland armored car robbery video reveals surprising actions "Some form of school choice because we have open enrollment, initiative petition refor...

Meow Wolf’s Vortex music festival returns to Denver with GRiZ, Remi Wolf and more

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:10 GMT

Meow Wolf’s signature summer music festival, Vortex, returns to Denver this summer, bringing with it eclectic art installations and top-notch performers.Related ArticlesEntertainment | New downtown bars, restaurants replace year-old El Tejano, Smash Face and Loaded Entertainment | Top 10 favorite LPs from Twist & Shout, Wax Trax Records and more Denver music experts Entertainment | How to celebrate 420 in Denver with music, munchies, beer, comedy and drink specials Entertainment | Denver’s fast-growing RiNo “music district” finds its groove amid vinyl renaissance Entertainment | “The Color Purple” at the Denver Center is a gorgeous and timely revival On Aug. 25-27, Vortex comes back to The JunkYard, a new-ish venue in Sun Valley that hosted the inaugural Mile High installment of the festival in 2022. According to an announcement Tuesday, Meow Wolf and Live Nation collabo...

Early morning fire kills several animals at Colorado Gators in Mosca

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:10 GMT

A large number of animals at Colorado Gators, a rescue park in Alamosa County, were killed in a fire early Tuesday morning.The fire, which the park reported about 4:30 a.m., was in the reptile barn, and most of the rescue’s snakes, lizards, tortoises, parrots and cats died in the blaze, park administrators said in a Facebook post.“We are devastated,” the post stated. “But there is positive to focus on. And we have hundreds of animals that are healthy that we still need to take care of. Prayers are appreciated. We will get through this.”No people were hurt in the fire, and several caiman, turtles and tortoises were rescued by the Mosca-Hooper Fire Department.The alligators and crocodiles outside the building were unharmed, as were all the animals in the fish building.Park administrators said the damage is extensive and the cleanup will take a long time, “but we will go on.”Related ArticlesColorado News | North Creek fire near Beula...

LAUSD, teachers union reach tentative labor agreement

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:10 GMT

The Los Angeles Unified School District and the union representing approximately 35,000 educators have reached a tentative agreement that will substantially increase salaries, both sides announced Tuesday morning.The agreement includes a 21% salary increase for all United Teachers Los Angeles members, reductions on class sizes and “increasing mental health and counseling services in order to better support the needs of students,” LAUSD said in a news release.It comes a month after a strike involving UTLA and the union representing bus drivers, custodians and teaching assistants shut down L.A. public schools for three days. The day after that strike ended, both sides reached a deal that gave SEIU Local 99 employees a roughly 30% pay increase.UTLA members who walked off the job in solidarity with SEIU Local 99 were not part of that agreement.“This agreement with UTLA is a necessary step not only to make Los Angeles Unified the district of choice for families but also the district of c...