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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Missouri Human Rights Statute Needs An Update?

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Tuesday, February 9, 2010   

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Current Missouri law prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, and age as it relates to employment, public accommodations, and housing. But efforts are underway to expand the state human rights act to include sexual orientation, which is not now covered. AJ Bockelman, the executive director with the privacy-rights organization PROMO, says passage of the Missouri Nondiscrimination Act will help ensure that good workers stay employed.

"Right now most people don't know that you can be fired in this state just because you're gay."

Bockelman says the Act will not require quotas or affirmative action and it won't apply to employers with fewer than six employees. The bill was recently heard in a Senate committee and heads next to the Senate floor. Opponents say the bill would infringe on some employers' religious beliefs, but Bockelman says it won't apply to religious institutions.

He says the bill has recently gained the support of Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster.

"That's because they get calls all the time from people around the state who've been terminated from a job and believe it's based upon a bias towards their sexual orientation."

There are currently 20 states, in addition to the District of Columbia, that have policies prohibiting both sexual-orientation and gender-identity discrimination in employment.


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