skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

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.

Voters Asked to Protect Missouri's Parks and Drinking Water

play audio
Play

Monday, June 13, 2016   

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Advocates say all Missourians benefit from a tax that's been around since the 1980s.

Back then, voters approved a one-tenth of one percent tax that is split between the Soil and Water Conservation District and the state park system.

Last month Gov. Jay Nixon set the November general election as the date for a vote to renew it.

Missouri Department of Natural Resources director Sara Parker Pauley says it's crucial to the state for agriculture, tourism and most importantly clean drinking water.

"We know more than half of our Missouri citizens get their drinking water from our major rivers, the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers," she says. "Keeping soil on our land also benefits water quality."

Parker Pauley says during the Dust Bowl years, America lost 300 million tons of soil, with Missouri having the highest erosion rate.

As of late as 1982, Missouri was still losing 10.8 tons of soil per acre of crop land.

Darrick Steen, Environmental Director for both the Missouri Corn Growers and Soybean Associations, says farmers are always trying to come up with better ways to keep the soil and nutrients in the ground.

"They're at the mercy of Mother Nature, they're at the mercy of the weather," Steen says. "That has to be taken into consideration and farmers have to manage around the types of rain events that we get which, of course, lately have been more intense with larger amounts of rain per rainfall event which makes things challenging."

The tax is a constitutional amendment that has be be renewed by Missouri voters every 10 years.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
A report from the Tennessee HealthCare Campaign recommended the federal government needs to strengthen 340B drug pricing and other federal negotiation mechanisms to make needed medicines more readily available and less expensive for hospitals to purchase and administer. (Spotmatikphoto/AdobeStock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

A recent report examined how some rural Tennessee hospitals have managed to stay afloat despite financial challenges. The report includes interviews …


Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

Health and Wellness

play sound

Medicare and Medicaid are key sources of health coverage for many Americans and some people qualify for assistance under both programs. With lagging …


Organizations fighting wage theft said it harms affected workers and surrounding communities because the money withheld is not being circulated through the local economy. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …

Social Issues

play sound

New research shows more than six in 10 abortions in the U.S. last year were medically induced, and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto - D-NV - is …

Social Issues

play sound

Missouri lawmakers are concerned with protecting people from the potential risks of the increasing accessibility of AI-generated images and videos…

Environment

play sound

A farm group is helping Iowa agriculture producers find ways to reduce the amount of nitrogen they use on their crops. Excess nitrates can wind up …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021