While some of our elected officials are calling for bigger and taller levees to hold back the annual spring flooding on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, which would ultimately just make the floods higher downstream, there is currently a movement in the Missouri Legislature to do something that should have been done decades ago—reduce development in the state’s floodplains.
Editorials
Crowdsourcing oppression: America’s Online Censorship Militia
By C. Dale Walton
The United States is, increasingly, a country in which free speech exists only in the most limited, legalistic sense. First Amendment jurisprudence still makes it very difficult for the U.S. government to directly punish speech and expression under most circumstances. In that regard, Americans are better off than their counterparts in Britain, Canada, and many other places where speech laws often are aggressively used to punish “thought criminals” who express themselves in an unapproved manner.
Missourians should continue to lead in fight against WOTUS
By Eric Bohl
One of the most egregiously-overreaching regulations of the Obama era is nearing its end. Until April 15, President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking public comments on its proposed replacement for the notorious Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Rule. Missourians need to be loud and clear in telling the EPA to ditch the WOTUS Rule and replace it with the new Clean Water Rule.
Full-time Phelps
By Phill Brooks
This spring Missouri lost a man who played a leading role in changing the powers of the lieutenant governor. Bill Phelps who died in March, got the nickname "full time" because the central theme of his 1972 campaign for lieutenant governor was to work full time.
Whatever you do, get to the polls Tuesday
If former U.S. House Speaker Tip O’Neill was right and “all politics is local,” then next Tuesday is a big day. In fact, it’s the biggest day of 2019 as it will be the only time this year we have a local election. So, whatever you do, be sure to get to the polls on Tuesday.