Missouri Senate debates over China hub

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (MISSOURI DIGITAL NEWS) - The mayor of St. Louis urged lawmakers at the state Capitol to vote in favor of the China cargo hub legislation.

The issue brought St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay to the bill's public hearing Wednesday night.

Slay urged lawmakers to vote for tax breaks that would be used to promote an international cargo hub at Lambert Airport.

"If this works, and it may not, but if this works it could create thousands of jobs," Slay said.

But critics of the bill say having this cargo hub would actually send job oversees.

Elizabeth Hagedorn, Missouri Digital News

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Nixon wants to move nonviolent offenders to treatment centers, probation

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (MISSOURI DIGITAL NEWS) - Members of Missouri's executive, legislative and judicial branches are teaming up on a new project aimed at keeping nonviolent offenders out of prison.

Governor Jay Nixon and other top officials announced a plan they say will help reduce the costs of running the state's prisons.

A new bipartisan group is now looking for ways to put the state's nonviolent offenders in treatment centers and probation programs in order to keep them out of prison.

Nixon says similiar policies in Kansas, Arkansas and Kentucky have saved those states money.

"While the simple act of a crime and the simple act of a life might be one act at one point, this is a very complex social issue," Nixon says.

Nixon says he hopes proposed legislation will be ready this winter.

Elizabeth Hagedorn, Missouri Digital News

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Domestic violence victim speaks on state Capitol lawn

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (MISSOURI DIGITAL NEWS) - A victim of domestic violence brought her story to the state Capitol lawn to urge lawmakers to strengthen domestic violence laws.

For Carol Cromer, she says life with her husband was a nightmare.

Before his suicide, he stalked her every move.

He sent her threatening messages.

He even set fire to her car and to her home.

"It had been five very long years of living in constant fear. It had consumed my life so long, that I was unsure of what it would be like to live life normally again," Cromer said.

She says keeping him behind bars was nearly impossible as he would place bond everytime.

"These individuals are incapable of changing their own lives," she said. "They do not value their own lives. Therefore expecting them to value someone else's life is incomprehensible and ignores the possiblity of a potentially fatal outcome."

Earlier in the week, the Missouri House referred a bill to committee that would ban people found guilty of a domestic violence crime from possesing guns.

Attorney General Chris Koster says he is pushing for comprehensive legislation to strengthen domestic violence laws.

Elizabeth Hagedorn, Missouri Digital News

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