Archive for the ‘Government, Politics, Law and Order’ Category

A bill has been introduced by Sen. Jim Lembke, R-St. Louis, to strip away the public mission of Missouri Employers Mutual as a workers’ compensation insurer for small businesses. Called a “public corporation,” MEM is the dominant workers’ compensation carrier for the state and has tax-free status since it was created by state law and the governor.

Rex Sinquefield’s guru behind the proposed “Almost Everything Tax,” Ronald Reagan’s supply-side taxation adviser Art Laffer, is in legal hot water in Texas. A lawsuit filed in Harris County alleges Laffer lent his name to fund managers who diverted investor money to what the plaintiffs describe as a Ponzi scheme. According to Courthouse News Service, the defendants are accused of taking $3.1 million from investors. In addition to Laffer, the defendants are the Laffer Frishberg Wallace Economic Opportunity Fund and fund managers Costa Bajjali and David Wallace. Moneybags Rex recently hosted Laffer at a reception in Chesterfield to promote the billionaire’s proposed state constitutional amendment to dump Missouri’s current tax system in favor of a vastly higher state sales tax, and expanding the tax to services and the goods families buy every day.

What is a finish in the Iowa Republican caucuses – an eight-vote margin separating first place finisher Mitt Romney and surging second-place combatant Rick Santorum!  Over at CNN, Wolf Blitzer is still taking oxygen from hyperventilating the results. Romney may have been the numerical winner, but Santorum caught the wave in a race that seemed more like “Wheel of Fortune” with the frontrunners du jour. Santorum is probably wishing he had stopped at a funeral on caucus day – he could have recruited six pallbearers, a widow and an undertaker to close the gap.  Presumably the preacher was already a fan of the new darling of evangelical voters.

Ron Paul, age 76, credited his third-place showing to the excitement of younger voters. Newt Gingrich finished fourth and used his caucus night speech to attack Ron Paul as dangerous on foreign policy.  Paul hit back, dubbing Newt a “chickenhawk.” Their rumble continues in New Hampshire. Rick Perry was in fifth place in Iowa and he caught a plane back to Texas.  Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, who tried to hit every county in the final stretch in Iowa, looked lovely with the sound turned down.  Meanwhile, Herman Cain, who is hopefully home mending fences with the missus, scored few votes than “No Preference” and “Other.”

Moneybags Rex Sinquefield may have finally caught on to the campaign consultants trying to bleed him dry with pie-in-the-sky promises and ill-conceived schemes. The Missouri Ethics Commission reports former St. Charles lawmaker Carl Bearden, who has been lead mouthpiece for Rex’s lackluster showing behind the “Everything Tax” ballot proposal, is no longer registered as a Jeff City lobbyist for Rex and wife Jeanne Sinquefield at year’s end.

Missouri Republicans can have the satisfaction of having their say about their preferred presidential candidate before Iowans caucus next Tuesday. Absentee ballots for Missouri’s Feb. 7 presidential primary were accepted starting this week at offices of the election boards in St. Louis City and St. Louis County. Newt Gringrich didn’t make an effort to be on the Missouri ballot. Not that it will matter for any of the hopefuls, as the actual delegates to the GOP’s 2012 convention in Tampa will be picked later in the year.

Feb. 28 is the court date in Jefferson City for a consolidated hearing on four cases filed over ballot language on a Missouri payday loans initiative. But payday loan foes who are backing the measure say they will start collecting petition signatures after the start of the new year.  It’s a risky strategy that will backfire if the judge orders changes in the ballot language, since that would mean throwing out all signatures collected on the rejected measure. Even observers sympathetic to the payday loan foes are scratching their heads about what is not in the measure – specific language capping the interest rate payday lenders can charge at 36 percent, which has been the core argument by the proposal’s backers.
The Missouri General Assembly will bring comedy and drama back to Jeff City with the traditional noon opening gavel of the 2012 session, on Jan. 4.  St. Louisans who find it daunting to make the 250-miles-plus round trip to the Capitol Building, only to be baffled by all the sausage making, may choose instead to stay abreast of Jeff City through online resources. We’ll have the social scoop, as usual. But for knowledgeable online trackers of activities under and around the big dome, there are reliable sources for the day’s hard news.

Every Missouri political player and wannabe consults www.JohnCombest.com upon waking (or going to bed). The tireless John Combest (really, does he ever sleep?) just marked his 10th anniversary as the political junkies’ first read seven days a week. There’s www.MoScout.com, the insider report from Arch City Chronicle’s Dave Drebes, standing watch at the intersections of campaigning and governing. The latest online resource to launch is www.MoWonk.com where budget expert Brian Schmidt will be explaining exclusively to followers how the state builds and manages a multibillion dollar spending plan. Brian, known to his pals as “Schmidty,” served from 2005-2011 as Executive Director of the Missouri Legislature’s Joint Committee on Tax Policy.

Demos and Caesar Investment, LLC has sued Excel Bank, Shaun Hayes, Eighteen Investments, Inc., and the notorious Michael Litz. In July, Excel Bank sued Hayes and Litz and McKnight Man LLC, a company owned by Hayes, for a default on a $1 million loan. Truman Bank is also suing Hayes’ trust.