Clara Bates

3 days ago | missouriindependent.com | Clara Bates

by Clara Bates, Missouri Independent June 25, 2025 A Missouri man who was sentenced to death by a trial judge in 2009 despite a jury deadlocking on whether he should be executed has been scheduled to undergo lethal injection in October. The Missouri Supreme Court last week issued a warrant for the execution of Lance Shockley, who recently exhausted his state and federal appeals and was convicted of the 2005 murder of Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt.

5 days ago | missouriindependent.com | Clara Bates

by Clara Bates, Missouri Independent June 23, 2025 In the nearly two decades Sara Smith spent working at Missouri’s Department of Social Services, she remembers nine different people running the agency in charge of investigating child abuse and neglect. In March, Smith took the helm herself. She hopes to provide more stability in leading the agency which has seen growing scrutiny over the last several years from nearly every direction — including lawmakers, judges, advocates and the media.

1 week ago | missouriindependent.com | Clara Bates

Missouri has among the highest rates of antipsychotic drug use in nursing home residents, contributing to the state’s health care system ranking near the bottom nationally in a report released Wednesday. The report, published by The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation focused on health care issues, used data from 2023 to measure every state’s health care access, quality and outcomes across six dimensions.

1 week ago | stlamerican.com | Clara Bates

Missouri ranked in the bottom third of all states for children’s health, according to a report released Monday — due in part to a high rate of child and teen deaths. The annual Kids Count Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which used data from 2023, evaluated all states on four metrics of child well-being: health, economic well-being, education, and family and community.

1 week ago | stltoday.com | Clara Bates

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri advocates scored a victory during this year’s legislative session with the elimination of nondisclosure agreements in child sex abuse cases. But the internal politics of the Capitol spelled doom for another high-profile bill seeking to extend the time victims have to file lawsuits. It was the third year in a row that legislation to extend the civil statute of limitations for victims of childhood sexual abuse advanced but failed to pass.