Missouri state representative Jim Guest was quoted in this New York Times article on mind-control.

This morning Peter Kinder and John Cross held a joint press conference (they’ll repeat the exercise again tomorrow in St. Louis) announcing that the state has agreed to pay a previously-disputed $4.75 million to probation and parole officers.

Kinder is participating in the press conferences in his role as acting governor (Matt Blunt is in Kosovo?), so we’re talking official state business here. Still, the twosome is raising some eyebrows as they’re an unlikely pairing – a top Republican in the middle of a re-election campaign, a top official with SEIU, a union normally backing Democrats.

Leads off with a nice whacker about governor's spastic anti-Nixon, non-reelection campaign: When Blunt made the decision in January to drop out of the race against Nixon, he said he lacked a "mission" for a second term.

Apparently, the mission for the rest of this term is clear.

Attack Nixon. Attack Nixon. And, just for good measure, attack Nixon one more time.

Governor Blunt is excited about 7 million hits to his accountability website.  I can't remeber the last time I heard anyone talk about "hits." That's like so 2001.

Unique visitor Gov!  That's the number people care about.  How many unique visitors?

All over the Village Law.

In the latest installment, the Senate sent a message to the House asking for a conference to work out their differences on the bill, and the House refused to accept the message "at this time."

This after last night when the House apparently delayed sending the bill it passed rescinding the village law to the Senate until after the Senate had adjourned for the night.  The Senate adjourned at 11:30am. The House sent it over at 11:33am even though it had been passed hours earlier.

With about 30 hours left in session, it would appear that Speaker Rod Jetton is using every step in the process to whittle time off the clock.

UPDATE: It appears that the message has made it across the Capitol Building. And they've granted conference.

Official Dessert gets sent to Governor.

And his midwifery stuff was attached to a bill that escaped the Senate last night.

The Senate, apparently content that the House is moving on the village law, has moved on. Sen. LuAnn Ridgeway is seeking a vote on HB 1393 which would allow motorcyclists to choose whether to wear a helmet or not.

Sen. Joan Bray appears to itching to filibuster it, but it's unclear how much help she'll get from fellow Democrats and whether they should save their gun-powder for the more volatile  immigration and voter ID bills.

Although they are part of the majority party, two Republican senators have embarked on a filibuster this morning.

The mild-mannered Sen. Jack Goodman and the affable Sen. John Griesheimer are expressing their distress that House has not repealed the village law.  They want the House to pass it out without amendments. They appear to have decided to filibuster House Consent bills before the Senate until they see action.

Consent bills are non-controversial bills that normally breese through the process.

At 2:15am, Sen. John Loudon has returned the senate to the topic of... midwifery. He's offered a tax credit for the creation of a birthing center.

The amendment was challenged as beyond the scope of the bill, HB 2058, but was ruled within the scope.

After a brief debate, the amendment failed.

As we move past 1am, HB 2025 is being debated and Sen. Harry Kennedy is trying like mad to keep it clean, that is keep it from getting loaded down.

Sen. Wes Shoemyer proposed an amendment to help people buy "weather radios." Kennedy asked Shoemyer to withdraw his amendment because the fiscal note was... $6,000.

$6,000. Things sure have gotten tight around here. Shoemeyer withdrew the amendment, but it appears he may be reintroducing it later.

Then Sen. Griesheimer put forth an amendment to repeal the "village law." But it was ruled out of order.

Now Sen. Brad Lager has arisen saying he has a couple of amendments...

It's 12:30 now and HB 2081 is up on the Senate floor. An amendment offered by Sen. Chuck Purgason will tack on the midwifery legalization that Sen. John Loudon has tried to pass before...

UPDATE: HB 2081 has been tabled again.

At 12:15am, after hours and hours of debate, the immigration legislation was poised for a vote. But during the process of amendments it required a fiscal note sufficient to send the legislation to the committee on Government Accountability and Fiscal Oversight.

Rather than retire for the evening, the Senate is taking up other legislation. The House meanwhile called it a day somewhere around 6pm.

The was a wicked four-story game of superball in the Capitol rotunda sometime around 11pm. Right now the staffers are playing wiffleball.

After the Rules Committee in the House rejected the Senate's earlier bill on illegal immigration, the Senate is now taking up the House immigration bills.

Democrats have been working the floor for about an hour now, but word is that the Republican may take it through the night, if need be.

It looks like a contest of endurance - and all other legislation (on the Senate side) will wait.

UPDATE: Debate continues at 9:30pm. Earlier an amendment by Rep. Tim Green was attached which some believe will effectively kill the legislation in the House.

Today Sen. Chuck Graham perfected his bill to rename a highway, and Sen. John Loudon perfected his bill on midwifery.  Here's the backstory.

In other news, hell freezes over. 

Sen. John Loudon has had a tough time lately.

He and Sen. Chuck Graham clashed again on the issue of midwifery yesterday in a debate that one observer characterized as “more personal than ever.”  Graham appears an impenetrable roadblock to Loudon's midwifery ambitions.

Furthermore, last week Sen. Kevin Engler knocked HB 1824 off the consent calendar. That bill was another piece of Loudon's legislative agenda: making ice cream the state dessert.

calling on the Missouri Supreme Court to immediately issue execution orders for all pending death penalty cases.

Sounds like he's gotten caught up in the Culture of Death.

Both are at 2pm.

HB 2117 Allows the City of St. Louis to control its police force without state intervention by passing an ordinance. Sponsored by Talib El-Amin.

HB 2190 Phases out the state sales and use tax on the purchase of food over a six-year period and replaces the revenue with a sales tax on the purchase of beer, wine, and liquor. Sponsored by Jamilah Nasheed

The House Special Committee on Urban Education Reform on Tuesday will hold a public hearing on HB 2117, which would end state control of the St. Louis City Police Department. The bill is sponsored by state Reps. Talibdin "T.D." El-Amin and Rodney Hubbard. The hearing will begin at 3 p.m. in House Hearing Room 7 in Jefferson City.

UPDATE: Hearing Cancelled. I'll update time and place when rescheduled.

Messenger's column:

Here's how attorney Rich AuBuchon of the Office of Administration has characterized the state's position:

"Mr. Eckersley never once voiced a concern, never once wrote an e-mail, never once talked to other employees in the office evidencing any concern that the governor's office was not complying with the Sunshine Law or any record-retention policies."

"Never once" is strong language.

In fact, the state's own evidence, sent to reporters by none other than AuBuchon, makes that a very difficult standard to prove.

One of the e-mails sent by the state to reporters was sent Sept. 20 from Eckersley to Jonathan Bunch, a former Blunt employee. Here's what Eckersley wrote after Bunch asked about Eckersley's discussions with his bosses about e-mail retention:

"Wow ... I fired on people yesterday about that — I just got so sick of it — I emailed Chrismer and HH and ed."

Messenger's column today says that after sending boxes of Scott Eckersley's personal emails to news outlets last weekend, the governor's office is now refusing to give Eckersley's lawyer access to those files.  The punchline: They're citing the Sunshine Law for withholding them!

Messenger has posted the letter they sent Eckersley's lawyer.

Post-Dispatch's editorial  on the matter - Slime and Punishment.

So I usually don't re-post something that's being well-covered by other blogs. However this story seems to have legs and isn't getting much attention in St. Louis.

Scott Eckersley was fired from the governor's staff. he says it's because he was pushing them to adhere to the Sunshne Law. They say it was because of a lot of things including poor work, doing too much work for his famly business and registering for a group-sex website.

Tony Messenger of the Springfield News-Leader, has been on top of the story. Here's his column from Sunday.  Here are the letters from Blunt's staff that he's posted. Here's his follow-up yesterday. And here's his blog entry today with video of Blunt answering questions about Eckersley at a press conference today. And Messeger promises a bombshell development in his column tomorrow.

Paul Passanante raised eyebrows a couple of weeks ago with a strong-worded letter endorsing Chris Koster and calling Jeff Harris a "sea urchin."

Here is a different letter.

Though Harris isn't mentioned by name in this new letter, Passanante clearly had issues with the Democratic House leadership going back to January.

In this letter to Rep. Fred Kratky, Passanante rebukes the leadership for moving Rep. Terry Young's parking space. He refers to Rep. Young as "my girl." And vows, "I will not allow Terry to be treated like this."

Rep. Ray Salva gets the most ire.  Passanante says he will "kick his ass" if Young is treated with anymore disrespect. "Not holler at him. Not threaten him. Kick his ass."

So the jury is split. Some think Passanante is down on Harris for his vote on judicial pay raises; others because Young didn't get the "respect a lady deserves."