Webcast: Tuesday, Feb 9, 5:00 p.m.

by Steve Mays on February 8, 2010

HB 1548 – Establishes the High School Sports Brain Injury Prevention Act which requires school boards to work with the Missouri State High School Activities Association to develop guidelines regarding head injuries.

We’re going to attempt another live webcast from the hearing above. We say “attempt” because we’re going to try to do this one using only an iPhone. We’ll embed the player here and provide a link to our twitcam page. Watch this space or our Twitter feed for updates.

As sort of a footnote, I thought I’d share some of the physical challenges of covering committee hearings live, particularly with video.

If you have witnesses sitting at a table, testifying… you have a shot. Even with one camera. If the person speaking is walking around, and using visual aids like an easel or –god forbid– PowerPoint slides… not good.

We could probably find out what to expect with tomorrow’s hearing, but what fun would that be.

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Concerns heard about Senate autism bill exclusions

by Steve Mays on February 3, 2010

The proposal to force insurance companies to cover therapies for autism disorders might be leaving out thousands of Missouri children. This year’s version of the autism coverage mandate specifically excludes those who get healthcare through the Medicaid program—Mo Healthnet, as it’s called. Full story at Missosurinet.com

Audio excerpt from Senate debate (40 min)

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State of the Judiciary

by Steve Mays on February 3, 2010

Assembly, Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice William Ray Price Jr. is gave his annual State of the Judiciary address to a joint session of the Missouri General Assembly this morning. AUDIO | Text below.

State of the Judiciary (Missouri) 2-Feb-10

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Legislature passes measure rejecting tax reassessment

by Steve Mays on January 29, 2010

Bob Priddy, Brent Martin and Steve Walsh talk with Darin Jobe about activity in the legislature this week including the rejection of the Tax Commissions recommendation to change the valuations of farmland across the state. They also discuss the future of The President casino and what to expect over the coming week.

AUDIO: Press Pass for January 29, 2010

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Senate government accountability panel hearing

by Steve Mays on January 28, 2010

@chadlivengood tweeting from Senate government accountability panel hearing on Sen. Cunningham’s health care rights constitutional amendment. See Twitter stream in left sidebar of this page.

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Gaming Commission votes to revoke license of President Casino

January 27, 2010

The Missouri Gaming Commission has voted to revoke Pinnacle Entertainment’s gaming license for the President Casino on the Mississippi River at St. Louis. The President, which sits on the old Admiral riverboat, has – according to state gaming officials – fallen into disrepair and is underperforming. [Full story by Steve Walsh -with audio- at Missourinet.com]

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Live streaming committee hearings

January 27, 2010

During the 7 or 8 years we streamed audio of Missouri House and Senate debate, one of the most common requests was to provide audio from committee hearings. This was, we were told again and again, “where the action is.”
There was just no good way to do this, until wifi became available in the House [...]

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Special Standing Committee on Government Accountability & Ethics Reform

January 25, 2010

This was our first experiment with streaming from a House hearing room and it is less than perfect. We lost our ustream connection for a few minutes which accounts for the audio in two part. Levels were all over the place and we have some ideas on how to address that in the future. Our [...]

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Why journalists must keep asking questions

January 25, 2010
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