
By Jason Hancock | Editor-in-Chief
Good morning,
We start with Rudi Keller’s look at earmarked spending still moving through the budget process as lawmakers face Friday’s deadline to finish a spending plan. The projects were added even as Missouri faces a tighter fiscal picture.
We also have a story from the Columbia Missourian on a ballot initiative campaign that says it has submitted a record number of signatures to protect Missouri’s citizen petition process. And columnist Max McCoy marks the start of peak tornado season with a piece on storm chasers and the warnings that depend on what they see.

(photo courtesy of Missouri Senate Communications)
by Rudi Keller
With Missouri facing tighter revenues, lawmakers are still weighing more than 150 earmarks — and a public exchange in the Senate offered an unusually direct look at how some of them got there.

(Getty Images)
by Faith Jacoby
Respect MO Voters says it submitted more than 367,000 signatures for a proposed 2026 constitutional amendment aimed at protecting Missouri’s citizen initiative process.

(Max McCoy/Kansas Reflector)
COMMENTARY
by Max McCoy
A commentary from the Kansas Reflector revisits the legacy of deadly Plains tornadoes and the storm chasers who help turn radar warnings into real-time reports from the ground.
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