Latest news with #Stinnett
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill approved to allow MSU to offer doctoral degrees
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Missouri State University (MSU) could soon be adding research-based doctorates to the list of degrees the university offers. The Missouri General Assembly recently approved two bills that allow the university to do so. President of MSU Richard B. Williams says back in 2005, when the college first changed the name to Missouri State University, part of the legislature included a compromise with the University of Missouri. The compromise meant MSU and other state institutions could not claim the land grant title, the flagship title, a research one title, or offer certain programs, including medicine, law, pharmacy, engineering, dental and more. SPS free summer lunches not impacted by federal cuts to school food programs In 2018, there were some changes to the law allowing MSU to offer clinical doctorates, and just recently, the university added a doctoral program in education. 'There still is the stipulation that it's against the state law. We would break the law if we had PhDs that are research PhDs,' said President Williams. 'So this allows us the opportunity to look at the workforce, look at what degrees are actually needed, and then we can offer a Ph.D. in those areas.' House Bill 419 and Senate Bill 160 changed the law to allow MSU to offer research-based doctorates and other professional programs, including a baccalaureate in vet tech. District 30 Senator Lincoln Hough and District 133 Representative Melanie Stinnett sponsored House Bill 616 and Senate Bill 11, which eventually turned into the bills that were recently approved by both the House and Senate. 'I believe that both Senator Hough and myself worked really hard to try and collaborate and try and find a way to get this across the finish line,' said Representative Stinnett. 'And so the initial bill that we filed looks a little bit different than what was passed. But I think that that's the outcome of everyone coming to the table and having conversations.' Springfield man admits to burglary and theft at U.S. Post Office Representative Stinnett says ultimately this bill can help encourage students to choose MSU and stay in the area, but can also benefit the community. 'It's kind of twofold, making sure that the student is able to take a look at what university they want to attend and make that choice for themselves,' Representative Stinnett said. 'But then also really that economic driver in that economic piece as well, meeting the needs of our community and our business community and allowing them the opportunity to get those degrees.' President Williams says it can also be beneficial for the students to complete their degree at the same university they started at without needing to move to a new city or even a new state. 'They have a mentor that's a faculty member. They have a line of research that they're working. There is an expert in that area with that faculty member,' President Williams said. 'They're comfortable. They've written grants together, they've written papers together. And so that's a very big benefit for these individuals because they're established.' The two bills will still need to be signed into law by Governor Mike Kehoe, but both President Williams and Representative Stinnett say passing these bills is a big milestone in a years-long journey. 'Many people are excited. This is history. For us to be able to offer a Ph.D. is a very large win,' said President Williams. 'Not only for the university, not only for our faculty and staff, but for the community, for our economy, and for the state of Missouri.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
State Representative Melanie Stinnett announces run for Missouri Senate
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Springfield representative Melanie Stinnett has announced she will be running for State Senate. Stinett will be a candidate for state senate District 30, where incumbent Lincoln Hough will be term-limited by 2026. Stinnett has represented District 133 in the State House as a Republican since she was elected in 2022. District 133 is located in parts of western and southwestern Springfield. 'I'm running because I believe in a Missouri where government works for the people—not the other way around,' Stinett stated in a Facebook post. 'If you believe in lower taxes, safer streets, better schools, and healthier families, I'd be honored to earn your support.' According to her biography, Stinnett graduated from Missouri State University with two master's degrees and works as a healthcare executive and a speech-language pathologist. The only other person running for State Senate District 30 so far is Democrat representative Betsy Fogle, who announced her campaign for the district on Monday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
More women view climate change as their number one political issue
A new report from the Environmental Voter Project (EVP), shared first with The 19th, finds that far more women than men are listing climate and environmental issues as their top priority in voting. The nonpartisan nonprofit, which focuses on tailoring get out the vote efforts to low-propensity voters who they've identified as likely to list climate and environmental issues as a top priority, found that women far outpace men on the issue. Overall 62 percent of these so-called climate voters are women, compared to 37 percent of men. The gender gap is largest among young people, Black and Indigenous voters. The nonprofit identifies these voters through a predictive model built based on surveys it conducts among registered voters. It defines a climate voter as someone with at least an 85 percent likelihood of listing climate change or the environment as their number one priority. 'At a time when other political gender gaps, such as [presidential] vote choice gender gaps, are staying relatively stable, there's something unique going on with gender and public opinion about climate change,' said Nathaniel Stinnett, founder of the organization. While the models can predict the likelihood of a voter viewing climate as their number one issue, it can't actually determine whether these same people then cast a vote aligned with that viewpoint. The report looks at data from 21 states that are a mix of red and blue. Based on polling from the AP-NORC exit poll, 7 percent of people self-reported that climate change was their number one priority in the 2024 general election, Stinnett said. Of those who listed climate as their top priority, they voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris by a 10 to 1 margin. The EVP findings are important, Stinnett says, because they also point the way to who might best lead the country in the fight against the climate crisis. 'If almost two thirds of climate voters are women, then all of us need to get better at embracing women's wisdom and leadership skills,' Stinnett said. 'That doesn't just apply to messaging. It applies to how we build and lead a movement of activists and voters.' Though the data reveals a trend, it's unclear why the gender gap grew in recent years. In the six years that EVP has collected data, the gap has gone from 20 percent in 2019, and then shrunk to 15 percent in 2022 before beginning to rise in 2024. In 2025, the gap grew to 25 percentage points. 'I don't know if men are caring less about climate change. I do know that they are much, much less likely now than they were before, to list it as their number one priority,' he said. 'Maybe men don't care less about climate change than they did before, right? Maybe it's just that other things have jumped priorities over that.' A survey conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, a nonprofit that gauges the public's attitude toward climate change has seen a similar trend in its work. Marija Verner, a researcher with the organization, said in 2014 there was a 7 percent gap between the number of men and women in the U.S. who said they were concerned by global warming. A decade later in 2024, that gap had nearly doubled to 12 percent. There is evidence that climate change and pollution impact women more than men both in the United States and globally. This is because women make up a larger share of those living in poverty, with less resources to protect themselves, and the people they care for, from the impacts of climate change. Women of color in particular live disproportionately in low-income communities with greater climate risk. This could help explain why there is a bigger gender gap between women of color and their male counterparts. In the EVP findings there is a 35 percent gap between Black women and men climate voters, and a 29 percent gap between Indigenous women and men. Jasmine Gil, associate senior director at Hip Hop Caucus, a nonprofit that mobilizes communities of color, said she's not really surprised to see that Black women are prioritizing the issue. Gil works on environmental and climate justice issues, and she hears voters talk about climate change as it relates to everyday issues like public safety, housing, reproductive health and, more recently, natural disasters. 'Black women often carry the weight of protecting their families and communities,' she said. 'They're the ones navigating things like school closures and skyrocketing bills; they are the ones seeing the direct impacts of these things. It is a kitchen table issue.' The EVP survey also found a larger gender gap among registered voters in the youngest demographic, ages 18 to 24. Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, the president of youth voting organization NextGen America, said that in addition to young women obtaining higher levels of education and becoming more progressive than men, a trend that played out in the election, she also thinks the prospect of motherhood could help explain the gap. She's seen how young mothers, particularly in her Latino community, worry about the health of their kids who suffer disproportionately from health issues like asthma. Her own son has asthma, she said: 'That really made me think even more about air quality and the climate crisis and the world we're leaving to our little ones.' It's a point that EVP theorizes is worth doing more research on. While the data cannot determine whether someone is a parent or grandparent, it does show that women between ages of 25 to 45 and those 65 and over make up nearly half of all climate voters. Still, Ramirez wants to bring more young men into the conversation. Her organization is working on gender-based strategies to reach this demographic too. Last cycle, they launched a campaign focused on men's voter power and one of the core issues they are developing messaging around is the climate crisis. She said she thinks one way progressive groups could bring more men into the conversation is by focusing more on the positives of masculinity to get their messaging across. 'There are great things about healthy masculinity … about wanting to protect those you love and those that are more vulnerable,' she said. There are opportunities to tap into that idea of 'men wanting to protect their families or those they love or their communities from the consequences of the climate crisis.' The post More women view climate change as their number one political issue appeared first on The 19th. News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday. Subscribe to our free, daily newsletter.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Missouri Right to Life voices opposition to newest version of anti-abortion amendment
Susan Klein, executive director of Missouri Right to Life, hosts a rally in the Missouri State Capitol rotunda last week (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). The newest reworking of a proposed constitutional amendment seeking to undermine abortion rights in Missouri has managed to draw the ire of the state's largest anti-abortion group. The version of the Republican-backed amendment approved by a House committee Monday, if passed out of the legislature and approved by voters, would outlaw abortion with limited exceptions for medical emergencies and survivors of rape and incest prior to 12 weeks gestation. The latest version, approved by a different House committee Tuesday, proposed adding a new section to the constitution seeking to put stricter parameters on the abortion-right amendment — also known as Amendment 3 — approved by voters in November. The bill's sponsor, Republican state Rep. Melanie Stinnett of Springfield, said Monday's version wasn't one she 'necessarily approved.' Stinnett said the latest version is again her own, based on feedback she received earlier in the session. 'It's really just addressing the things that I really feel like are in line with the people's expectations of what they were voting on in Amendment 3,' she said. Susan Klein with Missouri Right to Life in testifying against the legislation said while Monday's version sought to 'repeal and replace' Amendment 3, the new version fails to do so. Missouri Right to Life in a statement Wednesday called the revised amendment an 'extreme gamble,' raising doubts about whether it would actually limit the number of abortions provided under the law. Stinnett's latest legislation would ask voters if they want to add language into the constitution that does the following: Require any minors seeking reproductive health care first obtain parental consent. Define 'reproductive health care' as anything related to women's 'potential or actual pregnancy,' including prenatal care, contraception, miscarriage, childbirth and abortion. Clarify that women have the right to file medical malpractice challenges. Specify that no private or public funding can be required to go toward reproductive health care. Require that any legal challenges to the state law around reproductive health care be heard in Cole County. Establish there is 'compelling government interest' in reproductive health care. The issue of 'compelling government interest' in reproductive health care has been raised on several occasions as a court case challenging the state's abortion regulations continues to play out in Jackson County. Amendment 3 states that 'the right to reproductive freedom shall not be denied, interfered with, delayed, or otherwise restricted unless the government demonstrates that such action is justified by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means.' Referencing the language in Amendment 3, Jackson County Judge Jerri Zhang blocked a number of abortion regulations, including a 72-hour waiting period for an abortion and a mandate that physicians performing abortions have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, citing a failure by the state to demonstrate compelling governmental interest. Stinnett, when asked about this language Tuesday, said it was necessary. 'Our government in many ways has an interest in health, safety and welfare,' she said. Missouri Right to Life also said the proposed amendment failed to challenge the abortion-right's amendment's non-discrimination clause. 'The judge in Jackson County used this provision to invalidate all of Missouri's health and safety regulations,' according to the group's statement Wednesday. 'And she, or another court, will do it again with Amendment 3 still in the Missouri Constitution.' Missouri health department rejects Planned Parenthood plan to start medication abortions House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Democrat from Kansas City, asked if a married 16-year-old would need to seek her parents' permission to obtain birth control under this amendment. 'The sad reality is that too many young people don't have that support,' she said, voicing concerns that the amendment is focused broadly on reproductive health care, including contraceptive access for minors. 'I think we open it up to a lot of young folks falling through the cracks, especially the most victimized and marginalized.' She also highlighted the language around federal funding, pointing out that the federal government just this week froze Title X family planning funds earmarked for a number of states, including Missouri. Providers say this could cause thousands of low-income Missourians to lose access to care for family planning services, including contraceptives. While Stinnett indicated she didn't approve of Monday's version of the bill, she did continue to include its requirement that any legal challenges to the state law around reproductive health care be heard in Cole County. The Missouri Attorney General's Office has been fighting unsuccessfully to move the Jackson County lawsuit to Cole County where last year, a judge attempted to remove the abortion-rights amendment from the ballot. Stinnett said at Tuesday's hearing that the Cole County language was included to address concerns around judicial load so that such cases could be brought forward quickly. Just this week, another lawsuit by Planned Parenthood against the state was filed somewhere other than Cole County. The new lawsuit filed Tuesday in the St. Louis Circuit Court challenges Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, saying he 'unlawfully blocked access to medication abortion' by issuing a cease-and-desist order to Planned Parenthood when the clinics were not prescribing the medication. 'The order violates due process by lacking any factual basis and failing to meet Missouri's legal standards for government actions,' Planned Parenthood Great Rivers said in a statement Monday. Stinnett's legislation is scheduled to go before the House rules committee Thursday morning. If approved there, it will go to the full House for debate. She said she anticipates more amendments will be offered on the House floor. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Boston Globe
15-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Review: Boston Dance Theater paints the ICA ‘Red'
Reprised from BDT's May 2024 ICA program, Galili's 'If As If' (2006) is a seven-minute duet for Stinnett and Spinola where, in repeating sequences, she evades his attempts at partnering. Truce is declared during a middle section in which they separate and mirror each other; when they regroup, nothing has changed, the dance ending as it began. The piece was worth a second look; the title is as mystifying as ever. The other returnee from last May, 'Firebird Pas de Deux' (2010), looked different this time. Goecke's two firebirds are not gender specific; Stinnett and Olivia Coombs performed the piece in May, but this time out, Stinnett and Wesley Urbanczyk are a more obviously courting pair. Dancing to the final 10 minutes of Igor Stravinsky's 'Firebird,' they converse in a wary, jittery language of undulating hips, twitching shoulders, spastic arms, fluttering fingers. After their split-second embrace, they shuffle away from each other in silence, dejected, as if the moment of mating were all the contact they could bear without burning up. Advertisement The two premieres aren't quite as fulfilling. Carreras Fereshtehnejad's 'Red is a feeling,' which gives the program its title, was inspired by her experience battling two forms of cancer in her mid-30s. The four performers — Stinnett, Spinola, Urbanczyk, and Sean Pfeiffer — gasp for breath to start. Urbanczyk relieves Stinnett of what looks like a hospital gown; underneath she has on a bright blue top and trousers (the only piece on the program with no red in the costuming). Sitting in a stenographer's chair, Pfeiffer is wheeled on and off by Spinola and Urbanczyk. Pfeiffer whispers in Stinnett's ear; she nestles against him and he guides her gently from behind, even as Spinola wheels the chair back out with Urbanczyk draped over it. Urbanczyk seems to battle unseen forces while Spinola and Pfeiffer manipulate Stinnett in a series of imaginative, awkward-looking lifts. Urbanczyk eventually disappears upstage, leaving Stinnett to crawl toward the audience. Carreras Fereshtehnejad has said, 'My body is a protest, a puzzle, a mirror, and a keeper of secrets.' That's a fair description of a piece that for me didn't quite come into focus. Stinnett's 'Fifties' is the party-piece closer. The mostly '50s music, from Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode' to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong singing 'Cheek to Cheek,' is well chosen; the six performers all wear red. Everyone bops to 'Johnny B. Goode'; the three men support one another through Little Anthony and the Imperials' 'Tears on My Pillow'; the women salsa to the Champs' 'Tequila.' It's all fluid and acrobatic and, apart from Ameia Mikula-Noble's cheeky wave at the end of Ben E. King's 'Stand by Me,' a bit generic and feel-good. But maybe red can be that as well. Advertisement 'Red is a feeling' Performed by Boston Dance Theater. Presented by: Global Arts Live. At: Institute of Contemporary Art, Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater, Friday March 14. Remaining performance: March 15. Tickets $44-$48. 617-876-4275, Jeffrey Gantz can be reached at
