State by State Pending and recently passed #AntiProtestLaws: #Missouri

HB 355: New penalties for protests near gas and oil #pipelines

Creates new potential penalties for protests near gas and oil pipelines and other "critical infrastructure." The law--which was substituted by a Missouri Senate committee for a House bill on sentencing guidelines--heightens the penalties for trespass occurring on critical infrastructure property. Trespass with intent "to damage, destroy, vandalize, deface, [or] tamper with" a facility or intent to "impede or inhibit the operations" of a facility is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by one year in jail and a $2,000 fine. Protesters seeking to peacefully demonstrate against construction of a new pipeline, for instance, with the intent to disrupt that construction, could be prosecuted under the law. The law also newly criminalizes "damage" to critical infrastructure, broadly defined to include vandalism, and makes it a Class C felony, punishable by 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The law also newly and broadly defines "critical infrastructure" to include oil and gas pipelines, refineries, cell phone towers, and railroad tracks whether operational or under construction.
Full text of bill: https://house.mo.gov/Bill.aspx?bill=HB355&year=2019&code=R

Status: enacted
Introduced 18 Apr 2019; Approved by Senate as amended 17 May 2019; Approved by House 17 May 2019; Signed by Governor Parson on 11 July 2019

Issue(s): Infrastructure, Trespass

HB 1413: Limiting #PublicEmployees' ability to picket

***Note: A Judge of the Circuit Court of St. Louis County found HB 1413 unconstitutional in its entirety and granted a permanent injunction against the enforcement of the law on January 27, 2020. ***

Bars certain public employees from picketing. The law requires that all labor agreements negotiated between a "public body" and a labor organization "shall expressly prohibit all strikes and picketing of any kind." The law further mandates that such agreements provide for the "immediate termination" of "any public employee who...pickets over any personnel matter." "Public body" is broadly defined in the law to include "the state of Missouri, or any officer, agency, department, bureau, division, board or commission of the state, or any other political subdivision or special district of or within the state"; accordingly, the law may apply to many labor agreements. While "picketing" is not defined under the law, Missouri Code elsewhere refers to "picketing or other organized protests" as "constitutionally protected activity," indicating that picketing as used in HB 1413 includes protests and demonstrations unrelated to labor strikes.
Full text of bill: https://house.mo.gov/bill.aspx?bill=HB1413&year=2018&code=R

Status: enacted
Introduced 3 Jan 2018; Approved by House 12 February 2018; approved by Senate 16 May 2018; Signed by Governor Greitens 1 June 2018

HB 601: Heightened penalties for #masked #protesters

Would increase the penalty for any offense if committed by someone wearing a mask or other device that concealed their identity. The bill does not require that someone intended to conceal their identity in order to facilitate a crime. The bill also does not provide exemptions for masks worn for medical or any other purpose, nor does it limit the enhanced penalties to violent crimes. As such, a peaceful protester who committed a nonviolent offense while wearing a mask—whether a medical mask to avoid contagion, a mask to avoid retaliation for their political speech, or a mask worn for any other reason—could face steep penalties. For instance, peaceful demonstrators in Missouri may be charged with “disturbing the peace,” a minor misdemeanor, if they make too much noise or obstruct a sidewalk or road in the course of a protest. Under the bill, a masked protester charged with that offense could face up to one year in jail and $2,000 for the first offense and a felony penalties (up to four years in prison and $10,000) for subsequent offenses.
Full text of bill: https://house.mo.gov/Bill.aspx?bill=HB601&year=2025&code=R

Status: pending
Introduced 8 Jan 2025.
Issue(s): Face Covering

#FirstAmendment #CriminalizingDissent
#Authoritarianism #Fascism #Clampdown #CriminalizingProtest
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol #AntiProtestLaws #PipelineProtests #AntiMaskLaws #HeatherHeyer #UniteTheRight #DrivingDownProtestors

"I scoured the news for reports on the more than one thousand other rallies. Of course people would show up in the big cities & the bluest places, but what really exhilarated me was to see the turnout in reddest America--#Utah, #Nebraska, #Missouri, #Indiana, #Iowa, #Idaho--and small communities not known for their #protests...

some early estimates say well over three million people showed up."
- Rebecca Solnit

https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/millions-stood-up-april-5-hands-off-day-of-action/

#Resist #Resistance #Protest #HandsOff #USPol #News #USA

As Missouri lawmakers consider studying the proliferation of billboards on I-70, I took a stab at mapping billboard density along all the state's highways.

My map is attached to Kurt Erickson's story:
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/government-politics/article_ab1c59c0-4fc9-400b-bdff-ef526e97c989.html

#missouri #stl #stlouis #localjournalism #datajournalism #maps #mapping

Big March storm fans wildfires and flips trucks as forecasters fear weekend tornado outbreak

By RUSS BYNUM and SEAN MURPHY
Updated 9:02 PM EDT, March 14, 2025

"Tornadoes likely amid storm outbreak

"The Storm Prediction Center said fast-moving storms could spawn twisters and hail as large as baseballs Friday, but the greatest threat would come from straight-line winds near or exceeding hurricane force, with gusts of 100 mph (160 kph) possible.

"A #TornadoWatch was issued until 11 p.m. for central and eastern #Missouri, including St. Louis, as well as parts of #Illinois and #Arkansas.

"The National Weather Service said it observed an evening tornado in the south-central Missouri city of #Grovespring.

"Other areas at risk included parts of #Iowa, #Kentucky, #Tennessee and #Mississippi.

"About 47 million people faced an enhanced to moderate severe storm threat from Madison, #Wisconsin, to Birmingham, #Alabama.

"Forecasters grew increasingly worried that intense thunderstorms farther south will likely bring an even greater tornado threat Saturday.

"The Storm Prediction Center said parts of #Mississippi including Jackson and Hattiesburg and areas of #Alabama including Birmingham and Tuscaloosa will be at a high risk. Severe storms and tornadoes are also possible across eastern #Louisiana, western #Georgia, central #Tennessee and the western #Florida Panhandle.

"'We have a lot of confidence that we most likely will have a tornado outbreak tomorrow,' Storm Prediction Center meteorologist Evan Bentley said in an online briefing."

https://apnews.com/article/severe-weather-tornadoes-fire-blizzard-be7fe7207d483252d9ff31df58209d2b?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
#ExtremeWeather #Polycrisis #USWx #Tornadoes TornadoWarnings #TornadoOutbreak #BadDOGE #NWS
WE NEED #NationalWeatherService
#NoCutsToNWS #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Disasters

Check out this Vigil on March 15th for Palestine.

#stl #stlouis #saintlouis #missouri #mo #forestpark #palestine #vigil #rally #coribush #genocide #apartheid #liberation

"The magazine’s distinctive illustrations, when Conroy and Hagglund could afford to print them, were key to both its regional aesthetics and democratic socialist philosophy. Nearly all illustrations are linoleum block prints and depict workers in an asymmetrical, primitivist style. One image from the May-June 1940 issue of New Anvil, John C. Rogers’s Working Class Mother, portrays a simply clothed woman standing arms akimbo on a country hill, her back turned to the viewer as she looks proudly at a sun either rising or setting. As in Conroy’s vivid description of his printer’s “cowbarn sanctum,” Rogers depicts the rural environment of the magazine’s imagined reader with respect but little romanticism. Ideologically, it signals a departure from the conventions dominant in Marxist aesthetics during the early 1930s. Instead of replicating socialist realism and representing the world revolution with depictions of workers united in victory or heading into battle, Working Class Mother equivocates on the state of socialism in the rural United States. It is unclear whether the sun in the illustration is rising, suggesting the coming revolution, or setting on a passing opportunity, perhaps registering that the anti-capitalist potential of the Depression decade was on the wane."

https://jacobin.com/2025/02/anvil-magazine-midwest-communism-conroy

#USA #Midwest #Missouri #Marxism #DemocraticSocialism #Socialism

Great primer on the St. Louis Primary, which you can vote on TODAY. Get out and vote.

https://www.stlpr.org/government-politics-issues/2025-02-18/st-louis-voter-guide-2025-st-louis-primary-election

#stl #stlouis #saintlouis #mo #missouri #vote #primary

#usda #ag #farmers #contracts #nebraska #missouri #kansas #usaid

“There are 444 counties in the United States classified by the United States Department of Agriculture (is that still around?) as “farming-dependent,” which is defined as counties where either 25% of its earnings come from agriculture, or 16% of the workforce works in farming.
Donald Trump won 433 of those counties, with an average vote of 77.7%. Over 100 of them gave Trump 80% or more of their vote.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/12/2302813/-Trump-loving-farmers-suffer-the-consequences-of-their-support

Welcome to the neighborhood!

500 flyers mailed to GDL leader Jon Minadeo's new neighbors.

#Antifa #Springfield #Missouri #FAFO

Hyperboloid Shaped Roof
James S. McDonnell Planetarium
Forest Park
Saint Louis, Missouri, USA

This unique roof is made of a concrete shell no thicker than 3.5"

#Photography #missouri #saintlouismo #hyperboloid #architecture #planetarium

Three Months After Missouri Voted to Make Abortion Legal, Access Is Still Being Blocked
—

Reproductive rights are now enshrined in the state constitution, but Missouri’s main abortion provider is fighting legal hurdles to resume offering the procedure. Meanwhile, anti-abortion lawmakers strategize to prevent a return of abortion services.

https://www.propublica.org/article/missouri-abortion-ban-amendment-planned-parenthood-lawsuit?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #Missouri #Abortion #Women #Health #Law #Government

Hyperboloid Thin Concrete Shell Structure
James S. McDonnell Planetarium
Forest Park
Saint Louis, Missouri, USA

#Photography #missouri #saintlouismo #planetarium #hyperboloid #BlackAndWhite #blackandwhitephotography #architecture

Interested in embroidery, Palestinian culture, or community and solidarity in general? Consider attending this tatreez workshop.

#palestine #embroidery #tatreez #stl #stlouis #missouri #mo

Check out this peaceful protest to support our immigrant community members! Next Saturday (February 1st) at 1pm.

#stlouis #stl #protest #peacefulprotest #missouri #immigrants

Tracy (vicinity), California. U.S. Highway 99. Missouri family of five, seven months from the drought area.

#Tracy #California #Missouri #Hebrew #Israel #Israeli #undefined #photography #DorotheaLange

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017769896/

https://natureisourmedicine.com/f/another-night-in-hannibal---30dec2024 #travel #adventure #journey #rv #rvlife #vanlife #winnebago #winnebagoera #lights #christmas #holiday #mainstreet #hannibal #missouri #boondocking #storm #blog

Two newsies selling in P.M. Grand Avenue. May 9th, 1910. Location: St. Louis, Missouri.

#PMGrandAvenue #StLouis #Missouri #EagleStamps #Mahony #GrandAvenue #America #Photography #LewisHine #ChildLabour #ChildLabor

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018674098/

🗳Savor the Victories!🗳

In #missouri WE THE PEOPLE overturned the state’s abortion ban and won Proposition A, a ballot initiative for a $15 minimum wage and paid sick leave, which won with more than 58 percent of votes! #uspol #uspolitics #election #election2024 #freedom #democracy #Democrats