That loud hissing you hear is the whoosh of air rushing out of the idea to rename The Paseo after the Rev. When will KC honor MLK? Revive efforts to rename The Paseo for Martin Luther King Jr. If the Department of Corrections wants to gain back trust from the public, it needs to address its problems and do so publicly. The department also is struggling to maintain staffing for corrections officers, and inmates at some prisons have had riots or near-riots in recent months. In April, an Associated Press story said Missouri has paid out nearly $600,000 to a female corrections officer to settle another sexual harassment lawsuit. It examined more than 60 lawsuits against the department and also found the state spent more than $7.5 million on settlements and judgments between 20, related to the allegations. A statewide casino smoking ban wouldn’t put Missouri at any competitive disadvantage with Illinois, and might gain some players who currently have to write off our whole state for the sake of their own health.Īn investigation by a Kansas City weekly newspaper last year found a culture in Corrections of sexual harassment, racial discrimination and harassment by co-workers - and retaliation by supervisors for speaking out.

Louis-area gamblers who don’t want to endure secondhand smoke, crossing the river to East St. The casino industry has claimed for years that Illinois’ ban hurts its business there, but others dispute that claim.ĭueling data aside, common sense suggests that banning smoking in Missouri casinos would indisputably be a gain for health and could be a wash, at worst, for business. Illinois’ ban, among the toughest in the nation, encompasses casinos. Missouri is already bordered on three sides by statewide smoking bans in Illinois, Kansas and Iowa. Louis city’s 2011 smoking ban exempts Lumiere Place casino - but contains language that will ban casino smoking here if St. And it feeds a standoff mentality that prevents progress.

To the extent that’s a problem, this patchwork approach of local bans would seem likely to exacerbate it, creating uneven rules in neighboring jurisdictions. Opponents claim such bans especially hurt casinos, as people who want to have a smoke at the slot machines scout out the most smoker-friendly venues.

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