Blunt has withdrawn Rick Sullivan and Derio Gambaro as recess appointments. Sullivan had been appointed to be CEO of the St. Louis School District, and Gambaro was on the state Board of Education. Both were blocked by their home district senators, Joan Bray and Jeff Smith, respectively. Gambaro was Smith's rival in last year's 4th District race. h/t Pub Def (again!)
Via green rising, Ameren UE has launched a voluntary Pure Power program. Customers can pay slightly more (1.5 cents more per kWh) to have their energy produced entirely by wind and other renewable sources. I'm signing up right now.
McCaskill would support Talent as US Attorney General? Whaaaa? In fairness, she said Talent wouldn't be her preference, because he has no background in law enforcement. Still...
PubDef has some pretty good coverage of the ongoing special session (here, here, and here.) Essentially, the House GOP defeated a motion by State Rep. Jamilah Nasheed (D-St. Louis) to vote on the Land Assemblage Tax Credit (the one that's basically tailored to one man - Paul McKee in North St. Louis) separately from the rest of the bill. Strangely, the House leadership then ruled out of order an amendment offered by Jeannette Mott Oxford to reduce the acreage requirement from 75 to 30, which would allow smaller developers access to the credit. House Speaker Rod Jetton ruled that it was beyond the scope of Matt Blunt's call for special session. Jetton used the same logic when Rep. John Burnett (D- KC) tried to amend the anti-scalping repeal to limit scalpers to a 20% markup.
In other words, Matt Blunt gets to tell legislators exactly what to legislate, and they have the privilege of being able to vote on it. That ought to be fun when Jay Nixon becomes governor in a year.
