David Webber columns

A review of 10 legislative priorities shows the Missouri General Assembly could have done more this session to avoid the train wreck that has been postponed until next year.

Petitions can be both a gift and a curse for people looking to check government laws.

Congress has been shy to pass a bill regulating illegal immigration, but hopefully with Arizona creating its own immigration law, the government will follow suit.

Four decades after the original Earth Day, the political issue of environmentalism still has the ability to divide people.

Today might be the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, but environmental policymaking began far earlier. Too many overstate the importance of this date, and connecting many accomplishments and challenges to April 22, 1970, is counterproductive and limiting.

Getting rid of political parties and their institutionalized place in the government would open elections to more people.

More competition is needed for Missouri House and Senate seats in order to ensure diversity in elections.

Some ideas for reshaping Missouri government can be more helpful than harmful, while others need further study before decisions can be made. Five interesting and five not-so-good ideas also made the list.

Missouri Senate created a Web site for submitting ideas on how to change state government. The project, called Rebooting Government, has received some ideas concerning the state budget.

Here are five ways to help the crisis in the Missouri Public Defender System.

Partisanship, bickering and posturing is more commonplace among legislatures and politicians than it was in decades past.

A bill in the Missouri Senate would allow public school students to enroll in schools not in their district. While this open enrollment may benefit the individual, it may also hurt traditional school district governance.

Governors have better purpose and form in debating health care than does Congress. Congress members are too concerned with their public image to logically solve problems that must be addressed. Governors should do more than set an example for Congress, they should propose their own health care reform.

Chief Justice William Ray Price of the Missouri Supreme Court gave a State of the Judiciary address to the Missouri General Assembly on Feb. 3, and many of his points were intriguing and thought-provoking.

Having handled economic problems in the past, Americans may have a false confidence that we can overcome our current problems.

Adopting public funding campaigns such as those in Arizona and Maine would give the voters of Missouri a greater incentive to vote and much more power and voice in their government.