Missouri could be a leader in creating a knowledge base to help understand and fight Parkinson’s disease, under a bill approved by a House committee.
Representative Travis Smith (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
House Bill 822 would create the Parkinson’s disease registry to collect general information about people diagnosed with that disease and to be kept by the University of Missouri. It would be used to identify commonalities between patients that could lead to a greater understanding of who is likely to develop Parkinson’s, and help to develop preventative measures, treatments, and perhaps even a cure.
The registry would be part of a larger national effort in coordination with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which has created a National Neurological Conditions Surveillance Program. That program would gather data on Parkinson’s that could be used by researchers internationally, as they look for a cure.
Before it begins collecting data, however, it needs several states to be online. Julie Pitcher with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research said Missouri could be the fifth state in the nation with such a registry.
Roughly 20-thousand to 30-thousand Missourians are believed to have Parkinson’s. Nationally that number is about 1.2-million, and Pitcher said the rate of diagnosis is expected to increase.
Researchers hope the registry would help answer the question as to why an increase in instances of Parkinson’s diagnoses is occurring.
The registry would not include personally identifying information and patients could choose not to be included at all. Smith said he made sure that was the case before moving forward with the proposal.
The House today voted to send its proposed Fiscal Year 2024 budget to the Senate. House Democrats spoke to the media and answered questions about that spending plan.
The Missouri House has voted unanimously to end the practice of performing certain invasive medical exams on patients who are unconscious and have not given consent.
Representative Hannah Kelly (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Legislators learned that in Missouri and elsewhere, medical students and residents in teaching hospitals are allowed and even instructed to perform anal, prostate, or pelvic exams on unconscious patients as part of their instruction.
Representative Hannah Kelly (R-Mountain Grove) agrees and she sponsors House Bill 283, which would require informed consent from the patient or someone authorized to make decisions for them, unless the exam is deemed necessary for diagnostic purposes, or for the collection of evidence when a crime is suspected and the patient cannot give consent for medical reasons. If an exam is performed the patient would have to be notified.
Kelly said she has seen what Huffman is talking about through her daughter, who has given Kelly permission to speak publicly about her experience and encouraged her to pursue related policy.
“She is someone who has dealt with the unfortunate situation of being a victim of sexual assault … we all need healthcare, right? Someone who is a victim of assault, that’s a paramount kind of subconscious concern is, ‘Okay, am I going to be safe? Am I going to be in control of this situation?’”
Both Kelly and Huffman say whether this bill becomes law this year, they hope it will help call attention to what has been happening to some patients and what people can do now. They encourage people to ask questions when visiting a medical practitioner.
“I would hope that an individual who might … feel like they’re not getting full disclosure or they feel like they have questions, I hope he or she will raise their hand and say, ‘I have some questions. What are we going to do here today? There’s not going to be any surprises, right? Walk me through what’s going to happen once I go under anesthesia,” said Kelly. “That’s what I would hope, is that people feel empowered to hold up their hand and say, ‘Hey, make sure that I understand what’s happening here, please.’”
Huffman said what is as important as anything about this proposal, which has come up for several years now but has yet to reach the governor, is that it’s made people aware that these incidents are happening.
Representative Patty Lewis (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The budget proposal that the House will consider this week includes $4.5-million for a drug treatment network that targets people with addiction issues at a most crucial time: when they are seeking help, and before they get discouraged and fall away.
Black told his colleagues on the House Budget Committee that professionals in Missouri know there are many good treatment options available in the state for those who are dealing with substance abuse disorders, but those options aren’t always well connected. It is the gaps between resources through which people seeking treatment often fall.
The proposal was added to the budget on a unanimous voice vote. Springfield Democrat Betsy Fogle encouraged other budget committee members to support it.
The proposed item includes a combination of state and federal money, half of which will go through a network in the Springfield area, with the other half available for any similar program elsewhere in the state that is ready to do the same work.
That spending proposal is part of the committee’s budget plan that will be debated by the full House this week, and from there could be advanced to the Senate for its consideration. It is found in House Bill 11.
The House has voted to improve the state’s efforts to prevent suicide among its veteran population.
Representative Dave Griffith (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Representatives voted 156-0 for House Bill 132, which directs the Missouri Veterans Commission to work with the Department of Mental Health to come up with recommendations on how Missouri can prevent veteran suicide. It would require the Commission to report annually, beginning June 30, 2024, on new recommendations and on the implementation and effectiveness of the state’s efforts.
The bill is sponsored by Jefferson City Republican Dave Griffith, a U.S. Army Veteran who served with the 8th Special Forces Group as a Green Beret. He has spent much of his career in the House dealing with veterans’ issues, and with ways to stem suicide not only among current and former service members but in the population in general.
Representative Ashley Bland Manlove (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Though he and others in the legislature and state government have been talking about these issues for years and developing related programs, Griffith said Missouri has a long way to go. Representative Ashley Bland Manlove (D-Kansas City), who has served in the Missouri National Guard, agreed.
Rogersville Republican Darin Chappell (R) has a great deal of experience with the issues faced by military members and their families, as he is a veteran of the Navy and the Army Reserves and has many service members in his family.
Representative Brad Banderman (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Missouri as of 2020 had the 14th highest suicide rate in the U.S., with about 1,125 people having died by suicide in that year. The rate among veterans is approximately 1.5 higher than in the rest of the population, and experts are telling legislators they fear that suicide rates are going to increase.
Missouri high school students’ education in personal finance would be regularly updated, to keep up with changes in the world of finance, under a bill being considered in the state House.
Representative Michael O’Donnell (at podium) (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) already requires that high schools teach personal finance. House Bill 809 would ensure that this continues by putting it in state statute. It would also add the stipulation that a work group review the mandated curriculum every seven years to make sure it’s keeping with the times.
The legislation would require a half-credit, equal to one semester, of education on this subject matter. O’Donnell discussed with legislators on the House Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education whether that would be enough.
The committee did discuss incorporating some of this education at a less-complicated level into an earlier grade level, such as eighth grade.
The bill’s supporters include the Missouri Bankers Association and the Missouri Credit Union Association. No one testified in opposition to it.
HB 809 cleared that committee on a 12-0 vote and awaits action by a second committee. O’Donnell said the language of this bill will likely be incorporated into at least two other pieces of legislation.
When the Missouri House convened in January for this, the 102nd General Assembly, it did so in a freshly renovated House Chamber featuring new voting and message boards; refinished woodwork; updated wiring; and most importantly, badly needed new carpeting.
You can see photos from before, after, and throughout that project in the gallery below (and linked here), and scroll down to read more about it.
The work done during the summer and fall of 2022 was overseen by the Chief Clerk and Administrator of the House, Dana Rademan Miller. Among other things, Miller has a deep appreciation for the history and cultural significance of the Capitol, and she brought that to this project.
House Chief Clerk Dana Rademan Miller explains the design that was selected for new carpeting in the House Chamber. (Photo: Mike Lear, Missouri House Communications)
She tells us that when the Capitol was being built more than 100 years ago the carpeting in the House was originally wool. It has been replaced several times since then, the last time having been in 2008.
In what was intended to be a cost saving decision the carpet installed at that time was synthetic. Instead of saving money, this proved to be a costly choice that hampered business in the Chamber because the synthetic carpet built up static electricity more quickly than had the wool.
This problem developed at the beginning of a session, and obviously the voting system was of primary importance, so staff at the time had to quickly come up with a short-term fix.
The wiring in the chamber was replaced that next summer to alleviate the static issues. Now the Chamber is back to having wool carpeting not just for the sake of historical significance and functionality, but also because wool holds up better than did the synthetic.
A lot of thought was put into the visual design elements of this new carpeting by Miller and others with a mind for history. It leans heavily on symbology already found elsewhere in the Chamber.
This image illustrates how features already in the House’s artwork (left) were recreated in the new carpet pattern (right). Here, the egg and dart border around a hawthorn blossom as seen in the ceiling of the House is recreated in the new carpet. (Photos: Tim Bommel and Mike Lear, Missouri House Communications)
Miller said when these symbols were built into the Chamber they were meant to represent qualities that, it was hoped, would be found in the representatives in the House as well as in all people.
In these images can been seen the laurel pattern found on the ceiling (upper right and bottom images) that is recreated in the new carpet in the side galleries of the House Chamber. (Photos: Tim Bommel and Mike Lear, House Communications)
Among other work done during this time, professional woodworkers refinished the fine features of the dais and rostrum. When carpet was removed from the stairs leading up either side of the dais, a fine cork floor – chosen for that structure in part to control sound – was uncovered, and it was able to be saved.
The members’ desks from the House floor were sent to a St. Louis company to be refinished for the first time in about 35 years, and before-and-after photos show that now they look virtually new. Most of these desks are original to the building, their number having increased as the size of the House has increased since 1917.
The removal of the carpeting and those desks also presented an opportunity to update the wiring beneath the Chamber floor. This work will better serve the modern laptops and new voting boards. It also added a system that will help the hearing impaired.
The replacement of the voting boards had been a priority for Miller for years. The old ones dated back to 1997 and were still running on a program that relied on Windows ’97.
Finally, the sound desk – which had not been original to a Chamber that originally had no sound system – was updated to a smaller, more efficient design.
For Miller, as someone who admittedly loves the Capitol and its history, it has felt good to get to leave her stamp on the Chamber by having a project like this take place during her time as Clerk.
She says there is still work to be done in the Chamber, including some plaster detailing and decorative paintings that need to be touched up. She said there has been money set aside by the General Assembly for restoration of the Capitol as a whole, but the legislature will have to give more attention to that issue.
A House committee has heard from dozens of Missourians that it could help secure relief for families that have suffered for decades due to radioactive contamination throughout the St. Louis region.
Representatives Tricia Byrnes (at podium) and Richard West (behind her) are joined by dozens of St. Louis region residents ahead of a committee hearing about their resolutions dealing with radioactive contamination left in that region by work related to the Manhattan Project. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Nuclear weapons development and testing there in the 1940s and ‘50s contributed to the U.S. having the atomic bombs used in World War II. That work, also known as “The Manhattan Project,” also eventually led to the dumping of nuclear waste near Lambert airport which contaminated soil, Coldwater Creek, and the Creek’s floodplain.
Residents who live or have lived, or whose families have lived, in the affected region, testified for more than four hours Tuesday night about House Concurrent Resolutions 21 and 22, which would trigger an investigation by state agencies into whether those residents could be eligible for federal relief funds in programs that already exist to compensate those harmed by nuclear testing.
The Committee on General Laws heard story after story of cancer clusters; high concentrations of extremely rare diagnoses; and of mental, physical, and financial suffering that has impacted multiple generations.
The sponsor of HCR 21 is Tricia Byrnes (R-Wentzville), whose son was diagnosed at age 15 with thymoma, a form of cancer typically caused by the use of radiation or chemotherapy to treat a different cancer. Some experts have told her that his may be the only case in history of thymoma being a patient’s primary diagnosis.
It was his diagnosis that led to her investigating the issue of contamination in the St. Louis region, and eventually to filing HCR 21.
Representative Richard West (R-Wentzville), who sponsors HCR 22, said he began learning about the situation after his mother was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. He learned that one cause of that form of cancer is contaminated water, and he knew that among the sites tested for radioactive contamination were wells like those on his parents’ property.
One of those who testified Tuesday was Christen Commuso, the Community Outreach Specialist with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. Commuso also lived in St. Ann until the age of 7, and often played in Coldwater Creek. She is among those diagnosed with cancer at an early age, as well as other diagnoses. Among other procedures she has undergone, she has had her gallbladder and left adrenal gland removed, and had to have a total hysterectomy.
She told lawmakers that the emotional and physical tolls on her and her family have been massive, and the cost at times is so great that she is forced to skip appointments or tests.
Representatives Richard West and Tricia Byrnes (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Karen Nickel grew up in Hazelwood and played in a park on the bank of Coldwater Creek, and the Creek flooded other local playgrounds and backed into her parents’ basement.
She and other residents explained that the impacts of this contamination go beyond any one individual. Some families spend decades trying to keep more than one of their members alive. The radiation can also cause mutations that put future generations at risk, even when there had been no history of such diseases in those families prior to the contamination.
Thomas Whelan taught for 30 years at Francis Howell High School, a school that was within walking distance of a uranium processing facility. He and several others said that as that site was cleaned up students were exposed to particulate matter and other contaminants.
