Quick Hits After a Journey

After nine hours in a rented Pontiac G6 (that handled remarkably well in sleet, by the way) the second leg of the Show-Me Institute’s release tour for our study on Missouri transportation has been completed. In case you haven’t read it yet, KODE — Joplin’s ABC affiliate — ran a piece last night that nicely highlights the study’s main points. We thank them, and all of the other members of the media who we spoke with, for their time and hospitality.

That being said, the only thing you can really do after a long drive is riff on the news you missed:

• The Pew Center on the States (which also released a study I commented on last week) released Grading the States 2008, its annual report card on the performance of state governments. Missouri was one of five states ranked as a B+, behind only three states ranked as an A-. According to the Post-Dispatch, the improvement comes largely from improvements in state-sponsored road projects. Yay, MoDOT.
• The St. Louis Metropolitan and County police departments are going to start pursuing fugitives without warrants for their arrest. Despite the fact that without warrants these individuals are technically not "fugitives" per se, there is an administrative step that prevents warrants from being sought until an individual is first apprehended. This is, coincidentally, why lots of fugitives miss court dates in the first place: Often in St. Louis County, a suspect will be released from custody and assume that everything is hunky-dory until he gets pulled over for rolling a stop sign two years later and finds out that he’s had a warrant for his arrest out since the day after he was first brought in. Happens all the time. That said, pursuing individuals without warrants isn’t the step that needs to be taken. Rather, warrants should be made easier to get in the first place.