A Republican state senator is calling for an outside investigation into the Department of Natural Resources. We think it’s a good start, but it probably won’t accomplish much.
Sen. Brad Lager, who is part of the Senate committee reviewing delayed reports of unsafe E. coli levels at Lake of the Ozarks, alleges that there has been an “organized cover-up.”
The efforts of Lager’s committee have been hindered, Lager said, by DNR Director Mark Templeton. Data shows clearly, Lager said, that E. coli levels were higher than safe levels, yet someone at the department “made a conscious decision not to release that.”
We still wonder where this investigation was over the previous four years, as DNR allowed corporate farm after corporate farm to intrude on Missouri’s parks. That failure leaves a lingering smell of politics — which happens to smell a lot like the smell of turkey byproducts in Carthage.
DNR needs more than an investigation: It needs an identity change. For too long, the department has been a bumbling, bloated bureaucracy that fails miserably at its mission.
Compounding our frustration with the department is the fall from grace taken by its new director.
Mark Templeton was supposed to usher in a new era of environmental responsibility. But instead of protecting Missouri’s natural resources, the department has practiced the same-ol’, same-ol’ politics that characterized it in years past.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has a chance to make this right. DNR needs to take its job of protecting Missouri’s natural resources seriously. The department needs to vigorously defend the state’s resources, and the Legislature should give the department teeth.
Opinion
In Our View: DNR needs new identity
- Opinion
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Our View: Victims should come first
Millions of dollars in donations have poured in from around the world since the May 22, 2011, tornado. Those donations represent money from lemonade stands, charity auctions, corporate gifts and celebrity checks, just to name a few. In fact, one year later donations continue to come to Joplin.
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Beth Meeker, guest columnist: Same-sex marriage battle a quest for equal rights
I would like to take a moment to reply to guest columnist Anson Burlingame’s, “The Marriage Debate” (Globe, May 13).
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Sunday Forum: 2012 graduation speakers key on tornado, mall school and president’s visit
Editor’s note: In addition to speeches by President Barack Obama and Gov. Jay Nixon, Joplin High School’s top students addressed graduates, faculty, parents and other guests packed into the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center on the Missouri Southern State University campus. Following are the text of those speeches.
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Geoff Caldwell, guest columnist: Pack mentality takes truth as a casualty
President Obama’s Joplin graduation speech Monday showed that while there’s the political “right,” there’s also a very active “rabid” political right.
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Your View: ‘Study’ can mean anything
A few evenings ago, I watched a television program on the science of marriage.
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Our View: Support for museum
How can you tell the story of Joplin without the accounts of its mining history?
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Our View: Finding middle ground
The G-8 summit held last week in Camp David ended as expected.
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Anson Burlingame, guest columnist: Class of 2012 upholds character, hope
My oldest granddaughter was part of the class of 2012 from Joplin High School, and I attended the ceremony on Monday night.
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Scott Charton, guest columnist: 'Deadline in Disaster' film a story about storytellers
Local newspapers are at their best when they help their communities confront, understand, endure and overcome shared challenges.
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Our View: Make voting easiser
This year’s ballot will not include a proposed constitutional amendment that photo identification be required at the polls in Missouri. Good.
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