Weekly Wrap: The Good, Bad & Ugly

Good: Federal and state programs continue to pump money into the economy.

• The state is using $250 million of federal economic stimulus money to speed up the payment of hundreds of thousands of income tax refunds.
• Missouri will spend nearly $3 million of new federal stimulus money to help senior citizens get jobs .
• Missouri is to replace 554 bridges by the end of 2013  under a $487 million project awarded by the state transportation commission Thursday.
• The Neosho National Fish Hatchery will receive an additional $1.04 million in stimulus money to make its proposed visitors center more energy-efficient. 
• The U.S. Dept of Transportation is providing more than $9.6 million in federal grant funding for airport development projects  at “non-primary” airports throughout the state.
• Sen. McCaskill has created a Web site to help organizations and businesses apply for stimulus funds.
• The was a slight drop in the state’s jobless rate in April. A sign of good things to come? 

Bad: The MOGOP pounced on the allegations from their fellow partisan on the St. Louis City Board of Elections, Scotty Leiendecker, and blamed the SOS for the local board's failure to do its own job.

• Leiendecker announced the fraud, and the GOP pounced. But their attacks just didn't make sense.
• It took approximately no time for Jo Mannies at The Beacon to point out that the the MOGOP's attack missed the mark.
• In their minds, the local board's failure to report the alleged fraud in before Wednesday is evidence that the Secretary of State whitewashed the alleged fraud in an April report.
• Maybe the Party should put in a request for a state time-travel/mind-reading apparatus to prevent future problems.

Ugly: Don Hinkle of The Pathway took on the entire GOP presence in legislature for being "stupid" and unable to pass needless anti-choice legislation this session.

• Hinkle: "It has been said of America’s two political parties that one is evil and the other is stupid...I have to say it is an apt description for the two parties composing the Missouri General Assembly after they first gutted, then tossed a common sense pro-life bill aside like a dead carcass."  A direct quote.
• Another direct quote: "The Republican Party, who specializes in pro-life lip service, folded like a cheap lawn chair."
• Cynthia Davis is upset too, and called the Senate Republicans a bunch of used car dealers. No joke.

Other: 

• Missouri has agreed to pay $500,000 to Scott Eckersley to settle claims he was wrongfully terminated and defamed by Gov. Matt Blunt after questioning the office’s e-mail deletion practices.
• AG Chris Koster is taking action against four false charity scams  that have touched Missouri. Scumbags beware. 
• Sen. Claire McCaskill was a leader in the US Senate's work on credit card reform . 
• Roy Blunt was endorsed by 18 of 23 GOP state senators.
• Meanwhile, Blunt's Congressional colleagues aren't sure how they'll continue to lose public support and lose seats without him.  
• The state executed its first death row inmate in four years. 
• A lawsuit claiming the state school funding formula violates the constitution was heard by the State Supreme Court.
• The Cardinals swept the Cubs.
• Naked people in Party Cove could be arrested this year. Seriously.