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Missouri state Sen. Gary Romine, sponsor of a bill that seeks to make it harder to sue businesses for racial discrimination, says the measure will improve Missouris legal climate.

It also could improve Romines personal legal climate, making it less likely that his rent-to-own furniture business will face any more racial discrimination lawsuits like the one it has been embroiled in for almost two years.

Romine, R-Farmington, isnt the only lawmaker in Jefferson City who is trying to change the law to protect businesses from lawsuits in ways that could theoretically protect his own bottom line as well.

Another Republican senator, who is a veterinarian, is sponsoring legislation to put new limits on malpractice suits against veterinarians. And the Senates top Republican is trying to change a state consumer-protection law that is currently being used to sue one of his biggest campaign contributors.

The proposals are in keeping with the promise Missouri Republicans have been making for years: to rein in what they allege is an out-of-control civil litigation system that hurts the states business landscape. With the new Republican control of virtually every lever of state government that went into effect last month, it was a foregone conclusion that bills of this type would start moving through the Legislature.

Still, the pace of it has surprised even statehouse veterans.

This has been one of the most ambitious agendas weve ever seen to limit access to the courts, said Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton. Like many other Democrats, he argues that such limits can infringe on the rights of injured plaintiffs who have legitimate complaints against businesses.

And the appearance of conflict of interest in at least some of the bills is absolutely concerning, says Jay Benson, president of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys, a group that frequently donates to and supports Democrats.

This is all being presented with the suggestion that our tort system is bad for business. Its not bad for business; its bad for bad business, said Benson, who calls the proliferation of such bills an epidemic. The civil justice system is designed to hold people accountable when they do bad things.

Republicans and pro-business groups counter that what they call frivolous lawsuits create costs not just to individual defendants but to Missouris entire business climate.

My office has already received an exceptionally good response from members of the business community to the bill putting new restrictions on lawsuits alleging discrimination by businesses, Romine wrote in an online column recently. It will go a long way toward reforming Missouris legal climate and improving our ability to grow existing businesses and attract new employers.

Lawmakers particularly in part-time, term-limited systems like Missouris are expected to bring their private-sector experience and perspective to their lawmaking. There is no one more qualified to write agricultural laws than a farmer, goes the thinking, or to write medical laws than a doctor, and so forth.

"I'm the person pursuing the legislation because I have first-hand experience with the situation," Romine said in an interview Saturday. As for an concerns that such legislation looks like self-dealing, Romine noted,"I have 33 other senators who have to consider it."

But others saywhen a business owner writes laws addressing conflicts between business owners and their employees, it inevitably raises the question of whether the employees are getting fair representation.

This kind of legislation just adds to the perception that legislators are benefiting themselves and using government to do it, said Dave Robertson, political scientist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Its fair to be concerned about the tort system, but the very specific benefits connected to the individual lawmakers really add the perception of corruption.

Romine owns the Show-Me Rent-to-Own chain of furniture stores in southeast Missouri. A Scott County lawsuit, filed in 2015 and still pending according to records, alleges that a supervisor at the chains Sikeston store routinely used racial epithets against a black account manager.

The account managers suit claims the supervisor also circled an African-American neighborhood on a wall map in the store with the notation Do not rent to written on it. The suit further claims that the account managers complaints about the supervisor went up the chain to Romine, but that he declined to take any action. (A defense filing in the suit denies that and all the other allegations.)

The account manager was later fired, on what the suit alleges was the pre-textual reason of using profanity. White employees routinely use profanity in Defendants workplace and are not disciplined, alleges the suit. It specifically claims that Plaintiffs race was a contributing factor to the account managers termination.

That last line is crucial because court precedent in Missouri says a fired employee can invoke the states anti-discrimination laws if discrimination was a contributing factor in the firing, even if it wasnt the only factor.

Thats one thing that Romines legislation, Senate Bill 43, would specifically change: to win a discrimination case, the plaintiff would have to show that discrimination was the primary cause of his firing, and not just a contributing factor.

It would also make it more difficult for plaintiffs to appeal their complaints into the civil court system if the Missouri Commission on Human Rights finds for the employer.

In his recent column, Romine notes his frustrating experiences with the current discrimination law. On three different occasions, I have had to go before the (Missouri Commission on Human Rights) as a business owner. In each instance, they determined the employees case had no merit, he wrote.

But in each case, he added, the plaintiff was allowed to sue in the court system, which opened the case up all over again.

In its current form, this system encourages individuals to pursue a meritless case simply to force a settlement, costing our small businesses time and money they do not have, Romine wrote. In an interview Saturday, Romine said the Scott County case is "a prime example of what needs to get fixed" in the system.

Sen. Dan Brown, R-Rolla, who has practiced veterinary medicine for more than 40 years, wants to place a two-year statute of limitations on malpractice or negligence actions against veterinarians.

His legislation, Senate Bill 88, would add vets like himself to the list of providers subject to the statute, including doctors, optometrists and other providers who treat human subjects.

Brown couldnt be reached for comment Friday.

Last week, Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard had to field questions about whether his legislation to put new limits on use of the states consumer-protection law is designed to help out one of his largest campaign contributors: the Humphreys family of Joplin, which has given Richard almost $300,000.

David Humphreys is CEO of TAMKO Building Products Inc., which is facing a class-action lawsuit over allegedly defective roofing shingles it sold. The company is being sued under Missouris Merchandising Practices Act, the consumer-protection law that Richard seeks to change with his bill.

Richards legislation, Senate Bill 5, would, among other things, impose new requirements on people joining class-action lawsuits of the kind being pursued against TAMKO.

Critics, including the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys, say the measure would effectively prohibit consumer-protection class-action suits under the statute. Richard told reporters last week that sounds like a great idea, but denied his bill has anything to do with protecting the Humphreys business from future litigation.

Kurt Erickson and Stephen Deere of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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Missouri Republicans' push to limit lawsuits could have unexpected beneficiaries: themselves - STLtoday.com

Trump And Republicans' Timeline For Obamacare Repeal Getting Longer NPR February 11, 20177:36 AM ET. Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday. NPR's Scott Simon talks to the Republican former Rep. Richard Hanna about the Affordable Care Act. Hanna says despite Trump's pledge to repeal it, he thinks the ACA will largely survive.

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Trump And Republicans' Timeline For Obamacare Repeal Getting Longer - NPR

To the Editor:

The most important thing for McHenry Township residents to remember when they vote for their township officials at the consolidated election on April 4 is that the Independents are the incumbents.

When the incumbent Republicans who held seven of the eight offices of McHenry Township government realized that they couldnt get their partys endorsement to be the Republican Party candidates for re-election, they decided to leave their party to run as Independents.

Things are so bad in McHenry Township that the new Republicans, who are now a majority of the party, said Enough is enough. Weve screwed up. We need to change. We need new members of our party to get elected and clean things up.

Most of the new Republicans have never held elected office before. They dont want to destroy their party. They dont want to abandon their party. They dont want to start a new party. They want to fix it.

Vote for the real Republicans.

Stan Wojewski

Wonder Lake

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Letter: The real Republicans - Northwest Herald

Citizens at town halls held by Republican members of Congress showed their displeasure with efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, among other issues. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

In November, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) won reelection to one of the most Republican districts in the nation, with 73 percent of the vote.

On Thursday night, he found himself facing a very different picture. Thousands of people crowded in and outside of what was supposed to be a run-of-the-mill town hall in Utah to boo him and chant, You work for us and Do your job! Reporters heard those who couldn't get into the 1,080-person auditorium yelling: Bring him out!

An equally passionate if not quite as boisterous scene played out Thursday at a health-care town hall across the country in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Republican territory through and through.

In Tennessee, Knoxville-area Rep. Jimmy Duncan (R) refused to hold a town hall givenamid all the tension. " I do not intend to give more publicity to those on the far left who have so much hatred, anger and frustration in them," he said in a letter. "I have never seen so many sore losers as there are today."

That's one way to classify what's happening. Another way: Republicans are getting an unexpected jolt from both the left and their own anxious base at these town halls and it's a moment that looks like a mirror image of the national mood almost a decade ago. The common thread between then and now: One party in control of Washington undertaking a massive change to Americans' health care. When Democrats were in Republicans' situation in 2010, they lost control of Congress and haven't regained it since.

Let's back up. In 2009, Democrats had large majorities in Congress and controlled the White House. They quickly drew on theirpolitical capital to pursue one of the biggest changes to the American health-care system in decades.

That summer, before Obamacare became law, Democrats across the nationwent home to their districts and were caught off guard by passionately angry constituents mostly conservative at town halls, fearful of how Obamacare mighttake away their rights.

NPR recalled one particularly poignant moment that epitomized the fear and fury of these town halls:

Rep. John Dingell, a Democrat, was confronted by a man who pushed his disabled son's wheelchair up to the podium.

You are a fraud, and you're sentencing this person to death under the Obama plan, the man said.

Obamacare became law without a single Republican vote. The passion helped launch the tea party and gave Republicans their biggest victories since the Great Depression.

In 2017, the initial script appears to be the same, only the players are flipped.

Republicans are fully in control of Washington for the first time in a decade, and they haven't forgotten the motivating issue for their base in 2009. Repealing Obamacare and replacing it with something else is their top priority. Republicanstook procedural steps on their first week back in Congress this January tomake that happen.

But in the absence of an agreed-upon plan to replace it and the very real threat of millions of people losing their health-care coverage in the process Republicans' confident, steady march toward health-care reform has stalled. Lawmakers themselves are anxiousabout how to smoothly pull out health care from millions of people and quickly slipsomething better in its place.

During a retreat in Philadelphia, Republican lawmakers discussed national security, defense and foreign policy. Contributors included Sens. John Barasso (Wyo.), Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Reps. Greg Walden (Ore.), Kevin Brady (Tex.), Virginia Foxx (N.C.) and Andrew Bremberg, a top domestic policy adviser to President Trump. (Obtained by The Washington Post)

Enter a united, fired-up left, which has taken to streets across the nation not once but twice in President Trump's first few weeks in office. These protestersdidn't just come out in Washington and Los Angeles, but in Wichita, rural Virginia and Anchorage. It has all the appearance, as my colleague James Hohmann wrote recently, of the liberal answer to the tea party movement.

The question Republicans in Congress must ask themselves is where the parallels between 2009 and 2017 end. Are Thursday's town halls early warning signs of a historically major loss to come for Republicans in the 2018 midterms? (Not likely in the Senate, given the map is so favorable for Republicans.) Is this a movement that will give rise to new liberal leaders in a party that many believe desperately needs them? Or will moments like Thursday's events pull the Democratic Party further to the left in a way that hurts its electoral chances? Will these people even vote in 2018, given they expressed their frustrationafter the election?

At the very least, Thursday's town halls are broadcasting to Republicans in Congress what most of themalready know: If you're going to repeal Obamacare, you better make sure you replace it with a plan that truly is, in Trump's words, something terrific. Because health carehas proven to be an issue that gets people into town halls and out to voting booths.

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Republican town halls are getting very, very nasty - Washington Post

And the fury is flaring up in some of most conservative corners of the country.

On Thursday night, two Republican members of Congress -- Reps. Jason Chaffetz of Utah and Diane Black of Tennessee -- were each confronted with impassioned constituents during simultaneous events. The shouted questions, emotional pleas and raucous protesters of the evening crystalized the GOP's tough political road ahead as it forges ahead with rolling back Obama's accomplishments, including the Affordable Care Act.

In suburban Salt Lake City, local police estimated that some 1,000 people packed into a high school auditorium to see Chaffetz as hundreds more waited outside. For 75 minutes, the congressman confronted a crowd that fumed with resentment of Trump and accused Chaffetz of coddling the President.

"Folks -- I get one sentence into it, you say I'm not answering the question," an exasperated Chaffetz complained as the crowd repeatedly jeered him. "I am answering the question, OK?"

And some 1,700 miles away in the town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Black was met with roughly 100 protesters at a "Ask Your Reps" event hosted by the Middle Tennessee State University's College Republicans.

Mike Carlson, a 32-year-old student from Antioch, Tennessee, said that as an overweight man, he depended on Obamacare to stay alive.

"I have to have coverage to make sure I don't die. There are people now who have cancer that have that coverage, that have to have that coverage to make sure they don't die," Carlson said. "And you want to take away this coverage and have nothing to replace it with! How can I trust you to do anything that's in our interest at all?"

Jessi Bohon, a 35-year-old high school teacher who lives in Cookeville, Tennessee, was visibly emotional as she stood up and posed her question.

"As a Christian, my whole philosophy in life is pull up the unfortunate," Bohon said, a comment that drew verbal affirmation from others in the room. "The individual mandate: that's what it does. The healthy people pull up the sick."

Bohon went on to ask how Congress could be OK with "punishing our sickest people" rather than trying to "fix what's wrong with Obamacare," the sweeping healthcare law that covers 20 million Americans.

Black responded that Obamacare's individual mandate -- which requires everyone to have health insurance or pay a penalty -- still allowed millions, including many young and healthy people, to be without coverage.

"About 20 million people did actually come into the program who were uninsured," Black said. "You don't want to hurt one group of people to help the another. We can help both groups at the same time."

Bohon shot back: "How many of those people were in states where they played a political game with people's lives?"

Black appeared flustered, and declined to continue. "I'm going to pass this one," she said.

Bohon told CNN afterward that as a state employee, she receives health insurance through the state. Her question to Black, she said, was motivated in part by her Christian beliefs, as well as her upbringing in the coal-mining town of Grundy, Virginia.

"Growing up in the community that I grew up, in Appalachia, because we were so poor there that we had to take care of each other," Bohon said.

Both Carlson and Bohon told CNN that they voted for Hillary Clinton in the general election.

The same event hosted by MTSU's College Republican last year was attended by around 30 to 40 people, according to organizers. On Thursday night, the room was quickly filled to capacity while dozens outside chanted: "Let us in! Let us in!"

Black, along with two other GOP local officials, were at first asked questions that had been pre-submitted on the topics of healthcare and tax reform -- a format that clearly frustrated audience members and prompted some to interrupt.

At one point in the discussion, GOP State Rep. Mike Sparks told the room: "I'll be honest with you. As a state representative, I got health insurance. I feel a little guilty."

Multiple audience members could be heard responding: "You should."

In both Utah and Tennessee, many attendees and protesters told CNN on Thursday that they were first-time participants in politics.

Carol McCracken, a 65-year-old Salt Lake City paralegal, said she is "a child of the '70s -- this is not my first rodeo" in Democratic activism. But she said she hasn't seen the party's base as engaged as it is now since then and that she has never seen such high attendance at a congressional town hall.

If the explosion of progressives attending GOP town halls in recent days has in large part been fueled by nationwide opposition to repealing Obamacare, the topic didn't come up once at the Chaffetz's event.

Instead, it was a scattershot series of criticisms of Trump -- and of Chaffetz for aligning with the President.

When a man asked Chaffetz why he disavowed Trump over the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape -- and then backtracked before the election -- Chaffetz defended the President, saying he believes "in my heart of hearts" that Trump was the right choice.

"There was no possible way I was ever going to vote for Hillary Clinton," he said. "No way. Never."

The crowd erupted in chants of "Do your job!" when Chaffetz, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, was pressed on why his panel spent months investigating Clinton's emails but has not yet launched inquiries into Trump's taxes (Trump has declined to release his tax returns).

"You're really not going to like this part: The President, under the law, is exempt from the conflict of interest laws," he said.

Chaffetz received some positive reaction when he called top White House counselor Kellyanne Conway "wrong, wrong, wrong" for promoting Ivanka Trump's business interests in a TV interview Thursday.

But for the most part, he confronted an angry Democratic base even in deep-red Utah and in a district where he was just re-elected with a margin of victory of 47 percentage points.

Chaffetz nodded several times to the political makeup of his crowd. "You're going to disagree with this," he said as he began a defense of the GOP pushing to block Planned Parenthood from receiving federal health care dollars.

The congresman at times seemed to relish the boisterous crowd. He cited Vice President Mike Pence -- and then scoffed when the crowd booed, saying that Pence "is, like, the nicest human being." It only earned more boos.

At one point, he cast new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos -- confirmed this week on a 51-50 vote -- as a common enemy, touting a bill to abolish the Department of Education and hand all control over schools and their funding to states.

"I want to get rid of Betsy DeVos!" Chaffetz said.

A man in the crowd shot back: "We want to get rid of you!"

CNN's MJ Lee reported from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Eric Bradner reported from Cottonwood Heights, Utah. Jeff Simon contributed to this story.

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Anger erupts at Republican town halls - CNN