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Writing

I have developed my writing skills over the past few years. While photography and videography are important, good writers are crucial to communicating with an audience. I have written for the Columbia Missourian as a state government reporter and KOMU as a general assignment reporter. 

COLUMBIA - Iron Tiger Tattoo parlor in downtown Columbia mops its floors nearly three times a day. It didn’t use to be this way, but with the recent trash bins put near their store, they’ve had to clean more.

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The reason why: people are tracking grease into the store.

 

Lee Sensintaffar is the manager of Iron Tiger Tattoo and said the store is constantly scrubbing the floors whenever they see grease.

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“It’s kind of hard to keep up with,” Sensintaffar said.

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This grease and food waste is leaking from the trash bins lined up against Iron Tiger Tattoo’s building when the garbage truck comes to pick up the trash. 

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“A river of grease coming out of that alley way down tenth street into the stormwater drains,” Sensintaffar said. “You’re seeing grease. You’re seeing flies. You’re seeing vermin.”

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Store owners in the area said this is happening because restaurants are just dumping grease and food waste into the trash bins without a trash bag. Melissa Frier is the manager of Aardvarx, which is right next to the alley.

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“It is leaking out of the dumpsters and flowing out of the alley into the front of the alley and down the street and it's causing a lot of a mess,” Frier said.

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A City of Columbia ordinance does not require people to put trash in bags. Currently the ordinance says trash should be wrapped in paper. This isn’t a method used by many people anymore. However, the ordinance does say grease should not be put in the trash bins. Instead, restaurants need to hire a private contractor to dispose of the liquid.

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“I think the main concern as the manager of this shop is ‘are people going to walk by that?’ Frier said. “The smell of the sight is not great at all, and "are people going to want to walk by that to come into our business?" 

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The owners said this problem started happening nearly two months ago. This is around the time when the city replaced a trash compactor with the six trash bins lined up against Iron Tiger Tattoo.

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The compactor used to be on private property because it was too large to be put in the alley, which is public land. However, the property owner asked the city to take the compactor away. The compactor was leaking grease, which was then washed into the basement of a business when it rained.

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The City of Columbia does not have a firm solution to fix the problem, but gave listed two possibilities. One solution could be to change the ordinance to make people use trash bags. The Downtown Community Improvement District said they would bring this up to the solid waste commission at a meeting Tuesday, December 19.

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Another solution is to educate business owners about the proper way to dispose of trash and grease. The CID held a meeting a month ago to hear what business owners were thinking. Since then, the CID has sent out letters to help educate people on the correct way to get rid of trash.

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Click here to view the story. 

JEFFERSON CITY — Teens can get married in Missouri as young as age 15 if their parents agree.

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That's young. But in two other states, the age of parental consent for girls is 13 or younger.

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And in many states, including Missouri, a child can go to a court at any age to ask permission to get married from a judge.

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An effort is underway to raise the age of parental consent for marriage in Missouri. Child advocates say there are many potential problems with marrying at a young age.

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"The effects are beyond psychological," said Fraidy Reiss, founder and executive director of Unchained At Last, a nonprofit dedicated to helping girls avoid or leave forced marriages.

 

"There are lifelong consequences. It undermines her health, her education, her economic opportunities, and it also increases her risk of experiencing violence."

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The main target of the Missouri proposal is sex trafficking.

State Rep. Jean Evans, R-St. Louis, is sponsoring the bill that would increase Missouri's marriage age for parental consent to 17. She believes that it will help prevent sex trafficking, because parents can use marriage licenses as a way to exploit their children.

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"Having one parent’s permission doesn’t keep kids from being trafficked," Evans said. "People sell their children."

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Reiss agreed that parental consent does not offer adequate protection. 

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"We know of situations in other states where girls have shown up at the clerk’s office openly crying while their parents signed the marriage license application and forced them into marriage, and the clerks did not intervene," she said.

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Evans said she wants to raise the age limit to 17 because it is the legal age to have a sexual encounter. She argued that if 17 is the legal age for consent, the state shouldn’t allow kids to get married and have sex beforehand.

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Reiss said that's not good enough: 18 should be the standard.

 

"The reason it is so important to peg marriage at the age of maturity is because a child can easily be forced into marriage before he or she has the rights of an adult and can leave home and get into a shelter and bring legal action in his or her own name," Reiss said. "It is very difficult to escape from a forced marriage before that."
 

According to the Tahirih Justice Center, a national nonprofit that works on behalf of immigrant women, 7,342 children under the age of 18 were married from 2000 to 2014 in Missouri. 

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Reiss said that most of those children were married at 16 or 17. But she said about 860 of them were married at 15 or younger.

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Jennifer Carter Dochler, the public policy director at the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, said Evans' bill will not only help stop sex trafficking, but protect teens from domestic violence.

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"Some people might not have the best home life, and they think they met someone to bring them happiness," Dochler said.

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She also said the coalition has seen cases where parents have sold their children into marriage, "and those marriages turned into domestic violence situations."

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Reiss said other reasons that children and teens are forced into marriage include immigration issues. Sometimes girls are forced to marry men from overseas so that the men can get visas.

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Evans said the main opposition that she has heard to the proposal comes from those who are leery of restricting the freedom of youth.

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"There has been some pushback," Evans said. "The general argument is, what if you have two 16-year-olds that want to get married?"

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On the other hand, the Tahirih Justice Center shares Reiss' concern that the current House bill does not go far enough. According to written testimony, the organization is "concerned that it would continue to inadequately protect 17-year-olds."

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The organization said it suggests that the House Children and Family Committee, which is considering Evans' bill, eliminate all exceptions to age 18 as the minimum marriage age. 

Evans said that the committee might make some changes to the bill.

 

"I don’t know if they are completely done with the bill in terms of hammering it out," said Evans. The committee plans to vote on the bill on Feb. 13.

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Currently, children under 15 are allowed to marry with a judge's consent and parental approval. The judge may issue the license for people showing "good cause."

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Reiss said the Missouri legislation should also stop judges from giving permission.

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"In other states we’ve seen a lot of marriages approved by judges where the age difference constitutes statutory rape. So clearly in a lot of cases judges aren’t paying close enough attention," Reiss said.

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"In other states, I’ve worked with other people to end all marriage before 18 with no exceptions or judicial approval. Bills like that are pending in New Jersey, Maryland and Massachusetts,” she said.

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Click here to view the story. 

Debating the age of marriage in

Missouri: is 15 too young?

JEFFERSON CITY — State lawmakers are debating whether hair braiding should be regulated in Missouri.

        Currently, a person needs to go through cosmetology school and complete 1,500 hours of hands-on training in order to have a license to legally braid hair.

        A proposed bill would not require hair braiders to obtain a license. Instead, they would need to register with a board, receive a brochure that would include information about infections and disease control, and complete a self-test portion. Hair braiders would then need to keep the brochure in their store.

       The regulations recently received criticism from Gov. Eric Greitens during his State of the State address on Jan. 17. 

        "That’s 30 hours per week of training for almost a full year…to braid hair," the governor said. "We need to end frivolous regulations like these so that our people can start their own businesses and create jobs."

        On Wednesday, the possibility of deregulating the craft drew criticism during the Missouri House of Representatives Professional Registration and Licensing Committee meeting. 

         Krista Bonnot, the director of cosmetology at Merrell University, said she opposes the bill because people need proper training in styling and sanitation. Bonnot said for braid training, they need to figure out the density of the hair and whether or not the scalp is healthy enough for braiding.

         State Rep. Joshua Peters, D-St. Louis, cited health issues when it comes to hair braiding. He mentioned that people without a cosmetology license might not know the correct ways to sanitize their stores.

         "I can’t stress how important it is that that regulation is in place," Peters said.

         Many of the witnesses said they grew up braiding hair and didn’t need school to teach them.

         Tameka Stigers said she has owned her salon for eight years and does not have a cosmetology license. Her lack of training has not prevented her from turning people away out of health concerns, she said. "I know a healthy scalp and an unhealthy scalp."

         She also said that when she researched cosmetology schools, many of them did not teach braiding or only devote a small portion of the class or a page in a book to it. 

         Scott Sharp, of the Missouri Association of Cosmetology Schools, countered Stigers, saying some schools teach around 40 to 60 hours of hair braiding.

         State Rep. Shamed Dogan, R-Ballwin, listed positive economic impacts if the bill passed.

"They’ll have their own opportunity to open up their business," Dogan said. "We could boost our economy by slimming down on some of these regulations."

         Some committee members asked if Dogan was willing to compromise by adding amendments to the bill requiring some form of coursework or training in issues such as sanitation. He said he was willing to consider that.

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Click here to view the story. 

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Target 8: Store owners concerned

about trash build up

State lawmakers consider lowering hair braiding regulations

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