Joplin Globe 012917 by Gina Langston

THE SUNDAY

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SUNDAY | JANUARY 29, 2017

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CLOSE ONES Missouri Southern men win by 1 in overtime, women lose by 1. 1B

FINDING A HOME Tough childhood drives Baxter Springs teacher to help others. 1C

Bills aim to curb opioid abuse

Southwest Missouri long known for opposing unions

Counselor: ‘Five years of working on this, coming on six, it’s frustrating.’ BY CRYSTAL THOMAS cthomas@joplinglobe.com

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — After hearing two hours of testimony about bills that would attempt to curb Missouri’s opioid epidemic, Steve Russ got up to speak. Russ, of Nevada, had listened to physicians, hospital associations, law enforcement ofﬁcers and mothers of overdose victims who all said the same thing: Missouri needs a prescription drug monitoring program so physicians and pharmacists can track drug use by their patients and customers. The chorus of voices only grows louder every year as Missouri remains the only state in the nation that does not have such a database. “I appreciate you guys working on this, but ﬁve years of working on this, coming on six, it’s frustrating to me,” Russ told members of the Missouri Senate Health and Pensions Committee on Wednesday, as well as other witnesses gathered to testify, garnering murmurs of agreement from the large crowd. Russ then told those in the room that he is a former drug addict — now 16 years clean — and that he runs a recovery program for addicts through First Baptist Church in Nevada. He said he has seen the damage drug addiction has done to his own family and to the families of other addicts. “Those of us who deal day to day on the front lines of addiction, we see that this (a PDMP) is not going to

MINERS& MONEY The top photo, courtesy of the State Historical Society Research Center in Rolla, shows Joplin-area miners in 1890. The photo at left, courtesy of Kathy Sidenstricker, shows miners as they pose for a photo outside of the Hickman Mining Co. in Oronogo.

Joplin has had key role BY KOBY LEVIN klevin@joplinglobe.com

century ago, Joplin miners were both reviled and recruited throughout much of the American West because of their reputation as strikebreakers. Mine owners around the country enlisted them because of their willingness to cross picket lines. Today, it’s Joplin money leading the latest charge against organized labor, this time in JefDavid ferson City. Humphreys A wave of political spending, led in part by Joplin businessman David Humphreys, has helped advance passage this year of what is known as “right to work,” a hotly contested law that has come to symbolize

an ebb point in unions’ political power in the state after decades of declining membership. “The reality is you have a handful of large-money donors over the last several years that have contributed large sums of money to people in the right positions to inﬂuence them on this policy and move it forward,” said state Sen. Ryan Silvey, a Re-

publican from Kansas City whose district includes a unionized automotive plant. “David Humphreys is the ﬁrst name on the list. He has made (right to work) a single-issue campaign for him for a long time. He’s contributed large sums of money to people who agree with him and he has contributed large sums of money against people who don’t.”

Missouri lawmakers passed a right-to-work law in the spring of 2015, but it was vetoed by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon. During the veto session that September, about 20 Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats to sustain Nixon’s veto. That led to a campaign to unseat Republicans and

SEE UNIONS, 6A

SEE BILLS, 8A

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This week COMING MONDAY: Visitors come from all over the area each year to Stella’s Eagle Days event, celebrating the birds that once were declared an endangered species.