Judge Douglas Long’s ruling chided Johnnson for attempting “at the eleventh hour, to cloud the strong documentary record that she has not been a resident of the 5th Senatorial District” for the mandatory year prior to the November election.

As reported in the Post-Dispatch, court documents and other records suggest that Johnson has been staying with her mother at a home in the city’s West End - which is both outside the House District she represents, and the State Senate she is seeking to represent.

One of Johnson’s two rivals from within the party - State Rep. Robin Wright-Jones - filed a lawsuit challenging her residency status.

In siding with Wright-Jones, Long cited a litany of evidence, presented at an all-day hearing Friday, that Johnson moved from a home on Tara Lane, in the city’s North Point neighborhood, to a house on Maple Avenue, across district boundaries.

The evidence included:

• A change of address form from the post office
• Employment records showing the Maple Avenue address
• Testimony from a tenant that rented Johnson’s Tara Lane home. The tenant, a city firefighter, contradicted Johnson’s claim that she remained in the house as a room mate.
• A campaign contribution from Johnson to Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed listing her address on Maple Avenue.
• Testimony from city election officials who visited the Tara Lane home and found a slow-moving electric meter outside

The decision is interesting for all sorts of reasons, including its impact on the dynamics of the Senate race — Wright-Jones will now take on Rodney Hubbard one-on-one for the seat.

We’ll post more info as it becomes available … And, of course, a full story in Thursday’s ink edition.

Johnson

But for those that haven’t, I’ve posted the video from John Edwards’ endorsement of Barack Obama over at DC Download.

Thoughts? Does this matter? Edwards did have a strong, vocal minority of a following. Will that help Obama now? Or is it just too late?

Click here to see and let us know what you think.

Goodman and other Senate allies have been blocking the moving of legislation through the House all day awaiting passage of the village law. Goodman stood down to let Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons’ property tax legislation through, but he’s not happy about Jetton not sending the bill over. Jetton has the power to sit on the bill the rest of the week, if he desires. The House sent over bills it had passed earlier today for Senate consideration, but not the controversial village law repeal.

After thinking carefully about the news, Goodman told the Post-Dispatch he was “disappointed” that Jetton has not sent the legislation to the Senate.

“I may just have a lot of questions to ask,” about any other House bills that come to the Senate, Goodman said.

Jetton’s action comes after he was challenged earlier in the evening during a Republican caucus meeting. According to Republicans who were there, but wouldn’t talk for attribution, Jetton was asked to step down or promise that he will not stand in the way of passage of the village law repeal. Republicans in the House have been increasingly tense over the past couple of days, with much of their anger directed at Jetton.

The Legislature passed and sent to the governor a bill making the ice cream cone Missouri’s official state dessert.

As the youths looked on from the upper gallery, the House approved the bill 112-31. The Senate had passed it previously.

Supporters paid a special tribute to Elise Kostial, 12, of Ellisville, for her lobbying prowess. She was having dinner at a restaurant in the capital recently when she recognized a legislator at a nearby table.

LIke any good lobbyist, she seized the opportunity to press her case. She came armed with facts and figures. For example, the ice cream cone made its worldwide debut at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. Some of the first companies to make the cone were located in Sullivan, Mo.

“It was an amazing experience,” Kostial said after the bill passed.

Not everyone was enthusiastic. Rep. Paul LeVota, D-Independence, said he would back the bill because “I don’t think anything else productive’s going to happen this session.”

Told by the sponsor, Rep. Charlie Schlottach, R-Owensville, that the bill would be good for agribusiness, Rep. Mike Talboy, D-Kansas City, quipped: “And angioplasty business.”

Otherwise known as the ”Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008,” the bill is estimated to cost the government $658 billion over the next ten years.

Akin complained that it offered “few market reforms.”

Here’s his statement:

“I support the 13% of the bill designated for our farmers and agriculture. However 73% provides for an increase in food stamp entitlements, which is an increase that places too high a burden on taxpayers and the overall economy.

“It is inappropriate to ask the average American family, already burdened by increased grocery costs, to foot the bill for this $300 billion piece of legislation.”

A House-Senate conference committee easily agreed tonight on a measure aimed at keeping property taxes from soaring after reassessment.

The bill would require local governments to roll back their rates when property values skyrocketed, as they did in St. Louis County last year.

The compromise version also increases tax credits for elderly and disabled homeowners on fixed incomes. Single homeowners making less than $30,000 and married couples making less than $34,000 would be eligible. They could get up to $1,100, instead of a maximum of $750.

If all goes according to plan, the Legislature could send the bill to the governor tomorrow.

The bill includes a slap at Gov. Matt Blunt’s administration for a recent increase in fees. Under the bill, the Department of Revenue could charge a half-penny per record, or about $20,000, for the state’s drivers license database.

The Department raised the fee this month to $7 per record, or $28 million for the database. Data-collection companies complained because they buy the data and resell it, for example, to insurers who use it to set auto insurance rates.

Senate President Pro Tem Mike Gibbons, the bill’s sponsor, said he would have preferred that the fee reduction weren’t in the bill, but he kept it when the House insisted.

Gibbons said Blunt has said he will sign the bill “and pursue his other options” on the fees. Gibbons was unsure what that meant.

The bill is sure to gain prominent mention in Gibbons’ campaign for attorney general. He called it “a tremendous plus for taxpayers of Missouri.”

Yesterday, I spoke with Brenda Woemmel, the chair of Cape Girardeau County’s Democratic central committee. Video from Woemmel’s interview is below.

One thing she also said was that no one has their head in the clouds; she doesn’t expect Obama to carry an area such as hers, but she hopes her ground troops can boost his numbers enough to help in the statewide fight.

[VMIX Video]

Alas, technology also got the better of me, as I had taped a long conversation with Carol Littge, owner of a nice sports/pool bar, Pockets, who had some decent observations. Unfortunately, that tape was lost to dirt in the camera — it looks like Technicolor static on screen without any audio.

Still, Littge has fair claim to having her thumb on the working class pulse, as a barkeep who sets up shop across the street from a factory (the very same one that Obama spoke in).

Littge said Obama will lose points in a place like Cape G., considering his stance against the war. But Littge also thinks the economy is more important, and she seems to agree with Obama’s strategists. “I think McCain represents four more years of Bush.”

But let’s be honest. Obama has had the most trouble with rural voters in primarily white areas. So I asked her, will he come off sounding like an elitist from the city?

(I put up the disclaimer that I spent my formative years living in towns with populations ranging from 200 to 2,000 people.)

Littge said the answer will depend on his sales pitch. She figures some of her patrons might see him as some Ivy Leaguer that is out of touch. On the other hand, if he can really lay out just what he’ll do — Littge hasn’t heard that yet — then the Mr. Smarty Pants air about him could turn into Mr. Right Man For The Job.

“Now is not the time to back away from our efforts to fight illegal immigration in our state,” Blunt said in a news release.

Sen. Jack Goodman, R-Mt. Vernon, is using a bill that bleary-eyed senators labored over for nine hours last night as a bargaining chip to get the House to agree to repeal the controversial “village law.”

The immigration bill is in Goodman’s committee. A hearing on the bill has been postponed twice today. Another is scheduled for when the Senate breaks for the day.

Fearing a special session in an election year when there are campaigns to work on, the Senate brought up a narrowly tailored bill prohibiting public benefits for illegal immigrants.

“We’ve got some issues getting a comprehensive immigration bill out of the Capitol,” said Sen. Luann Ridgeway, R-Smithville. “If it gets hung up, then we have nothing if we don’t go forward with” the public benefits bill.

Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, said he agrees with the bill’s premise, but wants to make minor changes to pass the best bill possible.

“If we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do it right,” he said.

Any changes would have to go back to the House for approval. And today, the House isn’t on the best of terms with its companion chamber.

The robo-call emphasizes that Missouri NARAL is neutral in the presidential contest between Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, said Missouri NARAL executive director Pamela Sumners.

Sumners recorded the call herself about 1:30 p.m., right after hearing of the national group’s announcement — and getting complaints from area abortion-rights activists.

“In our membership demographic, a lot of longtime women’s rights supporters are strong supporters of Hillary Clinton,” Sumners said.

“If we had been consulted, we would have said, ‘Let this play out,’ ” said Sumners. “We have two strong pro-choice candidates” in Obama and Clinton.

NARAL’s real focus, she said, should be to challenge the presumptive GOP nominee, John McCain, who opposes most abortions.

She’s  vying with U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Columbia, who also began airing his ads Wednesday in southwest Missouri.

Like Hulshof’s spot, Steelman’s ad focuses on her background and promotes values. It also is filmed with that same rosy hue that colors much of Hulshof’s ad.

Take a look: