Quinn S. Coffman

Columbia Missourian • 5th November 2023

After losing $112 million, Boone Health declines to release financial records

Boone Health has lost more than $112 million since becoming an independent community hospital in 2021. Now, both the hospital’s elected officials and its administrators say the hospital is on track to stabilize its future finances.

But Boone County residents will have to take their word for it.

EURACTIV • 29th June 2023

'Skills-first' hiring could widen Europe's labour pool

To close the skills gap, businesses and policymakers have recently backed a ‘skills-first’ hiring approach, which evaluates job applicants based on their abilities instead of traditional education or certification.


Europe is still enduring labour shortages three years after the onset of the pandemic, data released last month from the European Trade Union Institute shows, though even prior to 2020, economies undergoing digital and green transitions showed a deficit of skilled hires available.

EURACTIV • 31st July 2023

'Bidenomics' ties social conditionalities to industrial policy, but EU hasn’t followed suit

This article is part of our special report Just Transition.

With its so-called Bidenomics, the US is leading the way in linking subsidies to social conditionalities, an approach that the EU has both criticised due to its impacts on competition and been reluctant to integrate into its industrial policy.

The US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), an attempt to further green the transition through subsidies for domestic energy projects, includes some social conditionalities – workers’ protections, or

Columbia Missourian • 27th November 2022

For Columbia's unhoused, Turning Point offers services no one else does

At Turning Point Day Center, unhoused Columbia residents can go through the same morning routine as someone getting ready in their own home.

EURACTIV • 30th June 2023

Trade union report: Alleged labour-violators receive EU Funding

Companies with a history of alleged union-busting behaviour have received millions of euros in Commission grants over the last decade, according to a report by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), raising questions over the need to link social conditions to public money.

Data from the 2023 Global Rights Index, released by the ITUC, released on Friday (30 June) and seen by EURACTIV, note 15 companies that violated labour law in Europe in the last year, with the majority being bene

Columbia Missourian • 16th October 2023

First Ward residents begin recall petition for Councilman Nick Knoth

A group of First Ward residents began gathering petition signatures Oct. 15 to recall Councilperson Nick Knoth. In their draft petition, the neighbors said Knoth’s new lobbying position with Missouri REALTORS represents a conflict of interest.

EURACTIV • 27th June 2023

Europe’s care system struggles to serve ageing population, says Caritas

As the number of elderly people and the demand for care increases, the European care sector is at risk due to underpaid, overworked, and unprotected carers, according to a report issued by Caritas Europa on Monday (27 June).

The report, titled “Growing Old with Dignity, the Challenges of Long-Term Care in Europe”, shows that even today, Europe’s elderly must increasingly rely on carers who are often in the position of providing care they could not afford themselves.

“Population ageing is the d

EURACTIV • 15th June 2023

EU Parliament wants legally-binding ban on unpaid traineeships

With broad, cross-party support, the European Parliament voted on Wednesday (14 June) in favour of an own-initiative report calling for a directive to ban unpaid traineeships.

The report comes as the Commission plans to update the 2014 Quality Framework for Traineeships, which lacked the quality standards voted in on Wednesday.

“We’ve all been trainees. We know that traineeships are a springboard toward a job,” liberal MEP Marie-Pierre Vedrenne said, “but the current framework for traineeships

EURACTIV • 25th May 2023

Labour leaders push for faster implementation of EU Minimum Wage Directive

At the European Trade Union Confederation’s (ETUC) 50th anniversary Berlin meeting, labour leaders and EU lawmakers pushed for faster implementation of the Minimum Wage Directive and criticised the role of corporate profits in rising prices.

The 2022 directive mandates EU member states that have statutory minimum wages to introduce processes to ensure wage rates remain “adequate”, with the two-year implementation period starting in October.

More importantly for trade unions, the directive also

Columbia Missourian • 3rd November 2022

Lubomyr Melnyk brings an original way of playing piano to Experimental Music Festival

“Continuous Music” is the deceptively simple name given to the school of piano performance created by Lubomyr Melnyk.

To Melnyk, the classically trained Ukrainian composer and pianist playing this week’s Experimental Music Festival, Continuous Music is not just an original way to play the piano; it is a complete rediscovery of the instrument. It is a new language for the piano he developed in the 1970s.