Theo Keith
From Missouri Digital News: https://mdn.org
Theo Keith
Theo Keith is the political reporter for WITI-TV in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He covers election campaigns, the Wisconsin Legislature, and Milwaukee city and county government.
Theo has extensively covered the current leaders of both houses of Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. He has covered two presidential candidates and four U.S. Senate races.
His work has twice won Emmy awards. In 2017, Theo won for an investigation into how much time then-Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke had been absent from the county. In 2016, it was his breaking news coverage of a massive fire. He has also won a regional Edward R. Murrow award in 2013 for his reporting on problem panhandlers.
Prior to joining WITI, Theo was the political reporter for WAVE-TV in Louisville, Kentucky. He followed the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and the ascent of Sen. McConnell to majority leader. He investigated corruption within local governments, leading to multiple changes.
Previously, he covered the historic recall of Gov. Scott Walker as a reporter at WISC-TV in Madison, Wisconsin. There, Theo reported on Rep. Ryan as he made a bid for the vice presidency in 2012. His work led to a new state law requiring independent investigations after police shootings.
Theo is a proud defender of open records and open meetings laws, and he believes in holding elected officials accountable on behalf of the voters who elected them.
Theo is from Saginaw, Michigan. He graduated from the University of Missouri with degrees in journalism and political science. His first statehouse job was at MDN, where he worked from 2009-2011.
You can contact Theo through his website, www.theokeith.com .
Stories by Theo Keith in 2011 include:
5/12/2011: Radio Story - Missouri's legislature passed two separate late-term abortion ban bills Thursday, with passionate debate in the House and no discussion in the Senate.
5/10/2011: Radio Story - Missouri's House is sending a bill banning fake cocaine and fake pot onto Gov. Jay Nixon.
5/ 5/2011: Radio Story - Missouri's Senate majority leader says giving St. Louis control of its police isn't dead, and that it requires a Senate confirmation and the police union's OK.
4/28/2011: Radio Story - Auditor Tom Schweich's office, a major recipient of Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder's campaign donations a year ago, plans to audit Kinder's travel reimbursements.
4/14/2011: Radio Story - Missouri Senate Republicans have delayed a vote on congressional redistricting, frustrating Republican leaders in the House.
3/24/2011: Radio Story - Opponents of giving control of St. Louis Police back to the city have filed suit, saying the ballot language and costs will mislead voters.
2/18/2011: Radio Story - Documents obtained by KMOX indicate Gov. Jay Nixon has billed other state agencies almost $400,000 for his flights on taxpayer-funded airplanes.
2/15/2011: Radio Story - A Missouri Senate committee passed 'right-to-work' legislation to prohibit workers from being forced to pay union service fees.
2/10/2011: Radio Story - Gov. Jay Nixon says he's opposed to eliminating the income tax and raising the sales tax, saying that would make Missouri uncompetitive.
2/ 2/2011: Radio Story - Missouri lawmakers trapped in the Capitol by more than a foot of snow passed the time playing poker and sleeping with emergency relief blankets.
2/ 1/2011: Radio Story - Missouri Highway Patrol leaders have pleaded with people to stay off the roads, but the state is giving little advice to its employees whether to come to work or stay home.
1/25/2011: Radio Story - Republicans in Missouri's statehouse called on the state's attorney general to join the lawsuit against the federal health care law.
1/19/2011: Radio Story - Gov. Jay Nixon has proposed a 7 percent cut in higher education funding and eliminating hundreds of state positions.
1/18/2011: Radio Story - Democrats are joining Republicans in criticizing Gov. Jay Nixon for passing travel expenses off on state agencies.
1/18/2011: Radio Story - Ford says it's bringing a new vehicle to its plant near Kansas City, after state lawmakers worked overtime last year to give the company tax breaks.
Stories by Theo Keith in 2010 include:
12/ 7/2010: Radio Story - For the second time in as many days, Missouri's governor refused to answer questions after he delayed a trade trip to Asia.
11/16/2010: Radio Story - Two votes to slash Missouri's historic tax credits failed Tuesday in a subcommitee of the broader Tax Credit Review Commission.
11/ 9/2010: Radio Story - Missouri looks to borrowing money to cover unemployment payment obligations of business.
11/ 4/2010: Radio Story - Longtime engineer Kevin Keith has been named the new MoDOT director.
11/ 4/2010: Newspaper Story - MoDOT names its new director in the middle of a budget crunch.
9/30/2010: Radio Story - The company that was the focus of a federal illegal worker raid three years ago is back in business with the state, and a second business with the same address is about to start a state contract, too.
9/23/2010: Radio Story - The man who intended to stab Gov. Jay Nixon has been assigned a public defender, a spokeswoman for the office said.
9/10/2010: Radio Story - Missouri Digital News's Theo Keith interviews Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Robin Carnahan on the economy, trailing in the polls, and those pesky robo-calls.
9/ 9/2010: Radio Story - First it was E. coli in Lake of the Ozarks, now it's dead grass at the state Capitol. Theo Keith explains in Jefferson City.
9/ 7/2010: Radio Story - The list of contestants for Missouri's final casino license is down to four, and two St. Louis area proposals are still in the running.
9/ 7/2010: Radio Story - Missouri's bridges rank 40th in the country, even as the state spends hundreds of millions of dollars to repair them.
9/ 2/2010: Radio Story - The Missouri Gaming Commission will choose a priority candidate for the state's up-for-grabs casino license by year's end.
8/31/2010: Radio Story - Missouri's National Guardsmen deployed in Iraq won't be returning home early, even with the troop drawdown there.
8/26/2010: Radio Story - A record 122,000 Missourians are investing in the state's college-savings plan.
5/12/2010: Radio Story - Gov. Jay Nixon spent another day pushing tax credits for businesses.
4/26/2010: Radio Story - At a public conference committee meeting over Missouri's budget, lawmakers worked out their disagreements in private.
4/ 7/2010: Radio Story - A lot of talk about how to save the state from its budget crisis, and Wednesday, the House moved forward and then backward on Gov. Nixon's plan to merge the state's Water Patrol.
3/24/2010: Radio Story - The company MoDOT director Pete Rahn is joining got huge amounts of money from the state over the past five years.
3/22/2010: Newspaper Story - The University of Missouri System won a victory Monday, as the Senate Governmental Organizations Committee cut down a bill that would have consolidated state workers' health plans.
3/17/2010: Radio Story - Missouri's House voted to speed up the ban on fake pot.
3/15/2010: Radio Story - The House shot down an amendment to legalize medical marijuana in the same bill that would ban fake pot.
3/ 3/2010: Radio Story - The state's budget crisis is running into the front end of your automobile.
3/ 1/2010: Radio Story - A heated hearing ended with the House Urban Issues Committee passing a bill to give St. Louis control of its police department.
2/24/2010: Newspaper Story - A bill to give children of illegal immigrants in-state college tuition faced no opposition in a Senate committee Wednesday, but the bill's sponsor still called introducing the bill "an education process."
2/22/2010: Radio Story - A St. Louis police commissioner has resigned to Gov. Jay Nixon, and a spokesman for the governor called it an appropriate step.
2/10/2010: Radio Story - The House gave first-round approval Wednesday to a bill that would ban Gov. Jay Nixon from appointing a possible successor to Secretary of State Robin Carnahan.
2/ 8/2010: Radio Story - With its most recent multi-million dollar investment at One City Center, the state Development Financing Board now owns three downtown St. Louis parking garages.
2/ 3/2010: Radio Story - One week after the state Gaming Commission voted to strip the President riverboat casino of its gaming license, a Senate committee heard a bill Wednesday that its sponsor says would overturn the ruling.
2/ 1/2010: Radio Story - A bill to ban felons from holding state office faced no opposition in a Senate committee, although the bill's sponsor says it's not a reaction to the Jeff Smith conviction.
1/27/2010: Radio Story - The state Gaming Commission has voted to sink the President Casino, a riverboat gambling center in St. `uis.
1/25/2010: Radio Story - Governor Nixon's 2011 budget plans include a quarter-billion dollars in cuts, but Republicans say they're not enough. Theo Keith has more from Jefferson City.
Stories by Theo Keith in 2009 include:
12/17/2009: Radio Story - The state's landscaping crew was cutting the Capitol lawn Thursday, just a week before Christmas, although the state's facilities director says it's money well-spent.
12/14/2009: Radio Story - Politicians found lying to the state ethics commission would face felony charges under a bill filed by two state lawmakers.
12/ 7/2009: Radio Story - Despite Missouri's worst budget crisis in years, two rooms full of people lined up to ask for more government money Monday.
12/ 7/2009: Radio Story - Former Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton has been charged with felony assault.
11/16/2009: Radio Story - The state's unemployment rate dipped in October as 4,000 more Missourians found work.
11/16/2009: Radio Story - A judge has denied Missouri's state auditor the right to audit the state's retirement system for local government workers.
11/ 2/2009: Radio Story - A Group of Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers have turned over nearly 500 illegal immigrants to the federal government since 2007.
10/19/2009: Radio Story - President Obama is telling federal prosecutors not to press criminal charges against medical marijuana users in states that OK the practice.
10/19/2009: Radio Story - At an event to celebrate a renewable energy project near Jefferson City on Monday, Gov. Nixon did little talking about renewable energy.
10/ 5/2009: Newspaper Story - As the H1N1 flu vaccine becomes available in Missouri, it will be distributed through local health departments and health care providers.
10/ 5/2009: Radio Story - Missouri will get nearly 20,000 doses of swine flu vaccine this week, but the state Health Department is telling local governments to figure out distribution themselves.
9/28/2009: Radio Story - The state Transportation Department has given bonuses to more than 1,000 employees, the only state agency to give bonuses at all.
9/14/2009: Radio Story - Missouri's economic development director, Linda Martinez, resigned Monday after a rocky eight months on the job.
9/14/2009: Radio Story - The state auditor says Missouri's House and Senate have used lobbyist money to buy gifts and meals for members.
8/31/2009: Radio Story - The state treasurer's office is making strides in giving unclaimed property back to Missourians, but there's still a long way to go.
5/ 6/2009: Radio Story - House Republicans shot down a bill Wednesday that would put 35,000 Missourians back on Medicare, saying it was welfare.
5/ 6/2009: Radio Story - A House Republican accused Gov. Jay Nixon's office of a major crime: bribing in return for a vote on an important bill that would put thousands of Missourians back on Medicaid.
4/29/2009: Newspaper Story - Without debate, Missouri's House restores $31 million for Columbia's Ellis Fischel Cancer Center
4/29/2009: Radio Story - The Missouri House perfected a bill that restores funding for Columbia's Ellis Fischel Cancer Center.
4/27/2009: Radio Story - Democrats on the House Rules Committee walked out of a vote to decide how to spend more than $1 billion in federal stimulus money.
4/22/2009: Radio Story - The senior most member of the House of Representatives called Gov. Nixon's $100 million jobs training program a mystery.
4/20/2009: Radio Story - The state's budget director told lawmakers that tax revenues may fall more than expected, but the state will pay back the money it borrowed from reserves by the deadline.
4/20/2009: Radio Story - The House Budget Committee stripped $100 million from the job training pushed by the governor to fund projects that would benefit legislative home districts.
4/15/2009: Radio Story - St. Louisans will board less-crowded METRO buses if a $20 million funding plan in front of the House Budget Committee gains lawmakers' approval.
4/ 8/2009: Radio Story - The House Budget Committee approved nearly $100 million in federal stimulus money for state agencies to use in the next three months.
4/ 6/2009: Radio Story - Officials say the state's unemployment insurance fund will be $1 billion short in the coming years, and the House Workforce Committee passed a bill that would lift the borrowing limit.
4/ 6/2009: Radio Story - In response to a federal bill, a measure passed a House committee that forces workers to use secret ballots to form unions.
4/ 1/2009: Radio Story - A quarter of a million Missourians are unemployed, but some aren't giving up hope.
3/30/2009: Radio Story - Arguments, a fire alarm, and dozens of questions sidetracked a bill Monday that would let Missourians decide whether workers can still vote by secret ballot.
3/11/2009: Radio Story - There are more Missourians out of work these days than there have been in the last 25 years, according to a report released Wednesday.
3/ 9/2009: Radio Story - The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to take control of federal highway dollars away from the Transportation Department, against the objections of MoDOT's director.
3/ 4/2009: Radio Story - A bill that would cut businesses' taxes and cost the state an estimated $100 million in the first year came and went during a Senate committee hearing without debate, not even from businesses.
2/25/2009: Radio Story - Employers will no longer be able to discriminate based on someone's sexual orientation if one measure makes it's way to the Governor's desk.
2/23/2009: Radio Story - Missouri employers are on the hook for some of the federal stimulus money Gov. Jay Nixon has accepted.
2/18/2009: Radio Story - There's plenty of excitement surrounding Missouri's cut of federal stimulus money, but few specifics.
2/16/2009: Radio Story - Strings attached to Missouri's $4.4 billion cut of the federal stimulus package led some Republican senators to question the long-term effects of the money.
2/11/2009: Radio Story - As the Senate Agriculture Committee approved a requirement that truckers pump biodiesel into their tanks, other legislators want a measure repealed.
2/ 9/2009: Radio Story - Missouri's treasurer says when times get tough, it's time to get conservative with the state's investments.
2/ 9/2009: Radio Story - Missouri's emergency management chief says life for many southeast Missourians is back to normal, although some remain in the dark.
2/ 4/2009: Radio Story - A Jackson County Republican wants to end the state's ethanol requirement at gas stations three years after its passage.
2/ 2/2009: Radio Story - The state has requested two-hundred 60 million dollars from the federal government to continue payments to unemployed Missourians.
1/28/2009: Radio Story - Governor Jay Nixon sent letters to universities across the state Wednesday terminating a three-hundred million dollar program initiated by the former governor.
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