Missouri governor forms commission to address underlying causes of Ferguson protests

On Tuesday, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) announced he is creating a commission to discuss the "social and economic conditions" that helped fuel the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in August.

Nixon said the panel, which will be called the Ferguson Commission, will act with the "full authority" of Nixon's office. He will select 15 people to participate, and interested parties can submit applications on the state's website. "We need to solve these problems ourselves," Nixon said during a press conference. "We need to solve them together, and we need to act now."

The commission will have three goals, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: To study the underlying causes of the protests, determine what needs to be done to address concerns in the community, and come up with recommendations for "making the St. Louis region a stronger, fairer place for everyone to live."

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Nixon said he will likely have the panel finalized next month, and it should take the group six months to one year to do the work. This was all news to the mayor of Ferguson, James Knowles III, who said he was not invited to the press conference and the city was never notified about Nixon's plan. "If you want to name it after Ferguson, if you want to name it after the events here, you should include Ferguson," he told the Post-Dispatch.