WASHINGTON — Fentanyl seizures decreased by 39% during the first year of the second Trump administration after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shifted the Department of Homeland Security’s criminal investigations arm to conducting immigration enforcement, according to a report government investigators published Friday. Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a subagency of DHS’s Immigration and Customs […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump can continue building a White House ballroom for now, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday, reversing a federal judge’s order that barred above-ground construction on the grounds of the former East Wing. The one-page order from Chief Justice John Roberts allows the justices more time to consider the legal arguments as […]
A federal court ruling out of Idaho has potential implications for exceptions in abortion bans nationwide and could eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court to decide. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled earlier this month that the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides a narrow right for a pregnant patient to […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has not slowed his pursuit of central policy goals and personal passions, even after major setbacks at the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts. The high court in its 2026 term delivered blows to Trump’s core campaign promises to upend a constitutional provision governing who becomes a U.S. citizen […]
It was after 5 p.m. on May 13, and 17-year-old Korbin Papadopoulos sat in the Macon County office of the Missouri Children’s Division waiting for his next foster placement. Korbin had type 1 diabetes and autism, so his caseworker, another division worker and their supervisor searched the state’s foster provider database for a home licensed […]
Missouri’s oldest business association is the state’s newest big political donor. On Aug. 14, the Missouri State Medical Association split $1.5 million between two newly created political action committees, Asclepius PAC, named for the hero god of medicine in Greek mythology, and Patients First PAC. The association, which represents doctors and doctors in training, already […]
Veteran homelessness dipped slightly from 2024 to 2025, according to the latest results from the January 2025 point-in-time count. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development counted 32,495 veterans experiencing homelessness, 387, or 1.2%, fewer than the previous year. HUD counted 18,877 veterans in shelters, and 13,518 living unsheltered in places not meant for […]
A mother carries her 12-month-old into the pediatrician’s office for a routine visit. The doctor recommends the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine- the MMR vaccine- just as pediatricians have for decades. This time, she pauses. She heard the President say the MMR vaccine was “sort of like a nuclear weapon.” She heard the head of […]
The Missouri Supreme Court set Sept. 2 for arguments in the appeals of two ballot measure cases, including a referendum on the state’s gerrymandered congressional map. Both measures were ruled unconstitutional Wednesday by a Cole County judge. The court took a case over a referendum on the redistricting on direct appeal. And it issued an […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration will face challenges securing Senate confirmation after the committee chairman in charge of that process expressed doubts. That, however, hasn’t deterred White House officials from pressing for Dr. Heidi Overton, arguing she has the experience needed and that her policy goals align […]
New housing projects can sometimes stall out as a developer applies to city or county planning boards and goes through cycles of inspections, reviews and approvals. Now, cities are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to address one of the most persistent sources of housing permitting delays: incomplete applications. And two new streams of federal money […]
Missouri received nearly 900 applications for its final round of marijuana microbusiness licenses, with the Missouri Lottery scheduled to draw applicants on Sept. 9 for 77 available licenses. But unlike the entrepreneurs selected in the program’s first two rounds, this year’s applicants will enter a system reshaped by two years of growing pains and dozens […]
More than 300,000 Missourians lost Medicaid coverage. Ninety-two percent of them weren’t found ineligible. They lost coverage because of paperwork. That number should shape how Missouri prepares for federal Medicaid work requirements, which take effect Jan. 1, 2027. A proposal to write work requirements into the state constitution passed the Republican-led House this year but […]
A proposal to limit the legislature’s power to alter or repeal measures passed by initiative should not be on Missouri’s November ballot because it “impermissibly constricts” the legislative freedom to make new laws reflecting new views, a Cole County judge ruled Wednesday. The proposal, which would be Amendment 6 on the Nov. 3 ballot if […]
A federal judge in the District of Columbia issued an order Wednesday blocking U.S. Health and Human Services from implementing sweeping changes to grants under the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program while a lawsuit proceeds, but dozens of existing grants that were canceled this summer will remain so for now, unless the administration chooses to reinstate […]
A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld an injunction that bars Department of Homeland Security agents from conducting immigration enforcement “at or near” more than 1,400 houses of worship sprawling across 33 states and the District of Columbia. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a February 2025 […]
The Missouri Constitution’s provisions allowing a referendum on “any act” of the Legislature do not extend that power to laws establishing congressional districts, Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green ruled Wednesday afternoon. Delivering his decision just a few hours after conducting a trial in the case, Green wrote that to allow a referendum on redistricting, […]
Violent crime in the United States fell by an estimated 9.3% in 2025, marking the largest year-to-year decline in the national violent crime rate since the FBI began estimating crime in 1936, according to new national data. The estimated murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rate also fell 18.1%, to 4.1 killings per 100,000 people — tying […]
Missouri education officials are preparing to ask lawmakers for roughly $300 million more for public schools next year, setting up a potentially difficult budget fight as the state faces a projected revenue shortfall. The numbers are yet to be finalized, but the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s preliminary report shows that recent changes to […]
Genis Tobias smiles as she kneels next to a young learner and watches him sign his message to a classmate. Just months ago, this learner relied almost entirely on repeating words and phrases he heard from others, a common experience for learners demonstrating what is known as echolalia. Now he is beginning to communicate independently, […]
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