MoInd 📰

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice released more than 3 million pages of documents Friday related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The release, which in the 3 million pages includes more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, comes more than 40 days after the agency was legally required to release the full set of […]

Missourians placed more than half-a-billion dollars in bets on sporting events in December but promotional offers offset the taxable profits, leaving less than $1 million to help problem gamblers and public education. Voters narrowly approved sports betting in November 2024, with a majority of just 2,691 votes out of almost 3 million cast. The first […]

WASHINGTON — The federal government hurtled Friday toward a partial shutdown this weekend, even though Senate Democrats and President Donald Trump reached a deal that allows lawmakers more time to negotiate new constraints on immigration enforcement.  The Senate voted 71-29 to pass the reworked government funding package before a midnight deadline. But the earliest the […]

Missouri’s Western District Court of Appeals unanimously tossed out part of Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’s ballot language on Thursday for an initiative petition that would bar state funding of private education. The decision, written by Judge Douglas Thomson, says that Hoskins’s summary statement was “misleading” because of a bullet point that says the petition […]

A Missouri House committee heard testimony Wednesday on a bill that would prevent courts from seizing weapons from high-risk individuals. The bill contains changes to state firearm statutes, a catch-all that rounds up a number of gun-related provisions that Republicans have attempted to pass in previous legislative sessions. Alongside prohibiting so-called red flag gun seizure […]

A Missouri House committee on Thursday approved legislation aimed at reducing barriers for patients to access nonopioid medications prescribed by health professionals, an effort by lawmakers to help prevent Missourians from developing opioid use disorders. The legislation, sponsored by Republican state Reps. Melanie Stinnett of Springfield, Brian Seitz of Branson, Tara Peters of Rolla and […]

Crime continued to decline in 2025, with homicides down 21% from 2024 and 44% from a peak in 2021, according to a new analysis of crime trends in 40 large U.S. cities released by the nonpartisan think tank Council on Criminal Justice. If federal nationwide data, which is set to be released later this year, […]

The Jefferson City drama this week was the cancellation of the Missouri chief justice’s annual “state of the judiciary” speech to a joint session of the legislature, a cancellation in response to a unanimous state Supreme Court decision that enforced the constitution’s rule that a bill must have only one subject. The objection from some […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate could vote as soon as Thursday night to approve a government funding package after Democrats brokered a deal with the White House to strip out the full-year spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security.  That bill will be replaced by a two-week stopgap for programs run out of DHS, […]

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt took to the Senate floor Wednesday to defend federal agents arresting suspected undocumented immigrants in Minnesota, calling them “American heroes.” “We owe them our absolute, unequivocal, unflinching support,” the senator told his colleagues, many of whom are now calling for an investigation into the Department of Homeland Security after […]

When Rachel Marshall was growing up in Virginia, her parents kept a magnet on the refrigerator from a national homeschooling advocacy group, with a phone number to call if local school officials tried to interfere with their decision to educate their children at home. “You tell [the organization] the state’s after you, and they will […]

Americans feel their health care costs are going up faster than other household expenses, hold President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans responsible and say the issue will factor into their votes in this year’s midterm elections, according to a poll published Thursday by the nonpartisan health research organization KFF.  Three-quarters of voters polled, including majorities of […]

A $250,000 earmark in Missouri’s budget for a nonprofit founded by former Gov. Mike Parson — including money drawn from a federal program designed to help low-income families — raised red flags for Democratic lawmakers Wednesday, who questioned how and why the money was requested by the executive branch. The nonprofit, The 57 Foundation, takes […]

During Wednesday’s hearing on Gov. Mike Kehoe’s plan to replace Missouri’s individual income tax with an expanded sales tax, the key word was trust. The proposed constitutional amendment giving the legislature three years to overhaul state tax policies is open-ended —- it allows lawmakers to impose sales tax on any financial transaction exchanging goods or […]

Missouri families are seeking a clear way to identify the quality of their local schools, parents and advocacy organizations told the House Education Committee Wednesday. The committee was discussing a bill sponsored by state Rep. Dane Diehl, a Republican from Butler, that seeks to give schools A-F grades for their students’ performance and extra state […]

Missouri senators debated a bill Wednesday that would impose age limits on kratom sales and ban 7-OH products, as lawmakers raised concerns about the drug’s opioid-like effects and growing availability. The name, 7-OH, is short for 7-hydroxymitragynine, and it’s made by chemically converting and concentrating the main opioid-inducing element in kratom. 7-OH is sold as […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley on Tuesday called the shooting of an ICU nurse in Minneapolis “very troubling” and added that he welcomes investigations and hearings on the actions of Department of Homeland Security agents in the incident. Video of the incident shows DHS agents pinning 37-year-old Alex Pretti to the ground and shooting […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Capitol Police investigated a drastic increase in threats against members of Congress and their staffs last year, looking into nearly 15,000 statements, behaviors and communications. The volume of investigations rose sharply from the 9,474 USCP checked during 2024, the 8,008 in 2023 and the 7,501 in 2022.  USCP Chief Michael Sullivan wrote […]

The annual State of the Judiciary address to a joint legislative session scheduled for  Wednesday was cancelled when it became clear Senate Republicans were going to boycott.  House Majority Leader Alex Riley, a Springfield Republican, said he found out when he came to the floor that the speech by Chief Justice W. Brent Powell would […]

Video lottery operators on Tuesday promised Missouri will reap a windfall of money for education and other programs if lawmakers will substitute their devices for slot machine-like games currently in thousands of retail locations across the state. But opponents of a bill, which was debated by the House Emerging Issues, said legalizing video gambling in […]