MoInd 📰

Missouri lawmakers are weighing whether to restructure the state’s electricity markets. Before moving forward, they should take a hard look at how restructured markets have performed during extreme weather and how they have affected household utility bills. The record is clear: when reliability mattered most, restructured markets repeatedly failed, and over time, families, farmers, and […]

The earnings gap between men and women slightly widened last year, according to a new analysis published Thursday.  The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute calculated women last year earned 18.6% less than men per hour on average. That’s up slightly from 2024, when the wage gap narrowed slightly to 18%.  The wage analysis, which examines several […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department will take over the Department of Education’s responsibility for collecting on defaulted federal student loan debt, President Donald Trump’s administration announced Thursday. It’s the first step in a multi-phase process that will end with Treasury taking on the entire federal student loan portfolio. It’s also the latest interagency agreement announced […]

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday announced an investigation into 13 states that require health insurance plans to cover abortion care.  In a news release, the agency said the investigation is based on allegations that the states are coercing health care entities to provide coverage of abortion “contrary to conscience” and in […]

About $95 million in Missouri marijuana-tax revenue that voters set aside for veterans services, public defenders and drug-addiction treatment programs sat unspent at the end of the last fiscal year.  And budget projections show that unused pile of cash would still be more than $60 million over the next two years unless lawmakers authorize the […]

In early 2026, a small group of first-grade students at Lucy Wortham James Elementary School in St. James, Missouri, sat together sounding out words. Kim Williams, the school’s principal, watched as they worked through the lesson. One young boy caught her attention. “This student had struggled significantly the year before and often avoided reading tasks,” […]

Seventy-one percent of counties that spray the most glyphosate have late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma incidence rates above the national average, according to a new data analysis from the advocacy group Food and Water Watch. Last month, Investigate Midwest, in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s StoryReach U.S. Fellowship, published an investigation that found 60% of the top […]

“Check here if you, or your spouse if filing jointly, want even more of your money to go into the Farm Subsidy Kitty. Taxes might have to increase in the future to pay for it.” Let’s face it: $1.4 trillion dollars is a lot of dough. Adding $20 billion, $10 billion and then $12 billion […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday didn’t rule out asking Congress for an additional $200 billion to cover the cost of his war in Iran, a substantial sum that will likely be difficult to move through both chambers.  “It’s a small price to pay to make sure that we stay tippy top,” he said […]

In an unprecedented use of federal authority, President Donald Trump’s administration has invoked emergency powers to force a series of retiring coal plants to stay open. Utilities, states and grid operators have said the aging plants are expensive, in bad repair and no longer needed to meet regional energy needs. But Trump’s efforts to save […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Thursday voted to move forward Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security.  After the 8-7 vote, Mullin’s nomination will head to the Senate floor.  Thursday’s vote comes a day after Mullin, a Republican, appeared before the committee in a […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans and one Democrat blocked another War Powers Resolution Wednesday night to stop President Donald Trump from further military action in Iran without authorization from Congress. The resolution failed to advance, 47-53. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., broke with Democrats to join Republicans in opposing the measure. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted […]

Ann Rodriquez was looking for a boarding school for her daughter — and in August 2018, she asked Jeffrey Epstein for help. In an email dated Aug. 7, 2018, Rodriquez — described in the Epstein files as his “island manager” — sent her boss a list of five schools and asked him to weigh in […]

There’s no doubt that raising sales taxes in order to lower property taxes will shift more of South Dakota’s tax burden to lower-income residents, Republican Senate Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff said. “It is regressive,” he said. “There’s no denying that.” But Mehlhaff said the state’s modest sales tax increase will bring a much-needed reprieve from […]

Sloane Heller woke up one summer morning in her suburban Kansas City home in 2023 with a loud internal alarm.  “I didn’t feel like I’m in my own body,” Heller said.  Across the state in St. Louis,  mother of two Niya Foster was experiencing something similar:  sudden shifts in her mood, her menstrual cycle and […]

WASHINGTON — Arizona coffee roaster Gabe Hagen is wondering if he’ll ever recoup the tens of thousands of dollars he paid in tariffs to import beans from the world’s major coffee-growing regions in South America, Africa and the Indo-Pacific. Weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs as illegal, Hagen […]

As the war in the Middle East expands and begins to disrupt energy markets and shipping routes, its economic effects are already starting to appear. Gas prices have begun to climb, and investors are watching closely for broader impacts on inflation and financial markets. For households and businesses in Missouri, these pressures could intensify and […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators debated Wednesday whether the federal government should change how Americans register to vote and cast a ballot, with Republicans maintaining alterations are necessary to safeguard elections and Democrats arguing a new law would add unnecessary obstacles. Tensions over the issue were on full display when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., […]

WASHINGTON — Against a backdrop of children’s backpacks and shoes Wednesday, congressional Democrats protested President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, specifically denouncing an early U.S. strike that killed more than 100 elementary school students in the country’s southern city of Minab. The lawmakers attended the installation organized by peace advocacy group Win Without War nearly […]

WASHINGTON — Two top Democrats on a U.S. House panel Tuesday pushed back against “unprecedented” Trump administration guidance that they said essentially encourages states to try to bypass requirements on how they spend federal money intended to help people find job training and support — potentially opening states up to lawsuits. The Democrats, in a letter […]