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US Education Department paid up to $38M to civil rights workers on leave, watchdog says

13 hours 12 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education exhausted millions in taxpayer dollars trying to eliminate a chunk of its Office for Civil Rights, a government watchdog found in a report released Monday.Ā Ā  The department spent between roughly $28.5 million and $38 million on the salaries and benefits of the hundreds of Office for Civil Rights, […]
Shauneen Miranda

Trump urges US House to avert ā€˜another long, pointless and destructive’ shutdown

14 hours 4 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House is expected to vote as soon as Tuesday on the government funding package that will end the ongoing partial government shutdown once it becomes law.Ā  The SenateĀ voted Friday evening to approve the legislation after President Donald Trump and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., brokered a deal to remove the full-year […]
Jennifer Shutt, Ariana Figueroa

Planned Parenthood ends suit against Trump administration over serving Medicaid patients

15 hours 31 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday closed the lawsuit Planned Parenthood filed last summer after Republicans’ ā€œbig, beautifulā€ law blocked Medicaid patients from visiting its clinics for any health care appointments for one year.  Planned Parenthood filed notice with the court Friday that it had dismissed ā€œwithout prejudice all claims againstā€ the Trump administration […]
Jennifer Shutt

Judge blocks DHS policy to keep House Dems from visiting detention facilities unannounced

15 hours 31 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked a Trump administration policy that prevented members of Congress from making unannounced oversight visits at facilities that hold immigrants. The temporary restraining orderĀ from U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb of District of Columbia federal court blocked a seven-day notice requirement that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem established […]
Ariana Figueroa

Missouri Republicans move to change venue for major court cases following recent abortion rulings

21 hours 2 minutes ago
Missouri Republicans are pushing a change that would move most high-profile legal fights — including ballot initiative challenges — out of the Western District Court of Appeals and into the Eastern District. They are also hoping to block any challenges to state law or the constitution from being filed outside of Cole County.Ā  While framed […]
Anna Spoerre

Marijuana companies sue dozens of smoke shops for selling THCA hemp flower

23 hours 7 minutes ago
A coalition of marijuana companies is filing lawsuits against businesses across Missouri, accusing dozens of stores of illegally selling marijuana under the guise of ā€œTHCA hemp flowerā€ and undercutting the state’s regulated cannabis market. The lawsuits target nearly 40 stores in St. Louis County and 17 businesses in the Kansas City area, including major hemp […]
Rebecca Rivas

Missouri Democrat calls on Waymo to correct inaccurate testimony

23 hours 12 minutes ago
State Sen. Stephen Webber is calling on Waymo to retract and correct testimony provided to the Missouri Senate Transportation Committee last week regarding the company’s driverless vehicles. Webber, a Democrat from Columbia, said in a letter to Waymo on Friday that the testimony given to the committee falsely claimed that the company’s driverless vehicles had […]
Kathryn Leverenz, Sterling Sewell

Partial federal government shutdown begins, amid hopes it won’t last long

3 days 16 hours ago
WASHINGTON — The federal government began a partial shutdown early Saturday, 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 on Friday evening to pass the reworked government funding package before a midnight deadline. But the earliest the […]
Jennifer Shutt, Ariana Figueroa

Missouri appeals court rejects secretary of state’s ballot language on private school funding ban

3 days 16 hours ago
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 ā€œmisleadingā€ because of a bullet point that says the petition […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Missouri Republicans push bill to ban red flag laws, curb local gun regulation

3 days 21 hours ago
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 […]
Jackson Cooper, Scout Hudson

Missouri lawmakers advance proposal to make nonopioid pain treatments more accessible

3 days 22 hours ago
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 […]
Steph Quinn

Crime rates fell across US cities in 2025

3 days 23 hours ago
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, […]
Amanda Watford

Cancel a speech, but not the Missouri Constitution

3 days 23 hours ago
The Jefferson City drama this week was the cancellation of the Missouri chief justice’s annual ā€œstate of the judiciaryā€ 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 […]
Michael A. Wolff

US Senate poised to send House spending deal in race to avert partial shutdown

4 days 15 hours ago
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.Ā  That bill will be replaced by a two-week stopgap for programs run out of DHS, […]
Jennifer Shutt, Ariana Figueroa