a Better Bubbleā„¢

MoInd šŸ“°

US Senate Democrats demand Trump administration refund tariff payments to businesses

9 hours 35 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday demanding the administration refund businesses that paid tariffs to import goods into the United States under authority the Supreme Court has ruled the president never held.Ā  ā€œThe American people — small business owners, importers, manufacturers, and the consumers who ultimately bore […]
Jennifer Shutt

DOJ appeals ruling in Sen. Mark Kelly illegal orders case; Kelly vows: ā€˜I won’t back down’

9 hours 38 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration must explain to a circuit court before the end of March exactly why it appealed a lower court’s ruling that allows Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly to keep his retirement rank and pay while a First Amendment case about the ā€œDon’t Give Up The Shipā€ video plays out. The U.S. […]
Jennifer Shutt

Kansas Court of Appeals rules CoreCivic can’t house ICE detainees without Leavenworth permit

15 hours 24 minutes ago
TOPEKA — CoreCivic can’t house immigration detainees before reaching an agreement with the city of Leavenworth on reopening its private prison, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled Friday when it upheld a lower court’s decision. ā€œThere is nothing to suggest that CoreCivic is being singled out here,ā€ the Court of Appeals decision said. ā€œThe City […]
Morgan Chilson

Arguing an abortion procedure is unlawfully barbaric worked once. Will it work again?

15 hours 36 minutes ago
There is a content warning on page 7 of a friend-of-the-court brief recently submitted in a high-stakes abortion medication case by women who say they were injured or traumatized from taking the pills.Ā  ā€œWarning: these accounts are raw, graphic and real.ā€ About 30 mostly anonymous people recount their medication abortions, saying they were uninformed about […]
Sofia Resnick

Democrats push back against Trump anti-DEI funding cuts for minority-serving colleges

16 hours 21 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats threw a spotlight Thursday on President Donald Trump’s attempts to yank funds away from minority-serving institutions, as the administration tries to end diversity, equity and inclusion policies in schools. Hawaii U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono hosted an unofficial hearing that gathered advocates, leaders, experts and students to sound the alarm on […]
Shauneen Miranda

Education Department data shows foreign contracts, gifts to US colleges topped $5B in 2025

16 hours 24 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — American colleges and universities received gifts and contracts worth more than $5.2 billion from foreign entities in 2025, according to theĀ U.S. Department of Education, which also recently published summaries of foreign investment in U.S. higher education dating back to 1986.Ā  Qatar, the United Kingdom, China, Switzerland, Japan, Germany and Saudi Arabia marked the […]
Shauneen Miranda

Missouri House approves bill codifying protections for political expression in schools

20 hours 47 minutes ago
Protections for religious expression in K-12 schools could also be expanded to guard ideological and political speech through a bill that passed Thursday in the Missouri House. State Rep. Darin Chappell, a Republican from Rogersville and the bill’s sponsor, said the legislation is intended to guard First Amendment rights. ā€œWe don’t want anyone’s political ideas […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Missouri lawmakers explore options to restore disability services funding

21 hours 53 minutes ago
Hundreds of Missourians with disabilities, their families and advocates crowded into the Capitol rotunda Wednesday for a rally on the state’s 25th annual Disability Rights Legislative Day, spilling into surrounding halls and onto the stairs framing the speakers’ podium. Personal testimony from dozens of Missourians earlier this month moved a bipartisan group of lawmakers to […]
Steph Quinn

Missouri nurses are done normalizing violence

21 hours 58 minutes ago
When people hear ā€œworkplace violence,ā€ they often picture a physical attack. But in health care settings, the more common reality is persistent threats, intimidation and verbal hostility — exposure that accumulates over time. In a Fall 2025 survey conducted by the Missouri Nurses Association, 90% of nurses reported verbal abuse and 63% reported physical violence. […]
Abby Ehrhardt

FEMA shutdown drags on amid stalemate over reforms to immigration enforcement

1 day 10 hours ago
WASHINGTON — The nation’s main agency for handling disaster response and recovery is shuttered for the third time in recent months and its workers are on the verge of missing paychecks, as members of Congress and the White House remain divided in a separate dispute over immigration enforcement. Lawmakers are raising questions about how the […]
Jennifer Shutt

E-Verify requirements draw business pushback in some Republican states

1 day 11 hours ago
Pressured by businesses on the importance of immigrant labor, some Republican states are backing off plans to require all employers to check for legal employment status before hiring workers. State and federal legislation to require that employers use E-Verify, a federal system to check legal status, has been limited this year as a push grows […]
Tim Henderson

FBI director’s plane use under scrutiny amid accusations of delayed team response to Brown shooting

1 day 11 hours ago
Rhode Island’s congressional delegates want to know more after the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday asked the congressional watchdog office to investigate FBI Director Kash Patel’s alleged misuse of government aircraft. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat and Senate Democratic Whip, accused Patel of delaying the arrival of a […]
Alexander Castro

Bill to make transgender athlete ban permanent passes Missouri House

1 day 12 hours ago
The Missouri House passed a bill along party lines Thursday that would remove the expiration date on the state’s restrictions for transgender athletes. In 2023, the General Assembly passed a law that prevents transgender athletes from competing according to their gender identity alongside a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Democrats in the Senate filibustered […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Ousted GOP budget chair unveils alternative Missouri budget to governor’s plan

1 day 21 hours ago
A Republican lawmaker stripped of his influence on the state budget for bucking GOP leadership struck back Wednesday by introducing an alternative to Gov. Mike Kehoe’s spending plan. State Sen. Lincoln Hough, a Springfield Republican, was removed as Senate Appropriations Committee chairman in September, just 20 minutes after he voted against shutting off debate on […]
Rudi Keller

USDA to give up massive DC office building as shift of staff to states begins

2 days 11 hours ago
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will transfer a large office building to the General Services Administration in a step toward shrinking the department’s footprint in and around Washington, D.C., Secretary Brooke Rollins said Wednesday. More than 70% of offices at the USDA’sĀ South Building, in Washington, sit empty on any given day, while deferred maintenance costs […]
Jacob Fischler

Red states target SNAP fraud, errors under threat of costly federal penalties

2 days 14 hours ago
State officials across the country are looking to crack down on fraud and mistakes in the nation’s largest food assistance program, spurred by looming federal rules that will force states with high error rates to pay more. But the Republican proposals mostly focus on more frequently verifying the eligibility of individual households that participate in […]
Anna Claire Vollers

Federal prosecutors seek 2-year prison sentence for former Missouri House Speaker John Diehl

2 days 16 hours ago
Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence former Missouri House Speaker John Diehl to two years in prison in his federal COVID relief fraud case, arguing his admitted misuse of nearly $380,000 in pandemic aid ā€œshould merit a significant punishment.ā€ In a sentencing memorandum filed Monday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, Assistant […]
Jason Hancock