a Better Bubbleā„¢

MoInd šŸ“°

Josh Hawley calls for investigation of ā€˜troubling’ Minneapolis shooting

1 hour 27 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley on Tuesday called the shooting of an ICU nurse in Minneapolis ā€œvery troublingā€ 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 […]
Molly Gibbs

Attack on US Rep. Ilhan Omar follows major uptick in threats against members of Congress

1 hour 33 minutes ago
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.Ā  USCP Chief Michael Sullivan wrote […]
Jennifer Shutt

Immigration drops shift population, political power to Texas and Florida

6 hours 39 minutes ago
A drop in immigration amid President Donald Trump’s enforcement crackdown led to historically slow population growth in the United States last year. Activity at the southern border is at a historic low. The population change reflects the last months of the Biden administration, when immigration controls began to tighten, and the first months of the […]
Tim Henderson

Missouri social services director requests investment to avoid ā€˜bankruptcy territory’

8 hours 51 minutes ago
Missouri lawmakers were urged Tuesday to make major investments in the state’s social services department in order to comply with new federal requirements and avoid steep penalties. Jess Bax, director of the Missouri Department of Social Services, told a House committee on Tuesday that her agency needs to hire additional contractors to tackle a backlog […]
Steph Quinn

From waiting periods to insurance mandates: Missouri abortion laws under review

8 hours 55 minutes ago
Planned Parenthood and the Missouri Attorney General’s Office agree on one thing: abortion is legal in Missouri. That’s where the agreement ends. A 10-day trial that wrapped Monday in Kansas City laid bare decades of conflict over the state’s abortion laws. Dozens of restrictions — targeted regulation of abortion providers, or TRAP, laws — are […]
Anna Spoerre, Kelcie Moseley-Morris, Kevin Hardy

Do no harm: Why Missouri must set guardrails for AI mental health tools

8 hours 56 minutes ago
Imagine your physician offering you a new therapy for a serious medical condition—but with several warnings. You are told the treatment has never gone through carefully designed, peer-reviewed clinical trials. There is no professional licensure overseeing its use. And if something goes wrong, there is no clear system of accountability. Is that the care you […]
Chuck Hollister

Missouri governor withdraws ethics nominees amid fight over gerrymandered map

19 hours 16 minutes ago
Gov. Mike Kehoe withdrew two nominees to the Missouri Ethics Commission Tuesday after Democrats pointed out the appointments were based on a congressional map that Republicans contend is no longer valid.Ā  Senate Democrats have refused to allow any gubernatorial appointments to come up for a vote for the past two weeks, arguing that their stall […]
Jason Hancock

Homeland Security boss Noem in hot water after response to Minneapolis killings

21 hours 29 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is facing mounting criticism, including from some congressional Republicans and moderate Democrats, for her response to a second killing by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. President Donald Trump reiterated his confidence in Noem Tuesday, but several Republican senators, a group that overwhelmingly voted last year for Noem to […]
Ariana Figueroa

These are the states where incomes grew the most, least in recent decades

1 day 1 hour ago
Household incomes have grown in nearly every state over the past 50 years, but a new study concludes that growth has been uneven across the country. An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, released Tuesday from the Urban Institute’s Center for Local Finance and Growth, found inflation-adjusted incomes in Western, mid-Atlantic and New England states […]
Kevin Hardy

Democratic AGs stress importance of citizen-generated evidence in challenging ICE

1 day 1 hour ago
PORTLAND, Ore. — Keith Ellison held up his cellphone. The Minnesota attorney general was onstage in an Oregon theater in front of hundreds of people, accompanied by four of his Democratic peers from other states, to mark a year of coordinated legal strategy to resist the Trump administration’s expansive use of executive power. ā€œCan I […]
Erika Bolstad

House committee kills plan to reinstate Missouri presidential primary

1 day 2 hours ago
The push to reinstate Missouri’s presidential primary suffered a defeat Tuesday when the House Elections Committee voted to remove it from a wide-ranging elections bill. On a voice vote, the committee removed the provision from the bill. The measure also extends the period for ā€œno-excuse absenteeā€ voting from two to four weeks. The committee then […]
Rudi Keller

Beyond the spectacle, Kansas City prepares for World Cup reality

1 day 8 hours ago
Missouri will be one of just a handful of states hosting FIFA World Cup matches in the summer of 2026, with Kansas City serving as the region’s primary stage. It’s a rare opportunity to welcome the world. But if history is any guide, hosting mega-events brings real challenges alongside the spectacle — not all of […]
Patrick Tuohey

Missouri prisoners report being forced to shovel snow in subzero temperatures

1 day 8 hours ago
With temperatures hovering near zero and windchills approaching minus 20 degrees, Spain Bady was ordered to leave his cell at Algoa Correctional Center on Saturday morning and clear snow from prison walkways. He refused, telling the corrections officer directing him to go outside that he has been enrolled in education programs and is exempt from […]
Rudi Keller

Cost of future Missouri school funding formula unclear as task force continues work

1 day 8 hours ago
Missouri’s method for determining state aid for public schools is poised for substantial change, as a task force drafting the new funding formula began on Monday to synthesize four months of meetings into recommendations. The group, dubbed the Missouri School Modernization Task Force, met Monday morning for the first time since breaking into smaller cohorts […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Missouri’s abortion rights trial concludes, but a decision is still months away

1 day 17 hours ago
KANSAS CITY — After 10 days of often emotion-filled testimony, a trial dissecting Missouri’s abortion regulations under the new constitutional right to reproductive health care concluded Monday.Ā  In closing arguments, attorneys from both the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and Planned Parenthood brought the focus back to the crux of the case: are Missouri’s abortion regulations necessary […]
Kevin Hardy, Anna Spoerre

Congress hurtles toward partial shutdown after Alex Pretti killing in Minneapolis

1 day 21 hours ago
WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday urged Senate Democrats to advance the government funding package that must become law before the weekend to avoid a partial shutdown, rejecting their proposal to remove the Homeland Security funding bill. Democrats in the upper chamber say they are ready to help pass five of […]
Jennifer Shutt

As AI-generated fake content mars legal cases, states want guardrails

2 days 1 hour ago
Last spring, Illinois county judge Jeffrey Goffinet noticed something startling: A legal brief filed in his courtroom cited a case that did not exist. Goffinet, an associate judge in Williamson County, looked through two legal research systems and then headed to the courthouse library — a place he hadn’t visited in years — to consult […]
Madyson Fitzgerald

US Senate Dems probe effect of Trump administration child care cutbacks on rural families

2 days 2 hours ago
WASHINGTON — Several U.S. Senate Democrats launched an investigation into how the Trump administration’s child care funding cuts and policy changes are affecting rural families, in aĀ Sunday letter provided exclusively to States Newsroom. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Raphael Warnock of Georgia led four of their colleagues in urging the respective heads of Rural […]
Shauneen Miranda