WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education announced it will withhold $350 million of congressionally approved funds to minority-serving colleges and universities and divert the funds elsewhere, saying that the institutions’ admissions quotas are discriminatory. The move eliminated fiscal 2025 discretionary funding for institutions that serve students who are Asian, Black, Indigenous and Hispanic, as […]
John Diehl, a former speaker of the Missouri House who was forced to resign in disgrace in 2015 when it was revealed he’d been sending sexually inappropriate text messages to an intern, pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal wire fraud charge. Diehl, a Republican from Town and Country, was released on his own recognizance Thursday […]
A $1.5 billion proposed settlement due to be paid by AI company Anthropic could set a precedent for how other AI companies navigate the training of their models on copyrighted material. The proposed settlement is a result of a class action lawsuit, Bartz v. Anthropic, from last year, in which authors filed a complaint against Anthropic […]
LAWRENCE, Kansas — Former Kansas City Mayor Syl James said he was convinced “CAVE people” were the greatest obstacle to solid leadership in municipal government. James, who led the city from 2011 to 2019, said Wednesday at the Dole Institute of Politics that successful leaders needed vision, discipline, data and community backing. The most challenging […]
Poverty dropped last year nationwide and in 38 states, according to census estimates released Thursday. But since that decrease was recorded in mid-2024, more people have signed up for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, in 18 states and the District of Columbia. In those places, more people were using […]
It’s a good idea to make dinner reservations for parties of more than six people. It allows the restaurant to be staffed and prepared for larger-than-usual groups. Well, FIFA has made a reservation for up to 650,000 visitors to Kansas City for the six World Cup matches played at Arrowhead Stadium in 2026. As ticket […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans on Wednesday stopped a Democratic amendment to the annual defense authorization bill that would have compelled the release of the government’s investigative files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In a procedural vote, senators voted 51-49 to table the amendment filed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, effectively stopping […]
Just hours after hearing from President Donald Trump during a caucus meeting, Republicans in the Missouri Senate showed they are ready to please him by shoving a new congressional district map to passage over opposition from Democrats. The General Assembly is meeting in special session to revise the state’s eight congressional districts so Republicans are […]
The 3,200 Boeing mechanics and workers who have been on strike at Missouri and Illinois locations since August will vote on a new settlement agreement on Friday. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers announced Wednesday a union negotiating committee had reached a tentative agreement with Boeing Defense. “The five-year tentative agreement includes improvements […]
While Republicans continue their push to gerrymander Missouri’s congressional map, opponents are already eyeing a plan to ask voters to overturn it. And looming over the debate are approaching deadlines for Missouri ballots to be finalized and candidates to file for office, along with promises of lawsuits — with any delays potentially undermining efforts to […]
WASHINGTON — A siren blared down one of Washington, D.C.’s busiest thoroughfares. And then, a loud noise. Residents in nearby apartment buildings peered through windows and from balconies to find a dark-colored SUV bumped up against a moped lying on the ground. A dog walker called 911 to report the incident before it became apparent […]
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration made public Wednesday its plans to appeal a lower court ruling that keeps Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook on the independent central bank’s board, for now. In a 49-page opinion released late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb wrote that President Donald Trump “violated the Federal Reserve Act because (Cook’s) […]
One of former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s headline-grabbing actions — a rule that would have required social media companies to provide third-party content moderators — was quietly dropped just before he resigned. Bailey became co-deputy director of the FBI on Monday and was replaced as attorney general by Catherine Hanaway. The rule for social […]
KANSAS CITY — A man slept on the cool, gray steps of Independence Boulevard Christian Church, the building and its columns shielding his body from the midday sun on a recent weekday. A few others lingered in the shade under nearby trees. On Monday evenings, the more-than-century-old church in Historic Northeast Kansas City opens its […]
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration released its strategy to Make America Healthy Again on Tuesday, which officials hope will reduce chronic diseases and align federal policy with their beliefs. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a briefing on the strategy the 128 “recommendations are things that I’ve been dreaming about […]
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday said the Trump administration can temporarily hold on to $4 billion in foreign aid funding approved by Congress, overturning a lower court’s order and continuing a struggle over who controls the nation’s purse strings. The one-page ruling from the emergency docket, signed by Chief Justice John G. […]
Democrats on a U.S. House subcommittee on food and nutrition policy warned Tuesday that big changes to the major federal nutrition assistance program in Republicans’ spending and tax cuts law this year will lead some states to cut benefits. The law that President Donald Trump championed and that Congress passed this summer without any Democratic […]
A coalition of Missouri hemp business leaders and advocates formally filed four initiative petitions Tuesday that would ask voters to allow marijuana and intoxicating hemp products to be sold in the same stores as alcohol and tobacco. The goal of the effort, led by Kansas-City-based hemp business American Shaman, is to repeal the 41-page constitutional […]
Bills creating a gerrymandered congressional map and making it virtually impossible to change the state constitution through the initiative petition process are on their way to the Missouri Senate. The Missouri House gave final approval to both proposals Tuesday after two days of contentious debate. Gov. Mike Kehoe called the legislature back into session after […]
As a bankruptcy attorney, New Jersey Assemblymember Dan Hutchison said he sees clients “all the time” whose betting on football and baseball quickly leads to missed car payments, delinquent mortgages and, ultimately, bankruptcy. The rise of live, in-game bets — in which a gambler could place more than 200 individual bets during a baseball game […]