MoInd 📰

The U.S. Postal Service won’t deliver mail ballots in states that refuse to turn over lists of voters under a proposed rule, the agency’s chief executive said Wednesday, angering Democrats who warn the decision will disenfranchise voters. Postmaster General David Steiner defended the rule at a Senate hearing and dismissed accusations that the Postal Service was […]

The state of California and the Trump administration are on course for a major legal clash that could determine whether the state will continue to have unique authority to shape the American automotive market. On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s attempt to roll back California’s […]

Missouri courts were supposed to automatically erase eligible marijuana misdemeanors from criminal records by June 8, 2023, six months after voters legalized recreational marijuana. But in a recent St. Louis case, the Missouri State Highway Patrol told an appellate court that “hundreds of thousands” of marijuana offenses may still exist on criminal records that should […]

Seventeen Republican attorneys general have sued California over a state law that requires plastic packaging producers to move away from single-use plastics, alleging that the law will raise costs for consumers across the country. Led by Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers and the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, the complaint filed Monday in the U.S. District […]

Kate Dineen assumed she would always have access to reproductive healthcare because of where she lived. It came as a shock when she was denied an abortion in 2021 because of gestational limits to the procedure in Massachusetts law. Dineen was 33 weeks into her pregnancy, the third trimester, when a routine ultrasound detected a […]

Secretary of State Denny Hoskins wants the courts to shield him from disclosing how his office is reviewing a disputed batch of signatures on a referendum petition challenging the state’s new congressional map. In a lawsuit filed Monday, Hoskins is suing People Not Politicians, the political action committee pushing for a referendum. Hoskins is asking […]

WASHINGTON — An appeals court Tuesday cleared the way for the Trump administration to use fast-track deportations within the interior of the country and not just at the Southern border, a key pillar in the president’s mass deportation campaign. The 2-1 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia means the […]

By Kaitlin Bender-Thomas/Medill News Service WASHINGTON — Even with a valid driver’s license, Maryse Balthazar knows she lacks protection from what she dreads most: deportation back to Haiti.  Balthazar, a nursing assistant, often hesitates to leave her home in South Florida, worried that something as simple as a broken taillight could upend the life she’s […]

Labor and human rights concerns have long been entwined with FIFA and the World Cup. The 2026 games, which are drawing unprecedented international attention to Kansas City, are no different. Activists in Kansas City are using the world’s focus on soccer to highlight workers’ rights, social inequities and safety concerns for immigrants in the cities […]

Mylissa McNeill never expected to be a mother. But when she learned she was pregnant in the spring of 2022, at age 41, she and her partner were happy and excited at the prospect of parenting a little girl they planned to name Maeve. On June 24, 2022, about one month after McNeill discovered she was pregnant, […]

States and cities are loosening building code requirements in an effort to lower construction costs and boost affordable housing. Some of these changes include allowing low-rise apartment buildings to have just one stairway, reducing how often building codes are updated and rolling back specific electrical or fire safety standards. But critics have raised safety concerns, […]

For more than 40 years, Missourians have paid a small sales tax that supports state parks and soil and water protection programs. This year it is on the Aug. 4 ballot for a 10-year renewal. After barely passing the first time it was on the ballot in 1984, the tax has been renewed four times […]

The application window to win one of 77 microbusiness marijuana licenses through a lottery selection will open July 13-27.  The selection lottery is scheduled to take place on Sept. 9, and the Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation expects to issue the licenses in December, according to a press release issued Monday. Microbusinesses are marijuana facility […]

The Trump administration illegally overhauled a U.S. Department of Homeland Security computer program in its hunt for noncitizen voters, a judge ruled Monday in a stinging decision that laid into federal officials for violating the privacy of millions of Americans. The ruling struck at the core of President Donald Trump’s project to assert authority over […]

For some teenagers across the country, the summer is the first opportunity to gain work experience for their nascent resume.  In a handful of states, however, teens who find jobs will find fewer protections under child labor laws. Four states — Indiana, Nebraska, Washington and West Virginia — enacted laws this year that weaken child […]

TOPEKA — Cole Epley isn’t afraid to run for Congress as a “proud progressive.” The 28-year-old believes he’s the best choice for the Democratic nomination in the Wichita-area 4th District because moderate candidates have already shown they can’t defeat incumbent Republican Rep. Ron Estes. In an appearance on the Kansas Reflector podcast, Epley said a […]

The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association and a family planning organization in Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Health and Human Services agency on Thursday alleging that it is politicizing the Title X grant funding program and violating the intent of the law. Attorneys from the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil […]

American teens are driving less than in previous decades, prompting civic advocates to warn that fewer young people may register to vote. Yet at least one state — New Hampshire — offers insight into how civic groups can work around a lack of registration opportunities to ensure young people can register, as well as the […]

WASHINGTON — When the overhead lights turn off at the Farmville Detention Center in Virginia, it not only means that night has arrived for Aliaksei Scharbachenia, but that panic attacks will soon follow. The attacks, which started after his detention began last August, he said, have only grown worse, stemming from the fear that he […]

A half dozen Republican governors are pushing alternative labels for June, which is widely recognized in the United States as Pride Month. Without explicitly tying their efforts to a replacement of Pride Month — which celebrates the LGBTQ+ community — GOP governors in states including Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Nebraska, Tennessee and Utah have labeled June […]