For the 2.5 million Missourians in rural areas, health care is scarce and hospitals are struggling to survive. Rural communities have fewer than one-fifth as many OB-GYNs per capita, and hospital care is more than twice as far away as in urban and suburban Missouri. Over the last decade, 12 rural hospitals have closed and […]
It’s been a bruising year to be a Missouri Democrat. Even setting aside the broader tumult of Trump 2.0, life inside the Missouri Capitol has been especially unforgiving for Democrats. After years of infighting, Senate Republicans finally learned how to work together this year. Early in the 2025 legislative session, that newfound discipline broke through […]
Earlier this year, Gov. Mike Kehoe’s administration sent an internal memo to Missouri state employees requiring their return to office by late March. Across the state and throughout the country, other employers, including AT&T, JPMorgan and Ford, have taken similar steps this year. With 2025 marking half a decade since the beginning of COVID-19, the […]
WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice began releasing thousands of records Friday related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but questions remained over whether officials will meet the requirements of a law overwhelmingly backed by both Republicans and Democrats and signed by President Donald Trump. The department posted four data sets of images and documents […]
Ashley Murray, Jacob Fischler, Ariana Figueroa, Shauneen Miranda
President Donald Trump’s executive order to reschedule marijuana won’t change much in terms of how Missouri’s marijuana industry operates, business owners and legal experts agree. It doesn’t change the fact that marijuana can’t be transported or sold across state lines. It doesn’t do away with the cap on the number of business licenses to cultivate […]
A new group of bipartisan state legislative leaders issued a declaration at their first meeting calling for a renewed focus on states’ rights and an end to federal intrusion into state laws. The Assembly of State Legislative Leaders, which includes more than 40 lawmakers from 30 states, unanimously approved a 449-word declaration on the importance […]
As pennies vanish from the American landscape, many businesses are clamoring for federal guidance on how to handle cash transactions in a penniless world. Should retailers round up or down? Should they round in favor of the customer? Or in favor of the business? So far, calls for federal direction have gone unanswered. Some businesses […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration took major steps Thursday in a campaign to block minors’ access to gender-affirming care nationwide. Under two proposed new rules from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, hospitals would be barred from providing gender transition treatment for children as a condition of participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs, […]
The process of drafting a new formula to calculate state aid for Missouri’s public schools became more challenging this week as state officials discovered some federal data sources are likely to disappear. Kari Monsees, the state education department’s semi-retired chief of finance, told working groups tasked with revamping the formula that he hopes to find […]
In 2023, the U.S. secretaries of Education and Agriculture did something Missouri can’t shrug off: they wrote Gov. Mike Parson that from 1987 to 2020 the state underfunded Lincoln University by about $361 million in per-student support compared with the University of Missouri. It was a figure highlighted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and […]
Kansas legislative leaders will meet Monday to take one of the final steps toward luring the Kansas City Chiefs across the state line, floating bonds worth hundreds of millions so the team can build a domed stadium and an entertainment district. With a year-end deadline looming, the Legislative Coordinating Council will consider approving Sales Tax […]
The U.S. Department of Justice has sent a confidential draft agreement to more than a dozen states that would require election officials to remove any alleged ineligible voters identified during a federal review of their voter rolls. The agreement — called a memorandum of understanding, or MOU — would hand the federal government a major […]
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to loosen federal restrictions on marijuana, which Trump said reflected the drug’s potential medical benefits while discouraging recreational use. The order moves cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III on the Federal Drug Administration’s list of controlled substances. Schedule I, the most restrictive category under federal law, indicates […]
WASHINGTON — The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a prestigious cultural hub in the nation’s capital, will be renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Thursday. The renaming comes after President Donald Trump named himself chair of the board in February in a major shake-up. He later fired […]
WASHINGTON — A panel of appellate judges seemed skeptical during Thursday oral arguments that the Trump administration erred in relying on a decades-old statute to require millions of noncitizens to register with the federal government and carry documentation. But they did take issue with the paperwork required of immigrants without legal status as well as […]
Contracts are in place for a project that will test the wastewater of public schools in Missouri for signs of fentanyl and other drug use. The Missouri Department of Public Safety has been negotiating with Mighty Good Solutions DBA Stercus Bioanalytics, and the Missouri-based company is now the contractor on a $7 million statewide project. […]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning four major retailers about compliance with a recall of infant formula that has been linked to botulism. Ann Oxenham, the FDA’s top compliance officer for the human foods program, sent letters to Albertsons, Kroger, Target and Walmart Friday about ByHeart Whole Nutrition formula products remaining on some […]
The number of measles cases is continuing to grow, reaching 1,958 confirmed cases in 43 states through Dec. 16 and threatening to undo next year the United States’ status as a nation that has eradicated the disease, according to a report released Dec. 17 by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The increase […]
For a year, I’ve been writing and working with a larger coalition — What’s Next 4 Missouri — to ensure the story of Missouri’s fight for reproductive freedom is told accurately and rooted in justice. New abortion data backs our longstanding argument: that legal doesn’t mean accessible. State data reported in The Missouri Independent, and […]
The capital gains tax cut passed this year by Missouri lawmakers will cost far more than expected and shrink state revenues, a new state budget estimate shows. The consensus revenue estimate, issued Wednesday, anticipates that revenue in the year ending June 30 will be $400 million below estimates made a year ago. Growth will return […]
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