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MoInd šŸ“°

Black colleges ponder their future as Trump makes cuts to education dollars

11 months 3 weeks ago
The nation’s historically Black colleges and universities, known as HBCUs, are wondering how to survive in an uncertain and contentious educational climate as the Trump administration downsizes the scope and purpose of the U.S. Department of Education — while cutting away at federal funding for higher education. In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive […]
Robbie Sequeira

Economists blast calculations for ā€˜bombshell’ Trump tariffs as faulty while stocks plunge

11 months 3 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — Markets and business owners in the United States and around the world reeled Thursday following President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping and steep tariffs that are not ā€œreciprocalā€ but rather punish many countries that U.S. importers heavily rely on, experts say. U.S. stocks plummeted, posting the worst one-day drop since June 2020, financial media […]
Ashley Murray

Kansas City-area man deported after visiting grandfather’s grave in Mexico

11 months 3 weeks ago
Evenezer Cortez Martinez wanted to pay respects to a beloved grandfather who died last fall. He ended up deported, sent back to Mexico, a country the 39-year-old Kansas husband and father left at the age of 4. ā€œEverything was approved, and I arrived here with no problem,ā€ said Cortez Martinez, a DACA recipient, in a […]
Mary Sanchez

Missouri House finishes work on $48 billion state budget plan

11 months 3 weeks ago
The Missouri House sent the state Senate a budget of almost $48 billion to fund state agency operations in the coming fiscal year, a spending plan almost certain to grow as the upper chamber adds more money for public schools and child care. The 13 spending bills use about $2.1 billion less overall and $800 […]
Rudi Keller

Pentagon watchdog will probe ā€˜Signalgate,’ in response to senators

11 months 3 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department’s Office of the Inspector General announced Thursday it has opened an investigation into Secretary Pete Hegseth’s highly criticized use of the Signal messaging app to communicate about plans to bomb Yemen. The evaluation stems from a letter the chairman and ranking member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Republican […]
Jennifer Shutt

States ordered by U.S. Education Department to certify school DEI ban or lose funds

11 months 3 weeks ago
This story was updated at 6:44 p.m. EDT. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education demanded in a letter to state education leaders on Thursday that they certify all K-12 schools in their states are complying with an earlier Dear Colleague letter banning diversity, equity and inclusion practices if they want to keep receiving federal financial […]
Shauneen Miranda

US House Dems say NOAA cuts will harm weather forecasting, fisheries, Navy operations

11 months 3 weeks ago
Democrats on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee and a panel of experts on Wednesday blasted the Trump administration’s reduction to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s budget and workforce, citing consequences for everyday weather data, national security and affected industries. Virtually every American interacts with NOAA’s weather data, which supplies forecasting services across the […]
Jacob Fischler

Vexed by judicial restraints on Trump, U.S. Senate GOP floats bill to undercut courts

11 months 3 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — Amid dozens of injunctions placed against the Trump administration, Republicans on the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary discussed a bill Wednesday to curb the nationwide effects of those orders from federal judges. TheĀ bill, sponsored by GOP Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who leads the committee, would prohibit district court judges from issuing injunctions […]
Ariana Figueroa

Ethics panel issues ā€˜reproval’ to lawmaker who ran for Missouri House speaker

11 months 3 weeks ago
A Missouri House member violated a state disclosure law by voting on an appropriation that helped his employer, according to a report approved unanimously on Wednesday by the House Ethics Committee. The committee, made up of five Republicans and five Democrats, was investigating a complaint against state Rep. Justin Sparks, a Republican from Wildwood, related […]
Rudi Keller

Trump to impose 10% base tariff on international imports, higher levies on some nations

11 months 3 weeks ago
This story was updated at 6:55 p.m. EDT. WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump rolled out sweeping ā€œreciprocalā€ tariffs Wednesday on trading partners and allies across the globe. Declaring that foreign trade practices have created a ā€œnational emergency,ā€ the president unveiled a baseline 10% levy on all international imports, plus what he described as additional ā€œkindā€ […]
Ashley Murray

Missouri Right to Life voices opposition to newest version of anti-abortion amendment

11 months 3 weeks ago
The newest reworking of a proposed constitutional amendment seeking to undermine abortion rights in Missouri has managed to draw the ire of the state’s largest anti-abortion group. The version of the Republican-backed amendment approved by a House committee Monday, if passed out of the legislature and approved by voters, would outlaw abortion with limited exceptions […]
Anna Spoerre

Nomination of Missouri’s Ed Martin as US attorney for D.C. blocked in Senate

11 months 3 weeks ago
A Democratic U.S. senator from California is blocking the nomination of Missouri Republican Ed Martin to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, calling him a ā€œone-man wrecking ballā€ on social media. U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, in a news release issued Tuesday, cited Martin’s actions since being named interim U.S. attorney as the reason […]
Rudi Keller

Judge orders fired federal probationary workers reinstated in 19 states, D.C.

11 months 3 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Maryland late Tuesday ordered federal agencies across 19 states and the District of Columbia to reinstate thousands of probationary workers who were fired as part of White House adviser Elon Musk’s government-slashing agenda. U.S. Judge James Bredar for the District of Maryland issued the preliminary injunction mandating 20 federal […]
Ashley Murray

Bill would increase Missouri secretary of state’s role in initiative petition process

11 months 3 weeks ago
In the spring of 2023, efforts were underway to put the question of restoring abortion access to Missouri voters. Abortion-rights supporters geared up to collect the roughly 171,000 signatures required to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot. Per the state’s initiative petition process, then-Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft wrote a summary of their proposed […]
Natanya Friedheim

Few changes made in $48B state budget during Missouri House debate

11 months 3 weeks ago
Democrats failed on Tuesday to win major changes in the $47.9 billion state budget plan during Missouri House debate, suffering defeat on proposals to shift money to the school funding formula and increase payments to child care providers. Few Republicans broke ranks with party leadership on those or any other proposal put forth by Democrats, […]
Rudi Keller

Consumers, business owners hold their breath waiting for the Trump tariffs

11 months 3 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — American business owners and consumers are bracing as President Donald Trump teases, with few details, the announcement of sweeping tariffs expected Wednesday afternoon. Trump has dubbed April 2 ā€œLiberation Day,ā€ his self-imposed deadline to fulfill his campaign promise of taxing imported products from around the globe. The White House confirmed Tuesday that Trump […]
Ashley Murray

Trump administration move could cost Missouri millions in family-planning funding

11 months 3 weeks ago
More than 1 million people seeking care such as contraception or testing for sexually transmitted diseases and cancer could be affected by the Trump administration withholding more than $27 million in Title X funding to Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide, according to estimates from the Guttmacher Institute. Planned Parenthood state affiliates said they were notified that […]
Kelcie Moseley-Morris