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For four years, state Rep. Mike Stephens occupied prime real estate on the third floor of the Missouri Capitol. His office in room 306B certainly wasn’t the biggest in the space-starved statehouse, where staff often work out of musty, windowless rooms, and many lawmakers are stacked on top of each other in non-ADA compliant mezzanines.  […]

The post In a statehouse short on space, Dean Plocher converted an office into a liquor ‘pantry’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Congress is staring down a funding cliff in mid-January and a second one in early February, but neither of those deadlines have inspired House and Senate leaders to broker agreement on the dozen bills that were supposed to become law by Oct. 1. Appropriators are concerned the upcoming election year and competing legislative priorities […]

The post A ‘chaotic’ January? Congress faces two shutdown deadlines with no action yet on spending appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In 2024, former President Donald Trump will face some of his greatest challenges: Criminal court cases, primary opponents and constitutional challenges to his eligibility to hold the office of president again. The Colorado Supreme Court has pushed that latter piece to the forefront, ruling on Dec. 19, 2023, that Trump cannot appear on Colorado’s 2024 […]

The post Does 14th Amendment bar Trump from office? A constitutional scholar explains Colorado ruling appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Senators attempting to clinch a bipartisan agreement on immigration and border policy gave the clearest indication yet Tuesday they’ll work into the new year, further delaying aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. “We are closer than ever before to an agreement, but … we need to get this right,” said Connecticut Sen. Chris […]

The post US Senate negotiators see progress in immigration talks, but no deal likely until 2024 appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered former President Donald Trump to be barred from the state’s 2024 presidential ballot under a Civil War-era insurrection clause, in a historic ruling certain to be promptly appealed to the nation’s highest court. Six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters, backed by the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics […]

The post Colorado Supreme Court blocks Trump from 2024 ballot in historic insurrection ruling appeared first on Missouri Independent.

One of Missouri’s highest-ranking lawmakers hopes to stop state regulators from forcing electric utilities to charge a premium for power used at times of high demand. The legislation filed by Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin was inspired by Evergy’s roll out of time-of-use pricing plans to its customers last summer, which included a plan that […]

The post Missouri legislative leader files bill targeting time-of-use utility pricing plans appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators late Monday said they are closer to an agreement on changes to immigration policy in order to clear a multi-billion-dollar global security package, but any timing on a deal or details of that framework remained elusive. “While the job is not finished, I’m confident that we’re headed in the right direction,” […]

The post Hopes dim even more for immigration agreement in US Senate before holidays appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Next year is packed with potential shifts in the economy but many economists and investment analysts expect that the country will likely avoid a recession in 2024 even as growth slows in the first half of the year. States Newsroom talked to economists about their expectations for some key metrics as well as their concerns about what could […]

The post The US avoided a recession in 2023. What’s the outlook for 2024? appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The SOO Green electric transmission project, a 350-mile high-voltage line between Mason City, Iowa, and Plano, Illinois, was proposed in 2018 to deliver renewable power and to better connect the nation’s two largest power markets. The project won approval from Iowa regulators this fall. The developers of the line, which will link wind and solar power produced […]

The post Building transmission takes forever. The Biden administration is pushing to change that appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In business, relationships matter. This is the case for any organization, including small businesses, but the magnitude cannot be understated for women business owners. The impact of relationships is so vital, the creation of a small business hinging on a banking institution loaning money to get the business off the ground. Women business owners face […]

The post Why aren’t women business owners getting the support they need? appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Almost four years after Kansas City became the first major American city to completely abandon bus fares, the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority may go back to making riders pay. But researchers studying the public health effects of free-to-ride buses suggest considering a bigger picture before hitting up riders for money. Public health researchers from […]

The post Fare-free buses can mean health gains in Kansas City appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As leaders in Washington negotiate a bipartisan immigration deal, former President Donald Trump used inflammatory language to demonize immigrants during a Saturday campaign speech in New Hampshire that echoed Adolf Hitler. Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president in next year’s election, said that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.” He […]

The post Trump borrows from the language of Hitler for anti-immigration speech in New Hampshire appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Hispanic middle class has grown faster than the white or Black middle class in the past decade and has reached near-parity with the white middle class in seven states, according to a new Stateline analysis. Between 2012 and 2022, the percentage of Hispanic households in the country that qualified as middle class grew from […]

The post More Hispanic families are reaching the middle class appeared first on Missouri Independent.

​​Livingston County R-III was among a litany of school districts last year with a performance report that could have put its accreditation in jeopardy. But this year, it has the highest score in Missouri, swelling more than 35 points to receive 96.1% of the points possible — a synthesis of student test scores, attendance, school-district […]

The post Missouri school administrators question district scores in second year of new formula appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Community colleges and four-year universities can work together to improve the transfer student experience, a data report from the U.S. Department of Education suggests. The U.S. Department of Education released data about the institutions where transfer students have the highest graduation rates in each state, with New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Maryland and Virginia doing […]

The post Researchers look at how to help more community college students gain four-year degrees appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Census Bureau has proposed a major change to disability questions on its annual American Community Survey that advocates say will reduce the number of people who are counted as disabled by 40%. The change in available data could affect federal funding allocations and the decisions government agencies make about accessible housing, public transit, and […]

The post Census Bureau’s proposed changes threaten to undercount people with disabilities, advocates say appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri’s crackdown on a cannabis company accused of illegally importing THC concentrate could lead to a showdown over the state’s authority to regulate the industry. Delta Extraction had its license to manufacture cannabis products revoked in November, months after a massive recall pulled more than 60,000 products off the shelves — which the state says […]

The post Company behind Missouri marijuana recall poses legal challenge to state’s regulations appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As Missouri lawmakers face state budget proposals in the 2024 legislative session, they might want to consider what their staff had reported about the financial impact of tax cuts passed in prior years. In 2023, the legislature approved tax reductions for government employee pensions and Social Security benefits. A year earlier, the legislature passed a […]

The post Capitol Perspectives: Legislative estimates of tax cut losses appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After skyrocketing in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and then tempering almost as dramatically a year later, health care spending in the U.S rose just over 4% in 2022, hitting $4.5 trillion, the federal government announced Wednesday. The annual growth in the nation’s health care spending appears to be returning to pre-pandemic trends, […]

The post Spending on health care in US rises to $4.5 trillion in 2022; a return to pre-pandemic growth rates appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri’s highest court this week heard arguments over the constitutionality of a two-year-old state law terminating parental rights following a conviction for certain crimes against children.  The case, heard Wednesday by the state Supreme Court, involves a Jefferson County father whose parental rights were terminated after he pled guilty to child molestation and sexual misconduct […]

The post Missouri Supreme Court weighs whether crimes against children should sever parental rights appeared first on Missouri Independent.