MoInd 📰

The Federal Reserve’s first key interest rate cut in four years coincides with another major four-year event: the homestretch of the presidential election. Fed Chair Jerome Powell downplayed the central bank’s role in the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump on Wednesday, in announcing the half-percentage point cut in its […]

Soon after a series of state laws left a Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia, Missouri, unable to provide abortions in 2018, it shipped some of its equipment to states where abortion remained accessible. Recovery chairs, surgical equipment, and lighting from the Missouri clinic — all expensive and perfectly good — could still be useful to […]

Missouri corrections officers drenched an inmate with pepper spray and ignored his pleas for help for four hours, responding only when his screaming stopped as he died in the Tipton Correctional Center, a federal lawsuit filed this month alleges. The events that led to Brandon Pace’s death on April 7, 2023, began when correctional officers […]

WASHINGTON — Amid persistent child hunger and food insecurity in the United States, lawmakers and advocates on Wednesday stressed the importance of school meal programs during a U.S. Senate Agriculture subcommittee hearing. Hunger severely impacts kids’ emotional and physical well-being and can lead to negative outcomes in school, research has shown. Last year, 47.4 million people lived in food-insecure households, […]

A year ago this week, 27 pharmacists walked off their jobs in and around Kansas City to protest understaffing, low technician pay and burdensome workloads at some CVS-owned pharmacies. Their action forced about a dozen Kansas City-area pharmacies and 10 others in outlying areas to close anywhere from a few hours to two full days. […]

For months, Wendy Rodas felt disempowered and silenced whenever she tried to reach out to her daughter’s Missouri elementary school.  The El Salvadorian mother of three, who primarily speaks Spanish, struggled to communicate with teachers, administrators and district leaders. She made repeated requests for the interpretation services that she — and all public school parents who […]

After weeks of tussling between the two campaigns, Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Democrat Lucas Kunce are finally set to square off in a televised debate less than a week before voters head to the polls. The debate will air Oct 31 on Missouri Nexstar stations, including KTVI/KPLR-St. Louis, WDAF-Kansas City, KRBK-Springfield and KSN-Joplin […]

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s ban on intoxicating hemp products hit another hurdle on Tuesday, resulting in an indefinite pause on a huge part of the effort. Richard Moore, general counsel for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, said in a letter Tuesday that the state’s health regulators will stop embargoing — or tagging […]

WASHINGTON — As private student loan companies take heat over accusations of predatory behavior and deception, members of a U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs panel and student advocates voiced concerns over the industry at a hearing Tuesday. The Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection hearing came as the broader student […]

WASHINGTON — Public health advocates and farmworkers called for a federal ban on a toxic herbicide they say led to their Parkinson’s disease during a Tuesday briefing for congressional staffers. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will determine next year if the herbicide, paraquat dichloride, should have its license renewed for another 15 years. The herbicide […]

Three Missouri and two Kansas members of Congress serving constituents in the greater Kansas City area forwarded a joint letter Tuesday to the U.S. Postal Service demanding action to rectify problems with missing or delayed mail and protracted periods in which no mail was delivered at all. Republicans Reps. Sam Graves and Mark Alford, both […]

WASHINGTON — The closely divided U.S. Senate gridlocked Tuesday over the best way to provide nationwide protections for in vitro fertilization, despite lawmakers from both political parties maintaining they want to do so. Republicans voted against advancing a Democratic bill that could have prevented states from enacting “harmful or unwarranted limitations” on the procedure and […]

A political action committee created to support outgoing Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher’s political career paid attorneys defending him against allegations of misconduct almost $75,000 in late August.  According to campaign disclosure forms filed earlier this month, a PAC called Missouri United paid David Steelman and his law firm $21,000 on Aug. 23. The PAC […]

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is the guest of honor Tuesday night at a fundraiser for a pair of PACs at the home of a longtime Jefferson City lobbyist. The event is being advertised as a “celebration of public service” for the Republican governor and First Lady Teresa Parson. It’s hosted by Steve Tilley, a longtime […]

Pennsylvania wants to remain a manufacturing powerhouse. But state leaders also want to reduce climate change-causing emissions from steel mills and other industrial facilities, while cutting back the toxic pollutants that cause health problems in nearby neighborhoods. Thanks to a nearly $400 million investment from the federal government, the state is preparing a massive plan […]

Missouri’s general revenue has lagged behind inflation for two years in a row. And with that gap widening, the next few months could determine whether state revenue will see a year-over-year decline for the first time in more than a decade.  “September is a good sort of bellwether one for us, because that’s where we […]

Many voters are willing to accept misinformation from political leaders – even when they know it’s factually inaccurate. According to our research, voters often recognize when their parties’ claims are not based on objective evidence. Yet they still respond positively, if they believe these inaccurate statements evoke a deeper, more important “truth.” Our team conducted a […]

WASHINGTON — The presidential campaigns are rushing ahead this week without missing a beat, despite numerous law enforcement agencies investigating a possible assassination attempt Sunday on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, was looking to pick up an endorsement from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters during a private sit-down […]

Dr. Betsy Wickstrom says she’s still lacking clarity on what constitutes a medical emergency under Missouri’s abortion ban, despite the law having been in place for more than two years.  In Missouri, health care providers who perform abortions not deemed necessary emergencies can be charged with a class B felony, which means up to 15 […]

The farmworkers scattered. There was a union representative in the workers’ employer-provided housing, on an orchard in upstate New York. Their employer, major apple grower Porpiglia Farms, had hired them on H-2A, or temporary labor, visas. That day in August 2023, according to the workers’ union, United Farm Workers, the orchard’s owners burst in. The […]