MoInd 📰

WASHINGTON — The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office released a report Monday concluding the Federal Emergency Management Agency violated the law “when it withheld or delayed the obligation of” funding Congress approved for the Emergency Food and Shelter Program and the Shelter and Services Program. The finding is the sixth time this year the GAO has […]

A Democratic legislator from Springfield faces a Missouri House ethics investigation because of an obscene text message sent to a Republican colleague during debate over the new congressional district map. State Rep. Jeremy Dean of Springfield sent the text message on Sept. 4 to Republican state Rep. Cecelie Williams of Dittmer. Dean and other Democrats […]

MEXICO, Mo. — It’s been more than three years since the closure of Audrain Community Hospital, ending more than a century of continuous local care in the mid-Missouri community. Once a cornerstone of rural health care in the region and the first community cancer center in the state, the hospital shuttered in March 2022 after […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday it will redirect $495 million in additional funding to historically Black colleges and universities as well as tribal colleges.  The U.S. Education Department’s announcement came just days after the administration decided to gut and reprogram $350 million in discretionary funds that support minority-serving institutions over claims that these […]

Gov. Mike Kehoe called a special session to redraw Missouri’s congressional map without a compelling reason, attorneys for the Missouri NAACP said Monday. Therefore, they contend, the map passed by lawmakers should be declared void. In the first of what promises to be extensive legal wrangling over the new maps, Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher […]

An increasing number of immigrants without legal status — even some who have lived here for decades — are finding it easier to seek opportunities in other countries than to stay in the U.S. amid threats of detention and deportation. “This has never happened in our country before. We have had periods of voluntary departure, […]

Just before 8 a.m. on Jan. 31, an explosion rocked a nondescript one-story office building in an affluent suburb of Detroit. The building was home to The Oxford Center, a health clinic that provided hyperbaric oxygen therapy to treat a variety of disorders. Inside the clinic, a spark had ignited the high-pressure, pure-oxygen atmosphere in […]

Almost immediately after Missouri Republicans shut down debate last week to pass a newly gerrymandered congressional map, a pair of lawsuits were filed challenging its constitutionality.  Meanwhile, a referendum campaign seeking to repeal the map got a major financial boost over the weekend — a $500,000 donation from a national dark-money organization.  And a lawsuit […]

Missouri’s three most recent former attorneys general — all of whom claim to be “constitutional conservatives” — tripped over themselves to out-racism each other while auditioning for Trump.  This has not been good for Missouri. But it has worked out for the former AGs who have successfully used the office to get the hell out […]

The Missouri Senate died at 1:42 p.m. Friday afternoon when Republican leaders refused to allow debate on a measure weakening the initiative petition process, GOP state Sen. Lincoln Hough said in an interview with The Independent. A two-week special session to gerrymander Missouri’s congressional map and make it virtually impossible for voters to amend the […]

The Missouri Independent’s staff won 28 awards Saturday — including 10 first place honors — in the annual Missouri Press Association Better Newspaper Contest.  The awards were handed out at the association’s annual convention, which this year was held in Wildwood. The Independent swept the “investigative reporting” category, with first place going to Allison Kite […]

WASHINGTON — A Friday lawsuit from a civil rights group accused the Trump administration of bypassing deportation restrictions on immigrants slated for removal by sending them to Ghana and having the West African nation deport them to their countries of origin, despite credible findings they could face harm there. The move violates not only the […]

A newly-gerrymandered congressional map and limits on voters’ ability to amend the state constitution cleared the Missouri Senate Friday, capping two weeks of contentious debate that drew national attention. The changes to the initiative petition process will appear on the statewide ballot next year.  The new map, designed to give Republicans control of seven of […]

Several hundred Boeing workers cheered Friday afternoon at the St. Louis Music Park in Maryland Heights after learning union members voted overwhelmingly to reject a new contract offered by the company.  “It was jubilant for a minute,” said Boeing assembly mechanic Christy Williams, “and now we’re heading back to the strike line.” About 3,200 Boeing […]

The U.S. Department of Justice is sharing state voter roll information with the Department of Homeland Security in a search for noncitizens, the Trump administration confirmed. The data sharing comes after Justice Department attorneys this summer demanded that election officials in nearly two dozen states turn over their voter lists, alarming some Democratic state secretaries […]

In state legislatures around the country, medication abortion has emerged as the central focus of the fight over abortion rights. As Democratic lawmakers in blue states enact shield laws to protect abortion medication prescribers, their Republican counterparts — particularly in states that have banned abortion — are filing a flurry of bills to restrict access. […]

This column departs from my normal subject of Missouri statehouse issues. It reflects my concern that Donald Trump’s actions against foreign students could obstruct educational opportunities for students to better understand what is so special about journalism in the U.S. compared with other countries. One of my objectives as founder of MU’s State Government Reporting […]

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver warned Missouri lawmakers Thursday that the effort to redraw the 5th District seat to favor Republicans will be long remembered by voters who resent being swapped by politicians seeking to increase their power. Speaking to the Senate Local Government, Elections and Pensions Committee, Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat, noted that Texas […]

A Jackson County judge is weighing whether to keep in place two state regulations that Planned Parenthood says are preventing its providers from performing medication abortions in Missouri. Over the course of several hours Wednesday, attorneys for Planned Parenthood and the Missouri Attorney General’s Office argued before Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang over whether current regulations […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education announced it will withhold $350 million of congressionally approved funds to minority-serving colleges and universities and divert the funds elsewhere, saying that the institutions’ admissions quotas are discriminatory.   The move eliminated fiscal 2025 discretionary funding for institutions that serve students who are Asian, Black, Indigenous and Hispanic, as […]