Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr. has proposed a new path forward for the Chiefs to remain at Arrowhead Stadium. In a letter sent to Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe on July 8, obtained through a Sunshine Law request by The Beacon, White suggested renewing the same three-eighths-cent sales tax that failed last year — but […]
A Kansas City company is illegally marketing pills that have opioid-like effects and could face possible action, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wrote in a warning letter sent Tuesday. Shaman Botanicals LLC is a leading supplier of a substance called 7-OH being sold in pill form and as an ingredient in drinks. The name, […]
Missouri State Treasurer Vivek Malek improperly deposited almost $35 million in interest on a fund for improving Interstate 70 instead of putting it in the general revenue fund, State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick said in a report issued Tuesday. The audit said that the interest, although earned on the road improvement funds, should have gone into […]
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education has emerged as central in the struggle over control of the power of the purse in the nation’s capital. Democrats in Congress are pushing back hard on the Trump administration’s freeze of $6.8 billion in funds for after-school programs and more at public schools, some of which open […]
A little more than two weeks after telling a state Senate committee they have “never been close” to an agreement, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and University of Missouri Health Care have restored a network arrangement suspended since April 1. The failure to reach an agreement before the previous contract expired left about 90,000 […]
Elon Musk’s announcement that he plans to form a new political party came easily, with the billionaire simply posting his intentions on his social media platform, X. Now comes the hard part. If the world’s richest man seriously pursues his goal of standing up what he calls the America Party, Musk will have to navigate […]
An effort is being co-led by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to urge passage of legislation that seeks to generally prohibit federal immigration agents from wearing masks to conceal their identity and requiring them to show their identification and agency-identifying insignia. The coalition of 21 attorneys general sent a letter Tuesday to members of Congress, […]
The Trump administration must allow refugees to enter the United States from countries covered by the president’s travel ban, a federal judge in Seattle ruled Monday. U.S. District Court Judge Jamal Whitehead’s decision opens the door for around 80 refugees to immediately arrive from countries whose citizens are banned from traveling here. Whitehead also ruled […]
For nearly a month, hundreds of thousands of Iowans have not been allowed to water their lawns — even though there’s no drought. Local authorities previously asked the public to refrain from washing cars and filling pools. And some cities turned off splash pads in the height of summer heat. While such measures are common […]
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration, for now, to proceed with mass layoffs and a plan to dramatically downsize the Education Department ordered earlier this year. The decision from the nation’s highest court marks a major victory for President Donald Trump, who has sought to overhaul the federal role in […]
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a bill Monday that would establish a fund to pay for hyperbaric oxygen therapy for veterans with a traumatic brain injury and facing post-traumatic stress disorder to help prevent suicide and opioid addiction. This spring, the legislation received overwhelming support from state lawmakers, passing with a 33-0 vote in the […]
Local laws prohibiting landlords from discriminating against tenants who receive public assistance are unenforceable under legislation signed Monday by Gov. Mike Kehoe. The legislation takes aim at ordinances passed in several Missouri cities to protect tenants from discrimination based on the source of their income — especially tenants who use federal housing choice vouchers, known […]
A Missouri bill closing records with personal information about young people and state court personnel includes provisions that could help governments hide records intended to be public, open government advocates said Monday. Gov. Mike Kehoe signed the bill Monday, along with 11 other measures, as he finished work on legislation passed this year by state […]
Twenty-eight cities and counties including Baltimore, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Rochester, New York, joined a lawsuit July 10 challenging Trump administration attempts to withhold federal funds because of local policies on immigration enforcement; diversity, equity and inclusion; gender equity; and abortion access. Funding for housing, transit, health care, civil rights and other essential programs has […]
Though many legislative sessions have concluded for the year, states could soon see more changes to reproductive health care access with new federal legislation that might lead to clinic closures, as well as pending health policies on abortion pills. Reduced access to abortion and reproductive health care are expected following the reconciliation budget bill President Donald […]
New members of the Missouri State Board of Education discovered their powers to direct schools are more limited than they expected during a retreat last week. The board spent two days talking about the powers it has — and those it does not — to impact a public education system they’d like to tweak. “People […]
When St. Louis Alderman Shane Cohn filed legislation last year to regulate intoxicating hemp products, he didn’t hear much about it from local residents or leaders of the fast-growing industry. “I did not get one call, email, etc., when I introduced this last session,” Cohn said, a Democrat who represents a southern portion of St. […]
Global clashes and trade wars hammered Midwestern states’ agricultural economies early this year, while a continuing boom in Southeastern states’ housing and tech jobs kept their economies humming along. Some Southeastern states were seeing a strong agricultural economy because of still-rising poultry and egg prices, though small row-crop farmers there were still caught in the […]
In this toxic political environment it may seem like we, the people of the state of Missouri and the United States, do not have the power to control the policies that determine what the “Show Me” state and the “Land of the Free” become. We do. But only if we are willing to take a […]
Congress’ passage of President Donald Trump’s spending and tax cuts bill this month could help grow the market for sustainable aviation fuel, a nascent industry that could be a boon for corn-producing states as airline operators are betting on it to decarbonize the sector. The Republican budget reconciliation law that Trump signed July 4 pared back […]