Access to affordable, high-quality child care is not just a family issue — it’s an economic imperative. In Missouri, parents, especially women, are forced to make difficult choices between going to work and ensuring their children are safe and taken care of. Gov. Mike Kehoe’s recent commitment to addressing this crisis in his 2025 State […]
Members of the Missouri House Budget Committee on Wednesday made Attorney General Andrew Bailey defend his request for millions in additional funding and his decision to sue Starbucks for allegations it discriminated against white applicants in hiring and promotions. Republican members of the committee led the questioning of Bailey’s request for new funds, asking why […]
The debate over how much to spend on public schools could turn into the first big disagreement between Gov. Mike Kehoe and the GOP-dominated Missouri General Assembly. Kehoe, a Republican who took office in January, refused to recommend a $300 million boost to public school funding in his first budget proposal. But education advocates in […]
Missouri’s highest court heard arguments Tuesday over whether a school district’s denial of multi-stall bathrooms and locker rooms to a transgender student is a form of sex discrimination. The case may decide if the Missouri Human Rights Act covers legal sex, such as when a birth certificate is amended after gender transition, or is limited […]
The Missouri House on Tuesday gave initial approval to legislation that would ban the state from seizing the Social Security benefits of foster children.
Emily Tavis was on a first date in December when she looked up and realized they were driving past the downtown Kansas City, Missouri, intersection where a bullet ripped through her leg at last year’s Super Bowl victory parade. “Oh f—,” Tavis said, bewildering her date. She lives 35 miles away in Leavenworth, Kansas, and […]
A major soybean research project, which collaborates with the University of Missouri, will shut down April 15 due to President Donald Trump’s dismantling of funding to the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Soybean Innovation Lab, based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, formed in 2011 to provide researchers and organizations with the resources needed […]
Missouri universities and research organizations will need to cut about $100 million from administrative costs for research funded last year by the National Institutes of Health or replace the money from other sources if President Donald Trump’s attempt to reduce indirect costs is successful. There were 1,553 grants worth $901 million issued by the NIH […]
Grain Belt Express has filed nearly 40 eminent domain petitions against Missouri property owners since 2021 as it prepares to build a transmission line across the state. The first eminent domain petition in Callaway County was filed last month for an easement of nearly an acre of land owned by Jordyn and Mitchell Christensen. Grain […]
For the first time in years, Democrats in the Missouri Legislature think they are about to feel the power of a fully operational Republican supermajority. Factional fighting in the state Senate made that body “a dumpster fire” last year, state Sen. Rick Brattin, chairman of the Missouri Freedom Caucus, said Thursday. The Freedom Caucus initiated […]
With the stroke of a pen, efforts to create an equal playing field for all Americans irrespective of race and gender are being eliminated under the guise that they promote unfairness and incompetence. Nothing could be further from the truth. History is our witness. There seems to be amnesia about whether this country has always […]
WASHINGTON — Less than three weeks into his second term, President Donald Trump and those working under his auspices — most prominently billionaire Elon Musk — are making no apologies for barreling over institutions and flouting the law. The Trump administration’s sweeping actions tee up a major test for the guardrails Americans, red or blue, […]
WASHINGTON — Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham on Friday released the text of the budget resolution that will lay the groundwork for Republicans in Congress to overhaul border security, boost defense funding and address energy extraction — if the two chambers can broker a deal. The South Carolina Republican announced earlier this week he […]
There’s an emerging blue-state nightmare: Inspired by President Donald Trump’s call to round up immigrants who are in the country illegally, Republican governors would send their National Guard troops into Democratic-led states without those leaders’ permission. It’s a scenario that was so concerning to Washington state Rep. Sharlett Mena that she introduced legislation that would […]
The Chiefs will make their third consecutive Super Bowl appearance on Sunday, and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas will be in New Orleans to cheer them on. Exactly who is funding the organization picking up the tab for this year’s trip, however, is not clear. Two years ago, the mayor attended the Super Bowl in […]
Jon Patterson still had three weeks before he officially took over as speaker of the Missouri House, but in mid-December he was already busy putting out fires from his soon-to-be predecessor. The Lee’s Summit Republican had caught wind that staff for then-Speaker Dean Plocher were making moves to fill open legislative jobs before Patterson took […]
Missourians will likely vote on an alternative abortion amendment in 2026. This amendment will be drafted and summarized by the Republican-controlled Missouri legislature, which aims to roll back provisions in Amendment 3 and further restrict abortion access. Instead of repeating past mistakes that endangered women and babies, Republicans should offer a commonsense abortion amendment. In […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. senators from both political parties wrote to the acting Social Security commissioner on Thursday, expressing concern it might take the agency more than a year to implement an expansion to benefits that Congress approved last year. “The Social Security Fairness Act restores full Social Security benefits for the millions of teachers, police […]
James Pointer’s life sentence in the Missouri Department of Corrections ended abruptly last week when he bled to death from an opening in his leg used to administer dialysis treatments. Pointer, 76, was housed at the Moberly Correctional Center, where the state prison agency keeps offenders with kidney disease because it has a dialysis center, […]
Legislation allowing low-dose intoxicating hemp drinks to continue to be sold in grocery and liquor stores won the approval of committees in both the Missouri House and Senate this week. A House committee advanced a bill 12 to 5 on Wednesday afternoon, followed the next morning by a 5 to 1 by a Senate committee. […]
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