MoInd 📰

The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to slash its presence in the Washington, D.C., area by sending employees to five regional hubs, Secretary Brooke Rollins said Thursday. The department wants to reduce its workforce in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia from 4,600 to less than 2,000 and add workers to regional offices in […]

Across the nation, Medicaid is the single largest payer for mental health care, and in rural America, residents disproportionately rely on the public insurance program. But Medicaid cuts in the massive tax and spending bill signed into law earlier this month will worsen mental health disparities in those communities, experts say, as patients lose coverage […]

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is suing the national Planned Parenthood organization over its claims regarding the abortion drug mifepristone. Bailey filed the lawsuit against the Planned Parenthood Federation of America on Wednesday in Cole County Circuit Court. The lawsuit argues Planned Parenthood’s national organization has misled consumers about the safety of mifepristone, which is […]

WASHINGTON — A measure that would set a national framework for college athletes’ compensation got one step closer to becoming law Wednesday after advancing in two separate U.S. House panels. The bill’s fate remains uncertain as it makes its way through Congress, and Democrats argue that the legislation would give “unchecked authority” to the NCAA on athletes’ […]

The Health and Human Services Department illegally withheld payments from Head Start for the first months of President Donald Trump’s term, a government watchdog reported Wednesday. HHS payments for Head Start this year were significantly behind schedule compared with 2024. That violated the Impoundment Control Act, a law governing the president’s duty to spend congressionally […]

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration official running the Federal Emergency Management Agency testified Wednesday the response to flash flooding in Texas over the Fourth of July weekend served as an “outstanding” model for the rest of the country. His conclusions about the catastrophic flooding, which had a death toll of 135 and included extensive search and […]

The U.S. Department of Energy announced Wednesday it was cancelling a conditional $4.9 billion loan for the Grain Belt Express, a planned transmission line designed to transport electricity generated by wind farms in Kansas across four states, including Missouri. The loan, which was issued by the Biden administration in November 2024, is being cancelled because […]

The clergy, 250 strong, gathered on the steps of the Kansas City Convention Center. They proclaimed a clear, moral argument opposing the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign targeting immigrants. “God knows no border” was among the chants. They were among thousands attending the United Church of Christ General Synod in Kansas City July 11-15. The […]

For as much promise as artificial intelligence shows in making life better, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is worried. The tech leader who has done so much to develop AI and make it accessible to the public says the technology could have life-altering effects on nearly everything, particularly if deployed by the wrong hands. There’s a […]

This story was originally published by KCUR 89.3.   In July 2023, LaTonya Williams, volunteer president of the school board in St. Joseph, Missouri, posted photos on her personal Facebook page of recent purchases from Target. Among them were rainbow pillows and other colorful items she found in the dollar bin, intended for use at […]

WASHINGTON — A group of U.S. House Democrats on Tuesday blasted President Donald Trump’s administration for what they called “cruelty” and “lawlessness” in carrying out mass deportations of migrants without legal status. At a forum at the U.S. Capitol, Democrats who sit on the House Homeland Security Committee and others rebuked the administration’s sweeping immigration […]

Republicans on the U.S. House Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday to rename the Opera House at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., for first lady Melania Trump. The panel adopted, 33-25, a package of amendments to the bill funding the Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency and related agencies for fiscal 2026 that included a provision to designate the […]

WASHINGTON — House Republicans are headed home early for their August break after an uproar over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files all but halted any possibility of floor action. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday he’s sending his members back to their districts until September to avoid “political games” relating to a bipartisan […]

Cities and counties are not allowed to stack sales taxes on marijuana products, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.  In a 6-1 decision, the state’s highest court concluded the 2022 constitutional amendment that legalized recreational marijuana limits the definition of “local government” to allow only one municipality to impose a 3% sales tax — […]

Problems with the presentation of a Missouri Sunshine Law case, along with misinterpretation of a lower court ruling, doomed the appeal in a closely watched lawsuit over what must be included in a meeting notice and what constitutes a meeting that can be held on short notice. The Western District Missouri Court of Appeals, in […]

This report has been updated. WASHINGTON — A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Monday, blocking a provision in Republicans’ “big, beautiful” law that would have barred Medicaid funding from going to Planned Parenthood for one year. District Court Judge Indira Talwani wrote in a 36-page opinion that Planned Parenthood established “a substantial likelihood of success […]

The Missouri Supreme Court isn’t as ready to hear the appeal of a ruling that allowed abortions to resume in the state as Attorney General Andrew Bailey is to argue it in front of the seven judges. In filings for an appeal of Jackson County Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang’s July 3 preliminary injunction, Bailey’s office […]

The head of Missouri’s cannabis testing unit said the new unannounced visits to collect product samples shouldn’t impact business, in a podcast by the Missouri Cannabis Regulation Division. “This is going to be just another arm of compliance, guys,” said Ryan Bernard, the division’s testing and research unit manager. “So keep this business as usual […]

WASHINGTON — Republicans’ “big, beautiful” law will add $3.394 trillion to deficits during the next decade and lead 10 million people to lose access to health insurance, according to an analysis released Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The updated assessment of the sweeping tax and spending cuts law came weeks after nearly every […]

Congress set aside $50 billion for rural hospitals and medical providers to allay fears over the billions more in historic cuts to federal health care spending that President Donald Trump signed into law on Independence Day. But is that bandage big enough to save struggling rural hospitals? “I have more questions than I have answers,” […]