a Better Bubble™

MoInd 📰

Safe storage and minimum age gun laws would curb violence, study says

1 month 4 weeks ago
The deadliest school shooting in Georgia history occurred earlier this month when a 14-year-old gunman, armed with a military-style rifle, killed two students and two teachers and injured nine others at Apalachee High School in Winder, a city about an hour northeast of Atlanta. And on Sunday, former President Donald Trump was the target of […]
Amanda Hernandez

Alleged ‘predatory’ contracts continue to surface in Missouri social-equity marijuana program

1 month 4 weeks ago
Destiny Brown thought she had been recruited last year to own and operate a small-scale Missouri cannabis dispensary — and get paid $200,000 to do it.  Cannabis investor Michael Halow told Brown, who is Black, that her disabled veteran status and the marijuana offense on her father’s record qualified her for a Missouri microbusiness license. The […]
Rebecca Rivas

Our news media as fact checker and truth-teller

1 month 4 weeks ago
As both the internet and social media continue to be among the primary sources of information for a large percentage of the population, our news media must assume responsibility and perform more boldly and consistently the role of fact checker and truth-teller. A recent survey reveals that no single media outlet singularly gains or maintains […]
Janice Ellis

The Independent wins 24 journalism awards in annual Missouri Press contest

2 months ago
The Missouri Independent won 24 awards Saturday — including nine 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 Springfield. “Atomic Fallout” — a months-long collaboration between The Independent’s Allison Kite, the Associated Press and […]
Staff Reports

Trump says Jewish voters would be partly to blame for election loss

2 months ago
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump said Thursday night that if he loses the election in November to Vice President Kamala Harris, Jewish voters “would really have a lot to do with that.” As the first anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel nears and the war in Gaza continues, the GOP presidential nominee […]
Shauneen Miranda

Missouri Supreme Court voted 4-3 to keep abortion on ballot, newly released opinions show

2 months ago
The decision to keep a constitutional amendment legalizing abortion on the November statewide ballot was decided by a narrowly-divided Missouri Supreme Court, according to opinions released Friday. The majority opinion was written by Judge Paul Wilson, with Chief Justice Mary Russell, Judge Robin Ransom and Judge Brent Powell concurring.  The dissent was authored by Judge […]
Anna Spoerre

Racing toward Election Day, control of U.S. Senate and House up for grabs

2 months ago
WASHINGTON — The country’s next president will need a friendly Congress to make their policy dreams a reality, but control of the two chambers remains deeply uncertain with just weeks until Election Day — and whether the outcome will be a party trifecta in the nation’s capital. Recent projections tilt in favor of Republicans taking […]
Ashley Murray

Lawsuit seeking to block Missouri ban on gender-affirming care for minors heads to trial

2 months ago
A lawsuit filed by transgender children and their parents challenging a one year-old Missouri law restricting minors from accessing cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers heads to trial in Cole County Circuit Court beginning Monday.  Plaintiffs are asking Circuit Court Judge Craig Carter, who typically serves in Wright County, to block the law’s enforcement. Pretrial briefs […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Some states want to make it easier to cancel subscriptions

2 months ago
When Tennessee state Rep. Bob Freeman, a Democrat, studied his cable and internet bill last year, he kept seeing recurring charges for app subscriptions he didn’t recognize. Turned out, his 14-year-old daughter had been signing up for subscriptions with introductory rates and never canceling when they rolled over to the full price. “I would question […]
Elaine Povich

The Fed says its long-awaited rate cut is apolitical, even close to the presidential election

2 months ago
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 […]
Casey Quinlan

Abortion clinics — and patients — are on the move as state laws keep shifting

2 months ago
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 […]
Bram Sable-Smith

New federal lawsuit pins blame for inmate’s death on Missouri prison officials

2 months ago
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 […]
Rudi Keller

Advocates call for expanding free school meals at U.S. Senate hearing

2 months ago
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, […]
Shauneen Miranda

Left powerless: Non-English–speaking parents denied vital translation services

2 months ago
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 […]
Amanda Geduld