The Missouri Senate passed a criminal and juvenile justice bill Thursday on a 20-9 vote after hours of negotiations. Introduced by state Sen. Nick Schroer, a Republican from Defiance, the legislation seeks to classify older juveniles who commit felonies as adults and share fingerprints of juveniles involved in felonies to a central database. The bill […]
FULTON — What is leadership? That was the question Fulton Middle School eighth grader Kendall Acton posed Thursday to Winston Churchill — or at least to actor Randy Otto, who has spent more than 50 years portraying the former British prime minister on stage. The answer, Otto told an audience of about 400 students, could be […]
The bulk of the money Missouri gives to its crisis pregnancy centers comes from federal funds meant to assist families experiencing poverty with basic necessities and child care, Republican Rep. Jason Smith said on the U.S. House floor in January. As many as $3 of every $4 for pregnancy centers in Missouri was from the […]
Nearly one-third of the nation’s private sector workers are covered by paid leave programs as more states require employers to provide medical and family leave, according to a new analysis released this week. Currently, the District of Columbia and 13 states have passed laws requiring paid leave for many workers, according to a report from […]
We often treat Black history as a February retrospective, but the work of rebuilding what was extracted from communities like Mill Creek Valley requires a calendar without an expiration date. Mill Creek Valley was a once-thriving Black community dismantled in the name of urban renewal. Its destruction wasn’t caused by a lack of talent, entrepreneurship, […]
WASHINGTON — House Republicans and a handful of Democrats followed the Senate in blocking a measure Thursday to stop President Donald Trump from furthering the war in Iran without authorization from Congress. The joint war with Israel that began six days ago has already claimed the lives of six U.S. troops and injured and killed […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump Thursday said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will be leaving the post for a job as a special envoy, following an appearance before a U.S. Senate panel this week that provoked bipartisan criticism of her handling of the department that is tasked with fulfilling the administration’s mass deportation campaign. Oklahoma […]
A revised property tax overhaul proposes to lower the minimum school levy — the lowest tax a district can impose and still qualify for state aid — by up to 20%, the first cut since Missouri law began mandating a minimum in 1988. Under a bill sent to the Missouri Senate on Thursday by the […]
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s request to grade public schools on an “A” through “F” scale is pushing House lawmakers to approve legislation some think isn’t quite ready. With approval and dissent on both sides of the aisle, the House voted a bill to create a new school accountability system through to the Senate 96-53 Thursday […]
A supplemental spending bill pushing total state appropriations for the fiscal year to almost $55 billion was the first legislation sent to Gov. Mike Kehoe in this year’s session when the Missouri House voted 137-13 for final passage. The $3.1 billion spending package was pushed quickly through the General Assembly to speed distribution of $59.5 […]
Several Democratic states are moving to bar federal immigration agents from being near polling places and other election sites, amid persistent worries that President Donald Trump will use federal law enforcement or the military to disrupt the midterm elections. Measures to restrict federal agents from operating at or near election-related locations have been offered in […]
Missouri lawmakers Wednesday once again discussed a request for $294.6 million — including $35 million in state general revenue — to help the state implement federally mandated changes to safety net programs. Starting Jan. 1, 2027, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress last summer will require states to verify that Medicaid enrollees […]
When Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore signed emergency legislation last month prohibiting agreements between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration authorities, he was pushing back against one of the fastest-growing pieces of President Donald Trump’s deportation strategy. The expansion of immigration enforcement hasn’t happened primarily through high-profile raids: It has unfolded through formal partnerships […]
Amid a slew of proposed changes scaling the federal government’s role in broadening assistance in federal rental programs, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to rescind a 2024 regulation requiring public housing agencies and certain federally subsidized landlords to give 30 days’ notice before filing for eviction based on unpaid rent. Under […]
A ballot measure pushed by Republicans to change how majorities are calculated in Missouri for constitutional amendments proposed by initiative must clearly alert voters that is its intent, a Cole County judge ruled Wednesday. The decision from Circuit Judge Daniel Green is the written version of his oral ruling from Feb. 19 that provisions critics […]
The proposal to eliminate the state income tax is moving to the Missouri House floor following a party-line committee vote Wednesday. The 7-3 vote on Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe’s top priority followed a heated discussion where Democrats on the House Commerce Committee accused Republicans of steering the state into a fiscally dangerous future. “You don’t […]
Don Mayhew believes in the free market. “We have choice in a lot of different things. Go to a grocery store — there’s four different brands of green beans you can buy,” said Mayhew, a Republican Crocker. “We know that competition in any marketplace is the foundation — the cornerstone — of our capitalist system.” […]
A bill that would ban three-cueing and establish new reading assessments was discussed in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday. After legislation prohibiting three-cueing as a primary instructional method passed last year, legislators are now aiming for an outright ban. Three-cueing, also known as the Meaning Structure Visual system, teaches kids to read by using […]
When Mark Ludwig lost shared custody of his son more than a decade ago, his life fell apart. “The devastation of losing my son who was my sole purpose in life, I couldn’t function,” Ludwig, who lives in the St. Louis area, told the Missouri House Children and Families Committee in late January. “I lost […]
The Missouri Senate on Tuesday stripped money for furnishing new space for the attorney general’s office and sending a tourism team to Washington, D.C., from a spending bill funding state agencies through June 30. The changes cut about $1.1 million in general revenue spending from the supplemental appropriation bill that had already been cut by […]
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