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The push to legalize recreational marijuana use in Missouri is coming from multiple directions, with a handful of proposed initiative petitions and at least one bill, and potentially more, backed by Republican lawmakers.  Each hopes to place the issue on the 2022 ballot for voter approval. And each proposal also includes a provision that, while […]

The post As Missouri looks to legalize recreational marijuana, expungement gets renewed attention appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Critical Race Theory. Uncritical Race Theory. Factual Race Theory. Call it what you will. But as the saying goes, “A rose called by any other name is still a rose.” Racism called by any other name is still racism. So, let’s step away from the naming, and name calling, and try to find some common […]

The post No matter what we call it, let’s find common understanding about race and racism | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators is exploring legislation to overhaul how Congress counts Electoral College votes, but backers of stalled voting rights legislation are lukewarm on the effort as a substitute. The Electoral Count Act is an obscure law that has come under recent scrutiny, a year after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol […]

The post With voting rights stalled, some senators mull an update to the Electoral Count Act appeared first on Missouri Independent.

St. Louis hospitals straining to keep up with a record-breaking number of COVID-19 cases will get some relief in the form of a military medical team. A 40-member team will begin arriving at BJC-Christian Hospital in North St. Louis County on Wednesday, a news release from BJC HealthCare stated. The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task […]

The post Military medical team heads to St. Louis to support COVID care at Christian Hospital appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Many of us heard of the passing of Sarah Weddington, the fearless attorney who represented Jane Roe in the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case 49  years ago this month. As I reflect on her accomplishment, I’m met with deep frustration, fear, and hope for what this day represents. Frustration that nearly five decades […]

The post ‘Roe’ never guaranteed abortion access. It’s time to build something better | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

University of Missouri Health Care will require nurses who don’t usually care directly for patients to take four 12-hour hospital shifts during the next two weeks as it struggles under a record COVID-19 caseload. Notice went out Jan. 14 for “licensed nurses and other licensed health care professionals at the School of Medicine currently working […]

The post Crush of COVID cases force Missouri hospitals to scramble for staffing appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Tracie Engelmeyer was among hundreds of bus drivers who were furloughed in St. Louis County in March 2020 because of the pandemic. School-district authorities told them that even though drivers are contracted labor, they would qualify for unemployment benefits and urged them to apply. Engelmeyer recalled the conversation she had with a school district representative […]

The post Missouri Senate hears bipartisan push to forgive mistakenly overpaid unemployment benefits appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A Cole County judge heard arguments Thursday over whether Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft wrote a misleading ballot summary for an initiative petition seeking to prohibit public tax dollars from going to private schools. The lawsuit was filed by Sherri Talbott, the treasurer of the political action committee Taxpayers for Accountability and a school board […]

The post Missouri judge asked to toss Ashcroft summary of education funding initiative petition appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As the Missouri House finalized its version of a new Congressional map Wednesday, a panel of 20 Republicans and Democrats agreed on a new map for the chamber’s 163 seats. The House Independent Bipartisan Citizens Commission voted unanimously to approve the plan, which needed support from 14 members to pass before Sunday’s deadline. The successful […]

The post Bipartisan commission approves new Missouri House districts appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Gov. Mike Parson proposed massive new spending on infrastructure and college buildings, and still found money to set aside for pensions and future revenue shortfalls, in the budget submitted Wednesday to lawmakers. Missouri will enter the new fiscal year with nearly $3 billion in surplus general revenue, an anticipation of record future tax collections and […]

The post Governor proposes record $47.3B Missouri budget as he taps surplus, federal aid appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Gov. Mike Parson praised his administration’s handling of the still unfolding COVID-19 pandemic Wednesday, telling a joint session of the Missouri General Assembly that the state has emerged ready to make long term investments in its future.  “The bottom line is Missouri’s economy is strong,” Parson said in his annual State of the State address. […]

The post Gov. Mike Parson touts Missouri’s COVID-19 response in annual State of State address appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A redrawn Congressional map cleared the Missouri House on Wednesday, but without an emergency clause needed for it to go into effect before the Aug. 2 primary. Now, the map heads to the state Senate, where members of the chamber’s conservative caucus are already denouncing it for not doing away with a safe Democratic seat […]

The post Missouri House sends Congressional map to Senate without an emergency clause appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Throughout the last year, the Amazon corporation has given American consumers plenty of reasons to question whether we should be using its products and services. The news is filled with horrible stories about Amazon’s treatment of their workers. The company has an astronomical carbon footprint. The billionaire CEO has so much superfluous income he was […]

The post Amazon tops a list of companies to ditch in support of immigrants’ human rights | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri is continuing to see record daily coronavirus infections, near-peak COVID-19 caseloads in hospitals and threats from Attorney General Eric Schmitt that he will sue school districts that require masks or send students home when they are infected or exposed to the virus. In a statement issued Tuesday morning, Schmitt said school mask rules and […]

The post Missouri attorney general renews threat to sue schools over mask, quarantine rules appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Missouri House overwhelmingly rejected efforts Tuesday to draw a Congressional map that would have reconfigured a Democratic seat in Kansas City in the GOP’s favor, and instead gave initial approval to a map that maintains the current party divisions. By a vote of 84 to 60, House members gave initial approval to a map […]

The post Missouri House votes down 7-1 congressional map during redistricting debate appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Federal law enforcement was still seeking information as recently as last summer about medical marijuana licensing in Missouri and utility contracts in Independence that have attracted FBI scrutiny for years.  That’s according to sworn deposition testimony from a Kansas City-area businessman that surfaced publicly last week. The deposition of Joseph Campbell, owner of the real […]

The post Marijuana, utility contracts: Records shows continued FBI interest in Independence deals appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Marsha Keene-Frye grew up around guns, going hunting with her family from a young age near her home in Mississippi County. To this day, she still regularly carries a firearm and considers herself a supporter of the Second Amendment, just like most of her neighbors in southeastern Missouri. But for 27 years, Keene-Frye has worked […]

The post Bipartisan group of Missouri lawmakers hope to close domestic violence gun loophole appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A Republican lawmaker is seeking to undercut efforts by officials in the St. Louis area to build more electric vehicle charging infrastructure in preparation for the move away from gasoline-burning cars.  Both St. Louis and St. Louis County passed ordinances last year requiring businesses to prepare for electric vehicle charging. The city’s ordinance also has […]

The post Bill would block Missouri cities, counties from enacting EV charging station mandate appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Kansas and Missouri logged their warmest average December temperatures on record last month, according to data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Average temperatures over the last half of 2021 were higher than they’ve ever been in either state — and across the country. Meanwhile, despite a devastating cold snap that forced power outages […]

The post December 2021 was the warmest on record in Missouri and Kansas — by a long shot appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In April of 1967, at the Riverside Church in New York City, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr spoke in profound grief about the way his position on the Vietnam War was interrogated even by some of his closest supporters. “I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have […]

The post Reclaiming MLK Day | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.