MoInd 📰

Keeping Missouri state government operating through June 30 will cost $2.1 billion more than lawmakers budgeted last year thanks to lowballed spending estimates, sluggish lottery sales and new programs in education and other areas. The election-year budget plan approved last year totaled $51.6 billion after Gov. Mike Parson was finished with vetoes that fell heavily […]

WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s alternating views on vaccines, reproductive rights and public health issues were a central focus at his first confirmation hearing Wednesday, with Democratic senators expressing dismay at his nomination and Republicans signaling he’ll likely have their support. Kennedy pledged to bring “radical transparency” to the Department of Health and Human […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed executive orders Wednesday that prioritize school choice funding and seek to end what the administration sees as “radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling.” Trump is carrying through on education-related campaign promises he made as part of his sweeping vision to “save American education.” These efforts mark the latest in a deluge […]

A Republican lawmaker from Sedalia has once again begun his push to allow some students to enroll in schools outside the district where they live. For the fifth year in a row on Wednesday, the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee debated an open enrollment bill sponsored by state Rep. Brad Pollitt.  As he introduced […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s latest actions included an offer to buy out a large swath of the federal workforce, and an order narrowing medical options for transgender children, and some transgender adults. Millions of government employees received an email Tuesday evening instructing them to reply with the word “resign” by Feb. 6 for a […]

Missouri’s two largest electric utilities want the state’s permission to charge customers for natural gas power plants before they’re completed. Both Evergy and Ameren Missouri asked the Missouri House Utilities Committee on Wednesday to support legislation that would allow them to charge customers for natural, or methane, gas power plants even before they’re completed, saying […]

WASHINGTON — A second federal judge appears ready to issue an order blocking the Trump administration from freezing funding on grant and loan programs, despite a move by the Office of Management and Budget to rescind a controversial memo Wednesday just before the hearing. Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security late Tuesday revoked an extension of temporary protective status for nearly 600,000 Venezuelans, according to an unpublished Federal Register document obtained by States Newsroom. The New York Times first reported on the decision. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, whom the U.S. Senate confirmed to lead the agency on Saturday, canceled the […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans Tuesday blocked a resolution condemning pardons for supporters of President Donald Trump who violently attacked and injured police officers when they broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray requested unanimous consent for the resolution on the floor but was met with opposition from Majority Whip […]

A boost Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe touts as the largest increase in public school funding in two decades will fall about $300 million short of meeting the targets set in state law for public education. He also suggests shifting $50 million into a program that helps pay for students to attend private and religious schools. […]

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe doubled down on his support for a state takeover of the St. Louis Police Department on Tuesday, telling lawmakers during his first State of the State address that crime in the city is “unacceptable.” He also waded carefully into the debate over abortion, stopping short of suggesting any rollback of reproductive […]

The Attorney General’s Office did not violate the Missouri Sunshine Law when it refused to turn over records showing how it fulfilled a request, the Western District Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. In a split decision, a three-judge panel ruled that the office reasonably concluded the records being sought by St. Louis attorney Elad Gross […]

A backlog of payments due to child care providers is 70% clear after a year-long struggle with the state’s new software, Missouri Education Commissioner Karla Eslinger told lawmakers Tuesday morning. The Missouri Senate Education Committee questioned Eslinger about everything from school accreditation to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Standing out among the interrogation was an […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed orders late Monday banning openly transgender service members from the U.S. military and suppressing any diversity initiatives, including prohibiting “un-American” concepts from military educational institutions. An executive order published just before 11 p.m. Eastern under the title “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” expressly forbids from the armed services individuals […]

WASHINGTON — A federal district judge ruled Tuesday the Trump administration must wait until at least next week before it can move forward with pausing federal spending on trillions in grants and loans, though she emphasized the short-term administrative stay might not continue after a Feb. 3 hearing. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan’s decision temporarily […]

A confrontational legislative hearing Monday — with a witness calling a state senator a fascist and lawmakers battling over whether the state should put a bounty on undocumented immigrants — set the tone for this year’s debate on immigration and the state’s role in border security. The most aggressive approach, in a bill filed by […]

Missouri lawmakers are again considering legislation that would increase funding to allow local governments to test for additional radioactive waste around contaminated sites in the St. Louis region. The Missouri House Special Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs on Monday discussed the bill sponsored by Republican state Rep. Mark Matthiesen of O’Fallon. It’s similar to legislation Matthiesen […]

WASHINGTON — Immigration attorneys Monday detailed the impact on their clients, some of them undocumented children, after the Trump administration last week halted Department of Justice programs that fund nonprofits that provide legal services to immigrants. Meanwhile, over the weekend, the federal government began moving in earnest on President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge of an […]

WASHINGTON — Governors and state legislatures may have to bolster their natural disaster response and recovery efforts in the coming years as President Donald Trump looks for ways to shift the federal government’s role onto states. Trump, who proposed doing away with the Federal Emergency Management Agency altogether while on a tour of disaster scenes […]

WASHINGTON — The confirmations for President Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks are moving at warp speed, with U.S. Senate floor votes for some and appearances for others before Senate panels this week. Trump’s Cabinet members will be crucial to carrying out his sweeping GOP agenda, which already started bursting out of the floodgates in wide-ranging executive […]