MoInd 📰

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 […]

WASHINGTON — Democratic and independent U.S. senators introduced a resolution Monday to condemn President Donald Trump’s clemency for the rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, injuring numerous law enforcement officers and sending lawmakers into hiding as they tried to certify the 2020 presidential election results. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New […]

For nearly a year and a half, a woman has been languishing in Greene County jail, waiting to be transferred to a state mental health facility. The woman was charged with a misdemeanor, found incompetent to stand trial and ordered by the court into state-run psychiatric treatment, Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott told The Independent. […]

This time last year, the Missouri Senate was barely functioning. Members of the Freedom Caucus, a renegade group of GOP senators who’ve been at war with party leadership for years, used procedural hijinks to grind the chamber to a halt almost daily.  In retaliation, Senate leaders stripped committee assignments from Freedom Caucus members — and […]

Like so many Americans right now (at least those who appreciate a beautifully crafted movie musical), we remain obsessed with “Wicked.”  As elder millennials whose day jobs require challenging patriarchal norms around reproductive health, we were excited to see a Hollywood reframe on feminine heroism and the internalized misogyny we grew up on, especially through […]

Ritika Shroff had the typical Gen Z experience with social media. At 13, she signed up for Instagram, then Snapchat. Later, she downloaded TikTok and worked her way through other popular platforms. But in high school, she began to see downsides, feeling pressure when comparing her number of followers, test scores and experiences with those […]

The average caller would never know, but dialing 911 during an emergency isn’t possible in several Missouri counties. While the call will go through, in parts of southeast Missouri, the number is instead rerouted to a traditional 10-digit landline. But that won’t be the case for long. Thanks to federal funds, 911 dispatchers and call […]

In a packed hearing room a few blocks from the Missouri Capitol on Thursday, Ameren electric customers asked utility reps why they should be asked to pay another $17.45 per month, on average, for power. At times they were emotional when addressing members of the Missouri Public Service Commission, which oversees utilities, including Ameren. Lindsey […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture said during her confirmation hearing Thursday that she has “a lot to learn” about highly pathogenic avian influenza or bird flu, the virus that’s wreaking havoc on the country’s poultry industry and dairy farms. The outbreak has affected more than 136 million […]

The Missouri state budget will be tighter in coming years as the state finishes spending federal aid distributed for recovery from the COVID pandemic, but Gov. Mike Kehoe said Thursday he remains committed to his promise to end the state income tax. Speaking to editors and publishers attending the Missouri Press Association Day at the […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats on Thursday blasted Russ Vought, President Donald Trump’s nominee to again lead the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, over his involvement in Project 2025 and called on their colleagues to reject his nomination. Vought wrote the chapter on the executive office of the president in the Heritage Foundation’s nearly 900-page conservative […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans on Thursday advanced the nomination of veteran and onetime Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the nation’s military, despite numerous allegations of alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct, and his history of disparaging women in the armed forces. Senators in a 51-49 procedural vote along party lines agreed to begin […]

WASHINGTON — Falling in line with President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship, House Republicans on Thursday unveiled legislation that would amend federal immigration law to narrow the scope of citizenship, although the right is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Trump’s Monday executive order has already faced staunch legal challenges from Democratic state attorneys general […]

Bayer pleaded with Missouri lawmakers Thursday to pass legislation critics say would shield the company from lawsuits claiming its glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup causes cancer. Representatives for Bayer argue the legislation would clarify labeling requirements and prevent courts from creating a patchwork of obligations for the manufacturer.  But environmental groups and attorneys for Roundup users who […]