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Sherrita Jackson was a bus driver for 21 years before she got fed up with abuse from passengers and switched careers in 2021. At the time, a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, passengers were required to wear masks. A passenger not wearing a mask boarded Jackson’s bus and refused to comply with the mandate. “He […]

The post ‘We can’t keep putting our lives on the line’: KC bus drivers detail safety risks they face appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After the recent NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, it is anticipated that Sweden will soon become the alliance’s 32nd member. The heart of this alliance – which was established in the aftermath of World War II to promote the collective security of its mostly Western European members – is Article 5 of the North Atlantic […]

The post NATO isn’t the only alliance countries are eager to join – a brief history of the Five Eyes appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The U.S. Senate voted narrowly Thursday in favor of expanding a program that compensates Americans who become ill because of exposure to radiation from the country’s development and testing of nuclear weapons to cover Missourians. The proposal, offered by Sen. Josh Hawley, was attached as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which authorizes […]

The post U.S. Senate OKs Hawley proposal to expand coverage for atomic bomb-related illness to St. Louis appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As Missouri went to celebrate the first 4/20 after the state legalized recreational marijuana, a licensed cannabis business in Kansas City organized a huge festival.  For the first time, people were able to smoke pot openly at a large public event in Missouri, with approval under local government rules. “It was the first of its […]

The post Marijuana businesses could lose license if events they organize go awry appeared first on Missouri Independent.

More than 32,000 Missourians – half of them children – lost Medicaid coverage in June during Missouri’s first round of eligibility checks after the COVID public health emergency. According to a Department of Social Services announcement Thursday, out of the roughly 116,000 Medicaid recipients who had their eligibility checked in June, around 43% retained coverage, […]

The post Kids make up half of Missourians who lost Medicaid in first month of reviews appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In some states, new laws banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth are dissuading health care providers from offering mental health services and other medical care that isn’t explicitly banned by those laws. In the first few weeks after Mississippi’s law went into effect in February, nurse practitioner Stacie Pace said she was fielding calls and […]

The post Laws banning gender-affirming treatments can block trans youth from receiving other care appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Clay Bolt went looking for a rusty patched bumblebee, he would head to a city. The wildlife photographer said his best bet would be Minneapolis or Madison, Wisconsin, in a botanical garden or even someone’s backyard — as long as it was far away from crop fields and neonicotinoid pesticides. “It’s kind of ironic. Cities […]

The post EPA says three widely used pesticides driving hundreds of endangered species toward extinction appeared first on Missouri Independent.

How many AR-15s do you think Jesus would have had? It’s a question so ludicrous that it seems like a parody, but it’s not. In different times, I might have thought that the question was so preposterous on its face that the average Jesus follower would dismiss it as a statement meant to provoke a […]

The post Politicians attempt to make us believe that God wants you to have guns appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — During an otherworldly hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday, lawmakers and witnesses launched accusations that the Pentagon is stonewalling Congress and the public from information about unidentified anomalous phenomena, more often referred to as UFOs. That includes a 2014 encounter when a “dark gray or black cube inside a clear sphere” traveled within 50 […]

The post Is there evidence of extraterrestrial life? Congress tries to figure it out appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday faced off with Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, who did not directly call for his impeachment but strongly criticized his oversight of the agency. “I know that today Secretary Mayorkas is going to try to paint a rosy picture of this disastrous […]

The post Biden border policies ripped by U.S. House GOP as impeachment threats ramp up  appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators approved bipartisan amendments to the annual defense policy bill Tuesday night that would prohibit China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from purchasing U.S. farmland and screen American investment in high-tech ventures on foreign adversary soil. By a 91-7 vote, the lawmakers approved a measure that would require review of — and […]

The post U.S. Senate votes to curb farmland purchases by China, Iran, North Korea, Russia appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Municipalities in Missouri are attempting to restrict drag performances as obscenity or a planning-and-development concern, with Branson among the first after advancing an ordinance Tuesday night limiting drag to a small area of town. Rolla recently tried to limit drag, but an ordinance defining it as obscene, failed during a city council meeting last week. […]

The post Branson places ‘adult performance’ restrictions on drag shows appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Gov. Mike Parson should halt the Aug. 1 execution of Johnny Johnson, compassionately commuting his sentence to life in prison because he is severely mentally ill and doesn’t seem to even know why he would be killed. If he’s executed, it would only perpetuate our collective neglect of society’s most vulnerable people. There’s no doubt […]

The post Missouri governor should commute death sentence of mentally-ill prisoner appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — On what would have been the 82nd birthday of Emmett Till, a Black boy kidnapped and murdered by two white men in Mississippi, President Joe Biden on Tuesday designated a new national monument at sites connected to the lynching that became a catalyst for the civil rights movement. “Telling the truth and the […]

The post Decrying attempts to ‘bury history,’ Biden designates Emmett Till national monument appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — A handful of ultra-conservative U.S. House Republicans rebuked their leadership on Tuesday over the annual government funding process, but appeared at odds on whether they should force a government shutdown later this year. Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs at a news conference mostly ruled out a funding lapse, though Virginia Rep. Bob Good left […]

The post ‘We should not fear a government shutdown’: Far-right U.S. House members slam spending bills appeared first on Missouri Independent.

From winter storms to sweltering summer heat, there’s a consensus among experts that increasing extreme weather, a shifting electric generation mix, delays in getting new power generation projects connected and the difficulties in getting new transmission lines and other infrastructure built all pose an increasing risk to the grid. At U.S. Senate committee hearings as well as Federal […]

The post Winter is coming and the U.S. grid remains vulnerable to power plant failures appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Eric Greitens, the disgraced former Missouri governor whose Senate campaign cratered last year under allegations of domestic abuse, tip-toed back onto the political stage this week with a column for a pro-Trump news site declaring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential hopes dead.   In the column entitled “Accept It, Already: DeSantis is Done,” Greitens writes that […]

The post A year after Missouri Senate collapse, Eric Greitens reemerges to bash Ron DeSantis appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When it comes to racial equity, state Rep. Ashley Bland Manlove of Kansas City and St. Louis City NAACP President Adolphus Pruitt typically land on the same side. But on Amendment 3— the constitutional amendment that legalized recreational marijuana in November — they couldn’t be further apart.  On Monday morning, they both appeared on KCUR […]

The post Divide over lack of Black ownership in Missouri marijuana bubbles up in radio debate appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture Monday announced $33 million in funding to 19 Historically Black Colleges and Universities designated as land-grant institutions to support research and education projects. The funding through USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture will support 82 projects in sustainable farming practices such as reducing use of plastics, enhancing nutritional value […]

The post USDA to provide $33M for agriculture projects at 19 HBCU land-grant institutions appeared first on Missouri Independent.

An all-male panel of anti-abortion religious leaders from around the country met Friday night to discuss the strategies that should be used to end abortion in every state at any stage of pregnancy, without exceptions for rape and incest, and with criminal punishment for the pregnant person in line with existing criminal penalties for murder, […]

The post Male anti-abortion religious leaders mull murder charges for pregnant people at national event appeared first on Missouri Independent.