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Missouri’s backlog of Medicaid applications dropped in February, but the average time it took to determine eligibility for them continued to exceed the federal limit. The median time it took Missouri’s social services department to process Medicaid applications for low-income Missourians in February was 77 days, an agency spokesperson told The Independent.  That means half […]

The post Missouri Medicaid application delays exceed federal limits for third straight month appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — A U.S. House appropriations panel reviewed the Biden administration’s request to increase the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s budget for fiscal 2025 Thursday, with Republicans asking pointed questions about a proposal to boost a popular low-income nutrition program. The hearing came less than two weeks after Congress passed a months-delayed appropriations bill for the USDA for […]

The post U.S. House panel debates boost for WIC in agriculture funding bill appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Despite setbacks in both the House and Senate leading up to legislative spring break, proponents of bills seeking to end Missouri’s practice of seizing Social Security benefits from foster children expect to regain momentum on the issue when lawmakers return to Jefferson City next week. In the Senate, GOP state Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder of […]

The post Hopes still high for bills to stop Missouri from seizing benefits owed to foster kids appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republican leaders have spent the last year holding up a broadly bipartisan, Senate-approved bill that would repeal the authorizations for use of military force from the 1990s and early 2000s that were intended for the wars in Iraq. The Senate approved the legislation following a 66-30 vote last March, but it has remained stalled in […]

The post The U.S. Senate repealed Iraq war authorizations a year ago. In the House, they’re frozen appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Royals, vying for support weeks before voters will decide whether to promise them decades of tax money, are finalizing terms to give Kansas City Public Schools money to offset the loss of property taxes. The team’s plans for a stadium and entertainment district in the East Crossroads would swallow up six blocks of real […]

The post Royals say new stadium won’t hurt school revenue, but silent on libraries, mental health services appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Legislation that would compensate victims of radioactive waste and U.S. nuclear bomb tests faces an uncertain future after it was left out of a federal appropriations bill Thursday, outraging members of Missouri’s Congressional delegation.  But advocates for St. Louis-area residents exposed to World War II-era radioactive waste remain “extremely hopeful” as compensation remains closer than […]

The post Compensation for St. Louis victims of radioactive waste left out of federal budget bill appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Responding to new research on the rising incidence of colorectal cancer among younger adults, some states are trying to boost public awareness of the deadly disease with a focus on Black and rural residents. In 2021, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force changed the routine screening age for colorectal cancer to 45 from 50, based […]

The post Colorectal cancer is rising among younger adults. Some states want to boost awareness appeared first on Missouri Independent.

U.S. farm income is falling from record highs as low commodity prices, trade headwinds and higher costs squeeze profits, according to a new report from the University of Missouri. The 2024 U.S. Agricultural Market Outlook report released Tuesday by the Food & Agricultural Policy Research Institute, also known as FAPRI, is a 10-year projection of […]

The post University of Missouri report warns falling prices could squeeze farmers appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In 2018, when Mike DeWine was Ohio’s attorney general, he began investigating an obscure corner of the health care industry. He believed that insurers were inflating prescription drug prices through management companies that operated as middlemen in the drug supply chain. There were concerns that these companies, known as pharmacy benefit managers, or P.B.M.s, were […]

The post Taxpayers were overcharged for patient meds. Then came the lawyers appeared first on Missouri Independent.

For many students, the excitement of deciding where to attend college is being met with concern over whether they’ll receive the financial aid they need. This year, FAFSA delays have left guidance counselors, students and administrators wondering whether financial aid offers will be received before deciding where to go for college. “If I fill out […]

The post FAFSA delays cause financial uncertainty among Missouri students appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Congressional staff were scrambling Wednesday to finalize sweeping legislation that would fund much of the federal government, but time was running short ahead of a Friday midnight deadline. Leaders of the House and Senate and the Biden administration announced Tuesday they’d reached consensus on the final six government funding bills for the fiscal […]

The post Congress struggles to finish work on spending bills as another Friday deadline nears appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Former President Donald Trump renewed his call to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to dismiss charges against him, asserting that presidents enjoy near-total immunity from criminal prosecution. In addition, as a deadline loomed for briefs in the case, 18 Republican-led states filed an amicus brief Tuesday urging the Supreme Court to reverse the lower […]

The post Trump, GOP-led states argue presidential immunity claim to Supreme Court appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Thirty years ago, the weather on Annie Doerr’s family ranch felt reliable. Now that she’s taken over from her parents, it’s been anything but. In recent years, drought has made finding good pastureland for beef cattle to graze increasingly difficult. “I always pray for a normal year,” she said, “which I don’t really know what […]

The post Droughts, complicated by climate change, result in US beef herd hitting historic low appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft wants to eliminate Missouri’s income tax, which provides two out of every three dollars in the state’s general revenue fund, and says budget cuts can pay for it. To help craft the plan, Ashcroft has enlisted some of the well-known conservative economists and low-tax advocates that advised then-Kansas Gov. Sam […]

The post Jay Ashcroft proposes slashing state budget to eliminate Missouri income tax appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Across the country, electric demand is growing and could explode if green goals like electrifying home heating, industry and transportation come to fruition. At the same time, many states, utilities and businesses have pledged to decarbonize, helping push older coal and gas power plants that have struggled to stay economically competitive into retirement. Yet in the queues run by the organizations […]

The post New scorecard rates nation’s grid managers on connecting renewables appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Worried about hospitals closing and higher costs for patients, state lawmakers are increasingly tangling with hospitals over potential health care mergers, in some cases derailing deals they think don’t serve the public interest. Financially strapped hospitals often look to merge with or be acquired by other systems. After a pandemic-era slowdown, health care mergers and […]

The post Facing public backlash, some health care companies are abandoning hospital deals appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration late last year approved two breakthrough gene therapies for sickle cell disease patients. Now a new federal program seeks to make these life-changing treatments available to patients with low incomes — and it could be a model to help states pay for other expensive therapies. The new sickle cell […]

The post New way for states to cover pricey gene therapies will start with sickle cell disease appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Kentucky state Rep. Mark Hart has been drinking fluoridated water his entire life. In 1954, five years before Hart was born, his home state mandated adding or adjusting levels of the mineral, which occurs naturally in water, in drinking water systems of populations larger than 3,000. But after hearing from a constituent a few years […]

The post Fluoride in public water has slashed tooth decay, but some states may end mandates appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court seemed skeptical Monday of a lawsuit alleging the federal government colluded with social media companies to suppress the freedom of speech, with a majority of justices across the ideological spectrum raising issues with the case and its potential consequences. The Biden administration argued to the court there is no […]

The post Suit alleging suppression of free speech met with skepticism at U.S. Supreme Court appeared first on Missouri Independent.

With a swipe at the intraparty foes who have disrupted the state Senate for several years, Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden on Monday dropped out of the Republican race for Secretary of State. Rowden, who as of January was sitting on the largest campaign fund in the field, said in a statement released via […]

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