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If Missouri employees ask for workers’ compensation after an on-the-job injury, employers can require them to take a drug test for marijuana.  If they test positive — even if they hadn’t consumed marijuana for days — their compensation and death benefit may be reduced by 50%.  That didn’t change when Missouri legalized recreational marijuana because […]

The post Missouri legislators push back on adding marijuana to workers’ compensation law appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s White House gathering with lawmakers to find a compromise on foreign aid and immigration was “productive,” U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday, but a deal has still not been reached. Biden hosted congressional leaders and other lawmakers to discuss the administration’s stalled $106 billion national security supplemental request, which includes […]

The post No deal on Ukraine, Israel aid after White House meeting with top congressional leaders appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Passage of a multi-billion-dollar supplemental package hinges on curbing an executive authority used to grant immigration protection, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said during a Wednesday press conference. “If we don’t fix parole, there will be no deal,” Graham said alongside Senate Republican Whip John Thune of South Dakota. Graham said parole is […]

The post With GOP pushing hard on immigration, parole emerges as a make-or-break issue in Congress appeared first on Missouri Independent.

With state law already banning transgender youth from accessing puberty blockers and hormones, a Missouri House committee met late into the evening Wednesday to debate adding more restrictions. Two statehouse hearing rooms overflowed with witnesses in favor and against bills in the House Emerging Issues Committee that would determine whether it should be compulsory for […]

The post Missouri lawmakers debate permanent ban on transgender care for minors appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After months of court battles and internal squabbles, a coalition of Missouri abortion-rights organizations plan to officially launch an effort Thursday to put a constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot to legalize abortion up until the point of fetal viability.  Despite reports of discord within the coalition, the campaign has the support of Abortion Action […]

The post Abortion-rights coalition launches campaign to put amendment on Missouri ballot appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A state Senate hearing on a medical provider tax devolved Wednesday into a fight over the political tactics of Missouri Right to Life, with a Democrat dropping an obscenity and Republicans slamming the group for injecting its anti-abortion politics into unrelated issues. Only one member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Republican Sen. Denny Hoskins of […]

The post Missouri Senate GOP factions on display during debate over defunding Planned Parenthood appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate took a broadly bipartisan vote Tuesday to advance a short-term spending bill, but both chambers of Congress must approve the legislation before a Friday funding deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown. The 68-13 procedural vote moves the bill toward a final vote in the Senate in the coming days, […]

The post U.S. Senate moves to avoid a partial government shutdown, but time running short appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri circuit courts have cleared more than 100,000 marijuana charges from people’s criminal records so far — a mandate that was a big selling point for those who voted to pass the constitutional amendment that legalized recreational marijuana in 2022. However, court officials said it’s hard to determine how many more charges are left because […]

The post Missouri courts request $3.7 million to continue arduous marijuana expungement process appeared first on Missouri Independent.

For nearly two decades, Tona Henderson collected newspaper articles, letters and photographs documenting who in the small town of Emmett, Idaho, was diagnosed with cancer, including her own family. The result is a wall in her home covered in pictures and pages displaying the names of community members who may have been exposed to lethal […]

The post ‘The fight isn’t over’: Idaho downwinders persist after Congress cuts compensation for them appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Americans are typically told the story of the scientists who built the atomic bomb as an intellectual race for the world’s most powerful weapon during wartime.  More than 100 atmospheric weapons tests were conducted in the U.S. and its territories between 1945 and 1962. It resulted in widespread radioactive fallout across much of the U.S., […]

The post Radius: The legacy of America’s nuclear weapons testing program appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When he appointed Andrew Bailey as attorney general in late 2022, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson vowed he’d have “the full resources of the governor of the State of Missouri” to ensure his success in the new job.  “On the political side,” Parson added, “I’ll do everything I can.” During Bailey’s transition into office, Parson dispatched […]

The post ‘Stinks quite a bit’: Mike Parson accused of illegally using office to meddle in primaries appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Nine-year-old Macie Thomas loves living in Raymore. She said she spends the summers playing outside, golfing and swimming. Her best friend and her grandmother both live nearby.  But Thomas told Missouri senators Tuesday that she fears a landfill proposed just over the city limits in Kansas City will change everything. Thomas said her father suffers […]

The post Kansas City-area residents plead with Missouri lawmakers to stop landfill appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The presidential nominating process kicked off Monday in Iowa, with a decisive victory for former President Donald Trump in the Republican caucuses.  Missouri’s turn will come in March, when Republicans meet for caucuses on March 2 and Democrats participate in a party-run primary on March 23. From 2000 to 2020, Missouri had a state-run presidential […]

The post Missouri political parties prepare for life after the presidential primary appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When Jane Thompson moved away from Uravan in western Colorado decades ago, it was still a quiet company town of about 1,000 residents, all of whom had some connection to the uranium mill owned by Union Carbide. “It was a great place to grow up,” said Thompson, who helps keep the town’s legacy alive as […]

The post ‘It lives in geologic time’: Nuclear contamination and health risks remain throughout Colorado appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A coalition of parents and community members in St. Louis Public Schools is demanding more transparency at local school board meetings and in-school reading tutors as part of an effort to deal with standardized test scores that show a huge chunk of the district’s students struggling to read at grade level. The district’s current enrollment […]

The post Coalition pushing to improve literacy rates for St. Louis Public Schools appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Marti Gerdes remembers living in Prescott as a kid and, every winter, she and her family would make snow ice cream, mixing milk and sugar with snow. It was a treat she recalls having any time it snowed — except for one year when her mother told them they couldn’t have snow ice cream because […]

The post ‘We’re running out of time’: Program for Arizonans exposed to radiation set to expire in June appeared first on Missouri Independent.

MARYLAND HEIGHTS — Covered in white protective clothing, Wendy Bronfein stepped into a long, sterile hallway of closed doors. She calls it the “Willy Wonka-esque” corridor.  “This is the Mike Teavee part of the tour,” said Bronfein, co-founder of the Maryland-based marijuana company Curio Wellness, referencing the character from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”  Everything […]

The post Sprawling new cannabis manufacturing, cultivation facility set to open in St. Louis County appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As we remember and reflect on the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., there are valuable lessons that should give us hope that we can overcome what we face today in a divided and teetering America.  If we, like King, truly believe that the words of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence […]

The post The lessons of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life should give us hope today  appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Frustrated with legislative inaction on sports wagering, Missouri’s major sports franchises are going directly to voters. On Friday, a coalition that includes six major sports teams and is backed by major donations from two sports betting platforms announced an initiative campaign to put sports gambling on this year’s ballot. In a news release, St. Louis […]

The post St. Louis Cardinals lead Missouri’s major teams to launch initiative on sports betting appeared first on Missouri Independent.

People like Mary Dickson aren’t legally considered downwinders, the term used to describe those exposed to radiation during Cold War-era nuclear weapons testing in Nevada and New Mexico.  “Every time I say I’m a downwinder, I get ‘Oh, you grew up in St. George?’” said Dickson, of Salt Lake City, who was diagnosed with thyroid […]

The post ‘How much money are our lives worth?’: Utah downwinders call RECA expansion failure a betrayal appeared first on Missouri Independent.