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When Jalesia Kuenzel’s twin sons turned 16 last year, she was also thinking of the children that could have been. Four embryos were created when she and her ex-husband were going through in vitro fertilization. Two became her sons. The other two remain frozen in a storage facility in Pennsylvania.  It’s been nearly a decade […]

The post Missouri bill would give custody of disputed embryos to person likeliest to create child appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In a too-rare display of bipartisan productivity, the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 last month. Among the bill’s most impactful features is the expanded federal Child Tax Credit. The $2,000 credit had its refundable maximum of $1,600 per child per tax year increased to $1,800 […]

The post Missouri’s working families deserve proven tax cuts appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The proposed global security funding legislation that includes major bipartisan updates to immigration policy encountered opposition from members of both parties Monday, especially Republicans upset by the Biden administration’s handling of border security, charting a tumultuous path for passage in the Senate this week. The deal on immigration policy, negotiated for months by […]

The post Intense opposition to U.S. Senate immigration deal quickly emerges appeared first on Missouri Independent.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The pop-pop-pop of gunfire cracked just as the rain started to fall in grisly synchronicity. Then the screams began. Within moments, civilians lay strewn across the ground, some lifeless, others writhing in pain. Blood flowed in streams that pooled with the rainwater on the muddying ground littered with shell casings. Three […]

The post Gunfire, screams, carnage: As mass shootings proliferate, training gets more realistic appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Every vote cast on a constitutional amendment would be counted two ways under a proposal Missouri Republicans are trying to push to an August vote. The first way would be the traditional method, where all the votes are tallied to determine if the ballot measure has a statewide majority.  The second way would be to […]

The post As few as 1 in 5 voters could defeat initiative petitions under Missouri Senate proposal appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A law enacted last year aimed at helping individuals transition out of public assistance programs remains in limbo, with Missouri’s social services agency saying it can’t implement the change without a huge infusion of state funding.  The impasse is, in many ways, unsurprising. The legislation, which was approved with bipartisan support, came with a fiscal […]

The post State still hasn’t implemented law aimed at helping Missourians transition off public benefits appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A pop icon falling for one of the NFL’s preeminent superstars may seem like a slice of Americana — a scene from a small-town high school magnified by a factor of 10 million. But this is America in 2024 so, of course, nothing magical stays that way. To be clear, public opinion data suggests that most […]

The post The bizarre conspiracy theory that turned Taylor Swift into an antihero to the GOP appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has been inundated with dozens of organizations seeking to weigh in on the future of the abortion pill by filing “friend of the court” briefs. The groups include governors, attorneys general, state lawmakers and members of Congress as well as medical organizations, civil rights groups and pharmaceutical companies — […]

The post Dozens of ‘friend of the court’ briefs backing abortion pill access arrive at Supreme Court appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Emmalyn Pratt has been surrounded by firefighters her whole life, growing up in Kearney, 30 miles northeast of Kansas City.  Her father is the local fire chief, and he’s part of a long line of firefighters in the family.  “I’ve lived the sacrifices that they make to be away from their families and put their […]

The post Naturopathic doctors could become licensed in Missouri under Republican-backed legislation appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri’s Senate is heading into uncharted territory that could disrupt the legislative process for the remaining months of this year’s session. It involves a deep split among Senate Republicans by members of a new national conservative organization who are challenging Missouri GOP Senate leaders. That national organization, State Freedom Caucus, proclaims on its website: “We […]

The post Capitol Perspectives: An uncharted path for Missouri’s legislature appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Missouri Supreme Court must now decide if a directive in the state’s redistricting law that says cities and counties must be split as little as possible in legislative district maps allows them to be split at all. In the first case testing provisions added to the Missouri Constitution in 2020, the court on Thursday […]

The post Missouri Supreme Court hears challenge to state Senate district map appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Gov. Mike Parson’s plan to study improvements on Interstate 44 using interest earned on funds set aside for rebuilding Interstate 70 faced bipartisan questioning Wednesday, with House budget writers asking why the money isn’t being deposited in general revenue. Democratic state Rep. Deb Lavender of Manchester, and Republican Rep.  Dirk Deaton of Noel grilled State […]

The post Missouri lawmakers grill treasurer over interest earned on I-70 funds appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As climate change and groundwater pumping leave arid western states hurting for water, Missouri lawmakers are considering legislation to keep the state’s water from being shipped outside its borders.  “You may hear about states like California and Kansas in the news having water shortages,” said state Sen. Jason Bean, a Republican from Holcomb. “We don’t […]

The post Lawmakers hope to block Missouri water from being exported to other states appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee castigated executives at leading social media companies Wednesday, calling for more to be done to shield children from sexual exploitation, drug dealing, self-harm encouragement and other damaging content. In one tense exchange, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley demanded to know if Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, had […]

The post ‘A product that’s killing people’: Lawmakers chastise social media giants for harm to kids appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to approve a $78 billion tax package that would expand the child tax credit and reinstate some tax incentives for businesses. The 357-70 vote sends the bill, dubbed the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, to the U.S. Senate, where lawmakers are expected to […]

The post Child tax credit expanded, business tax breaks get new life in bill passed by U.S. House appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri lawmakers are considering a handful of bills in both the House and Senate that would change the way the state measures school performance and accreditation. The House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee debated two bills Wednesday seeking to scrap systems developed by the state’s education department to assess schools. A Senate committee held a […]

The post Missouri lawmakers seek to reenvision school accountability and accreditation appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Gabriel Henao fled Colombia to escape a guerrilla group who, he said, twice threatened to kill him. After some time in Mexico, he arrived in Colorado in July 2022, settling in Fort Collins. His severe stomach pain started when he was in Mexico, he said. It was debilitating and left him bedridden for days at […]

The post More states offer health care coverage for certain immigrants, noncitizens appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security early Wednesday voted 18-15 along party lines to send articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the House floor. Republicans argue the charges are legitimate. Members of the full House could vote as soon as next week to impeach Mayorkas, who is […]

The post U.S. House committee advances impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas to floor appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating how Missouri Democratic Rep. Cori Bush spends campaign funds, according to a statement the congresswoman released Tuesday. “Since before I was sworn into office, I have endured relentless threats to my physical safety and life,” Bush said. “As a rank-and-file member of Congress I am not […]

The post Missouri Rep. Cori Bush denies using tax dollars for personal security as DOJ investigates appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri Republican Senate leaders on Tuesday won confirmation for all of Gov. Mike Parson’s pending appointees to state office as members of the Freedom Caucus backed down from a demand that the upper chamber approve initiative petition changes as the price for confirmation. For almost 16 hours, members of the caucus and their allies held […]

The post Deal on initiative changes, Parson appointees ends overnight Missouri Senate filibuster appeared first on Missouri Independent.