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In 1992, Jim Talent was a nerdy, 30-something policy wonk with wire-rimmed glasses and a head of brown anchorman hair looking to skip a rung on Missouri’s political ladder and win a seat in Congress. He did it, edging one-term Congresswoman Joan Kelly Horn 50%-48%, a win attributed in no small part to the selfishness […]

The post Flash of GOP unity created a Missouri 2nd District even Harry Potter can’t turn blue | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Democrat Ben Samuels on Friday became the second Missouri congressional candidate in a strong position for their party’s nomination to abandon a campaign because of newly drawn district maps. Samuels, the leading fundraiser in the 2nd District Democratic primary, announced he was quitting the race because his home is now within the 1st District. “After […]

The post Drawn out of district, Democrat drops out of suburban St. Louis congressional race appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Agricultural landowners who are not renewing their agreements this year with the federal government to keep their land out of production have the ability to put that land back to work earlier, a potential boost to wheat and other crop production amid global shortages, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Thursday. Those who have land […]

The post USDA relaxes conservation program rules to boost crop production appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A Cole County judge on Thursday heard arguments over whether staff in the Missouri attorney general’s office, while it was being run by now-U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, used private email accounts in order to subvert the state’s open records laws. A lawsuit filed in 2019 by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee alleges Hawley’s office violated […]

The post Missouri AG seeks to dismiss suit alleging the office under Josh Hawley broke Sunshine Law appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After two years of a temporary provision to allow remote voting in the U.S. House, the top 36 users of the proxy voting system are all Democrats, though Republicans have also taken advantage of it. Proxy voting was meant to keep crowds of House members smaller and thereby limit the spread of COVID-19, back in […]

The post Remote voting in the U.S. House hits a second anniversary, but it may be its last appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Threats of a filibuster in the Missouri Senate this year extinguished a proposal to extend health care for new moms to a full year after giving birth. Few realized at the time that it also dealt a blow to a program lawmakers passed in 2018 designed to help pregnant women recover from substance abuse. In […]

The post Extension of mental health, substance use health care for new Missouri moms in limbo appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After the school shooting in Texas, I realized that I was about the only columnist in America that didn’t talk to my kids about within 24 hours of event. Sure, I’ll cop to being a mediocre parent, but not for that reason. Instead, after years – literally decades – of reporting, editing and reading stories […]

The post Thoughts and prayers of a different kind | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday implored Senate Republicans to work with Democrats to pass bipartisan gun control legislation, following a mass school shooting that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers in Texas. Tuesday’s massacre was the nation’s second-deadliest mass school shooting since another at Sandy Hook Elementary […]

The post Frustrated Democrats call for GOP help on federal gun laws after mass school shooting appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told Congress on Wednesday that he’s found no evidence of intentional delay or malfeasance within the agency — though it took months to act on a whistleblower report of what he called “egregiously unsanitary” conditions at an infant formula plant in Michigan.  FDA Commissioner […]

The post FDA chief cites ‘egregiously unsanitary’ conditions at Michigan baby formula plant appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by the Kansas City Beacon. Beto Lugo-Martinez is a grassroots activist who advocates for clean air. A big part of his work is fighting the expansion of “gas guzzling” vehicles and making sure that historically underserved communities receive infrastructure updates, partly to encourage driving an electric vehicle in Kansas City. […]

The post Missouri ranks 7th in electric vehicle use, but access to charging remains a key barrier appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Another grueling summer disaster season is arriving, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is under intense pressure even as its portfolio balloons, it pleads for more money from Congress and criticism comes on several fronts. The agency manages more than 300 disaster declarations a year, a dramatic increase from the average of 108 […]

The post Summer hurricanes, wildfires and storms loom as FEMA faces pressure to step up appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Three state employee labor unions hoping to preserve the merit system for their members told the Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday that a law passed in 2018 doesn’t alter existing contracts. Under the law, most state employees lost protections that included grievance procedures to protest disciplinary actions and a requirement that the state have a […]

The post Missouri Supreme Court weighs impact of merit system changes on labor contracts appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Phone records show Sheena Greitens didn’t talk to Karl Rove, Mitch McConnell “or any person working for these men” in the weeks before she made explosive allegations of child and spousal abuse against Eric Greitens, her attorney said Tuesday. Sheena Greitens’ call logs and text messages for the period Feb. 1 through March 22 were […]

The post Phone records blast holes in Eric Greitens’ conspiracy claims, attorney says appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A push by Missouri regulators to change permitting requirements for coal ash ponds has environmental groups worried important safeguards will be lifted and toxic chemicals and metals could leach into groundwater with few protections. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources is seeking to move some ash ponds from stringent, site-specific permits to the general permit […]

The post Environmentalists decry proposed ‘permit lite’ for some Missouri coal ash ponds appeared first on Missouri Independent.

During a 2014 symposium marking the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision, a statement from one of the plaintiffs offered what today feels like prescient insight. Many of the Virginia plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, feared integration and would have preferred separate and actually equal. Many historians consider Brown one of the high court’s five […]

The post Some 68 years after Brown v. Board, similar foes continue fighting progress | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A report published Monday by a federal watchdog sheds new light on the scope of missing foster kids in Missouri, an issue that infuriated state lawmakers last year and led to accusations that Department of Social Services leadership was failing to take accountability. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General […]

The post ​​Federal watchdog’s report sheds new light on scope of Missouri’s missing foster kids appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Investigate Midwest. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general is reviewing the agency’s handling of the tens of thousands of reported incidents of harm linked to the Seresto flea-and-tick collar, the agency announced last week. The EPA Office of Inspector General said it plans to determine whether the agency’s response […]

The post EPA watchdog launches probe into incidents linked to popular Seresto pet collar appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This column was inspired by a discussion with Missouri Independent Reporter Rudi Keller the day after the 2022 legislative session adjourned. We reminisced about earlier years when there seemed to be a more intense focus on the specific details of public policy rather than ideology and pondered what caused the change. Has it been the […]

The post Capitol Perspectives: Possible reasons for Missouri’s legislative dysfunction appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Matt Valentine was 499 days sober in a court-supervised diversion program when painkillers taken for a broken nose triggered a long-term addiction. He died of an overdose in August 2020. When beer heiress Trudy Busch Valentine announced her campaign for U.S. Senate, she pointed to her son’s 2020 overdose death as a key motivation for […]

The post Opioid death of son inspires first agenda item for Democratic Senate candidate appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The bill started out as just one word.  “Literally adding the word ‘Captain’ to the David Dorn Memorial Highway on Highway (State Route) 180 here in St. Louis County,” said Rep. Shamed Dogan, R-Ballwin.  When they named the highway in his honor last year, legislators accidentally left out the title for Dorn, a retired St. […]

The post Missouri legislators load up state’s official calendar with awareness days appeared first on Missouri Independent.