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At five months pregnant, Kayla Marmaud started putting her name on waiting lists for child care. But when her son was born in late 2021, she still hadn’t heard from any daycares. As her maternity leave drew to a close, Marmaud found herself in waitlist limbo. Leaving the workforce was not an option financially for […]

The post Missouri child care deserts include nearly half of kids 5 and under, new data shows appeared first on Missouri Independent.

MuckRock and The Missouri Independent analyzed the supply and demand of Missouri child care programs since 2019, drawing from public records and data provided by the advocacy group Child Care Aware.  Reporters sought to find what areas of the state have the least child care availability, how availability changed during the pandemic and whether several […]

The post Five things we learned about Missouri’s child care crisis appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office withdrew last week from a Cole County lawsuit accusing the Missouri State Highway Patrol of harassment and a “concerted campaign of threats” against companies that profit from video games offering cash prizes. Bailey, who is seeking a full term in office in 2024, has in recent months accepted large […]

The post Missouri AG drops out of gambling case after taking donations from companies suing state appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Cuando Adelaida, una guatemalteca, cruzó la frontera entre México y Estados Unidos en McAllen, Texas para solicitar asilo, los agentes de immigración poco le explicaron antes de colocarle un grillete en el tobillo.  “Ahí fue cuando me asusté, porque nunca en mi vida había visto yo un grillo”, dijo Adelaida, quien pidió que no se […]

The post Protesta en St. Louis se enfoca en el uso de grilletes para solicitantes de asilo  appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s emergency rule blocking access to certain medical procedures for transgender children and adults faces a lawsuit seeking to block implementation  days before it is scheduled to go into effect. The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit Monday in St. Louis County calling Bailey’s rule […]

The post Lawsuit seeks to block Missouri attorney general restrictions on transgender health care appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The former case manager whose allegations against a St. Louis transgender clinic spurred an an inquiry by the attorney general says she stands behind her claims despite an internal investigation by her former employer concluding they are unsubstantiated.  Last week, Washington University released the findings of its investigation into allegations of misconduct made by Jamie […]

The post Former employee of St. Louis transgender clinic reaffirms allegations of misconduct appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When Guatemalan-native Adelaida crossed the Mexican-American border at McAllen, Texas, to seek asylum, immigration officials told her very little before they attached a GPS monitor to her ankle. “I was scared because never in my life had I seen an ankle monitor,” said Adelaida, who asked that her last name be withheld out of fear […]

The post St. Louis protest targets use of ankle monitors, passport confiscation for asylum seekers appeared first on Missouri Independent.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — At the sprawling array of laboratories and test facilities in the southeastern Idaho desert where the U.S. nuclear power industry was born more than 70 years ago, past, present and future are converging. Not far from where the first reactor to ever produce usable electricity made history in 1951, Idaho National Laboratory nuclear engineer […]

The post With decarbonization, advocates see a bright future for nuclear after decades of dormancy appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Sera Hart-Smith and her partner Kyle Kiera Hart are packing their belongings to leave Missouri before Hart-Smith runs out of her supply of estrogen. Hart-Smith has been taking estrogen since she was 19, and the couple is afraid state leaders may take that access away and push her back into the depression that she felt […]

The post Transgender Missourians consider leaving state after AG includes adults in emergency rule appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In a move with parallels across the country, conservative lawmakers in Jefferson City are advancing legislation to strip control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) from the city and give it to the state. The bill comes a decade after Missourians voted to reverse a Civil War-era system that had kept St. Louis law enforcement […]

The post Public safety in Missouri belongs to the people, not the state appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON —  Every public school kid in the United States was eligible for free school meals during the COVID-19 pandemic, regardless of family income, thanks to the federal government. While that’s now ended, a growing number of states across the country are enacting universal school meal laws to bolster child food security and academic equity. […]

The post A pandemic experiment in universal free school meals gains traction in the states appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Allegations that physicians at the Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital failed to inform patients of potential side effects of treatment and overlooked their mental health needs are “unsubstantiated,” according to an internal investigation conducted by Washington University and released Friday. Washington University oversees the Transgender Center and has been under fire since Jamie […]

The post Washington University inquiry found allegations against Transgender Center ‘unsubstantiated’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Lisa Thomas wandered into an outdoor market celebrating 4/20 on Cherokee Street in St. Louis — and ended up with her very first marijuana plant. Actually two of them.  “I’m so excited,” she said. “I’ve never had a plant.” She and her husband Jerry had been passing by a tent showcasing trimming equipment for marijuana […]

The post With recreational marijuana now legal, 4/20 looked much different in Missouri appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Investigate Midwest.  When gases from large livestock facilities overwhelm communities, the health impacts can be severe. Children at schools near concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, are more likely to experience asthma. Exposure to ammonia and hydrogen sulfide — both emitted in large quantities by CAFOs — can lead to […]

The post 18 years and counting: EPA still has no method for measuring CAFO air pollution appeared first on Missouri Independent.

PUT THE GUN DOWN. It’s just the doorbell, the child is lost. PUT THE GUN DOWN. It’s just a car, doing a u-turn because they were lost. PUT THE GUN DOWN. She got into the wrong car by accident. PUT THE GUN DOWN. He didn’t mean to cut you off. PUT THE GUN DOWN. It […]

The post Guns and vigilantes: Fear, paranoia has created a culture of violence appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Republican legislators have unblinkingly voiced displeasure with the Missouri Department of Transportation during this year’s legislative session. With billions of dollars of surplus funds in the state treasury, lawmakers are considering how — or whether — to use a billion of those dollars to expand Interstate 70 — a priority in Gov. Mike Parson’s budget proposal. But […]

The post Despite animosity between legislature and MoDOT, I-70 funding moves forward appeared first on Missouri Independent.

These days Kylee Sunderlin is often the first person people will talk to about needing or wanting to terminate a pregnancy, even though she’s not a nurse or doctor or a loved one. She’s a lawyer. This is Sunderlin’s third year overseeing a national hotline dedicated to helping people navigate legal questions around abortion in […]

The post Abortion-rights attorneys help patients and providers navigate legal chaos appeared first on Missouri Independent.

For Donte Westmoreland, April 20 is indeed a day to celebrate cannabis culture and the “love of the plant.” But he never stops thinking about the people who are still incarcerated nationwide for the plant, like he was. And he hopes others remember them on 4/20 as well. “I want them to realize that we’re […]

The post Kansas City honors cannabis-justice activist with 4/20 proclamation appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans voted Thursday to prohibit transgender student athletes from competing on girls sports teams consistent with their gender identity, at the same time multiple GOP-dominated states are making similar moves. The bill, H.R. 734, which would apply to K-12 schools as well as colleges that receive federal funding, passed on a party-line […]

The post U.S. House approves bill banning transgender student athletes in girls sports appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs can continue providing service members with access to abortion in cases of life-threatening complications, rape or incest, after the U.S. Senate narrowly blocked a measure Wednesday that would have scrapped a new Biden administration rule. The VA policy, which also includes abortion counseling, was established after the U.S. […]

The post Abortion services to remain available at the VA after close U.S. Senate vote appeared first on Missouri Independent.