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On a Friday afternoon in late December, Geri Curtis received a disturbing phone call informing her she had only five days to find a new home for a developmentally disabled person. As part of her job as public administrator for Livingston County, she had become legal guardian of a person with severe developmental disabilities two […]

The post Missourians with developmental disabilities languish in hospitals, jails, shelters appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri’s marijuana businesses have extra obstacles when it comes to getting help from financial institutions.  With recreational marijuana now legal in Missouri but still illegal at the federal level, it creates more hoops to jump through for both banks and businesses to meet federal scrutiny. Missouri lawmakers have an opportunity to streamline that process by […]

The post Missouri banks ask lawmakers to approve sharing of marijuana business inspections appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Some of the biggest items in Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s proposed spending plan are in danger of being cut in the House Budget Committee, including money for child care providers, state universities and widening Interstate 70. The budget revisions submitted Tuesday by committee Chairman Cody Smith, R-Carthage, cut $1.5 billion in general revenue and about […]

The post House committee takes aim at I-70, child care funding in Missouri governor’s budget appeared first on Missouri Independent.

At the center of the federal anti-abortion lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is the abortion drug mifepristone and the regimen that reportedly accounts for the majority of abortions in post-Roe America. That’s why the whole country is bracing itself for a ruling from a notoriously anti-abortion judge in Amarillo, Texas.  The attention […]

The post What plaintiffs targeting abortion pill want might not even be possible appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A state law prohibiting counties from imposing regulations on industrial hog facilities does not violate the Missouri Constitution, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The unanimous ruling upholds a Cole County Circuit Court judge’s decision to toss the case before trial. It says county ordinances attempting to set rules for industrial farms are invalid.  At […]

The post Missouri Supreme Court upholds state law prohibiting local CAFO regulations appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Missouri House gave first-round approval to a $1 billion personal and corporate income tax cut Tuesday, as Republicans pushed the bill through despite Democratic warnings that vital services would be starved for funds. The bill would cut the top rate on personal income taxes, cut the corporate income tax rate in half and exempt […]

The post Missouri House votes to cut corporate, personal income taxes by $1 billion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After 13 hours of overnight debate, the Missouri Senate gave initial approval Tuesday morning to a pair of bills that would limit medical procedures for transgender children and place restrictions on transgender girls playing school sports. Both bills still need to be approved one more time by the Senate before being sent to the House. […]

The post Missouri Senate approves four-year ban on medical procedures for transgender minors appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Will you use taxpayer money to prosecute a woman for getting an abortion? That’s the question attorneys general candidates across the United States, and especially in Missouri, will have to answer in the lead up to 2024. Missouri is a unique case study for the role a state’s top prosecutor can play in the abortion […]

The post Missouri Attorney General: Anti-abortion activist? appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Missouri Senate returned from its spring break Monday with Democrats resuming their filibuster of a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender children. The Senate reconvened to debate legislation sponsored by Sen. Holly Thompson-Rehder, R-Scott City, that began as a ban on transgender girls participating in school sports but was expanded to include […]

The post Missouri Democrats once again filibuster ban on medical procedures for transgender minors appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. director of national intelligence has three months to declassify information on potential links between China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of COVID-19, after President Joe Biden signed legislation Monday. The bill was one of the first Biden has signed since a 118th Congress split between the two parties began […]

The post Biden signs Josh Hawley bill declassifying information on the origin of COVID-19 appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The pills came in a dark salmon-colored envelope sealed with a plastic covering that traveled more than 7,000 miles, over a dozen time zones from Nagpur, India, in almost exactly one week. They were placed partially under the doormat of a home in a state with one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the […]

The post Ending a pregnancy in 14 states leaves few options. Some are looking to Europe and India for help appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Federal departments and agencies say U.S. House Republicans’ plans to cut federal spending would result in reductions to key programs like food aid, education assistance and wildfire management. The series of letters from across the federal government released Monday detail exactly how plans to cut at least $130 billion in domestic spending during […]

The post Biden administration details potential cuts in education, food aid and more under GOP plan appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri’s largest electric utility believes a bill aimed at reducing competition and giving monopoly providers an advantage in building transmission lines will avoid cost overruns and deliver better results for customers. In its home state, where it stands to benefit, Ameren Missouri has offered its full-throated support to legislation aimed at giving the company the […]

The post Missouri, Kansas utilities back bills to reestablish monopoly on transmission projects appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Lawmakers return to the Missouri Capitol Monday to kick off the second half of the 2023 legislative session with a laundry list of priorities and a constitutional deadline to get them done.  Legalizing sports betting, changing the initiative petition process, education policy shifts, tax cuts, banning foreign land ownership, expanding postpartum health care and a […]

The post Debate over transgender health care threatens to upend Missouri legislative session appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Bipartisan momentum is building in Congress to restrict China and other foreign adversaries from purchasing U.S. farmland, a reflection of a similar push by some states as well as apprehension over Chinese spy balloons, rising land prices and growing international competition. “Foreign ownership of agricultural land threatens small family farms and the overall […]

The post Limits on foreign ownership of U.S. farmland gain support in Congress, despite skepticism appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Spending time fighting “woke,” “wokeness,” and a so-called “culture war” instead of focusing on the real issues and problems we face as a nation is a downright miscarriage of the political and legislative processes. Legislators, political leaders and potential candidates have found a new strawman to use to reenergize and promote continued racism and disenfranchisement. […]

The post Campaigns to kill ‘wokeness’ are efforts to perpetuate racism, disenfranchisement appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A software company that successfully sued the state and was awarded $23 million last year has filed a new lawsuit against Missouri’s Department of Social Services, alleging the agency “knowingly and purposefully” violated open records law. According to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Cole County, Florida-based HHS Technology submitted a request for records to the […]

The post Missouri’s Department of Social Services sued for alleged Sunshine Law violations appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers should view America’s staggering opioid crisis, including the rise of illicit fentanyl, through an “ecosystems” approach, argues a massive RAND Corporation report published Thursday. That means they should examine the gaps and interconnections among emergency response, data collection, education, treatment, housing and law enforcement, the report advises. The 600-page volume — which the authors […]

The post As opioid overdose deaths keep rising, report urges lawmakers to develop new approaches appeared first on Missouri Independent.

To crack down on price gouging, proposed legislation in Missouri calls for allowing felony charges against health care staffing agencies that substantially raise their prices during a declared emergency. A New York bill includes a cap on the amount staffing agencies can charge health care facilities. And a Texas measure would allow civil penalties against […]

The post Temp nurses cost hospitals big during the pandemic. Missouri lawmakers are mulling limits appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack bristled at complaints from both Democrats and Republicans of unchecked departmental spending and delayed support for farmers during a Thursday U.S. Senate oversight hearing. He also lobbied Congress to provide a farm bill that will balance large-scale productivity with the needs of small and mid-sized producers, a theme the […]

The post Members of U.S. Senate agriculture panel spar with Vilsack over USDA spending, response appeared first on Missouri Independent.