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The Independence School District recently completed its first school year on a four-day-a-week schedule — a change that made headlines and stirred state officials. Now, with the passage of a new state law, the district will have to ask voters to keep the four-day week by July 1, 2026.  Is that enough time to test […]

The post Missouri education law will require a vote for large districts to have 4-day schedules appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Democrats echoed Senate colleagues Tuesday in calling for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito to recuse themselves from Jan. 6 cases, and for congressional Republicans to support passing an enforceable ethics code for the entire bench. Reps. Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight […]

The post Pair of U.S. House Dems add to chorus calling for Alito, Thomas recusals appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON – The Ohio Immigrant Alliance at a Tuesday press conference at the U.S. Capitol called on members of Congress to bring deported family members back home to the United States. Present at the event were relatives of those deported asking for both Congress and President Joe Biden to reform the American immigration system and […]

The post Immigration group pleads for help bringing deported relatives back to the U.S. appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Congress should stop hiding behind the unelected, bureaucratic, pro-corporate World Trade Organization and restore Country of Origin Labeling for meat in the 2024 Farm Bill. The U.S. House of Representatives released their draft of the Farm Bill, the Senate distributed their Farm Bill framework and neither includes mandatory country of origin labeling for meat. Country […]

The post Farmers and consumers demand country of origin labeling be included in Farm Bill appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of U.S. House lawmakers has launched an effort to spur planning for what the Gaza Strip will look like the “day after” the Israel-Hamas war, even as agreement over a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal remains elusive. Democratic Reps. Brad Schneider of Illinois and David Trone of Maryland, along with Republicans Ann […]

The post Ann Wagner joins bipartisan U.S. House caucus planning for post-war Middle East appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday touted his administration’s efforts to reduce gun violence as the second anniversary of bipartisan gun safety legislation he signed into law approaches. “Never give up on hope,” Biden said during an annual conference hosted by the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. The speech came hours after the […]

The post Biden touts gun safety record to advocates, as son found guilty on felony charges appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Republicans on the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry on Tuesday released their framework for a new five-year farm bill that will set the policy and funding levels for key food, agriculture and conservation programs. The top Republican on the committee, Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, laid out GOP priorities with reporters […]

The post U.S. Senate Republicans outline their farm bill framework appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Economists across the ideological spectrum raised doubts about the cost and workability of former President Donald Trump’s proposal over the weekend to exempt tips from federal taxes if he wins in November. During a campaign rally Sunday in Las Vegas, where hundreds of thousands work in the hospitality industry, Trump promised service workers […]

The post Trump floats plan to end taxes on tips, though experts raise doubts appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Vice President Kamala Harris in Detroit on Saturday slammed former President Donald Trump over his 34 felony convictions last month over hush money payments to an adult film actress before the 2016 election and said his actions are “disqualifying.” “Donald Trump openly tried to overturn the last election. And now, he openly attacks the foundations […]

The post In Detroit, Harris lights into Trump over conviction: ‘Cheaters don’t like getting caught’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Danielle Faith Zoll and her husband have one last embryo frozen in Missouri.  Zoll’s daughter, who is 2 years old, was conceived through in vitro fertilization. But during that pregnancy Zoll developed Hellp Syndrome, an extreme and life-threatening case of preeclampsia.  After giving birth to her daughter at 35 weeks, Zoll’s doctor advised her not […]

The post ‘No protection’: Missouri advocates sound alarm after IVF safeguards stymied in legislature appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump said Monday that if reelected he plans to work “side by side” with a newly formed religious organization that says abortion is the “greatest atrocity facing” the United States and should be “eradicated entirely.” During two-minute recorded remarks played at The Danbury Institute’s inaugural Life & Liberty Forum in […]

The post Trump says he’ll work ‘side by side’ with group that wants abortion ‘eradicated’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Planned Parenthood is asking a Missouri judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the state’s attorney general alleging the clinic is transporting minors out of state for abortions.  The lawsuit was filed based on an undercover video filmed by a man affiliated with a right-wing group pretending to be the uncle of a 13-year-old in […]

The post Planned Parenthood asks Missouri judge to throw out AG suit based on Project Veritas video appeared first on Missouri Independent.

EL PASO, Texas — Seventeen-year-old Karina Parababire gently rocked her three-month-old daughter as they waited in a migrant shelter before a Friday night bus ride to Chicago. “I want my daughter to have everything that I didn’t have,” Parababire, who traveled up the extremely dangerous route of the Darien Gap while pregnant, said in Spanish. The Venezuelan, […]

The post On the U.S.-Mexico border, hopes and fears after Biden’s order limiting asylum appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri will enter the new fiscal year July 1 with a near-record cash surplus as state spending falls short of budgeted amounts and revenues meet expectations. Meeting revenue expectations won’t, however, be enough to trigger an income tax cut dependent on revenue growth, said Jim Moody, a former state budget director.  “My view is, best […]

The post Missouri budget surplus remains close to record levels as fiscal year nears end appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In March 2018, a heartbroken mother named Donnita Stunson mailed a letter to the mayor of St. Louis asking for help. “I was born and raised in the city of St. Louis,” she wrote. “I was once proud of my city, until Dec. 22, 2017.” On that date, around 3 a.m., an unknown number of […]

The post Why 1,000 homicides in St. Louis remain unsolved appeared first on Missouri Independent.

IRONTON — Sammye White balanced carefully on a stepladder as she pulled a hefty box marked “1993” off the top shelf. White, the elected circuit clerk for Iron County in southeast Missouri, was searching for an old marijuana case.  The small storage room near her office is packed with faded ledgers indexing criminal cases by […]

The post Slow process of Missouri marijuana expungement drags on months after constitutional deadlines appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Out of the $7 million Missouri lawmakers approved last year to help courts expunge decades of marijuana cases, state records show less than 10% of it was spent as of mid-May. Across the state, nearly 123,000 marijuana cases have been expunged, according to numbers compiled by the Missouri Supreme Court. But court officials have said […]

The post Money isn’t enough to speed up Missouri’s marijuana expungements appeared first on Missouri Independent.

CBD Kratom employees have become the first Missouri workers in the industry to unionize, following a Friday election. The election spanned across 17 stores in eastern Missouri and Illinois operated by the St. Louis-based CBD Kratom, which sells largely kratom and hemp-derived THC products. Employees voted 23 to 6 to unionize, with 75% of the […]

The post Kratom workers across eastern Missouri vote to unionize appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A federal program to apologize and acknowledge the harms of radiation exposure is out of time, and for those looking for justice from the federal government, the window for inclusion is getting smaller. The Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act begins to expire Friday, with the U.S. Department of Justice accepting applications postmarked June 10. The […]

The post Time’s run out for the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A company that makes tests for lead poisoning has agreed to resolve criminal charges that it concealed for years a malfunction that resulted in inaccurately low results. It’s the latest in a long-running saga involving Massachusetts-based Magellan Diagnostics, which will pay $42 million in penalties, according to the Department of Justice. While many of the […]

The post Thousands of children got tested for lead with faulty devices: What parents should know appeared first on Missouri Independent.