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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.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, speaking from the site of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, said Friday that those who support democracy must remember what World War II soldiers sacrificed and live up to those ideals. Biden’s remarks came during commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day and sought to tie the threats to […]

The post ‘Democracy begins with each of us,’ Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Attempts to get kids off of their phones are ramping up in Congress, despite intense lobbying by social media giants and pushback by those worried about violations of First Amendment speech rights. Lawmakers are seeking to set a minimum age to access social media and put more of the onus on social media […]

The post Prodded by fed up parents, some in Congress try to curb kids’ use of social media appeared first on Missouri Independent.

State Sen. Bill Eigel’s campaign for governor accepted too much in anonymous donations and too much from some individual donors, complaints filed Thursday with the Missouri Ethics Commission allege. St. Louis attorney John Maupin, a Republican who in the 1990s was chairman of the Missouri Ethics Commission, filed the two complaints, which also accuse Eigel […]

The post Ethics complaints allege Eigel exceeds limit on anonymous donors to campaign for governor appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Gov. Mike Parson on Wednesday appointed a fourth person to serve on the six-member Missouri Ethics Commission, providing the board with a quorum for the first time since March.  But because one member has been unable to attend meetings since last fall, the commission is still one person short of being able to hold a […]

The post Missouri Ethics Commission finally has a quorum — but still can’t meet or take action appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Academy Award-winning screenwriter Kevin Willmott’s latest documentary film captures the life of civil rights leader Alvin Brooks, who was one of the first Black police officers in Kansas City and served as the city’s first Black department director. Brooks also was founder of the Ad Hoc Group Against Crime, elected to the city council in […]

The post New documentary chronicles life of Kansas City civil rights leader Alvin Brooks appeared first on Missouri Independent.

GRANBY — About a year after Blair Powell built his dream home in the southwest Missouri Ozarks, a noxious smell wafting from the farm next door ruined his son’s wedding reception in their backyard. “It just was ungodly,” Powell said. “Just the worst, horrible, horrible smell. Eyes were burning, some were just nauseous, and some […]

The post Missouri communities divided over spreading meatpacking sludge appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — “They were brave, they were resolute, they were ready,” President Joe Biden said Thursday at the Normandy American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach, one of five along France’s northern coast where Allied troops invaded in 1944 and turned the tide in World War II. Biden and dozens of U.S. lawmakers traveled to Normandy to […]

The post On 80th anniversary of D-Day invasion, Biden and Macron honor WWII veterans at Normandy appeared first on Missouri Independent.