a Better Bubbleā„¢

MoInd šŸ“°

Trump administration intends to deport Abrego Garcia to third country, DOJ lawyer says

2 months ago
This report has been updated. GREENBELT, Maryland — The Trump administration plans to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a third country once he is released from federal custody, a Department of Justice attorney disclosed during a Thursday emergency court hearing. Attorneys for the unlawfully deported Abrego Garcia had made an emergency request Thursday to bring […]
Ariana Figueroa

$1,000 ā€˜Trump Accounts’ for babies skewed toward the wealthy, critics say

2 months ago
WASHINGTON — Tucked in the ā€œone big beautiful billā€ is a proposal for tax-advantaged ā€œTrump Accounts,ā€ each seeded with $1,000 from the government for certain babies born in the United States over the next few years. But financial experts and advocates for low-income children are not overly impressed. The idea is not new and has […]
Ashley Murray

Trump urges voters to press for US Senate GOP mega-bill after setback on Medicaid cuts

2 months ago
This report has been updated. WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday told his supporters to call members of Congress and lobby them to support the ā€œbig, beautiful bill,ā€ a crucial push with just days to go before a self-imposed Fourth of July deadline. Trump’s plea follows several tumultuous days on Capitol Hill as GOP […]
Jennifer Shutt, Shauneen Miranda, Ashley Murray

Federal spending bill could be ā€˜devastating’ for Missouri Medicaid patients, rural hospitals

2 months ago
Policymakers and health advocates said Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s ā€œOne Big Beautiful Bill Actā€ could be ā€œdevastatingā€ to thousands of Missourians who rely on Medicaid and live in rural communities. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the changes could cause nearly 9 million Americans to lose health care coverage. That includes approximately 130,000 to […]
Torryionna Miller, Lina Kong

Trump drive to defund NPR, PBS resisted by Republicans from rural states

2 months ago
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s request to claw back $9.4 billion in previously approved spending on foreign aid and public media ran into significant opposition Wednesday, potentially dooming its path forward in the Senate. Numerous GOP lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee, including Chairwoman Susan Collins, expressed concern at how the proposed rescissions would affect American […]
Jennifer Shutt

Missouri or Kansas? Business leaders don’t care as long as Chiefs and Royals stay near KC

2 months ago
Kansas City regional business leaders don’t care whether the Chiefs or the Royals play in Missouri or Kansas as long as they don’t leave the metropolitan area. That was the main message Wednesday for an online presentation featuring top executives from four organizations that have membership straddling the border. The presentation came just days before […]
Rudi Keller

GOP mega-bill stuck in US Senate as disputes grow over hospitals and more

2 months ago
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans appeared deeply divided Wednesday over how to establish a fund for rural hospitals to offset the budget impacts of Medicaid cuts in the ā€œbig, beautiful bill.ā€ The hospitals, which are generally already hurting financially,Ā rely heavilyĀ on Medicaid, a state-federal partnership that provides health insurance for low-income households and for some people […]
Ashley Murray, Shauneen Miranda, Jacob Fischler, Jennifer Shutt

A radical proposal to abolish state government and strengthen American democracy

2 months ago
Get rid of states? Legal scholar Stephen Legomsky, who taught for 34 years at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, has just published a book, ā€œReimagining the American Union,ā€ that proposes a radical idea: Abolish state government. The Conversation’s politics and democracy editor, Naomi Schalit – a former statehouse reporter herself – […]
Stephen Legomsky

US Senate panel grills Trump CDC nominee on vaccines

2 months ago
WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions pressed President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about vaccine recommendations Wednesday after the Health and Human Services secretary fired members of a critical vaccine panel this month. Trump’s pick, former acting CDC Director Susan […]
Ariana Figueroa

US default could hit during Congress’ summer recess, think tank predicts

2 months ago
The United States could default between Aug. 15 and Oct. 3 if Congress doesn’t act to raise or suspend the debt limit before then, according to a projection the Bipartisan Policy Center published Wednesday. The new estimate from the centrist Washington, D.C., think tank would give Congress slightly more time to address the issue than […]
Jacob Fischler

Dems, GOP members of US House panel split on solution to high cost of child care

2 months ago
WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats on a U.S. House Education and Workforce subcommittee agreed at a Tuesday hearing that child care affordability was a problem, but proposed different solutions. While Republicans touted a longstanding block grant and called for choice and flexibility in the child care system, Democrats pushed for more federal investments, including legislative […]
Shauneen Miranda

Missouri lawmakers could return to session this fall to debate property taxes

2 months ago
Questions about the constitutionality of a property tax cap included in the governor’s stadium funding plan earlier this month may draw Missouri lawmakers back into session later this year. House Speaker Jon Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, on Monday formed the Special Interim Committee on Property Tax Reform and empowered it to study Missouri’s property […]
Jason Hancock

Narcan is not the finish line. It’s the starting point

2 months ago
I have pushed Narcan during respiratory failure in a rural ICU. I have watched patients come back from the edge only to wake up to nothing: a referral sheet, no phone, no ride, and no plan. The ER doors close, but the crisis continues. Narcan, or naloxone, is often called an overdose antidote. That is […]
Abby Ehrhardt

More miscarriages criminally investigated three years into post-Dobbs abortion bans

2 months ago
Editor’s note: This report examines abortion access three years after the U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down the federal right to abortion. The day before Brittany Watts miscarried at home in Warren, Ohio, medical staff at Mercy Health-St. Joseph Warren Hospital told Watts that her nearly 21-week-old fetus had no chance of survival. And without […]
Sofia Resnick

GOP leaders in US Senate struggle to lessen pain of Medicaid cuts for rural hospitals

2 months ago
This report has been updated. WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans were scrambling Tuesday to restructure several proposals in the ā€œbig, beautiful billā€ that don’t meet their chamber’s strict rules for passing a reconciliation package, while GOP lawmakers on the other side of the Capitol warned those changes may doom its passage in the House. Senate […]
Jennifer Shutt, Ariana Figueroa, Ashley Murray, Jacob Fischler

Former Maryland, Montana governors say bipartisan unity key to rebuffing questionable federal policy

2 months ago
In a country flooded by a never-ending wave of talking heads, pundits and fiery social media posts, two bipartisan former governors said the solution to America’s political gridlock may be more talking. But former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, and former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, said that it’s not about talking on […]
Darrell Ehrlick