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Missouri could be the first state with a near-total abortion ban to use the initiative petition process to restore access.   But time is running short, with a May deadline to collect enough signatures looming and court battles over ballot summaries still plodding along.  And while voters in Ohio became just the latest to overwhelmingly back […]

The post Abortion rights won big on the ballot in Ohio. But in Missouri, advocates remain divided appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft will try again to salvage the ballot summary he wrote for abortion rights initiative petitions with an appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court. Ashcroft’s language has been savaged in opinions from two courts, most recently when the Western District Court of Appeals ruled his summaries are “replete with politically partisan […]

The post Jay Ashcroft to appeal abortion ballot summary ruling to Missouri Supreme Court appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The federal government unfairly penalizes state-legal marijuana businesses whose owners have been convicted of marijuana-related crimes, restricting them from loans and other banking tools, a group of U.S. Senate and House Democrats wrote to the Treasury Department asking for a change in policy. The group of 20 lawmakers, who mostly represent states where recreational marijuana is legal, […]

The post Democrats urge feds to update banking ‘red flags’ on legal marijuana businesses appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The state’s Division of Cannabis Regulation is revoking the marijuana manufacturing license of Delta Extraction after accusing the company of illegally importing “marijuana product” from out-of-state and adding it to Missouri-grown marijuana products. The revocation will take effect on Dec. 2. The Robertsville-based company is at the center of Missouri’s massive marijuana recall that was […]

The post Cannabis regulators to revoke license of Missouri company at center of recall appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Two transgender boys filed a federal lawsuit Thursday seeking to reverse the University of Missouri’s decision to stop providing gender-affirming care to minors. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, alleges halting transgender minors’ prescriptions unconstitutionally discriminates on the basis of sex and disability status. University of Missouri […]

The post Transgender minors sue University of Missouri for refusing puberty blockers, hormones appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators voted 87-11 to approve legislation Wednesday that would fund the government into next year, clearing the measure for President Joe Biden’s signature. The stopgap spending bill, sometimes called a continuing resolution or CR, would fund part of the government until mid-January and the rest of the programs within the annual appropriations […]

The post Congress sends stopgap spending bill to Biden’s desk, averting shutdown for now appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Biden administration’s first major step toward imposing limits on the pharmacy benefit managers who act as the drug industry’s price negotiators is backfiring, pharmacists say. Instead, it’s adding to the woes of the independent drugstores it was partly designed to help. The so-called PBMs have long clawed back a fee from pharmacies weeks or […]

The post Biden administration’s limit on drug industry middlemen backfires, pharmacists say appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A panel of Missouri lawmakers have spent several hours in recent weeks debating whether or not aliens and robots should be banned on marijuana product labels. Humans, animals and fruits are already not allowed — an effort by the state to keep products out of the hands of children. But would robots fall under that […]

The post Missouri legislators criticize regulations targeting cannabis packaging aimed at kids appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington state Democrat, joined about 100 tenant advocates at a press event outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to demand action on the housing crisis. Jayapal, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called on the Federal Housing Finance Agency to bolster tenant protections and rent regulations. The People’s […]

The post ‘Out of control’: Advocates rally in D.C. calling for action on housing crisis appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri’s requirement for voters to show government-issued photo identification before casting a ballot will be on trial starting Friday. Over four days, Cole County Circuit Judge John Beetem will hear familiar arguments that the law passed in 2022 unconstitutionally restricts the right to vote by imposing burdens that disenfranchise large numbers of people. In 2006 […]

The post Challenge to Missouri voter ID law focuses on barriers faced by the elderly, disabled appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The Government Accountability Office plans to investigate multiple whistleblower allegations of “gross mismanagement” at the Department of Veterans Affairs veterans crisis line, following a request from Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran, States Newsroom has learned. Moran, ranking member on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, sent a letter to the VA secretary this week […]

The post VA veterans crisis line to face new investigation by congressional watchdog agency appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Members of both parties from both chambers of Congress spoke to tens of thousands of supporters of Israel in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, pledging to continue support for the U.S. ally’s war against Hamas even as concerns about the destruction in Gaza rise. Many speakers, including family members of Israeli and Israeli American victims, at […]

The post As ’March for Israel’ draws crowds to D.C., congressional leaders vow continued support appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The Democratic-led Senate Committee on Rules and Administration approved a resolution meant to bypass Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s blockade of hundreds of U.S. military nominees as he continues to protest a Pentagon abortion policy. The Rules Committee voted 9-7 along party lines to, in essence, temporarily change a Senate floor process to allow votes on large groups […]

The post Tuberville blockade of military nominees could be evaded after move by U.S. Senate panel appeared first on Missouri Independent.

(Rebecca Rivas/The Missouri Independent)

The post Federal lawsuit reveals behind-the-scenes saga of failed Missouri marijuana testing lab appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican, challenged the head of the Teamsters union to a physical fight at a U.S. Senate hearing Tuesday intended to showcase how labor unions are making families’ lives better. The tense confrontation at the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing stemmed from acrimonious posts on social […]

The post Oklahoma senator challenges Teamsters president to fight at U.S. Senate hearing appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Members of a U.S. House committee on Tuesday grilled the head of the General Services Administration over the agency’s recent decision to place the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s new headquarters in Maryland instead of Virginia. “The process — or lack thereof — raises many questions that need to be answered,” the chair of […]

The post Maryland, Virginia lawmakers tussle over FBI HQ decision at congressional hearing appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Some scholars say a little-known, Civil War-era provision in the U.S. Constitution should prohibit former President Donald Trump from appearing on state ballots in next year’s presidential election. But it seems increasingly unlikely that he will be disqualified. Courts in Colorado, Michigan, New Jersey and elsewhere are considering whether Trump engaged in insurrection on Jan. […]

The post Courts, state officials hesitate to keep Trump off 2024 ballots appeared first on Missouri Independent.

State regulators are poised to deny a request from a southwest Missouri meat packer to discharge treated wastewater directly into a river already impaired by E. coli.  Missouri Prime Beef Packers requested permission from the state to treat wastewater from its meatpacking operation near Pleasant Hope using a proprietary microbe technology and discharge it directly […]

The post Missouri may deny meat packer’s request to dump wastewater in river appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Congress on Monday appeared to be on the edge of approving another short-term government funding bill this week, though several hurdles remain if lawmakers want to stave off a partial government shutdown when the current funding law expires at the end of the week. Democratic leaders and President Joe Biden expressed some skepticism […]

The post Congress nears another government shutdown deadline on Friday at midnight appeared first on Missouri Independent.

States can’t figure out what to do about cash bail. The system — in which an arrested suspect pays cash to avoid sitting in jail until their court date and gets the money back when they appear — is deeply entrenched in the nation’s history as a way to ensure defendants return to face justice. […]

The post Cash bail policies are facing fresh scrutiny in multiple states appeared first on Missouri Independent.