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An aging electric grid, fossil fuel power plant retirements and a massive renewable electricity buildout are all contributing to a boom in transmission and distribution wire projects by electric utilities across the country. In 2020, investor-owned electric utilities spent $25 billion on transmission, up from $23.7 billion in 2019, figures that the Edison Electric Institute, which […]

The post As utilities spend billions on transmission, support builds for independent monitoring appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A Branson-based Christian summer camp was sued last week by a former camper who alleges it concealed knowledge of a staffer's sexual misconduct to convince the camper's family to sign a settlement and non-disclosure agreement.

The post Former camper suing Missouri-based Kanakuk claiming ‘fraudulent’ abuse settlement appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Attorneys for a St. Louis man sentenced to die for a murder he committed when he was 19 asked the Missouri Supreme Court Monday to delay his execution to allow for a hearing on alleged constitutional violations in his original trial. Kevin Johnson was convicted in 2007 of killing a police officer. He is scheduled […]

The post Kevin Johnson’s attorneys, special prosecutor ask Missouri Supreme Court to stay execution appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Kaiser Health News.  As COVID-19 raged, roughly 4,000 highly skilled epidemiologists, communication specialists, and public health nurses were hired by a nonprofit tied to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to plug the holes at battered public health departments on the front lines. But over the past few […]

The post Thousands of experts hired to aid public health departments are losing their jobs appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Investigate Midwest.  The Environmental Protection Agency is charged with protecting important waterways from pollution, but manure from concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, continues to harm waterways — and only one-third of the largest facilities have a federal permit. EPA permits require CAFO operators to tell the agency how […]

The post Large CAFOs are known polluters. Here’s why EPA permits only cover one-third appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When Kate Starbird got word that Missouri’s attorney general wanted her to turn over three years of her emails, she didn’t know what to think.  A Seattle-based professor at the University of Washington, Starbird co-founded the UW Center for an Informed Public, which researches misinformation online. Why would an elected official 2,000 miles away be […]

The post Missouri AG aligns with St. Louis conspiracy theorist in social media lawsuit appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Early last month, Gov. Mike Parson signed legislation to lower the state’s income tax rate at an annual cost of more than $500 million — shorting Missouri taxpayers out of a greater return for their money. Tax dollars that could have staffed up school districts facing teacher and staff shortages, improved facilities and equipment for […]

The post Missouri deserves a creative program for supporting businesses, reducing unemployment appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Local governments in Ohio and Illinois are using American Rescue Plan Act money to relieve residents struggling with medical debt by partnering with an organization that buys debt and wipes the slate clean for debtors.  It’s a strategy advocates say could be duplicated across the country to help erase a multibillion-dollar problem. On Nov. 9, […]

The post Two communities find a cure for medical debt: Pandemic stimulus funds appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Roughly 345,000 Missouri children under age 17 are now excluded from receiving the full $2,000 child tax credit in Missouri, according to the report. 

The post Nearly 350,000 Missouri children are too poor to receive full child tax credit appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The recent party caucuses of Missouri’s legislature provide an example for the U.S. Congress of a more civil and productive approach to dealing with changes after a general election. Congressional party caucuses have been divided by ideological, political and personality conflicts. That is so different from the comments of newly elected Missouri Senate Majority Leader […]

The post Capitol Perspectives: Legislative fights for leadership appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This article first appeared on The Daily Yonder and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. A higher prevalence of gun ownership in rural America has contributed to increased suicides, raising the overall gun-death rate in rural areas above that of urban communities. Experts say some legal interventions that have broad public support could […]

The post Rural gun deaths exceed urban rates by 28% because of increased suicide rates appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who became the first woman in history to hold the gavel, shepherding landmark bills across four presidencies, announced Thursday she’ll step aside from leadership though she’ll remain in Congress. “With great confidence in our caucus, I will not seek reelection to Democratic leadership in the next Congress,” she […]

The post Nancy Pelosi, first woman to serve as speaker of the U.S. House, steps down from leadership appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Longtime cannabis activist Brennan England has gotten lots of undeserved praise since Missourians approved a constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana on Nov. 8. As the owner of a private cannabis consumption lounge in St. Louis, England understood why people thought he’d have a “go weed or go home” stance.  But it wasn’t that simple for […]

The post Marijuana vote divided Missouri social-justice leaders. Can an equity officer be a bridge? appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The cliché about the Kansas City airport used to go like this: People who live in Kansas City love it, while people from out of town hate it. At this moment, it seems that the group of people who hate the outgoing airport is, well, everyone. For years, Kansas Citians debated whether to replace the […]

The post Glimpses of the new Kansas City airport make visiting current terminals a chore appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON —  The U.S. Senate cleared a key hurdle to passing a marriage equality bill Wednesday, garnering even more than the 60 senators from both political parties needed to move past a legislative filibuster. The bill, which could win final passage in the Senate as soon as this week, would ensure same-sex and interracial couples […]

The post Bill protecting same-sex marriage gains bipartisan support in U.S. Senate appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON —  Democratic U.S. senators have set a December deadline for passing bipartisan legislation that would create a pathway to citizenship for more than 600,000 undocumented people who were brought into the country as children — but they don’t yet have enough Senate Republican votes to make it a reality. During a Wednesday press conference […]

The post U.S. Senate Democrats make a last-ditch push for a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers appeared first on Missouri Independent.

An Edgar Springs woman won a partial victory Tuesday in her long-running dispute with her city when a judge ruled local officials violated her constitutional rights and the state’s Sunshine Law. The small Phelps County city must pay Rebecca Varney a fine of $600 plus her legal costs for “knowing and purposeful” violations of the […]

The post ‘Not a new or novel policy’: Judge rules Missouri town cannot ban woman seeking records appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When she was 13, Dakota Hommes felt scared and alone. She was having a crisis, didn’t feel she could talk to her parents about it and worried about her future. “At 13, I wasn’t sure that I would make it,” she said. Then, at a library, she found the novels “Parrot Fish” by Ellen Wittlinger […]

The post Opposition growing to Missouri Secretary of State rules on library materials for children appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. Senate on an investigation panel on Tuesday grilled federal immigration officials about a bipartisan report that detailed how migrant women at an immigration detention center in Georgia underwent questionable gynecological procedures. The U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Permanent Investigations released an 18-month bipartisan report that found migrant women who were detained at Irwin […]

The post Migrant women endured medical mistreatment at Georgia ICE facility, U.S. Senate report finds appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Former President Donald Trump, whose lies about his reelection loss in 2020 precipitated an insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol, said Tuesday he will make another run for the White House in 2024. His announcement came only a week after a disappointing showing by Republicans — especially those who endorsed his false claims about 2020 […]

The post Trump announces a third bid for the presidency, even as GOP reels from midterm setback appeared first on Missouri Independent.