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Every year — on New Year’s Eve, July 4, when a sports team wins a championship — police and politicians practically beg people not to fire their guns into the air in celebration. In Kansas City, reports of shots fired go up when the NFL playoffs roll around. Meanwhile, a proposal to slightly strengthen the […]

The post After Chiefs win, Kansas Citians fire guns in the air. A lawmaker wants the team to speak out appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators pledged Thursday to press for more funding to research long COVID-19 during a hearing that highlighted patients suffering from the diagnosis as well as experts studying its impacts. “Long COVID stripped away my daughter’s life as she knew it,” said Nicole Heim, the mom of a long COVID patient in Winchester, […]

The post Patients struck by long COVID plead with U.S. Senate panel for more research funding appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Congress will have until early March to finish work it was supposed to complete last fall — and will avert a partial government shutdown — under a bill both chambers approved with broad bipartisan support Thursday. The 77-18 vote in the Senate and 314-108 vote in the House sent the bill to President Joe Biden, […]

The post Congress speeds through short-term government funding bill before Friday shutdown deadline appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A campaign to legalize abortion in Missouri disclosed raising more than $1.1 million in donations on the first day it launched. The campaign, a coalition organized under a political action committee called Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, announced Thursday it was launching a campaign to move forward with a ballot initiative that would legalize abortion up […]

The post Missouri abortion ballot effort raises more than $1 million in first day of launch appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The bitter feud between a vocal minority of Senate Republicans and the majority of the GOP caucus erupted Thursday into a fit of name-calling and allegations that certain lawmakers hoped to disrupt the regular process of legislation simply to boost their political fortunes. For almost 11 hours, the intra-party fight kept lawmakers in the Missouri […]

The post Tempers flare in Missouri Senate during GOP fight over initiative petition changes appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The United States should not expand nuclear energy use, at least until the federal government can make up for the harms caused by previous nuclear projects, U.S. Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri said at a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Bush cited the health problems nuclear waste has caused to many in her […]

The post Health risks from nuclear contamination in St. Louis denounced at congressional hearing appeared first on Missouri Independent.

  WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans Thursday held a second hearing on the impeachment of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, even as Mayorkas works to reach a deal on changes in immigration law with a group of senators. Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee argued that Mayorkas has not upheld his oath of office […]

The post U.S. House Republicans move ahead with drive to impeach Mayorkas over immigration policy appeared first on Missouri Independent.

If Missouri employees ask for workers’ compensation after an on-the-job injury, employers can require them to take a drug test for marijuana.  If they test positive — even if they hadn’t consumed marijuana for days — their compensation and death benefit may be reduced by 50%.  That didn’t change when Missouri legalized recreational marijuana because […]

The post Missouri legislators push back on adding marijuana to workers’ compensation law appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s White House gathering with lawmakers to find a compromise on foreign aid and immigration was “productive,” U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday, but a deal has still not been reached. Biden hosted congressional leaders and other lawmakers to discuss the administration’s stalled $106 billion national security supplemental request, which includes […]

The post No deal on Ukraine, Israel aid after White House meeting with top congressional leaders appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Passage of a multi-billion-dollar supplemental package hinges on curbing an executive authority used to grant immigration protection, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said during a Wednesday press conference. “If we don’t fix parole, there will be no deal,” Graham said alongside Senate Republican Whip John Thune of South Dakota. Graham said parole is […]

The post With GOP pushing hard on immigration, parole emerges as a make-or-break issue in Congress appeared first on Missouri Independent.

With state law already banning transgender youth from accessing puberty blockers and hormones, a Missouri House committee met late into the evening Wednesday to debate adding more restrictions. Two statehouse hearing rooms overflowed with witnesses in favor and against bills in the House Emerging Issues Committee that would determine whether it should be compulsory for […]

The post Missouri lawmakers debate permanent ban on transgender care for minors appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After months of court battles and internal squabbles, a coalition of Missouri abortion-rights organizations plan to officially launch an effort Thursday to put a constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot to legalize abortion up until the point of fetal viability.  Despite reports of discord within the coalition, the campaign has the support of Abortion Action […]

The post Abortion-rights coalition launches campaign to put amendment on Missouri ballot appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A state Senate hearing on a medical provider tax devolved Wednesday into a fight over the political tactics of Missouri Right to Life, with a Democrat dropping an obscenity and Republicans slamming the group for injecting its anti-abortion politics into unrelated issues. Only one member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Republican Sen. Denny Hoskins of […]

The post Missouri Senate GOP factions on display during debate over defunding Planned Parenthood appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate took a broadly bipartisan vote Tuesday to advance a short-term spending bill, but both chambers of Congress must approve the legislation before a Friday funding deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown. The 68-13 procedural vote moves the bill toward a final vote in the Senate in the coming days, […]

The post U.S. Senate moves to avoid a partial government shutdown, but time running short appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri circuit courts have cleared more than 100,000 marijuana charges from people’s criminal records so far — a mandate that was a big selling point for those who voted to pass the constitutional amendment that legalized recreational marijuana in 2022. However, court officials said it’s hard to determine how many more charges are left because […]

The post Missouri courts request $3.7 million to continue arduous marijuana expungement process appeared first on Missouri Independent.

For nearly two decades, Tona Henderson collected newspaper articles, letters and photographs documenting who in the small town of Emmett, Idaho, was diagnosed with cancer, including her own family. The result is a wall in her home covered in pictures and pages displaying the names of community members who may have been exposed to lethal […]

The post ‘The fight isn’t over’: Idaho downwinders persist after Congress cuts compensation for them appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Americans are typically told the story of the scientists who built the atomic bomb as an intellectual race for the world’s most powerful weapon during wartime.  More than 100 atmospheric weapons tests were conducted in the U.S. and its territories between 1945 and 1962. It resulted in widespread radioactive fallout across much of the U.S., […]

The post Radius: The legacy of America’s nuclear weapons testing program appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When he appointed Andrew Bailey as attorney general in late 2022, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson vowed he’d have “the full resources of the governor of the State of Missouri” to ensure his success in the new job.  “On the political side,” Parson added, “I’ll do everything I can.” During Bailey’s transition into office, Parson dispatched […]

The post ‘Stinks quite a bit’: Mike Parson accused of illegally using office to meddle in primaries appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Nine-year-old Macie Thomas loves living in Raymore. She said she spends the summers playing outside, golfing and swimming. Her best friend and her grandmother both live nearby.  But Thomas told Missouri senators Tuesday that she fears a landfill proposed just over the city limits in Kansas City will change everything. Thomas said her father suffers […]

The post Kansas City-area residents plead with Missouri lawmakers to stop landfill appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The presidential nominating process kicked off Monday in Iowa, with a decisive victory for former President Donald Trump in the Republican caucuses.  Missouri’s turn will come in March, when Republicans meet for caucuses on March 2 and Democrats participate in a party-run primary on March 23. From 2000 to 2020, Missouri had a state-run presidential […]

The post Missouri political parties prepare for life after the presidential primary appeared first on Missouri Independent.