a Better Bubbleā„¢

MoInd šŸ“°

Hemp industry fights for survival as Missouri ban awaits governor’s signature

6 days 5 hours ago
Gov. Mike Kehoe’s office received 10,000 handwritten letters Tuesday asking him to veto a Missouri bill that would impose a statewide ban on intoxicating hemp products. The letters, gathered in just 10 days, came from small-business owners, farmers and customers across Missouri who say the legislation could wipe out the state’s hemp industry — even […]
Rebecca Rivas

What the Supreme Court arguments suggest about Trump’s birthright citizenship case

6 days 5 hours ago
A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court justices showed skepticism about the Trump Administration’s arguments on birthright citizenship. The court delayed its decision on birthright citizenship by first taking up the procedural question of universal injunctions. The conservative majority seemed to be throwing Trump a bone by barring universal injunctions. The ruling against universal injunctions […]
Daniel R. Schramm

Missouri education board approves first charter school in Columbia over local opposition

6 days 19 hours ago
The Missouri State Board of Education approved Frontier STEM Academy’s charter school application Tuesday, with one board member decrying the addition of charter schools in Columbia as ā€œproblematic.ā€ The vote, which was opposed by Columbia Public Schools, opens the door for the first charter school in Missouri outside of the St. Louis and Kansas City […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Trump’s DOJ wants personal voter data for ā€˜improper purposes,’ Michigan official says

6 days 19 hours ago
The Department of Justice’s stated reason for obtaining sensitive personal data on millions of voters masks the Trump administration’s true intention for obtaining state voter lists, Michigan’s top election official asserted in federal appeals court Monday. Attorneys for Michigan Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson made the allegation in aĀ brief in the 6th U.S. Circuit […]
Jonathan Shorman

Immigration enforcement to be funded for 3 years under US Senate GOP plan

6 days 19 hours ago
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday he plans to use the complex reconciliation process to fund immigration enforcement for the next three years, though it wasn’t immediately clear if House Republicans were on the exact same page. The plan to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol with only […]
Jennifer Shutt

Missouri educators push back on bill forcing struggling readers to repeat 3rd grade

6 days 23 hours ago
State Rep. Cathy Joy Loy, a Republican from Carthage, said her bill seeking to automatically retain Missouri third-grade students who are struggling to read is a ā€œtourniquetā€ to ā€œstop the bleed of children who are not reading.ā€ But speaking to the Senate Education Committee Tuesday morning, school administrators said literacy rates are showing improvement three […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Missouri Senate committee backs Purple Alert, discusses tougher school bus stop penalties

1 week ago
A Missouri Senate committee debated two bills Monday, one that would create a statewide alert system and another focused on children’s safety in school zones. The Senate Committee on Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety voted unanimously to pass legislation that would establish an alert system, similar to Amber or Silver alerts, for missing persons with […]
Caroline Sweet

Safeguarding health care in rural Missouri demands a new approach

1 week ago
Missouri lawmakers are right to treat the collapse of rural health care as an urgent crisis. Nearly half of the state’s remaining rural hospitals are at risk of closure, and many communities already know what it means to lose emergency rooms, labor and delivery services and timely stroke care. In this environment, legislation allowing MU […]
Ric Ransom

Missouri income tax repeal plan’s first-year cost jumps to $4.2 billion in Senate

1 week ago
The first-year cost of a House-passed proposal to eliminate the Missouri income tax ballooned to $4.2 billion under revisions made in the state Senate that were called ā€œdrafting errorsā€ Monday during a committee debate. Despite the potential costs, and misgivings of some Republican members of the Senate Fiscal Oversight Committee, the bill passed Monday afternoon […]
Rudi Keller

Missouri Senate scales back proposed oversight of high school athletics

1 week ago
The Missouri Senate peeled back its plans to establish broad state oversight of the Missouri State High School Activities Association, passing a less expansive bill Monday that would create a secondary appellate body for the association’s athletes. State Sen. Jason Bean, a Holcomb Republican and the bill’s sponsor, said the legislation he pitched last week […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Tenants unions gain ground across Missouri as renters fight for affordable housing

1 week ago
Bradley Breier had just settled in Cedarwood Terrace, an affordable housing complex in Springfield, when the notice arrived that all of the tenants were being evicted from their apartments. The owners planned to exit a federal low-income housing program at Cedarwood Terrace, and to convert another property they controlled, Rosewood Estates, into luxury senior living. […]
Meg Cunningham

Trump picks fight with Pope Leo as Iran peace talks dissolve

1 week ago
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump lashed out at Pope Leo XIV Sunday night following the pontiff’s sharp criticism of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran and wider Middle East conflict. In a lengthy post, littered with falsehoods, on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump accused the first U.S.-born pope of being ā€œWEAK on crimeā€ and of […]
Ashley Murray

Some states seek to redefine ā€˜abortion’ to exclude medical treatment

1 week ago
Some anti-abortion state lawmakers are pushing to revise the definition of ā€œabortionā€ so abortion bans don’t apply toĀ cases in whichĀ the death of an ā€œunborn childā€ is the result of medical care provided to the pregnant woman. In the four years since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to ban abortion, stories continue to emerge of […]
Sofia Resnick

More states make it easier for physician assistants to practice

1 week ago
Alabama, Maine and Virginia recently adopted policies that make it easier for physician assistants to practice and serve more patients. Alabama became the 24th state to adopt the PA Licensure Compact, an agreement between states that authorizes these clinicians to practice across state lines. The compact can help remove administrative barriers for physician assistants, making […]
Nada Hassanein

Reps. Swalwell, Gonzales to quit Congress as 2 more US House members may face expulsion votes

1 week ago
WASHINGTON — California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales both announced Monday evening that they would resign from Congress amid sexual misconduct allegations.   Swalwell’s announcement came just one day after he suspended his campaign for governor over allegations of sexual assault.  ā€œI am aware of efforts to bring an immediate expulsion […]
Jennifer Shutt

Missouri bill would require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape survivors

1 week 1 day ago
Missouri hospitals and clinics that perform forensic exams following sexual assault are not required by law to offer emergency contraception to survivors, a coverage inconsistency a bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to correct with legislation aimed at standardizing care after rape. The proposal, called the Compassionate Assistance for Rape Emergencies Act, would require facilities […]
Anna Spoerre

University of Missouri president says he cut student groups’ funding ā€˜to protect the institution’

1 week 1 day ago
UM System President Mun Choi said he was responsible for the university’s funding cuts to several multicultural student organizations, citing concerns over Department of Justice investigations into other universities in a Wednesday faculty meeting. ā€œIt wasn’t an easy decision, but I decided that I needed to protect the institution, so that’s the decision that I […]
Jae Jepsen

Who is the real Republican Party? Look at how it governs

1 week 1 day ago
A political party is defined by the governing philosophy, values, policies and actions of itsĀ leadersĀ and members. How would you define the Missouri RepublicanĀ Party? TheĀ national RepublicanĀ Party? One couldĀ argueĀ that the behavior we are witnessing on the national stage is an extreme manifestation — not who the RepublicanĀ PartyĀ really is. Or one could conclude that how President Trump operates, and how […]
Janice Ellis