a Better Bubbleā„¢

MoInd šŸ“°

Homeless youth say they need more from schools, social services

2 weeks 1 day ago
Twenty-year-old Mikayla Foreman knows her experience is meaningful. Dealing with homelessness since 18 and currently living in a shelter, Foreman has managed to continue her academic journey, studying for exams this month in hopes of attaining a nursing degree. But Foreman believes there were intervention points that could’ve prevented her from experiencing homelessness in the […]
Robbie Sequeira

New federal regulations complicate Missouri debate over intoxicating hemp

2 weeks 1 day ago
Businesses and Missouri lawmakers are scrambling to understand what will happen in November, when new federal limits on intoxicating hemp products go into effect. It’s unclear just how proactive the federal government will be enforcing the new restrictions. Will it clamp down, or like it has with marijuana, look the other way as states enact […]
Rebecca Rivas

Missouri’s search for meaning

2 weeks 1 day ago
Growing up in Missouri in the 1980s, the Show Me State meant something. We built America’s cars. We brewed America’s beer. We even had America’s best baseball teams. Missouri was a bellwether state. If you wanted to know what was happening in the country, Missouri could show you. But my home state, once proudly independent, […]
Eric Morse

Kilmar Abrego Garcia to remain free from immigration custody for now

2 weeks 1 day ago
GREENBELT, Md. — U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis will retain an order keeping the wrongly deported El Salvador national Kilmar Abrego Garcia out of federal custody for the rest of the year, the judge said at a Monday hearing. In the first hearing that Abrego Garcia was present for after his release last week, Xinis […]
Ashley Murray, Jacob Fischler

Trump administration pauses major East Coast offshore wind projects

2 weeks 1 day ago
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday it’s halting leases for five large-scale offshore wind projects under construction along the East Coast due to national security risks. The Interior Department paused the projects — off the coasts of Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia and New York — due to analysis from reports that have […]
Shauneen Miranda

Chiefs moving to Kansas with $3.3 billion plan for domed stadium, training facility

2 weeks 2 days ago
TOPEKA, Kansas — The Kansas City Chiefs are moving to Kansas with a deal to use more than a billion dollars in taxpayer funding to help build a domed stadium, entertainment district, new team headquarters and a training facility, Kansas officials announced Monday. The announcement followed a closed-door meeting by legislative leaders who then voted […]
Morgan Chilson, Anna Kaminski

Missouri Democrats, outnumbered and at odds, face a test of unity

2 weeks 2 days ago
It’s been a bruising year to be a Missouri Democrat. Even setting aside the broader tumult of Trump 2.0, life inside the Missouri Capitol has been especially unforgiving for Democrats. After years of infighting, Senate Republicans finally learned how to work together this year. Early in the 2025 legislative session, that newfound discipline broke through […]
Jason Hancock

After years of flexibility, Missouri employers call workers back to the office

2 weeks 5 days ago
Earlier this year, Gov. Mike Kehoe’s administration sent an internal memo to Missouri state employees requiring their return to office by late March. Across the state and throughout the country, other employers, including AT&T, JPMorgan and Ford, have taken similar steps this year. With 2025 marking half a decade since the beginning of COVID-19, the […]
Bella Zielinski

Department of Justice releases new documents, photos as part of Epstein files

2 weeks 5 days ago
WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice began releasing thousands of records Friday related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but questions remained over whether officials will meet the requirements of a law overwhelmingly backed by both Republicans and Democrats and signed by President Donald Trump. The department posted four data sets of images and documents […]
Ashley Murray, Jacob Fischler, Ariana Figueroa, Shauneen Miranda

What Trump’s marijuana rescheduling order does — and doesn’t — mean for Missouri cannabis

2 weeks 5 days ago
President Donald Trump’s executive order to reschedule marijuana won’t change much in terms of how Missouri’s marijuana industry operates, business owners and legal experts agree.Ā  It doesn’t change the fact that marijuana can’t be transported or sold across state lines. It doesn’t do away with the cap on the number of business licenses to cultivate […]
Rebecca Rivas

Respect states’ rights, new bipartisan group of legislative leaders tells feds

2 weeks 5 days ago
A new group of bipartisan state legislative leaders issued a declaration at their first meeting calling for a renewed focus on states’ rights and an end to federal intrusion into state laws.Ā  The Assembly of State Legislative Leaders, which includes more than 40 lawmakers from 30 states, unanimously approved a 449-word declaration on the importance […]
Kevin Hardy

Without pennies, should retailers round up or down? States offer their 2 cents.

2 weeks 5 days ago
As pennies vanish from the American landscape, many businesses are clamoring for federal guidance on how to handle cash transactions in a penniless world. Should retailers round up or down? Should they round in favor of the customer? Or in favor of the business? So far, calls for federal direction have gone unanswered. Some businesses […]
Kevin Hardy

Trump health agency proposes rules to limit gender-affirming care for youth

2 weeks 5 days ago
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration took major steps Thursday in a campaign to block minors’ access to gender-affirming care nationwide.Ā  Under two proposed new rules from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, hospitals would be barred from providing gender transition treatment for children as a condition of participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs, […]
Shauneen Miranda

Federal education cutbacks cause problems for Missouri school funding formula

2 weeks 5 days ago
The process of drafting a new formula to calculate state aid for Missouri’s public schools became more challenging this week as state officials discovered some federal data sources are likely to disappear. Kari Monsees, the state education department’s semi-retired chief of finance, told working groups tasked with revamping the formula that he hopes to find […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Missouri is on notice about Lincoln University funding. Will lawmakers act?

2 weeks 5 days ago
In 2023, the U.S. secretaries of Education and Agriculture did something Missouri can’t shrug off: they wrote Gov. Mike Parson that from 1987 to 2020 the state underfunded Lincoln University by about $361 million in per-student support compared with the University of Missouri. It was a figure highlighted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and […]
Emir Phillips

Kansas lawmakers meet Monday about deal to move Kansas City Chiefs out of Missouri

2 weeks 5 days ago
Kansas legislative leaders will meet Monday to take one of the final steps toward luring the Kansas City Chiefs across the state line, floating bonds worth hundreds of millions so the team can build a domed stadium and an entertainment district. With a year-end deadline looming, the Legislative Coordinating Council will consider approving Sales Tax […]
Peggy Lowe, Sherman Smith, Steve Kraske