MoInd 📰

A $250,000 earmark in Missouri’s budget for a nonprofit founded by former Gov. Mike Parson — including money drawn from a federal program designed to help low-income families — raised red flags for Democratic lawmakers Wednesday, who questioned how and why the money was requested by the executive branch. The nonprofit, The 57 Foundation, takes […]

During Wednesday’s hearing on Gov. Mike Kehoe’s plan to replace Missouri’s individual income tax with an expanded sales tax, the key word was trust. The proposed constitutional amendment giving the legislature three years to overhaul state tax policies is open-ended —- it allows lawmakers to impose sales tax on any financial transaction exchanging goods or […]

Missouri families are seeking a clear way to identify the quality of their local schools, parents and advocacy organizations told the House Education Committee Wednesday. The committee was discussing a bill sponsored by state Rep. Dane Diehl, a Republican from Butler, that seeks to give schools A-F grades for their students’ performance and extra state […]

Missouri senators debated a bill Wednesday that would impose age limits on kratom sales and ban 7-OH products, as lawmakers raised concerns about the drug’s opioid-like effects and growing availability. The name, 7-OH, is short for 7-hydroxymitragynine, and it’s made by chemically converting and concentrating the main opioid-inducing element in kratom. 7-OH is sold as […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley on Tuesday called the shooting of an ICU nurse in Minneapolis “very troubling” and added that he welcomes investigations and hearings on the actions of Department of Homeland Security agents in the incident. Video of the incident shows DHS agents pinning 37-year-old Alex Pretti to the ground and shooting […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Capitol Police investigated a drastic increase in threats against members of Congress and their staffs last year, looking into nearly 15,000 statements, behaviors and communications. The volume of investigations rose sharply from the 9,474 USCP checked during 2024, the 8,008 in 2023 and the 7,501 in 2022.  USCP Chief Michael Sullivan wrote […]

The annual State of the Judiciary address to a joint legislative session scheduled for  Wednesday was cancelled when it became clear Senate Republicans were going to boycott.  House Majority Leader Alex Riley, a Springfield Republican, said he found out when he came to the floor that the speech by Chief Justice W. Brent Powell would […]

Video lottery operators on Tuesday promised Missouri will reap a windfall of money for education and other programs if lawmakers will substitute their devices for slot machine-like games currently in thousands of retail locations across the state. But opponents of a bill, which was debated by the House Emerging Issues, said legalizing video gambling in […]

A drop in immigration amid President Donald Trump’s enforcement crackdown led to historically slow population growth in the United States last year. Activity at the southern border is at a historic low. The population change reflects the last months of the Biden administration, when immigration controls began to tighten, and the first months of the […]

Missouri lawmakers were urged Tuesday to make major investments in the state’s social services department in order to comply with new federal requirements and avoid steep penalties. Jess Bax, director of the Missouri Department of Social Services, told a House committee on Tuesday that her agency needs to hire additional contractors to tackle a backlog […]

Planned Parenthood and the Missouri Attorney General’s Office agree on one thing: abortion is legal in Missouri. That’s where the agreement ends. A 10-day trial that wrapped Monday in Kansas City laid bare decades of conflict over the state’s abortion laws. Dozens of restrictions — targeted regulation of abortion providers, or TRAP, laws — are […]

Imagine your physician offering you a new therapy for a serious medical condition—but with several warnings. You are told the treatment has never gone through carefully designed, peer-reviewed clinical trials. There is no professional licensure overseeing its use. And if something goes wrong, there is no clear system of accountability. Is that the care you […]

Gov. Mike Kehoe withdrew two nominees to the Missouri Ethics Commission Tuesday after Democrats pointed out the appointments were based on a congressional map that Republicans contend is no longer valid.  Senate Democrats have refused to allow any gubernatorial appointments to come up for a vote for the past two weeks, arguing that their stall […]

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is facing mounting criticism, including from some congressional Republicans and moderate Democrats, for her response to a second killing by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. President Donald Trump reiterated his confidence in Noem Tuesday, but several Republican senators, a group that overwhelmingly voted last year for Noem to […]

Household incomes have grown in nearly every state over the past 50 years, but a new study concludes that growth has been uneven across the country. An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, released Tuesday from the Urban Institute’s Center for Local Finance and Growth, found inflation-adjusted incomes in Western, mid-Atlantic and New England states […]

PORTLAND, Ore. — Keith Ellison held up his cellphone. The Minnesota attorney general was onstage in an Oregon theater in front of hundreds of people, accompanied by four of his Democratic peers from other states, to mark a year of coordinated legal strategy to resist the Trump administration’s expansive use of executive power. “Can I […]

The push to reinstate Missouri’s presidential primary suffered a defeat Tuesday when the House Elections Committee voted to remove it from a wide-ranging elections bill. On a voice vote, the committee removed the provision from the bill. The measure also extends the period for “no-excuse absentee” voting from two to four weeks. The committee then […]

Missouri will be one of just a handful of states hosting FIFA World Cup matches in the summer of 2026, with Kansas City serving as the region’s primary stage. It’s a rare opportunity to welcome the world. But if history is any guide, hosting mega-events brings real challenges alongside the spectacle — not all of […]

With temperatures hovering near zero and windchills approaching minus 20 degrees, Spain Bady was ordered to leave his cell at Algoa Correctional Center on Saturday morning and clear snow from prison walkways. He refused, telling the corrections officer directing him to go outside that he has been enrolled in education programs and is exempt from […]

Missouri’s method for determining state aid for public schools is poised for substantial change, as a task force drafting the new funding formula began on Monday to synthesize four months of meetings into recommendations. The group, dubbed the Missouri School Modernization Task Force, met Monday morning for the first time since breaking into smaller cohorts […]