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MoInd 📰

New U.S. Senate agriculture committee leadership has extensive ties to industry heavyweights

1 week ago
The new leader of the U.S. Senate’s agriculture committee, Arkansas’ John Boozman, has several ties to meatpacking behemoths, including Tyson Foods, and has recently resisted efforts by his fellow Republicans to reign in their economic power. New Democratic leadership on the committee also has strong agriculture ties, as Sen. Amy Klobuchar has received thousands from […]
Sky Chadde

Kansas City tenant advocates say city’s rental inspection program is too permissive

1 week ago
Hell Woods has been couch-surfing between two friends’ apartments since their landlord refused to renew their lease in November. A former two-year resident of Quality Hill Towers, Woods joined the building’s tenant union and its now-paused rent strike after months of unresolved bedbug infestations and maintenance issues. Frustrated by the lack of action from management, […]
Mili Mansaray

Cannabis trade group pushes back on Missouri rules to combat ‘predatory’ practices

1 week 1 day ago
Missouri cannabis regulators and the state’s largest marijuana trade group agree that people should be banned from flooding the license lottery with applicants they recruit who are never intended to have any actual control or profits. It’s a practice the Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation has called predatory, and efforts to root it out of […]
Rebecca Rivas

U.S. House passes bill banning trans athletes from competing in women’s school sports

1 week 1 day ago
WASHINGTON — A measure that would bar transgender students from participating on women’s school sports teams consistent with their gender identity passed the U.S. House on Tuesday. The legislation — which advanced 218-206 — came as an increasing number of states have passed laws banning trans athletes from participating in sports in K-12 schools and colleges that […]
Shauneen Miranda

State line competition complicates economic development for the Kansas City metro

1 week 1 day ago
More than five years ago, Kansas and Missouri declared a truce. The two states had for years engaged in a bloodletting competition to lure businesses to their side of the Kansas City region — handing out lucrative incentives to move a corporate headquarters just a few miles across the state line. These deals brought no new […]
Mark Wiebe

Immigration lawyers fear Laken Riley bill could have broad impact as Trump takes office

1 week 2 days ago
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate this week is moving to pass a bill that immigration attorneys and experts warn could have far-reaching ramifications, such as swamping federal courts with challenges by state attorneys general and subjecting some migrants — including children and teens — to rapid detention and deportation. The legislation, the Laken Riley Act, S. […]
Ariana Figueroa

Trump would have been convicted on election interference charges, says special counsel

1 week 2 days ago
WASHINGTON — A final report from former Department of Justice prosecutor Jack Smith contends that had President-elect Donald Trump not won in November, he would have been convicted on charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. The report was released just after midnight Tuesday, following a court battle to keep the […]
Ashley Murray

USDA finalizes packers and stockyards reform to help chicken farmers

1 week 2 days ago
The U.S. Department of Agriculture finalized a third regulatory reform under the Packers and Stockyards Act, with the latest regulation giving greater stability and fairness to chicken farmers working for major meat companies, according to an announcement Tuesday. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a press conference Monday the regulation came from “the ground up” […]
Cami Koons

Missouri prison deaths increase, bringing renewed calls for scrutiny

1 week 2 days ago
Deaths in Missouri prisons hit a new high in 2024. The preliminary total, 139, is two more than the 137 recorded by the Department of Corrections in each of the previous two years and represents the fourth year in the past five where deaths behind bars have averaged 10 or more a month. There were […]
Rudi Keller

Two moments that explain Mike Parson’s six years as Missouri governor

1 week 2 days ago
When I think about Mike Parson’s tenure as Missouri governor, which came to an end Monday after six years, two moments jump out to me.  The first came at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Parson steadfastly refused to issue stringent statewide public health orders, instead leaving those decisions in the hands of local officials. […]
Jason Hancock

New Missouri governor focuses on crime, education, tax cuts in inaugural address 

1 week 3 days ago
Controlling crime, expanding education options and cutting taxes will be the top priorities for Missouri, new Gov. Mike Kehoe said in his inauguration speech. The brief speech, delivered before a crowd gathered on a cold, sunny day outside the Missouri Capitol, also traced the Republican’s journey from a north St. Louis home led by a […]
Rudi Keller

Librarians gain protections in some states as book bans soar

1 week 3 days ago
Karen Grant and fellow school librarians throughout New Jersey have heard an increasingly loud chorus of parents and conservative activists demanding that certain books — often about race, gender and sexuality — be removed from the shelves. In the past year, Grant and her colleagues in the Ewing Public Schools just north of Trenton updated […]
Matt Vasilogambros

No need to provide an avian flu vaccine for humans yet, expert says

1 week 3 days ago
An infectious disease expert says the relatively mild cases of avian influenza detected so far among dairy workers don’t warrant making a vaccine available to them, even as they work to contain and prevent spread of the contagious virus among herds. Dr. Shira Doron, an epidemiologist and chief infection control officer for Tufts Medicine in […]
Greg LaRose

Missouri lawmakers unlikely to prioritize teacher pay as past efforts bring growth

1 week 3 days ago
More Missouri educators are staying in their jobs following efforts to raise teachers’ base pay and provide alternative measures for certification, the State Board of Education learned last week. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education predicts schools will have fewer vacancies in the future, speaking positively about small gains and outlining a path […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Freedom of the press is more important (and endangered) than ever

1 week 3 days ago
The press, so critical to our democratic process, is facing threats on multiple fronts — from the growing influence of social media to the frontal and legal attacks coming from elected officials and others with power. Facebook, the largest social media platform, has decided to end its fact-checking processes, apparently bowing to political pressure and […]
Janice Ellis

Skeptical Supreme Court justices weigh a rescue of TikTok from nearing ban

1 week 5 days ago
U.S. Supreme Court justices on Friday questioned why they should intervene to block a law forcing the sale of TikTok in nine days, saying the short-form video platform’s Chinese parent company does not enjoy First Amendment rights. Lawyers for TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, and a group of the platform’s users faced sharp questions from justices […]
Jacob Fischler, Ashley Murray