MoInd 📰

Robin Westphal knows this isn’t the first time the future of federal funding for her library has been uncertain. As the executive director of Daniel Boone Regional Library and president-elect of the Missouri Library Association, she’s familiar with the Trump administration’s past efforts to cut funds to public libraries. “This feels a little different this […]

Problems with how Missouri counties assess real estate are complicating an effort to update the formula that determines state aid for public schools. In a meeting Monday morning, the Missouri School Funding Modernization Task Force discussed how an updated formula could factor in local property taxes as real estate valuations struggle to keep up with […]

The racial wealth gap is widening as many workers of color go without retirement savings. The median wealth gap between Black and Hispanic families and white families expanded by about $50,000 between 2019 and 2022, according to research from The Pew Charitable Trusts. The typical white family had $240,000 more wealth in 2022 than the […]

There were fewer homeless people in the United States on a single night in January 2025 than in January 2024, but homelessness increased in 28 states, according to the latest federal count. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development counted 745,652 homeless people in its latest “point-in-time” estimate, down 3% from the year before. […]

When Barb Buchanan walked into her first support group for family members of people with mental illness in Columbia around 2010, Heather Harlan greeted her with a “huge smile.”  Harlan started attending the meetings, run by NAMI Missouri, the statewide affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, in 2007. Her adult son, Micah Bacus, […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund appeared to be on shaky ground Monday as he continued to face opposition from his own party. Trump had not yet made a public announcement by late afternoon, but several media outlets reported the president planned to possibly drop the fund to clear the way […]

A proposal to replace the state individual income tax with expanded or increased sales taxes will be on the Aug. 4 ballot and voters will see the description written by lawmakers, a Cole County judge ruled Monday afternoon. The measure, the top legislative priority for Gov. Mike Kehoe, will appear on the ballot as Amendment […]

WASHINGTON — Transgender military members won a temporary victory against the Trump administration in federal appeals court Monday when two judges ruled a policy banning them from service violated their constitutional right to equal protection under the law. Judges Judith W. Rogers and Robert L. Wilkins for the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of […]

In at least four states, migrants detained in ICE facilities have launched hunger strikes in recent weeks to protest the conditions in which they are being held. An ongoing hunger and labor strike at the 1,000-bed Delaney Hall facility in Newark, New Jersey, reportedly involves roughly 300 people and has sparked daily protests outside the […]

Vaccine hesitancy fed by misinformation is causing new surges of measles and whooping cough, while COVID-19 hotspots persist in some states and a new threat looms from an Ebola outbreak in central Africa.   Nationally there have been 1,983 measles cases this year, nearly the 2,288 total for all of 2025, which in itself was the […]

WASHINGTON — Democratic Party leaders from a dozen states traveled to Washington, D.C., at the end of May to press for their voters to cast the first ballots in the next presidential primary.  State representatives argued that diversifying the early states would ensure Democrats nominate a presidential candidate who not only holds broad appeal among […]

Missouri Treasurer Vivek Malek’s office made a last-minute push in the closing hours of the legislative session to stop lawmakers from moving the state’s private school voucher program to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. But the largest scholarship-granting organization in the program did not join the public show of support. With just a […]

President Donald Trump’s extraordinary $1.776 billion fund to pay off allies and others who say they have been wronged by past administrations has drawn widespread condemnation by opponents, including some Republicans, who characterize it as an act of brazen corruption. But the Trump administration’s push to reward its supporters also harkens back to an earlier era […]

There’s an American flag hanging downtown that is frayed and ripping apart at the seams. It hangs mostly together and is recognizable as a flag when there is no wind, but with the breeze the red and white stripes flutter independently of one another. If the wind really kicks up, it all becomes a writhing […]

WASHINGTON — Former Attorney General Pam Bondi was on Capitol Hill Friday for a closed door interview with lawmakers about her role in the release of the federal investigation files of Jeffrey Epstein — the now deceased wealthy sex offender who surrounded himself with influential entrepreneurs, academics and celebrities, including President Donald Trump. But Democrats […]

The U.S. Postal Service on Friday took its first major step to carry out President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting voting by mail, proposing a rule that would require states to submit lists of voters before mailing ballots. But the proposed rule appears to smooth over some of the rougher edges of the executive order, […]

Whether Missourians will vote on a proposal to replace the state income tax with sales taxes — and what the ballot will say if they do — must be decided by June 9, attorneys said Friday morning to a Cole County judge. That is the deadline for courts to order changes to the Aug. 4 […]

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from moving forward with a fund that opponents fear will be used to pay off the president’s political allies. Judge Leonie Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia issued a brief order halting the Department of Justice, the Treasury Department and other high-ranking administration officials from […]

The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent decision to downgrade the drug classification for medical cannabis will help medical marijuana businesses. Companies will be able to claim some federal tax benefits. New research can start up at state universities. But the broader divide between federal and state marijuana policy remains largely intact, leaving states to navigate […]

Hearing backlash from residents, cities and counties across the country in recent weeks have blocked planned data centers amid concerns over rising electricity prices and environmental harms. The local actions come as state lawmakers also are looking to limit or repeal the incentives for the centers, which are sprawling campuses of computer servers that store […]