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Missouri lawmakers are pushing to ease state regulations on so-called “advanced recycling,” a process proponents say diverts hard-to-recycle plastics from landfills and makes them into new products.  The bill’s sponsor hopes to bring the massive facilities into the state to create jobs while saving the environment from plastic.  But the promise made by advanced recycling […]

The post Preventing pollution or creating more greenhouse gases? Missouri debates ‘advanced recycling’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When state Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder was 18 and struggling to raise a baby, she applied for federal food assistance to help her get back on her feet.  “I can cook a pot of beans and cornbread and make that last a couple of days,” Rehder, R-Sikeston, said during Monday’s Senate debate.  But some people […]

The post Republicans tussle over bill to provide warm meals to some Missouri SNAP recipients appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Kansas City Police Department is conducting a criminal investigation of the Friday ride-along by former Gov. Eric Greitens as a possible violation of a 1940s law enacted to root out political corruption linked to notorious political boss Tom Pendergast. All the department’s records surrounding the ride-along are closed because they are now part of […]

The post KC police investigating whether officers violated law by allowing Greitens ride-along appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Deep into Missouri’s feverish summer, a St. Louis hardware store owner found his customers clamoring for something surprising: Electric space heaters.  “The weather was warm and it was strange that people were worried about it,” said Don Heberer, owner of Rathbone Hardware. He estimates he sold about 20% more space heaters than normal for that […]

The post Documents show Spire scrambling for survival of St. Louis pipeline after court ruling appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The U.S. House cleared a bill Tuesday that would expand the Kansas site honoring the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning school segregation, adding National Park Service sites in other states to commemorate their roles in the decision as well. The bill would designate sites related to school desegregation cases in Virginia, Delaware, South Carolina and the District […]

The post Congress expands Brown v. Board of Education historic site beyond Kansas appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Supporters of the only attempt to add money to the state’s record operating budget during Senate debate Tuesday also complained loudest that the state is spending too much. As the chamber worked through 13 bills spending $45.1 billion in the coming fiscal year, members of the conservative caucus often voted against the bills but offered […]

The post Missouri Senate approves record budget, adds $1.2B to House spending appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A Boone County judge will rule soon, perhaps by this week, whether former Gov. Eric Greitens will get access to his ex-wife Sheena Greitens’ telephone records as he attempts to prove his political enemies are behind explosive allegations of spousal and child abuse. Associate Circuit Judge Leslie Schneider said at the end of a hearing […]

The post Attorney calls Eric Greitens subpoenas ‘a fishing expedition’ during Boone County hearing appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday granted clemency to nearly 80 individuals charged with nonviolent crimes and unveiled an administration strategy to help formerly incarcerated people secure employment. Of that list, three were pardons and 75 were commutations, which is a reduction in an individual’s prison sentence. They were the first pardons and commutations […]

The post Biden issues first pardons and sentencing commutations of his presidency appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Schools in Missouri would be required to test drinking water for lead, and install filters if it’s above safe levels, under a bill that won near-unanimous approval Monday in the state Senate. The proposal, amended onto a separate bill by Sen. Jill Schupp, D-Creve Coeur, passed on a 32-1 vote. “Let’s make sure our students, […]

The post Missouri Senate overwhelmingly approves bill requiring schools test, filter water for lead appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A federal judge in Louisiana said Monday he will block the Biden administration from lifting a public health order that keeps immigrants seeking asylum out of the United States. U.S. District Judge Robert R. Summerhays told Republican state attorneys general and the federal government that he planned to grant the Republicans’ request for a temporary […]

The post Federal judge temporarily blocks Biden administration from ending Title 42 appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Investigate Midwest. After a series of E. coli outbreaks sickened more than 160 people who ate romaine lettuce in late 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration launched an investigation. Months later, in March 2020, the agency announced its plan to prevent toxic E. coli outbreaks linked to leafy […]

The post E. coli outbreaks linked to leafy greens continue despite FDA, industry prevention efforts appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A Cole County judge denied the state health department’s attempt to relitigate a case stemming from a 2019 licensing dispute with Missouri’s lone abortion provider and ordered Missouri to pay Planned Parenthood’s legal fees. In a ruling Friday afternoon, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem affirmed an administrative court’s ruling that the state must […]

The post Judge orders Missouri DHSS to pay Planned Parenthood’s legal fees in license dispute appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Conservative Cassville Republican Emory Melton, a state senator from 1973 to 1997, didn’t like it when new programs with ongoing costs ended up in Missouri’s budget.  “There’s nothing that approaches eternal life on this earth like a government program,” he told an oral history interviewer in 1996. But when fellow Missouri lawmakers tapped the treasury […]

The post Tending pea patches: Senators add dozens of small items for districts to Missouri state budget appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After former Gov. Eric Greitens used its facilities as a prop for a campaign video, the Kansas City Police Department this weekend tried to blunt criticism it is playing political favoritism. On Friday afternoon, Greitens tweeted a 15-second video telling followers that he was getting ready for a ride along with Kansas City Police Department […]

The post Kansas City police feel heat after Eric Greitens posts campaign video showing ride along appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As a college history major, I have always followed the motto society needs to learn from history lest we are doomed to repeat it. Now, almost 40 years after earning that degree, I find a great deal of the history we need to learn from is not what is recorded in textbooks but things that […]

The post Here’s the new strongmen. The same as the old strongmen. There’s no backing down | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Just under 15 years ago, a group of people banded together hoping to play some music and do some good. Kansas City musician Abigail Henderson, 31, had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. To support her, her friends did what musicians do; they rallied together to play a show. The group put together a three-day […]

The post ‘Think of music as a nutrient:’ How a Kansas City nonprofit helps artists keep playing appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Across the country, attitudes toward cannabis are becoming more permissive and accepting, but partisan gridlock in Congress virtually ensures that legislation to decriminalize marijuana will languish and die in the U.S. Senate. Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (MORE) by a narrow 220-204 margin.  The […]

The post Federal attempts to legalize marijuana flail, even as public support grows appeared first on Missouri Independent.

President Joe Biden’s climate agenda took a hit this month when the Interior Department said it would open 144,000 acres of federal land up for oil and gas development to comply with a court order to restart fossil fuel development. The announcement marked yet another setback for a presidential climate plan that was once seen […]

The post 3 big reasons why the Biden climate agenda is floundering appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Eviction moratoriums designed to keep people in their homes during the pandemic have drawn the ire of Missouri lawmakers, with Republicans pushing a plan to prohibit them in the future.  State Rep. Chris Brown, R-Kansas City, is sponsoring a measure that would prohibit any county, municipality, or political subdivision from imposing or enforcing a moratorium […]

The post Missouri Republicans push plan to prohibit local eviction moratoriums appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Democratic state Rep. Wiley Price is threatening to sue the Missouri House over a $22,000 penalty incurred as part of his censure last year for allegedly lying about a sexual encounter with an intern and retaliating against the House employee who reported it.  In a Feb. 15 letter to the House clerk — obtained by […]

The post Democrat censured by Missouri House after ethics investigation threatens lawsuit appeared first on Missouri Independent.