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Missouri’s ban on lawmakers and legislative staff working as lobbyists for two years after leaving office is a reasonable limit that does not overly burden free speech rights, a federal judge ruled last week. First enacted in 2018 as part of a voter-approved initiative called “Clean Missouri,” the law is designed to prevent corruption and […]

The post Judge rejects ex-Missouri lawmaker’s push to overturn revolving-door lobbying ban appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Marcus Kerr was running his own food truck in California in 2018, when he parked by a marijuana dispensary one day. “I just ended up meeting the owner of this company, and they had my food,” he said. “They said, ‘Hey, can you infuse this?’ Then I started working for the big guys.” Kerr began […]

The post Missouri sees surge in cannabis jobs after legalization vote appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Early on in his administrative career, longtime Missouri educator Chris Belcher had what he called the worst experience of his life. “The kid screamed, and I felt awful,” he said. He didn’t want to do it, but he had to. It was the 1980s, and Belcher was told to paddle a student who was enrolled […]

The post Passing the paddle: Some Missouri school districts cling to corporal punishment appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Parents have the right to drop off or send their children to safe schools. Teachers have the right to educate them in safe classrooms. Their rights are just as important as the rights of gun owners, if not more so. So where is the outcry for the rights of parents and teachers? Here we are […]

The post Parents and teachers: Use your power to get assault weapons banned appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A lawsuit filed Friday in St. Louis accuses Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey of a “politically motivated” investigation of transgender care provided by Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. The attorney general demanded Planned Parenthood turn over a litany of records earlier this month as part of his investigation into allegations […]

The post Planned Parenthood sues Missouri attorney general over transgender care investigation appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri’s House took an unusual step this year in an effort to bring more order to the legislative process. The House adopted a rule that limits a member next year from sponsoring more than 20 bills in a session, with a few exceptions such as the House Budget chair who sponsors all the governor’s budget […]

The post Capitol Perspectives: Bringing order to the Missouri House appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — A New York criminal grand jury has indicted former President Donald Trump, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office confirmed following news reports. A former president has never been indicted before. Trump is also a Republican candidate in the 2024 race for the presidency. “This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender […]

The post Donald Trump indicted by Manhattan grand jury appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON – U.S. House Judiciary Committee Republicans decried what they described as a partisan “weaponization” of the federal government over issues of free speech during a highly contentious Thursday hearing surrounding a lawsuit filed by the Missouri attorney general’s office. Democratic committee members objected strongly to the hearing as spreading “false narratives” and lies about […]

The post U.S. House members battle over ‘weaponization’ of government in hearing on Missouri lawsuit appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri Democrats argued Thursday that restrictive language barring the state from spending tax dollars on diversity and inclusion initiatives threatens to close charter schools, interrupt delivery of medical services and could even force the Capitol Building to go dark. Each of the 13 bills spending $45.6 billion to run state government in the year beginning […]

The post Diversity debate dominates House action on Missouri state budget appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. House on Thursday approved a bill packed with Republican energy priorities meant to counteract the Biden administration’s approach and boost U.S. oil and gas production. Numbered H.R. 1 as a signal that energy policy is the House majority’s top legislative priority, the bill includes a package of GOP proposals, ranging from reforming the […]

The post U.S. House passes sweeping energy bill pushing back against Biden climate policies appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Health insurance companies may no longer need to cover a wide swath of preventive health care services that were required by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, under a federal judge’s ruling issued Thursday in Texas. The decision could affect millions of Americans’ access to no-cost preventive health care — including pregnancy-related care, cancer screenings, […]

The post U.S. judge rules insurers don’t have to cover many free preventive health services appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Despite supply-chain problems amid the lingering effects of the pandemic, 2022 saw major increases in solar and wind power in the United States, though that growth varied by state, according to a report released last month by a nonprofit focused on climate change. Nationally, electricity generated from solar and wind grew 16% from 2021, with wind accounting […]

The post Missouri saw small gains in wind, solar energy capacity last year appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Democratic senators at a hearing on Wednesday grilled the former CEO of Starbucks over allegations that the giant coffee company intimidated, harassed and fired workers who tried to form unions. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent and former presidential candidate who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, focused on Starbucks’ […]

The post Bernie Sanders confronts former Starbucks CEO over union-busting allegations appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Senate Democrats seized control of the Missouri Senate floor Wednesday afternoon to block a Republican proposal making it harder to change the state constitution. The measure that would impose a 60% threshold as the minimum majority for amendments has already passed the House and, if approved in the Senate, would go before voters in 2024. […]

The post Democratic filibuster blocks vote on bill making it harder to amend Missouri Constitution appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The suicide rate among veterans in Missouri is nearly double the state rate and one of the highest in the country. In hopes of helping veterans and other Missourians facing mental health issues, the Missouri House advanced a bill Wednesday that would require the state to conduct a study on using psilocybin, also known as […]

The post Missouri House backs bill requiring state research on psychedelics to treat depression, PTSD appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Both Republican and Democratic members of the U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to repeal the Biden administration’s intensely contested expansion of what qualifies as wetlands that the federal government can regulate. The Senate approved a resolution, sponsored by West Virginia Republican Shelley Moore Capito, that would revoke the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s definition of […]

The post U.S. Senate clears measure to undo Biden WOTUS rule on wetlands appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Investigate Midwest. Bayer is suing four farmers in the Bootheel of Missouri for illegally spraying older versions of dicamba on its genetically-engineered soybeans, as well as doing so after the state’s cutoff date for spraying the herbicide. The lawsuits, filed in January in federal court in the Eastern District […]

The post Bayer sues Missouri farmers for illegally spraying dicamba, saving and replanting seeds appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans tussled with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Democratic committee members over work requirements in federal nutrition programs as well as spending levels for those programs at a Tuesday hearing. Republican members of the House Agriculture Committee charged Vilsack with evading bipartisan oversight in the USDA’s 2021 redesign of the Thrifty Food […]

The post USDA secretary battles with U.S. House Republicans over costs of federal nutrition programs appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As a pandemic policy expires and Missouri begins rechecking eligibility of around 1.6 million people on Medicaid, social services department leadership pledged Tuesday to make the process “as seamless as possible for as many people as we can.” Over the last three years, states have stopped reverifying whether Medicaid recipients on their rolls are still […]

The post Missouri to begin Medicaid renewals, vowing as ‘seamless’ a process as possible appeared first on Missouri Independent.

BRIDGETON — Radioactive waste in the West Lake Landfill is more widespread than previously thought, officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday. The finding is based on two years of testing at the St. Louis County site, which has held thousands of tons of radioactive waste for decades. An underground “fire” in another […]

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