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Missouri’s second-longest serving member of Congress announced Thursday he will not seek a ninth term. U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, a Republican who turns 72 this year, said in a social media post that he made the decision to leave Congress “after a lot of thoughtful discussion with my family.” With the announcement, Luetkemeyer joins about […]

The post Blaine Luetkemeyer opts out of another term in Congress appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The 2024 battle for control of Congress is underway in the states, accompanying the accelerating race for the presidency. Republicans are preparing to funnel money and staff into a select few Senate races in an effort to flip that chamber back to their control, while Democrats are looking toward the districts President Joe […]

The post Fight for congressional majorities launches against backdrop of presidential campaigns appeared first on Missouri Independent.

If you drive around Kansas City with an eye to dialysis locations, something becomes clear. They’re clustered near the neighborhoods of people of color. Black people and, to a lesser degree, Hispanics, experience significantly higher rates of kidney failure than the white majority. Black people make up about 13% of the U.S. population, yet they […]

The post Kansas City physicians ditch rules treating white people’s kidney disease more seriously appeared first on Missouri Independent.

On Dec. 15, Michael Hudson became the 127th inmate to die in the custody of the Missouri Department of Corrections during 2023. Hudson, 30, was stabbed to death in a fight in the recreation room of the South Central Correctional Center in Licking, his mother LaShon Hudson said Wednesday. She fought tears and anger as […]

The post Memorial service seeks answers on rapid increase in Missouri inmate deaths appeared first on Missouri Independent.

More than 40% of the owners listed on applications for state’s social-equity marijuana licenses issued in October were from outside Missouri, according to an annual report released by the Division of Cannabis Regulation Wednesday. About half of those owners came from California, Michigan, Louisiana and Arizona collectively.   The microbusiness license program is meant to boost […]

The post Nearly half of Missouri social-equity marijuana license applicants were from out of state  appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson led a delegation of House Republicans on a Wednesday trip to the U.S.-Mexico border to demand hard-line immigration proposals in exchange for passage of President Joe Biden’s emergency global security supplemental request. “If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better begin by […]

The post U.S. House speaker leads GOP lawmakers to the border to slam Biden on immigration appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Missouri Senate picked up Wednesday afternoon largely where it left off when it adjourned in May, with a group of Republicans holding court for more than an hour to vent frustrations with the chamber’s leadership.  For the past three years, a group of GOP senators who had previously been aligned under the banner of […]

The post Opening day of Missouri’s 2024 legislative session echoes past divisions appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Congress got next to nothing done during the past year and could accomplish even less in 2024 as attention shifts to the November elections. House Republican and Senate Democratic leaders reached agreement on bills and resolutions they sent to the president’s desk just 34 times during the first year of the 118th Congress […]

The post Congress was full of postponements in 2023. Now 2024 could be even less productive appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A decade ago, Missouri lawmakers passed legislation that was celebrated as lifting the lifetime ban from food stamp benefits for people with a drug felony on their record. But that legislation created a host of restrictions and requirements to be eligible for and access benefits, modifying the ban rather than eliminating it outright. Now, two Missouri […]

The post Missouri legislators hope to fully lift felony drug ban from food assistance program appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As Missouri legislators begin their 2024 session, they might want to consider a recent Missouri Supreme Court decision striking down a significant bill lawmakers passed in 2022. The decision, issued just days before the 2024 legislative session, invalidated the 2022 law because state lawmakers and the governor violated a pretty simple restriction in the state’s […]

The post Capitol Perspectives: Ignoring Missouri’s Constitution appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Casey Johnson stepped into the bathroom of a Westport bar recently and immediately sensed something was off. She saw two still legs and hair grazing the floor in a neighboring stall. Johnson knocked on the stall door. She yelled. But when Johnson got no response, she grabbed the naloxone she always carries, crawled under the […]

The post Narcan saves lives but can be hard to find in Kansas City appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri has made the tentative decision to participate in a federal food assistance program for kids, potentially opening the door for millions of dollars in aid through a program called Summer EBT.  However, the decision is not binding and Missouri still has to submit a detailed plan to the federal government on how it plans […]

The post Missouri opts into summer EBT federal food benefits program appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri lawmakers return to Jefferson City on Wednesday afternoon for the start of the 2024 legislative session, and expectations aren’t high.  GOP infighting has mired the Missouri Senate in gridlock the last three years, and the wounds at the center of the turmoil seem to have only gotten worse. Across the Capitol rotunda in the […]

The post GOP infighting, election year politics could shape 2024 Missouri legislative session appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A lot can change in just under three years — a flip in control of the House of Representatives, four new iPhone models, a once-groundbreaking vaccine now offered alongside annual flu shots. For one fourth-generation farmer, almost everything has changed. “It was time,” Darvin Bentlage said, referring to his decision to significantly downsize his farming […]

The post Boom or bubble? High Missouri farmland prices encourage investors, concern farmers appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Communities bordering the southern stretch of Kansas City and their state legislators are gearing up once again to fight developers’ plan to build a landfill near a high-end golf course subdivision.  State Rep. Mike Haffner, R-Pleasant Hill, pre-filed a bill ahead of the Missouri legislative session, set to begin in January, aimed at stopping the […]

The post Fight over proposed Kansas City landfill will return to Missouri legislature appeared first on Missouri Independent.

With U.S. democracy plagued by extremism, polarization and a growing disconnect between voters and lawmakers, a set of reforms that could dramatically upend how Americans vote is gaining momentum at surprising speed in Western states. Ranked choice voting, which asks voters to rank multiple candidates in order of preference, has seen its profile steadily expand […]

The post How a new way to vote is gaining traction in states — and could transform US politics appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri lawmakers return next week to Jefferson City for their annual session with a new fight brewing between House and Senate Republicans that may have hastened a change in duties for long-time House GOP political strategist Jonathan Ratliff. Ratliff, who leveraged his success building a legislative supermajority into a political consulting firm with a variety […]

The post Missouri House GOP changes campaign leader amid row with Senate appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The great philosophers in history have often asked, what is a community without a proper education? In St. Louis, our public schools have always provided a quality education through professionally trained teachers, a caring staff and adequate support resources. For more than a few years, the St. Louis Public School District has faced a host […]

The post Public dollars should be focused on funding Missouri’s public schools appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A Republican state senator has filed legislation to renew last spring’s failed effort to regulate intoxicating hemp products in Missouri, such as Delta-8 drinks and edibles. Delta-8 THC products can be sold in stores in Missouri because the intoxicating ingredient, THC, is derived from hemp, not marijuana which is a controlled substance. And hemp is […]

The post Missouri lawmakers renew push to regulate ‘delta-8 THC’ hemp products appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A bill to allow home-educated students to participate in Missouri public school activities is back for the upcoming legislative session — and has been coupled with provisions rolling back state oversight of homeschooling families. Sen. Ben Brown, a Washington Republican, pre-filed a 52-page bill that largely resembles the version he sponsored that cleared the Senate […]

The post Bill would open Missouri public school sports to homeschool students appeared first on Missouri Independent.