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A coalition of parents and community members in St. Louis Public Schools is demanding more transparency at local school board meetings and in-school reading tutors as part of an effort to deal with standardized test scores that show a huge chunk of the district’s students struggling to read at grade level. The district’s current enrollment […]

The post Coalition pushing to improve literacy rates for St. Louis Public Schools appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Marti Gerdes remembers living in Prescott as a kid and, every winter, she and her family would make snow ice cream, mixing milk and sugar with snow. It was a treat she recalls having any time it snowed — except for one year when her mother told them they couldn’t have snow ice cream because […]

The post ‘We’re running out of time’: Program for Arizonans exposed to radiation set to expire in June appeared first on Missouri Independent.

MARYLAND HEIGHTS — Covered in white protective clothing, Wendy Bronfein stepped into a long, sterile hallway of closed doors. She calls it the “Willy Wonka-esque” corridor.  “This is the Mike Teavee part of the tour,” said Bronfein, co-founder of the Maryland-based marijuana company Curio Wellness, referencing the character from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”  Everything […]

The post Sprawling new cannabis manufacturing, cultivation facility set to open in St. Louis County appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As we remember and reflect on the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., there are valuable lessons that should give us hope that we can overcome what we face today in a divided and teetering America.  If we, like King, truly believe that the words of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence […]

The post The lessons of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life should give us hope today  appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Frustrated with legislative inaction on sports wagering, Missouri’s major sports franchises are going directly to voters. On Friday, a coalition that includes six major sports teams and is backed by major donations from two sports betting platforms announced an initiative campaign to put sports gambling on this year’s ballot. In a news release, St. Louis […]

The post St. Louis Cardinals lead Missouri’s major teams to launch initiative on sports betting appeared first on Missouri Independent.

People like Mary Dickson aren’t legally considered downwinders, the term used to describe those exposed to radiation during Cold War-era nuclear weapons testing in Nevada and New Mexico.  “Every time I say I’m a downwinder, I get ‘Oh, you grew up in St. George?’” said Dickson, of Salt Lake City, who was diagnosed with thyroid […]

The post ‘How much money are our lives worth?’: Utah downwinders call RECA expansion failure a betrayal appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Republican U.S. House lawmakers, led by Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, conducted a hearing Thursday to examine the possibility that “wokeness” hurts U.S. military readiness and effectiveness. The winding, over two-hour hearing by a subpanel of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability broached topics including, but not limited to, recruitment, benefits for military families, […]

The post U.S. House Republicans probe DEI policies in the military appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Last year, a sign on Interstate 44 near Kirkwood in St. Louis County told motorists they were driving on a highway where litter cleanup was done to honor Kevin “Rockhead” Johnson. The sign was up until a motorist recognized the name as a man executed by the state in November 2022 for the killing of […]

The post Missouri ‘Adopt-a-Highway’ program in limbo over sign honoring convicted murderer appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A Missouri law passed in 2022 deletes the names of victims and witnesses in court documents, which experts say has made Missouri courts the least transparent in the nation. Among the witness names deleted are police officers. Eugene Volokh, a nationally known libertarian legal commentator, called the law “a very serious problem” under the headline “Missouri ‘Stealth […]

The post Missouri hides more court information from the public than other states appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Meetings on Thursday between U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and conservative lawmakers led to speculation he was about to walk away from the bipartisan spending agreement he signed off on just this past weekend — a decision that would greatly increase the chances of a partial government shutdown next week. Also Thursday, Biden […]

The post New turmoil over possible shutdown in D.C. amid warnings of a WIC food program shortfall appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The first pill for postpartum depression approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now available, but experts worry that minority and low-income women, who are disproportionately affected by the condition, won’t have easy access to the new medication. About 1 in 8 women experience symptoms of postpartum depression, federal data shows. Suicide and drug […]

The post There’s a new pill for postpartum depression, but many at-risk women face hurdles appeared first on Missouri Independent.

At a desk wedged between a hallway vent and a classroom door, Marge Mangelsdorf coaxed Harlan to write down what he remembered.  The two had just finished reading Hi! Fly Guy, a popular children’s book about a boy and his pet bug. Now it was time for Harlan, a first grader at Bayless Elementary School […]

The post At Oasis, St. Louis tutors reach across generations to foster learning appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Those living nearest to the first nuclear blast in history have suffered for generations.  In New Mexico, Trinity Test site neighbors weren’t warned or evacuated before the U.S. government detonated the atomic bomb in 1945. The light was so bright it could be seen hundreds of miles away. Nearly half a million people resided within […]

The post ‘They scrapped us’: The Trinity downwinders and New Mexico mine workers who remain unrecognized appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri law won’t allow Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft to unilaterally disqualify President Joe Biden from the ballot, as he has threatened to do if Donald Trump is kept off the ballot in other states, according to  participants in a decade-old case that set limits on the authority of the office. Only a court can […]

The post Can Ashcroft boot Biden from Missouri’s ballot? A 2014 appeals court ruling says ‘no’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Income and geographic restrictions would be loosened for a tax-credit program that provides scholarships to help pay for private school tuition under a bill debated Wednesday by the Senate’s education committee. Sen. Andrew Koenig, a Manchester Republican and the committee’s chairman, is sponsoring the legislation seeking to expand MoScholars. Koenig is running this year to […]

The post Missouri Senate panel debates expanding tax credit scholarships for private school tuition appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Congress on Wednesday appeared to be on track to pass a third deadline extension for at least some of the government funding bills that were supposed to become law more than three months ago — putting off a potential government shutdown. The move, while not final, would give the Republican House, Democratic Senate […]

The post Another stopgap spending bill in the works as Congress struggles to avert shutdown appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans began their impeachment proceedings against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas with a Wednesday hearing, a move Democrats called politically motivated. The House Committee on Homeland Security hearing aimed to set the stage for Mayorkas’ impeachment, with Republicans arguing that the Biden administration appointee has failed to fulfill his […]

The post U.S. House impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas over immigration feature state AGs appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A proposal to allow Missouri’s public school districts to open their boundaries is back this legislative session as the first education bill to get a hearing in the state House. The House Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education opened its first hearing of the year by considering Sedalia Republican Rep. Brad Pollitt’s open enrollment bill. […]

The post Open enrollment is the first education bill considered this year by Missouri House appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Growing up in Cut Bank, Montana, Patti Jo Ruegamer would spend most summer days going to the farm with her mother and father in Meriwether, about 25 miles west. While her parents worked, she would go to the neighbor’s place, where she and other children drank fresh milk from the cows there, and would spend […]

The post ‘What do we have to do?’: Fresh awareness of historic nuclear radiation in Montana neighborhoods appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A group of Republican lawmakers raised concerns about the death penalty and advocated for legislation that  would abolish it in Missouri during a Tuesday press conference at the state Capitol — characterizing it as an issue of restraining government overreach and protecting life.  Rep. Chad Perkins, a Republican from Bowling Green, has filed legislation to […]

The post Group of Republican lawmakers raise concerns about Missouri death penalty appeared first on Missouri Independent.