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ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Prosecutors routinely find ways to get key detectives to testify in criminal trials, even when they are retired, sick or otherwise reluctant. Some fly retirees in from Florida or other retirement locales […]

The post A St. Louis cop says he’s too sick to testify. Now murder cases are crumbling appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When Katie Molitor joined the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture in 2019, she knew Boone County needed to put nutritious, affordable food on more tables. Two years later, she came up with a plan: Give year-long prescriptions to patients for fresh fruits and vegetables to supplement their diet. The idea took root, and the result […]

The post ‘Food is medicine’: Farmers market, food bank dedicated to nourishing Missourians appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats on Tuesday discussed how to treat gun violence as a public health crisis, in hopes of building upon last year’s federal gun safety legislation. “Across the country, gun violence is a public health epidemic,” Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, the chairman of the committee, said in his opening remarks. […]

The post Gun violence as a public health crisis explored by U.S. Senate Democrats appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey this week joined with 18 other states to oppose a proposed federal rule that aims to protect LGBTQ youth in foster care and provide them with necessary services. The attorneys general argue in a letter to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services that the proposed rule — which […]

The post Missouri attorney general opposes proposed federal rule supporting LGBTQ foster kids appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed in late 2021, it included $42.5 billion for broadband internet access as part of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program. The program aims to ensure that broadband access is available throughout the country. This effort differs from previous federal broadband programs because it promised to […]

The post Every state is about to dole out federal funds for broadband. Not every state is ready appeared first on Missouri Independent.

PETERSBURG, Ind. — AES Indiana’s Petersburg Generating Station, which towers over the White River here in southwest Indiana, has been burning coal to generate electricity since the late 1960s. That era, though, will come to an end soon. Two of the power plant’s four coal-burning units have already retired and the last is planning to […]

The post New life for old coal: Minelands and power plants are hot renewable development spots appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri’s largest electric provider hopes to use a state law meant to help utilities add renewable energy to close a coal plant found in violation of federal clean air laws.  St. Louis-based Ameren Missouri, which serves 1.2 million customers, is planning to close its Rush Island Energy Center in Jefferson County next year under a […]

The post Ameren seeks to shutter Missouri coal plant early, recoup investment from ratepayers appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In 2016, California Democratic state Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva sat with then-California Gov. Jerry Brown at an event where he signed baseball-type cards featuring the image of his dog, Colusa. But many of the recipients of the cards couldn’t read his cursive signature, Quirk-Silva recalled, much to the Democratic governor’s dismay. “The governor asked me what […]

The post Around the country, some states are mandating cursive writing in public schools appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The St. Louis American first hit newsstands on March 17, 1928. At that time, the Black weekly newspaper was an eight-page tabloid with a circulation of about 2,000.  More than 95 years later, The American reaches about 300,000 people each month through the print newspaper and website. It’s the largest weekly newspaper in Missouri and […]

The post Donald Suggs’ legacy with St. Louis American: ‘Local history would look entirely different’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

On a small farm near Laddonia, Brian Willott waded through fields of dried corn stalks that had already been crushed into the ground. He had just finished harvesting his corn and soybeans and was preparing his empty fields to plant cover crops, which will hold his soil together and replenish its nutrients over the winter. […]

The post Missouri farmers adopt practices that improve their land, support environment appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After two years of record-breaking heat that brought a surge of deaths and health emergencies, several states have enacted or are considering measures designed to protect residents — with a new focus on younger people whose vulnerability is rising with the temperatures. Nationally, heat-related deaths rose from about 1,000 in 2018 to 1,722 in 2022 […]

The post Some states act to protect residents from extreme heat — with a new focus on young people appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When Trish Mitchell got an abortion three decades ago in Missouri, she didn’t tell the doctor her pregnancy was a result of sexual assault. She couldn’t bring herself to. It would be years before she told anyone that she had been raped. “Speaking for myself, it was literally almost impossible,” said Mitchell, who was 21 […]

The post Missouri rape hotline reporting requirement in abortion-rights petition draws criticism appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Electric reliability has been a hot topic lately — from congressional hearings to regulatory agencies and at the regional transmission organizations that run the electric grid in much of the country. The American electric grid is undergoing a major change, prodded by state and federal decarbonization policies, market forces pushing cheaper and cleaner forms of electricity […]

The post Reliability v. sustainability: Inside the debate over the EPA’s proposed carbon rules appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Shrouded in hypocrisy, entangled by complexity and ensnarled in a battle for control, the abortion issue will be a real test of the structure of our democratic form of government. Will there be a new overarching federal law along with specific state laws governing abortion? It is a central focus in the 2024 presidential election, […]

The post Resolution of the abortion issue will be a seminal test for our democracy appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A Republican from St. Louis County is trying to derail 71 proposed initiative petitions with a lawsuit that claims they were improperly certified by Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. The court case filed in Jefferson City by Paul Berry III argues that campaign finance filings are wrong or missing for petitions to reinstate abortion rights, […]

The post Republican LG hopeful files lawsuit seeking to toss out 71 Missouri initiative petitions appeared first on Missouri Independent.

There’s a popular meme which reads: “I just saved a ton of money on Christmas gifts discussing politics during Thanksgiving Dinner.” Polls show most Americans don’t want to talk politics during the holidays, and others offer suggests for dodge the topic at Thanksgiving. But research shows that political conversations matter for our country, for bettering […]

The post Why discussing politics at Thanksgiving is good for democracy — and your family appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Most of the candidates in this year’s 2024 Republican race for the presidential nomination mirror hard-line immigration policies set by the front-runner, former President Donald Trump. What were once considered far-right policies are now common talking points among the GOP candidates. That includes support for building a wall along the Southern U.S.-Mexico border […]

The post Trump immigration policies set the tone for most of the GOP presidential field appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Before Russia invaded her country, Yuliana Bezlysiuk was making plans. She had studied business and accounting in Ukraine, earned three degrees and found a job as a clerk at a Ukrainian university. Early one morning in February 2022, all of her plans and dreams disappeared. “In one day, all of my plans go,” she said. […]

The post Ukrainians find warm welcome in Sedalia after fleeing their war-torn country appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This column is prompted by the problems plaguing Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher who is facing calls by his colleagues to resign because of financial double-dipping by seeking reimbursement from the House for travel expenses that had been paid by his campaign. His troubles continue a pattern of House speakers who have run into trouble […]

The post Capitol Perspectives: Does power corrupt in the Missouri House? appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Back in July, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. A federal court had recently granted a temporary injunction, in Missouri v. Biden, finding that the Biden administration had violated the First Amendment by coercing social media companies to remove content, related both to elections and the COVID-19 vaccine, that it […]

The post How U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson helped derail a fight against election lies appeared first on Missouri Independent.