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Republican legislators have unblinkingly voiced displeasure with the Missouri Department of Transportation during this year’s legislative session. With billions of dollars of surplus funds in the state treasury, lawmakers are considering how — or whether — to use a billion of those dollars to expand Interstate 70 — a priority in Gov. Mike Parson’s budget proposal. But […]

The post Despite animosity between legislature and MoDOT, I-70 funding moves forward appeared first on Missouri Independent.

These days Kylee Sunderlin is often the first person people will talk to about needing or wanting to terminate a pregnancy, even though she’s not a nurse or doctor or a loved one. She’s a lawyer. This is Sunderlin’s third year overseeing a national hotline dedicated to helping people navigate legal questions around abortion in […]

The post Abortion-rights attorneys help patients and providers navigate legal chaos appeared first on Missouri Independent.

For Donte Westmoreland, April 20 is indeed a day to celebrate cannabis culture and the “love of the plant.” But he never stops thinking about the people who are still incarcerated nationwide for the plant, like he was. And he hopes others remember them on 4/20 as well. “I want them to realize that we’re […]

The post Kansas City honors cannabis-justice activist with 4/20 proclamation appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans voted Thursday to prohibit transgender student athletes from competing on girls sports teams consistent with their gender identity, at the same time multiple GOP-dominated states are making similar moves. The bill, H.R. 734, which would apply to K-12 schools as well as colleges that receive federal funding, passed on a party-line […]

The post U.S. House approves bill banning transgender student athletes in girls sports appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs can continue providing service members with access to abortion in cases of life-threatening complications, rape or incest, after the U.S. Senate narrowly blocked a measure Wednesday that would have scrapped a new Biden administration rule. The VA policy, which also includes abortion counseling, was established after the U.S. […]

The post Abortion services to remain available at the VA after close U.S. Senate vote appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri represents an interesting perspective for the vote of Tennessee’s House to expel two of its members for disrupting a legislative session trying to highlight firearm issues. As far as I can discover, Missouri has expelled just two House members in the state’s long history. The first was in 1865 when Rep. John Sampson was […]

The post Capitol Perspectives: Dealing with government disruptions appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Anti-diversity budget language called a “job killer” by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce didn’t survive the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday, as the panel wrapped up its work on the state spending plan for the coming year. Over two days of work, the committee added more than $3 billion to the House-approved budget for state operations […]

The post Senate committee rejects anti-DEI language, restores library funds in Missouri budget appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Anti-abortion medical organizations on Tuesday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to maintain a lower court ruling that would push prescribing and administration of the abortion pill back to pre-2016 instructions, ending mail orders, while an ongoing legal case works through the appeals process. Meanwhile, more members of Congress lined up on either side […]

The post Anti-abortion organizations urge U.S. Supreme Court to keep limits on abortion pill appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The proposed Missouri state budget grew by more than $2 billion Tuesday as the Senate Appropriations Committee dipped into the massive state surplus to widen Interstate 70 from Wentzville to Blue Springs. The committee also added hundreds of millions for other programs to the spending plan passed late last month by the Missouri House, either […]

The post Missouri Senate committee triples funding for widening I-70 across the state appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As TikTok has mushroomed to more than 150 million monthly U.S. users, so have warnings among both state legislators and members of Congress about its potential danger as a tool of the Chinese government. Dozens of states and the federal government this year banned public employees from downloading the popular app on their government devices. […]

The post One state already has voted to ban TikTok. For Congress, it’s going to be much tougher appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The initiative petition process, used by Missourians to independently check special interests and bring issues to the voters for 115 years, is under attack by our Missouri Legislature. The supermajority in the legislature, with no counterbalancing weight within their chambers, is leading the charge to undermine the initiative petition process. To carry out their scheme, politicians and lobbyists are […]

The post Missouri’s initiative petition process is at risk appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. House members in a hearing on Tuesday questioned the head of a federal agency in charge of unaccompanied migrant children about multiple reports of their exploitation as workers in U.S. meatpacking plants and elsewhere. Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight & Accountability Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs agreed that […]

The post Labor exploitation of unaccompanied migrant children probed at U.S. House hearing appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson appointed three new members to the University of Missouri System Board of Curators on Monday. Robert Blitz, Robert Fry and Jeanne Sinquefield must be confirmed by the state Senate before joining the board, which meets Thursday. They are not included in a list of nominations to be considered by the Senate’s Gubernatorial […]

The post Governor appoints 3 new members to University of Missouri System Board of Curators appeared first on Missouri Independent.

If the case seeking to oust St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner gets to trial, she will argue that only corrupt and intentional refusal to do her job, not disagreement about prosecutions or mistakes by subordinates, are sufficient to remove her. In a motion to dismiss the ouster case, Gardner cites the only two instances […]

The post Missouri AG faces ‘high bar’ in effort to oust St. Louis prosecutor for neglect of duties appeared first on Missouri Independent.

If the Missouri budget becomes law with language banning state spending on diversity initiatives, Gov. Mike Parson’s administration says it would disrupt routine government operations as small as purchasing gas and as large as the Medicaid managed care program. In the days after the Missouri House approved spending bills with anti-diversity, equity and inclusion provisions […]

The post Missouri agencies say ban on diversity initiatives in budget would disrupt operations appeared first on Missouri Independent.

MONTROSE, Mo. — It took Samantha Lesmeister’s family four months to find a medical professional who could see that she was struggling with something more than her Down syndrome. The young woman, known as Sammee, had become unusually sad and lethargic after falling in the shower and hitting her head. She lost her limited ability […]

The post People with Down syndrome are living longer, but the health system still treats many as kids appeared first on Missouri Independent.

They didn’t know it at the time, but Dec. 3, 2020, was the start of a nightmare for Wandrea Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman. Both were election workers in Atlanta, and that was the day Rudy Giuliani — ex-New York mayor and adviser to former President Donald Trump — testified to a state Senate […]

The post As Fox News case heads to trial, far right St. Louis site faces its own defamation suit appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Three years after the start of the pandemic, millions of working age people still suffer from long COVID-19 and some lawmakers and advocates, including people with long COVID, say not enough is being done to protect their well-being and ensure they can continue to be employed. Proposed federal legislation, better workplace accommodations, and more federal […]

The post Long COVID is hurting business. Workplace accommodations could help appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In times of a major crisis, discord, division or a crossroads situation where a country or society finds itself at the precipice of what will define its future, a committed leader with a commanding voice emerges. Who will be that leader — that strong, dedicated and unifying voice to lead us to a solution to […]

The post Strong leaders with unwavering voices are required for major changes in our society appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — As illicit fentanyl seizures reach record numbers, the Biden administration on Friday announced “government-wide efforts” to counter narcotics trafficking, including criminally charging members of the Sinaloa Cartel operating out of Mexico, and sanctioning Chinese producers of the chemicals used to make the synthetic drug. The Department of Justice unsealed indictments alleging fentanyl trafficking, […]

The post Mexican cartel targeted by Biden administration in multiple fentanyl indictments appeared first on Missouri Independent.