WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republican Leader John Thune will spend a crucial next few weeks working behind the scenes with other top GOP senators to reshape the party’s “big beautiful bill” — a balancing test accompanied in recent days by incendiary exchanges between President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk over whether the current proposals […]
The Republican budget bill the U.S. House approved last month includes a surprise for the 40 states that have expanded Medicaid: penalties for providing health care to some immigrants who are here legally. Along with punishing the 14 states that use their own funds to cover immigrants who are here illegally, analysts say last-minute changes […]
WASHINGTON — Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus pledged Thursday to make more visits to immigration detention centers across the country to carry out oversight of the Trump administration’s crackdown. The members detailed their visits to various detention centers over last week’s recess. Many people they visited in those centers were arrested while attending their […]
State cannabis regulators will begin their first attempt next month to double check the work of licensed testing labs tasked with ensuring the safety of Missouri marijuana products. Starting July 1, staff with the Division of Cannabis Regulation will arrive unannounced at licensee premises and collect about 50 products a month off the shelves. They’ll […]
This week, Senators have started their consideration of President Trump’s big tax bill, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in May. Missouri U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley was clear in his priorities for the legislation, writing in early May that “slashing health insurance for the working poor is … both morally wrong and […]
LEAVENWORTH — A Kansas district court barred CoreCivic Wednesday from reopening its shuttered prison until the company goes through Leavenworth’s development process to receive a special use permit. Judge John Bryant, Leavenworth County District Court, was unconvinced by arguments from CoreCivic attorneys that the company was grandfathered into the city’s zoning codes and did not […]
Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday said that communication between states and the federal government under the second Trump administration “is nonexistent,” opening the door to catastrophe in the case of a natural disaster or other emergency. Walz, during an interview with Reformer editor Patrick Coolican at a States Newsroom conference in Minneapolis, said that the […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump late Wednesday ordered the White House legal counsel and U.S. attorney general to investigate when Biden administration staff used an autopen to sign the former president’s name on official documents, alleging that Biden might not have known or approved of their actions. The inquiry represents an escalation in Trump’s animosity […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump issued a long-awaited “travel ban” late Wednesday to bar entry of nationals from a dozen countries and partially restrict entry for nationals from a smaller set of countries. Countries that will have a full ban are Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan […]
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to allow Venezuelan men removed under an 18th-century wartime law and sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador to have their cases heard in court, though he conceded the logistics of the order would be challenging to sort […]
A St. Louis civil rights law firm filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the state takeover of the St. Louis police as unconstitutional. ArchCity Defenders filed the lawsuit in Cole County circuit court on behalf of two St. Louis city residents, Jamala Rogers and Mike Milton. The state and Attorney General Andrew Bailey are the defendants. […]
More Republican-led states are giving paid parental leave to public school teachers and other state employees, signaling a broader acceptance of family-friendly workplace policies once championed primarily by Democrats. “All of these red states, I think we’re late to the party,” said South Carolina state Rep. Beth Bernstein, a Democrat who sponsored a bill this […]
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court late Wednesday upheld a lower court’s order requiring the U.S. Education Department to reinstate more than 1,300 fired employees and blocking an executive order to dismantle the department and a directive to transfer some services to other federal agencies. The ruling from a three-judge panel in the United States Court […]
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has rescinded guidance issued in July 2022 that emphasized hospitals are responsible for providing emergency abortion care despite state bans, saying it does not reflect the Trump administration’s policy. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) is a federal law requiring hospitals that accept Medicare funding to […]
Gov. Mike Kehoe expanded the agenda of the special session Wednesday enough to win Missouri Senate passage of bills with money for disaster recovery in St. Louis, changes to property taxes policies and tax incentives to finance new or improved stadiums in Kansas City. Initially scheduled to go in at 10 a.m., the Senate finally […]
People in Marsha Keene’s community are already struggling to cover the basics. Most of the clients Keene serves at the Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center in southeast Missouri are working but still rely on federal food assistance to keep up with ever-increasing costs. The center provides a domestic violence shelter, parenting education and summer camps […]
Missouri leaders take pride in our reputation as a business-friendly state where cutting edge industries like biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, agtech and geospatial intelligence continue to grow. A new report puts us among the top 10 states for tech manufacturing growth. But proposed federal budget changes could undercut our economic competitiveness by weakening one of our […]
WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Linda McMahon took heat from Democrats on the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce on Wednesday over the Trump administration’s initiatives to dramatically overhaul the federal role in education and eliminate the Education Department. Lawmakers took aim at President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget request — which includes $12 billion […]
WASHINGTON — The Maryland federal judge overseeing the lawsuit concerning the wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia unsealed documents Wednesday that the Trump administration had asked to keep unavailable to the public under the so-called state secrets privilege. The order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis unsealed three documents that she said did not contain any privileged […]
When a tornado struck Joplin on May 22, 2011, killing 161 people and causing about $2 billion in damage, President Barack Obama issued a major disaster declaration the next day. That action immediately made help available through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, for people to pay for temporary housing and begin repairs. The […]
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