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In 2020, amid the worst wave of violent crime in almost 15 years, Missouri lawmakers set up a new witness protection program proponents said would break down barriers of silence that left perpetrators unpunished. But since its creation, the program has gone almost unused. Despite being authorized to spend $2 million annually, only $14,647 has […]

The post $2M Missouri witness protection fund finds few takers in second year of operation appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass gun control legislation in a speech at the White House Thursday evening, following mass shootings in New York, Texas and Oklahoma during the last three weeks. “This isn’t about taking away anyone’s rights. This is about protecting children,” Biden said. “How much more carnage are […]

The post Biden urges assault weapons ban, as U.S. House Democrats advance gun control bills appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A federal grand jury indicted three St. Louis aldermen, including the board’s president and longest-serving member, on charges of accepting bribes in exchange for the aldermen’s support on property tax abatements. Board of Alderman President Lewis Reed, Ward 22 Alderman Jeffrey Boyd and former Ward 21 Alderman John Collins-Muhammad, who resigned last month, were indicted […]

The post St. Louis Board President Lewis Reed and two aldermen indicted on federal bribery charges appeared first on Missouri Independent.

If all of Missouri’s adults were vaccinated against COVID-19, more than half of the over 14,000 deaths attributed to the virus since January 2021 may have been prevented, a new analysis concluded. The analysis, performed by researchers at the Brown School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health […]

The post Study finds 8,500 COVID deaths may have been prevented if more Missourians were vaccinated appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri corrections officers would receive a back pay settlement and future payments worth more than $100 million under an agreement to end a long-running claim the Department of Corrections was underpaying officers.  Under the proposed settlement, the corrections department does not admit any wrongdoing but accepts that the payments are reasonable considering the likely result […]

The post Missouri to spend more than $100M settling pay claims for corrections officers appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Biden administration has set aside billions of dollars to help the nation’s food supply chain recover from the coronavirus pandemic — and, more recently, the looming global effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and on Wednesday, it announced new funding and a comprehensive overview of how those initiatives mesh. “A transformed food system […]

The post U.S. ag secretary lays out Biden administration vision for ‘transformed food system’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri officials vowed again Wednesday to lower the number of days it takes to process Medicaid applications – which was an average of 101 days in April — and come into federal compliance with the maximum of 45 days.  “We’ll get to a place where we should be processing in under 45 days by the […]

The post Missouri hopes to finally shrink months-long wait times for Medicaid coverage appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Democratic Senate hopeful Trudy Busch Valentine says she convinced the board she serves on that oversees her family’s St. Louis estate to cancel a fundraiser for the National Rifle Association scheduled for September. News of the fundraiser was first revealed Tuesday by The Intercept and drew intense backlash from Democrats, coming so soon after a […]

The post Democrat Senate hopeful in Missouri faces backlash over NRA fundraiser at family estate appeared first on Missouri Independent.

SPRINGFIELD – At the end of Tuesday night’s Republican Senate debate, which was skipped by the three candidates leading in the polls, U.S. Rep. Billy Long asked the audience of Greene County Republicans to remember who was absent when they vote. Long, state Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz and St. Louis attorney Mark McCloskey […]

The post Leading Republican candidates in Missouri U.S. Senate race skip Springfield debate appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Bad blood bedeviled the Missouri Senate for much of the last two years. And now it’s about to spill out onto the campaign trail.  GOP primaries around the state will be the battleground to determine who steers the fate of a chamber coming off its most dysfunctional legislative session in recent memory.  Will it be […]

The post GOP infighting in the Missouri Senate will shape primary battles across the state appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Lead is a dangerous neurotoxin. Researchers have known that for decades. But the substance stuck around in everyday products like paint and gasoline for decades.  One big reason: The lead industry spent years using racial bias to divert public attention away from the dangers of the toxin and minimized the impact of mounting evidence indicating […]

The post How the lead industry misled the public about its toxic problem for decades appeared first on Missouri Independent.

I was an overachiever big-time growing up. I attended a private, Christian school in Topeka, and I also signed a book contract with a major publisher in Nashville when I was just 15 years old. I also had a baby-sitting business and was involved in track, orchestra, choir and several musicals and plays. Never did […]

The post In my story and those of others, opportunities to demystify mental illness | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In the years following the bitter Civil War, a former Union general took a holiday originated by former Confederates and helped spread it across the entire country. The holiday was Memorial Day, an annual commemoration was born in the former Confederate States in 1866 and adopted by the United States in 1868. It is a […]

The post The forgotten history of Memorial Day grew up in aftermath of Civil War | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Micah Titterington was among hundreds of organization leaders who opposed a measure in the Missouri legislature this year that they argue would criminalize homelessness statewide. Modeled on legislation pushed in states across the country by a conservative nonprofit from Texas called the Cicero Institute, the Missouri bill sought to ban people from sleeping on state-owned […]

The post Missouri bill banning unauthorized camping raises concerns about criminalizing homelessness appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Southern Baptist Convention on Thursday released a once-secret and lengthy list of accused sex abusers — several of whom are in the Midwest — within the denomination. The 205-page list is a compilation of ministers and other church workers who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The list is described as a “fluid, […]

The post Eight Missouri ministers accused of sex abuse in Southern Baptist Convention report appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In 1992, Jim Talent was a nerdy, 30-something policy wonk with wire-rimmed glasses and a head of brown anchorman hair looking to skip a rung on Missouri’s political ladder and win a seat in Congress. He did it, edging one-term Congresswoman Joan Kelly Horn 50%-48%, a win attributed in no small part to the selfishness […]

The post Flash of GOP unity created a Missouri 2nd District even Harry Potter can’t turn blue | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Democrat Ben Samuels on Friday became the second Missouri congressional candidate in a strong position for their party’s nomination to abandon a campaign because of newly drawn district maps. Samuels, the leading fundraiser in the 2nd District Democratic primary, announced he was quitting the race because his home is now within the 1st District. “After […]

The post Drawn out of district, Democrat drops out of suburban St. Louis congressional race appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Agricultural landowners who are not renewing their agreements this year with the federal government to keep their land out of production have the ability to put that land back to work earlier, a potential boost to wheat and other crop production amid global shortages, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Thursday. Those who have land […]

The post USDA relaxes conservation program rules to boost crop production appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A Cole County judge on Thursday heard arguments over whether staff in the Missouri attorney general’s office, while it was being run by now-U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, used private email accounts in order to subvert the state’s open records laws. A lawsuit filed in 2019 by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee alleges Hawley’s office violated […]

The post Missouri AG seeks to dismiss suit alleging the office under Josh Hawley broke Sunshine Law appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After two years of a temporary provision to allow remote voting in the U.S. House, the top 36 users of the proxy voting system are all Democrats, though Republicans have also taken advantage of it. Proxy voting was meant to keep crowds of House members smaller and thereby limit the spread of COVID-19, back in […]

The post Remote voting in the U.S. House hits a second anniversary, but it may be its last appeared first on Missouri Independent.