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Because of a series of delays, the benefits designed to help families with summer food costs likely won’t be distributed until deep into winter.

The post Summer food benefits for low-income Missouri children likely delayed until well into winter appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by the Kansas City Beacon.  When Denisha Jones launched her business, Sweet Peaches Cobblers, in August 2020, it was just her, her husband and her mom in a community kitchen — taking orders, making the cobblers and doing deliveries. Now she has a team of individuals helping her sell cobblers in […]

The post How investments in Black businesses can help close KC’s racial wealth gap appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. On two short stretches of road near downtown Detroit, Michigan transportation officials hope to make history. Over the next two years, they plan to embed technology in the pavement that can charge electric vehicles while they’re being driven. The wireless system will […]

The post States test an electrifying idea: Roads that can recharge your EV appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Southern Living magazine once described “y’all” as “the quintessential Southern pronoun.” It’s as iconically Southern as sweet tea and grits. While “y’all” is considered slang, it’s a useful word nonetheless. The English language doesn’t have a good second person plural pronoun; “you” can be both singular and plural, but it’s sometimes awkward to use as […]

The post ‘Y’all,’ that most Southern of Southernisms, is going mainstream – and it’s about time appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri Democrats re-elected a party chairman for the first time in almost a decade Saturday after a nasty fight over the role the state party should play in promoting the election of Democratic candidates. Michael Butler, St. Louis Recorder of Deeds, defeated two challengers to retain the post he first won after the 2020 election. […]

The post Missouri Democrats re-elect party chair following online feud over leadership appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Voters in South Carolina would go first in picking Democratic presidential nominees, followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, Georgia and Michigan if their states go along with a proposal a key Democratic National Committee panel approved Friday.  The Rules and Bylaws Committee’s nearly unanimous voice vote proposes moving the Democratic primary’s earliest election date […]

The post Democrats strip Iowa of first-in-the-nation prize, tap South Carolina for first primary appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In May, a bipartisan proposal to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for low-income women in Missouri to a full year after they’ve given birth was close to gaining approval from the state legislature.  But as the legislative session came to a close, the bill became collateral damage in the Republican Party’s bitter infighting, between the seven-member […]

The post Republican Senator files bill to address state’s high maternal mortality appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This column is written in the aftermath of two recent fatal shootings in mid-Missouri. One was two deaths in Jefferson City and the other in Columbia. Those incidents renewed questions I’ve had for years about how civilized citizens should respond to a growing environment that portrays lethal violence as entertainment. To understand this column, you […]

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

For decades, motorists crossing Missouri have cursed congestion on Interstate 70. And almost as long, the Missouri Department of Transportation has warned that the road, one of the first interstate highways to be built in the 1950s, needs major reconstruction. “The option to do nothing on I-70 is not there,” Kevin Keith, then-director of MODOT, […]

The post Lawmaker wants to use Missouri surplus to widen I-70 appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. States, cities and community groups that offer free money to families to jump-start college savings face a dilemma: The families most in need often fail to sign up. To solve the problem, some states have transformed the accounts into automatic programs […]

The post Some states open college savings accounts for every newborn appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Climate change believers by and large say that for decades Big Agriculture has spewed huge amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. And they’re not wrong. EPA estimates that agriculture accounted for 11.2% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2020. So it’s quite obvious that in order to combat climate change the feds […]

The post Feds need to keep watchful eye on climate-smart grants appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday it will hear oral arguments in February over a legal challenge by six Republican-led states to the Biden administration student borrower relief plan. Until the arguments are heard and the court issues a ruling, the $400 billion Biden plan is on hold due to a nationwide injunction […]

The post U.S. Supreme Court to review Biden student debt relief plan in February appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to codify an agreement the White House brokered between rail unions and freight companies in order to avoid a catastrophic rail strike, but fell short of enough votes to include paid sick leave for workers. The Senate backed the rail deal on an 80-15 vote and rejected […]

The post U.S. Senate averts freight rail strike, but bid to include worker sick leave fails appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After the tragic St. Louis school shooting on Oct. 24 where a shooter killed a 15-year-old student and a health teacher, Missouri Democrats vowed to push legislation establishing stricter gun safety regulations. On Thursday — the first day legislators could pre-file bills — state  Rep. David Smith, D-Columbia, filed legislation to prohibit anyone under 20 […]

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WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans voted Wednesday to keep earmarks in place when they take over the chamber in January, a move that solidifies GOP support for the controversial spending practice that was brought back under new guardrails and transparency mechanisms less than two years ago.  Earmarking has become especially important to members of both […]

The post U.S. House GOP to keep earmarks for local projects — with some ‘tweaks’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Republican Will Scharf, a key player in Gov. Eric Greitens’ brief state administration, will be a candidate himself in 2024, he said Wednesday, but what office he is seeking is uncertain. Scharf issued a news release announcing he’d formed a committee to raise money for a statewide campaign. An attorney, Scharf has spent the past […]

The post Former aide to Greitens plans bid for Missouri office in 2024 appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The U.S. House moved Wednesday to avoid an economically disastrous nationwide rail strike, voting to codify an agreement that members of some unions had already rejected and separately add paid sick leave that workers had demanded. The two-track approach allows Democrats to avert a strike that could cost the U.S. economy up to $2 billion […]

The post U.S. House votes to avert calamitous rail strike, but Senate prospects murky appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The three U.S. House Democrats who have led their party through four presidencies and thousands of floor votes formally passed the torch to the next generation Wednesday, when the party gathered behind closed doors to elect its top leaders for the 118th Congress.  House Democrats named Hakeem Jeffries, of New York, as their […]

The post U.S. House Democrats make history electing first Black party leader in Congress appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON —  Members of a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee panel raised concerns during a Tuesday hearing that a proposed merger between two of the largest U.S. supermarket chains could mean a monopoly on groceries and lead to higher food prices for Americans. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who chairs the Subcommittee on Competition […]

The post Albertsons-Kroger mega-deal raises questions from lawmakers about higher food prices appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A coal-fired power plant must cut emissions and an aluminum smelter must spend millions to rid a community in Missouri’s Bootheel of sulfur dioxide pollution by 2026 under a deal with state environmental regulators.  Part of New Madrid County is out of compliance with Environmental Protection Agency standards for having triple the limit of sulfur […]

The post Sulfur dioxide pollution in the Bootheel breaks EPA rules. Regulators look to fix it appeared first on Missouri Independent.