MoInd 📰

Democrats won changes to the Missouri Senate’s rules Tuesday, cutting a deal with GOP leadership that ended two weeks of filibusters blocking dozens of gubernatorial appointments. The changes make it harder to cut off debate and require the Senate to wait a day before acting on bills that return from the House with amendments. Both […]

The Missouri Senate Education Committee debated proposals Tuesday that would allow students to enroll in public schools in neighboring districts, but public-education groups say they prefer a version of the bill filed in the House. This is the sixth consecutive year that state lawmakers have considered opening school districts’ boundaries, with a House bill by […]

As small-business owners, Sonya Andrews and her husband are used to uncertainty. Sonya runs a business offering graphic and web design services, while her husband is a commercial photographer. They also own a studio in Kansas City’s West Bottoms and have one employee who works remotely from Florida. Every month is different for them when […]

February has been set aside as Black History Month. It presents an educational opportunity that can assist in closing many divides between Blacks and whites. Designating February as Black History Month is the nation’s attempt to correct its lack of acknowledgement of the contributions of Black Americans in the normal annals of America’s history. While […]

Companies profiting from unregulated convenience store slot machines would have two years to pull their games off the market under a bill advanced Monday in a Missouri House committee. The bill — the latest in a years-long effort by law enforcement and legislators to rein in the games — would create a state-run video lottery […]

A Missouri man fighting a calculation that could keep him in state prison for more than 40 years on a 23-year sentence lost the first round of a court battle seeking to be released. On Friday, Cole County Circuit Judge Brian Stumpe refused to order the Missouri Department of Corrections to change how it calculated […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education exhausted millions in taxpayer dollars trying to eliminate a chunk of its Office for Civil Rights, a government watchdog found in a report released Monday.   The department spent between roughly $28.5 million and $38 million on the salaries and benefits of the hundreds of Office for Civil Rights, […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House is expected to vote as soon as Tuesday on the government funding package that will end the ongoing partial government shutdown once it becomes law.  The Senate voted Friday evening to approve the legislation after President Donald Trump and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., brokered a deal to remove the full-year […]

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday closed the lawsuit Planned Parenthood filed last summer after Republicans’ “big, beautiful” law blocked Medicaid patients from visiting its clinics for any health care appointments for one year.  Planned Parenthood filed notice with the court Friday that it had dismissed “without prejudice all claims against” the Trump administration […]

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked a Trump administration policy that prevented members of Congress from making unannounced oversight visits at facilities that hold immigrants. The temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb of District of Columbia federal court blocked a seven-day notice requirement that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem established […]

Missouri Republicans are pushing a change that would move most high-profile legal fights — including ballot initiative challenges — out of the Western District Court of Appeals and into the Eastern District. They are also hoping to block any challenges to state law or the constitution from being filed outside of Cole County.  While framed […]

A coalition of marijuana companies is filing lawsuits against businesses across Missouri, accusing dozens of stores of illegally selling marijuana under the guise of “THCA hemp flower” and undercutting the state’s regulated cannabis market. The lawsuits target nearly 40 stores in St. Louis County and 17 businesses in the Kansas City area, including major hemp […]

State Sen. Stephen Webber is calling on Waymo to retract and correct testimony provided to the Missouri Senate Transportation Committee last week regarding the company’s driverless vehicles. Webber, a Democrat from Columbia, said in a letter to Waymo on Friday that the testimony given to the committee falsely claimed that the company’s driverless vehicles had […]

Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern. So what does it say when five times in recent months ballot summaries written by Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins have been tossed out by the courts? Since October, judges at every level of Missouri’s court system have stepped in to […]

Secretary of State Denny Hoskins wants another chance to write the ballot language for a referendum on Missouri’s gerrymandered redistricting map after admitting that the first version he prepared was unfair. And he doesn’t want to answer any questions about how the first version was crafted or who advised him on what it should say.  […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice released more than 3 million pages of documents Friday related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The release, which in the 3 million pages includes more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, comes more than 40 days after the agency was legally required to release the full set of […]

Missourians placed more than half-a-billion dollars in bets on sporting events in December but promotional offers offset the taxable profits, leaving less than $1 million to help problem gamblers and public education. Voters narrowly approved sports betting in November 2024, with a majority of just 2,691 votes out of almost 3 million cast. The first […]

WASHINGTON — The federal government began a partial shutdown early Saturday, even though Senate Democrats and President Donald Trump reached a deal that allows lawmakers more time to negotiate new constraints on immigration enforcement.  The Senate voted 71-29 on Friday evening to pass the reworked government funding package before a midnight deadline. But the earliest the […]

Missouri’s Western District Court of Appeals unanimously tossed out part of Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’s ballot language on Thursday for an initiative petition that would bar state funding of private education. The decision, written by Judge Douglas Thomson, says that Hoskins’s summary statement was “misleading” because of a bullet point that says the petition […]

A Missouri House committee heard testimony Wednesday on a bill that would prevent courts from seizing weapons from high-risk individuals. The bill contains changes to state firearm statutes, a catch-all that rounds up a number of gun-related provisions that Republicans have attempted to pass in previous legislative sessions. Alongside prohibiting so-called red flag gun seizure […]