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MoInd šŸ“°

As Republicans spar over IVF, some turn to obscure MAHA-backed alternative

3 months 1 week ago
Republican support for in vitro fertilization, after surging in the wake of a 2024 Alabama Supreme Court decision that threatened the procedure, may be splintering as President Donald Trump retreats from his IVF promises and more far-right voices gain ground. Earlier this year, conservatives in the Tennessee House staged an eleventh-hour skirmish over an IVF […]
Anna Claire Vollers

Trump creates ā€˜quick reaction force’ out of state Guard troops for law enforcement

3 months 1 week ago
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday directing state National Guard units to be ready to assist local, state and federal law enforcement, a potential step toward a dramatic expansion of Trump’s use of military personnel for domestic policing. TheĀ order calls for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to ensure troops in the National Guard of […]
Jacob Fischler

More states — including Missouri — joining race to redraw congressional maps

3 months 1 week ago
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s push to bolster the GOP’s narrow congressional majority in next year’s elections has prompted a rareĀ nationwide mid-decade redistricting battle that has rapidly taken shape over the past weeks.Ā  Indiana GOP lawmakers’ White House visit this week highlights how theĀ race to redraw congressional districts for partisan advantage may soon expand beyond […]
Shauneen Miranda

Trump battles with US Senate Judiciary’s Grassley over home-state picks for judges

3 months 1 week ago
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley are sparring on social media over whether the Judiciary Committee chairman should abandon a century-old tradition that allows senators to block the advancement of judicial nominees who would serve in the senators’ home states. The practice, referred to as ā€œblue slips,ā€ has irked Trump, […]
Jennifer Shutt

Abrego Garcia arrested by ICE as judge orders postponement of deportation to Uganda

3 months 1 week ago
BALTIMORE — Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore early Monday for a prayer vigil for the wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the Trump administration aims to re-deport to Uganda unless he pleads guilty to Justice Department charges. As Abrego Garcia arrived for his Monday ICE check-in […]
Ariana Figueroa, William J. Ford

Cole County judge denies request to freeze Missouri private-school voucher payments

3 months 1 week ago
The Missouri State Treasurer’s Office can continue to subsidize private-school scholarships from a $51 million allotment of state revenue while a lawsuit challenging the fund’s constitutionality makes its way through the system, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Brian Stumpe ruled Monday morning. Stumpe rejected arguments by the Missouri branch of the National Education Association that […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Smithsonian museum honoring America’s Latinos has deep ties to Kansas City

3 months 1 week ago
For more than 30 years, the vision has been clear. A museum dedicated to Latino history will someday take its place alongside other Smithsonian Institution buildings in Washington, D.C. Groundbreaking is likely still years in the future. The National Museum of the American Latino has deep connections to Kansas City, a fact that helped draw […]
Mary Sanchez

America is in an identity crisis, becoming morally and ethically bankrupt

3 months 1 week ago
In the past eight months we have seen what is tantamount to a wrecking ball smashing the meaning of the Statue of Liberty, many components of our Constitution rendered null and void and two branches of our government — the legislative and judicial — neutered. Think about what the Statue of Liberty has symbolized and […]
Janice Ellis

As rural maternity care units close, Missouri families lose options

3 months 1 week ago
For Dr. Kelsey Davis-Humes, practicing medicine in rural Missouri is a way of life. She’s on call almost constantly in northeast Missouri’s Scotland County, where she cares for patients from their birth until their death. As an osteopath practicing in a rural community, part of her job includes caring for patients throughout their pregnancies. ā€œI […]
Meg Cunningham

Will states take on more FEMA duties? Congress, Trump council debate agency’s fate

3 months 1 week ago
WASHINGTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency could look significantly different by next year’s hurricane season, with state and local governments shouldering more of the responsibility for natural disaster response and recovery. Members of both political parties have long criticized FEMA, but a bipartisan bill moving along in Congress combined with President Donald Trump’s disdain […]
Jennifer Shutt

AI is making it easier for bad actors to create biosecurity threats

3 months 1 week ago
Artificial intelligence is helping accelerate the pace of scientific discovery, but the technology also makes it easier than ever to create biosecurity threats and weapons, cybersecurity experts say.Ā  It’s an issue that currently flies under the radar for most Americans, said Lucas Hansen, cofounder of AI education nonprofit CivAI. The COVID-19 pandemic increased awareness of […]
Paige Gross

FBI raids Maryland home of Trump critic John Bolton

3 months 1 week ago
WASHINGTON — FBI agents raided the home and office of former Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, a one-time adviser to President Donald Trump who has become a frequent critic of the president, to investigate Bolton’s handling of classified documents, according to multiple media reports. The raid on a former Trump adviser’s house represents […]
Ariana Figueroa

As Democrats fight ā€˜fire with fire,’ gerrymandering opponents seek a path forward

3 months 1 week ago
When California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled his plan to retaliate if Republican-led Texas redrew its congressional districts to favor the GOP, he affirmed his support for less partisan maps — and then promised to ā€œmeet fire with fire.ā€ ā€œWe’re doing it mindful that we want to model better behavior,ā€ Newsom told reporters in Los […]
Jonathan Shorman

How will Missouri’s cannabis market change if the feds reschedule marijuana?Ā 

3 months 1 week ago
Missouri has won praise for having one of the nation’s most robust cannabis markets.Ā But buzz about the president’s interest in relaxing federal marijuana restrictions is raising questions about the potential impact on that economic success. Last year in Missouri, a pound of wholesale marijuana sold for about $2,000 on average, according to the nation’s leading […]
Rebecca Rivas

Missouri settles lawsuit over prison isolation policies for people with HIV

3 months 1 week ago
For six years, Honesty Jade Bishop was held in solitary confinement in a Missouri prison after she was sexually assaulted by her cellmate. The Department of Corrections deemed that Bishop, a transgender woman who was living with HIV, was sexually active and needed to be isolated. And from 2015 to 2021, she was in administrative […]
Rudi Keller

Missouri teachers union asks judge to freeze private-school-voucher payments

3 months 1 week ago
Attorneys for Missouri’s largest teacher’s union are hoping to stop tax dollars from pouring into the state’s voucher program, arguing in Cole County Circuit Court Thursday that payments should be paused until a judge rules on the legality of the program’s funding. The State Treasurer’s Office has already begun dipping into a $51 million appropriation […]
Annelise Hanshaw

New York appeals court overturns $465M penalty against Trump; keeps fraud finding

3 months 1 week ago
A New York state appeals court on Thursday overturned as overly punitive a nearly $500 million civil penalty against President Donald Trump, but left in place a finding of fraud based on records that inflated the value of Trump’s business holdings. A five-judge panel of the New York Appellate Division for the First Department disagreed […]
Jacob Fischler

Trump issued an order targeting homeless people. In D.C., he’s giving it a test run

3 months 1 week ago
WASHINGTON — Officials have already cleared dozens of homeless encampments in the District of Columbia in recent days as President Donald Trump’sĀ federal takeover of the nation’s capital for a ā€œcrime emergencyā€ at the same time takes aim at people without housing. Advocates working to end homelessness within the district and across the country raised alarm […]
Shauneen Miranda

Appeals court lets Trump end temporary legal protections for 60,000 migrants

3 months 1 week ago
WASHINGTON — An appeals court late Wednesday said it will allow the Trump administration, for now, to move forward with ending temporary protections for 60,000 immigrants from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua. It means that Nepali immigrants with Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, will lose their legal status – including work permits and deportation protections – […]
Ariana Figueroa