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Congress passed, and President Biden signed, the American Rescue Plan 10 months ago, creating the most significant infusion of funds for students and local schools in our nation’s history. Nevertheless, the Missouri legislature has yet to move the $1.9 billion to our students who need help overcoming the learning impacts of COVID-19. If lawmakers fail […]

The post Missouri lawmakers need to take swift action on federal education funds | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Hundreds of custodians, clerks and cooks working for state agencies would not get the raises Missouri Gov. Mike Parson promised in December under a spending bill approved Monday by the House Budget Committee. On a party line vote, with Republicans supporting the bill and Democrats opposed, the committee approved a spending bill that sets a […]

The post House committee scales back governor’s pay raise plan for Missouri state workers appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A lawyer representing St. Louis told the Missouri Supreme Court on Monday that a state law that forbids the enforcement of federal gun regulations was unconstitutional and an “unintelligible statute” that has confused law enforcement. Robert Dierker, deputy St. Louis city counselor, took issue before the state’s highest court with the Second Amendment Preservation Act, also called SAPA. […]

The post Cities ask Missouri Supreme Court to strike down law targeting federal gun regulations appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Republicans met for hours Monday to come up with a compromise to redraw Missouri’s eight congressional districts. But the divide between GOP leadership and the conservative caucus in the Senate proved to be too much, sparking a filibuster by Republican senators determined to force through a map splitting Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City […]

The post Republican officials rally supporters to push for ‘7-1’ Missouri congressional map appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally publish by Kaiser Health News. A recent lawsuit filed by one Wisconsin health system that temporarily prevented seven workers from starting new jobs at a different health network raised eyebrows, including those of Brock Slabach, chief operations officer of the National Rural Health Association. “To me, that signifies the desperation that […]

The post Bounties and bonuses: Small Missouri hospitals are left behind by COVID staffing wars appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The closure of Save A Lot in Pagedale left a hole in northern St. Louis County.  Beyond Housing, a community building group that serves about two dozen cities in the area, had worked through the Great Recession to bring a grocery store closer to low-income residents in a part of the St. Louis area dotted […]

The post Missouri bills would offer incentives for grocery stores, urban farms to eliminate food deserts appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The distorted misinformation about affirmative action is once again raising its ugly head around the potential nomination of a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court. Before any qualified, likely overqualified, Black woman is nominated for the Supreme Court, her reputation is being tainted by the notion that the only reason she is being considered […]

The post Appointing a Black woman to the Supreme Court is not affirmative action | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

ABILENE, Kansas — The dashboard camera video shows eastbound Interstate 70 traffic whizzing past Dickinson County sheriff’s deputy Kalen Robison’s patrol car, which is parked crosswise in the median about three miles west of Abilene. Robison suddenly pulls out into the left lane, accelerates rapidly and within a couple of miles pulls behind a white […]

The post How a Kansas traffic stop led to a federal lawsuit over $1.2M in seized marijuana profits appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Cannabis dispensaries throughout the country came one step closer to using banks the way many other businesses can when the U.S. House on Friday cleared a bill with sweeping changes to banking regulations. Colorado Democrat Ed Perlmutter and Ohio Republican Dave Joyce, co-sponsors of the legislation, said Friday their proposal would allow medical […]

The post U.S. House advances marijuana banking bill, though final passage uncertain appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As a student in Hickory County R-1 school district, state Rep. Ian Mackey often struggled with following the rules of a classroom. “My way to express myself was usually really loud and really invasive,” said Mackey, D-St. Louis. “There were a lot of teachers who wanted to send me home, and in some cases did.” […]

The post Bipartisan Missouri bills aim to ban out-of-school suspensions through the third grade appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Unsecured creditors will get less than a nickel on the dollar for debts left by a Moberly economic development project that went bust in 2011 as Missouri lawmakers worked on a plan to finance air freight shipments from China. A final report pending before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Dow describes how $2.1 million will be […]

The post Bankruptcy of failed Missouri factory project nears end after 10 years in court appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This year’s session of Missouri’s legislature has been flooded with measures to control what local public schools must do or cannot do. It represents an erosion of the reverence I regularly heard from lawmakers of both parties about the near sanctity of local control over education by locally elected school district board members. Beyond that, […]

The post Capitol Perspectives: Legislative targeting of education appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s record on China is once again coming under fire, with a political action committee supporting one of his rivals in the GOP Senate primary launching an attack ad during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Team PAC, which was formed to support the U.S. Senate candidacy of former Missouri Gov. Eric […]

The post Pro-Greitens PAC hits Schmitt on China in ad airing during Olympics opening ceremony appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The director of Missouri’s transportation department is facing calls for his ouster from Republican lawmakers who contend he’s broken trust with the public with a plan to give worker pay raises just months after a new state gas tax took effect. In December, the Highways and Transportation Commission sued Acting Commissioner of Administration Ken Zellers […]

The post Missouri transportation chief under fire for bucking lawmakers on pay raise plan appeared first on Missouri Independent.

More than 20 FBI field offices around the nation are investigating a series of bomb threats characterized as “hate crimes” against Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and unidentified “houses of worship” but have found no explosives at the sites, the agency announced Wednesday. The statement did not say whether the threatened houses of worship, […]

The post FBI probes bomb threats against HBCUs, campuses reopen after no explosives are found appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A Cole County judge kept intact most of the ballot summary Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft wrote for an initiative petition seeking to bar public funds from going to private schools. On Wednesday, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem ruled that Ashcroft was correct to say in the summary that the initiative petition would […]

The post Judge approves most of Ashcroft’s summary for Missouri school funding ballot measure appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Kaiser Health News.  Jamie Taylor received two letters from the Missouri Department of Social Services Family Support Division that began, “Good news,” before stating that she was denied Medicaid coverage. Her income exceeded the state’s limits for the federal-state public health insurance program for people with low incomes. Missouri […]

The post States like Missouri look to upgrade glitchy, outdated health care technology appeared first on Missouri Independent.

TOPEKA — U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran and Jon Tester say swift action is needed to ensure post-9/11 combat veterans who were exposed to burn pits can receive medical care. Moran, a Kansas Republican, and Tester, a Montana Democrat, in a news conference Tuesday outlined a billion-dollar plan to offer access to VA medical care to […]

The post Kansas, Montana senators unveil plan to provide VA care for burn pit exposure appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Missouri Senate refused to confirm Donald Kauerauf as Gov. Mike Parson’s health director on Tuesday, leaving Kauerauf banned from the position for life. Hours later, Parson named Richard Moore, the Department of Health and Senior Services’ general counsel, as acting director of the agency. He slammed senators who blocked Kauerauf’s nomination and called the […]

The post Gov. Mike Parson’s pick to lead state health department rejected by Missouri Senate appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In July 2020, Gov. Mike Parson signed into law a potentially sweeping change for coroners across the state of Missouri, many of whom lack medical or forensic training. The law, which creates a governor-appointed commission to write new standards and training for coroners, was written in response to the botched investigation into the 2011 death […]

The post Missouri coroner training commission can’t convene due to lack of action by governor appeared first on Missouri Independent.