MoInd 📰

WASHINGTON — Congress’ failure to pass a short-term government funding bill before midnight Tuesday will lead to the first shutdown in nearly seven years and give President Donald Trump broad authority to determine what federal operations keep running — which will have a huge impact on the government, its employees, states and Americans.  A funding […]

Hours after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Suzanne Swierc shared two thoughts on her private Facebook page — that the killing of the right-wing activist was wrong, and that his death reflected “the violence, fear and hatred he sowed.” The post upended her life. Indiana Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita soon obtained a screenshot of the post […]

Secretary of State Denny Hoskins on Friday pitched his first revision of ballot language for a Missouri constitutional amendment that would ban abortion — without mentioning the ban — at the Cole County Circuit Court.  Next week, Judge Daniel Green will decide if it is a ball or a strike. Last Friday, Green ordered Hoskins […]

When Black voters stay home on election day, the results have major consequences, according to Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. Morial implored attendees at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual legislative conference Thursday to eschew the myth that their vote does not matter. Black voter turnout was more than […]

For 27-year-old Amanda Lien, the decision to start wearing popular wearable tech devices, like her Apple Watch and Oura Ring, didn’t come lightly. The Chesapeake, Virginia-based content marketing specialist works for a healthcare company, and probably knows more about healthcare data privacy issues than most, she said. She’s also not inclined to wear jewelry on […]

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued in a major case earlier this month that U.S. citizens face few problems in having their immigration status verified if federal agents apprehend them. “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, they promptly let […]

After a week of heated exchanges between the leaders of Boeing Defense in St. Louis and the union representing its machinists, the two sides have agreed to resume negotiations Monday. “The bargaining committees for Boeing and IAM 837 have agreed to return to negotiations on Monday with the help of a federal mediator in an […]

As voters cast ballots in the special Tuesday election to recall Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr., a question that’s rarely been openly discussed lingers. If White is removed from office, who will be selected to replace him? The Jackson County Legislature would be tasked with nominating and voting to confirm his replacement to serve […]

Measuring academic progress is becoming increasingly important as Missouri schools recover from pandemic-related learning loss, with researchers and the state’s education officials championing growth as a vital metric. St. Louis University’s PRiME Center, a nonpartisan education think tank, held a half-day conference on the campus of the University of Missouri-Columbia Thursday to dig into how […]

Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted Thursday on two federal charges, after President Donald Trump publicly urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute Comey, a Trump critic who led an investigation into the president’s first election victory. A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicted Comey on one charge of making false statements to Congress […]

KANSAS CITY — U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Thursday plans to boost American farmers by purchasing millions of bushels of crops. In an effort to increase American exports, the USDA will purchase 417,000 metric tons of commodities immediately to support the international food aid programs. That’s equivalent to more than 16 million […]

A group of U.S. investors will take over the massive video-sharing platform TikTok, President Donald Trump said Thursday. Trump signed an executive order certifying a transaction for TikTok complies with a 2024 law requiring the platform’s Chinese parent company, Byte Dance Ltd., divest TikTok or face a ban in the U.S.  The company is valued at […]

WASHINGTON — Attorneys on behalf of a dozen U.S. House Democrats Thursday pushed for a federal judge to force the Trump administration to comply with an appropriations law that allows for unannounced oversight visits at Department of Homeland Security facilities that detain immigrants.   “We don’t know what detention will look like in the future,” said […]

TOPEKA — House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard says there’s no way to sugarcoat results of the November 2024 election that deepened the Republican supermajority in the Kansas House. The idea, from the perspective of Democrats, was to recruit viable candidates to compete in winnable districts so the 85-40 GOP advantage would be reduced by at […]

The courts will determine if the bill revising Missouri’s congressional districts is constitutional, Gov. Mike Kehoe said Thursday after announcing his plans to sign the measure this weekend. Speaking to reporters after an event in Columbia, Kehoe said he felt confident he was on firm legal ground when he called lawmakers into a special session. […]

WASHINGTON — The White House has sent guidance to departments and agencies, telling them that if a shutdown begins Wednesday, they’re expected to institute mass firings and layoffs.  The two-page memo, shared with States Newsroom by a Trump administration official, says any programs that received funding in the “big, beautiful” law will “continue uninterrupted.” But the […]

Half of American states do not have enough funds to pay their bills, according to a new analysis released Thursday.  The nonprofit Truth in Accounting, which advocates for more transparency in public finance, released its Financial State of the States report. It concluded that 25 states were unable to cover all their financial obligations at […]

Earlier this year, some conservative states began to embrace child tax credits that put cash directly into the hands of families raising children. Long favored by liberals, child tax credits can help ease the financial burdens of parenthood and have been shown to slash childhood poverty rates. But despite initial optimism from sponsors and child […]

TOPEKA — Kansas legislators are considering changes to the way the state taxes sports gambling after receiving less than a 1% cut on more than $2.7 billion in bets in the past fiscal year. As the expiration dates for contracts between the state and sports wager operators draw nearer, Kansas is confronting an increasingly complex […]

This story was originally published by ProPublica. After a fight with a Black student in a St. Louis suburb left a white student badly injured in March 2024, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey blamed their school district for unsafe conditions, even though the incident occurred after classes and more than a half-mile from campus. Bailey […]