MoInd 📰

An increasing number of conservative states are mandating that state and local social service providers verify and report the immigration status of the people they serve — in some cases threatening stiff penalties for public employees who fail to comply. Under federal law, immigrants who are in the United States illegally are generally barred from […]

Missouri Education Commissioner Karla Eslinger will step down at the end of the month — two years after taking her position at the top of the state’s education department. She announced her retirement Tuesday afternoon in a closed session of the State Board of Education and in a note to department staff, saying she “decided […]

WASHINGTON — Several Republican U.S. senators left a closed-door lunch with Secret Service Director Sean Curran on Tuesday saying they still have questions about how the agency would spend an additional $1 billion.  “I’ve asked for a lot more data,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine. “If there are needs for new training […]

WASHINGTON — The cost of the Iran war has increased to $29 billion to date, Pentagon officials told lawmakers in both chambers Tuesday. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine and Department of Defense acting comptroller Jules Hurst faced questions from House and Senate appropriators over several hours […]

Control of the U.S. House may run through a courtroom in Missouri. In a red brick courthouse across the street from the state Capitol, the seven black-robed judges of the Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday morning weighed the fate of a Republican gerrymander aimed at ousting U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a 11-term Democrat from Kansas […]

A congressional map drawn last year in a special session is constitutional and will be used in the August primary because it is uncertain whether a referendum petition seeking to repeal it will succeed, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The court was unanimous in the two decisions delivered just a few hours after oral […]

As appeals courts split on the constitutionality of mandatory detention for millions of immigrants, the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to decide the matter. A Trump administration policy threatening imprisonment without bond has been struck down by three appeals courts, which could soon be joined by a fourth, but upheld by two others. The conflicting […]

On paper it makes little sense. Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, roughly 7,000 miles from the United States, is restricted and gasoline prices in this country soar?  The strait is the major export route for oil produced by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, Bahrain and Iran, according to the International Energy […]

The Missouri Supreme Court will hear arguments in two cases Tuesday that will decide whether the state’s gerrymandered congressional map approved in 2025 meets constitutional standards and if a referendum petition puts the map on ice until after an election. If the court decides the first question by ruling the map is unconstitutional, the answer […]

In Missouri and states across the country, testing and accountability stand at a crossroads. While states still administer annual assessments and hold schools accountable for their students’ performance, there are growing calls to reduce testing and deemphasize accountability. Last summer, Missouri received approval from the federal government to pilot a new way to test students […]

Sam Lee has spent years helping draft and promote a Missouri version of the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.” But on Monday, the longtime anti-abortion advocate and lobbyist with Campaign Life Missouri sat before the House Children and Families Committee and declined to support the bill in its current form. The problem, Lee said, was […]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday extended a highly anticipated stay blocking an appellate court’s pause on telehealth abortion access until May 14. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approved medication-abortion regimen remains available via telehealth until then, following a week of uncertainty among abortion patients and providers. “With this critical temporary administrative stay extended, […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday nominated Cameron Hamilton to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a former acting chief who was fired in 2025 shortly after he told a congressional panel FEMA should continue to exist. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will likely schedule a hearing in the coming weeks […]

WASHINGTON — The man who allegedly attacked the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last month pleaded not guilty Monday in federal court to four criminal charges, including attempting to assassinate the president of the United States. Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of California, appeared before U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden in Washington, D.C., to be arraigned on […]

Editor’s note: This is the second article in The 50 vs. The One, an occasional series examining the current fraught moment and what evolving — and often deteriorating — state-federal ties mean for the country. Read the first article here. President Donald Trump is wielding power in unprecedented ways to bring states to heel, marking […]

As President Donald Trump tries to assert power over U.S. elections, he has raged on social media, cajoled Republican lawmakers and unleashed the Department of Justice on his political enemies. What has he accomplished with all that effort? Not a lot. Six months before the November midterm elections, the Trump administration’s quest to exercise authority […]

After years of budget chaos, Republican infighting and historically low productivity, Missouri lawmakers are entering the final week of session with something that has often been missing from the Capitol: a sense of normalcy. State Sen. Stephen Webber, a Columbia Democrat who served in the Missouri House from 2009 to 2017, said this year’s session […]

Energy demand has been growing and is expected to shoot even higher in the coming years, but the debate over how to pay for new nuclear power plants is likely stalled in the Missouri legislature for now. As electricity demand has increased, so have utility bills — which has caught the attention of customers and […]

Bolstered by a justice system that has unabashedly taken off its blindfold, national and state Republican leaders are moving full-speed ahead to disenfranchise Black Americans, and their meaningful participation in the political process. Denying and diluting the power of the Black vote in Missouri and in many states has taken on new life. The recent […]

The University of Missouri Health Care’s Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment unveiled a 74,000 square-foot building Friday its leaders say will pave the way for better autism care in Missouri. In a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Columbia, the center’s top advisors and staff joined state officials to showcase the facility and the launch of the […]