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MoInd šŸ“°

US Senate panel grills Trump CDC nominee on vaccines

1 week 3 days ago
WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions pressed President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about vaccine recommendations Wednesday after the Health and Human Services secretary fired members of a critical vaccine panel this month. Trump’s pick, former acting CDC Director Susan […]
Ariana Figueroa

US default could hit during Congress’ summer recess, think tank predicts

1 week 3 days ago
The United States could default between Aug. 15 and Oct. 3 if Congress doesn’t act to raise or suspend the debt limit before then, according to a projection the Bipartisan Policy Center published Wednesday. The new estimate from the centrist Washington, D.C., think tank would give Congress slightly more time to address the issue than […]
Jacob Fischler

Dems, GOP members of US House panel split on solution to high cost of child care

1 week 3 days ago
WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats on a U.S. House Education and Workforce subcommittee agreed at a Tuesday hearing that child care affordability was a problem, but proposed different solutions. While Republicans touted a longstanding block grant and called for choice and flexibility in the child care system, Democrats pushed for more federal investments, including legislative […]
Shauneen Miranda

Missouri lawmakers could return to session this fall to debate property taxes

1 week 3 days ago
Questions about the constitutionality of a property tax cap included in the governor’s stadium funding plan earlier this month may draw Missouri lawmakers back into session later this year. House Speaker Jon Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, on Monday formed the Special Interim Committee on Property Tax Reform and empowered it to study Missouri’s property […]
Jason Hancock

Narcan is not the finish line. It’s the starting point

1 week 3 days ago
I have pushed Narcan during respiratory failure in a rural ICU. I have watched patients come back from the edge only to wake up to nothing: a referral sheet, no phone, no ride, and no plan. The ER doors close, but the crisis continues. Narcan, or naloxone, is often called an overdose antidote. That is […]
Abby Ehrhardt

More miscarriages criminally investigated three years into post-Dobbs abortion bans

1 week 4 days ago
Editor’s note: This report examines abortion access three years after the U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down the federal right to abortion. The day before Brittany Watts miscarried at home in Warren, Ohio, medical staff at Mercy Health-St. Joseph Warren Hospital told Watts that her nearly 21-week-old fetus had no chance of survival. And without […]
Sofia Resnick

GOP leaders in US Senate struggle to lessen pain of Medicaid cuts for rural hospitals

1 week 4 days ago
This report has been updated. WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans were scrambling Tuesday to restructure several proposals in the ā€œbig, beautiful billā€ that don’t meet their chamber’s strict rules for passing a reconciliation package, while GOP lawmakers on the other side of the Capitol warned those changes may doom its passage in the House. Senate […]
Jennifer Shutt, Ariana Figueroa, Ashley Murray, Jacob Fischler

Former Maryland, Montana governors say bipartisan unity key to rebuffing questionable federal policy

1 week 4 days ago
In a country flooded by a never-ending wave of talking heads, pundits and fiery social media posts, two bipartisan former governors said the solution to America’s political gridlock may be more talking. But former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, and former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, said that it’s not about talking on […]
Darrell Ehrlick

ā€˜Gas on a fire’: Missouri sports betting could increase bankruptcies and suicides, experts warn

1 week 4 days ago
Missourians will be able to bet on sports this year, though not by the start of football season. That’s in part because of a decision by Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins to reject the Missouri Gaming Commission’s emergency rules, which would have fast-tracked the rulemaking process. Jan Zimmerman, chair of the Missouri Gaming Commission, […]
Ceilidh Kern

ā€˜None of us are tired’: Democratic AGs pledge extended court fight against Trump

1 week 4 days ago
WASHINGTON — Democratic state attorneys general vowed Monday on Capitol Hill to continue legal challenges against President Donald Trump’s ā€œoutrageous overreachā€ through executive orders to strip birthright citizenship, impose staggering global tariffs, thwart lifesaving medical research and more. Attorneys General Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Matthew J. Platkin of New Jersey, Andrea Campbell of Massachusetts and […]
Ashley Murray

Missouri must return control over CAFOs back to local government

1 week 4 days ago
Humorist Will Rogers once said, “We will never have true civilization until we learn to recognize the rights of others.” When recognizing the rights of people as citizens, we have a lot of examples. At the inception of our distinguished nation, the preamble of the U.S. Constitution was established: ā€œWe the People of the United […]
Darvin Bentlage

Missouri school funding task force turns its attention to property tax inequities

1 week 4 days ago
A group tasked by the governor with reworking Missouri’s formula for funding public schools narrowed in on property tax revenue Monday, discussing how the 20-year-old formula creates inequities with an outdated assumption of local aid. In the second meeting of the Missouri School Funding Modernization Task Force, education officials led a conversation on property taxes. […]
Annelise Hanshaw

US Senate mega-bill drops requirement states help pay for SNAP program

1 week 5 days ago
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats have succeeded in eliminating more than a dozen policy changes from Republicans’ ā€œbig, beautiful billā€ after successfully arguing before the chamber’s parliamentarian that the elements didn’t comply with the strict rules that go along with writing a budget reconciliation bill. Removed is language that would have transferred some of the cost […]
Jennifer Shutt

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem briefs governors after US strikes on Iran

1 week 5 days ago
WASHINGTON — U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over the weekend briefed state governors regarding public safety measures following President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb nuclear sites in Iran. On Monday, Iran launched retaliatory strikes toward a U.S. military base in Qatar, according to Iran’s state mediaĀ and The Associated Press. ā€œSecretary Noem has […]
Ariana Figueroa

Bill banning race-based hair discrimination in education awaits Missouri governor’s decision

1 week 5 days ago
Missouri could soon join 27 states with laws protecting natural hair textures, though the anti-discrimination provisions only apply to educational settings. The legislation, dubbed the CROWN Act, has been proposed in Missouri since 2020 and is part of a national movement to enshrine protections for curls and coils. The cities of St. Louis and Kansas […]
Annelise Hanshaw

New Missouri child welfare leader looks for a clean break from the past

1 week 5 days ago
In the nearly two decades Sara Smith spent working at Missouri’s Department of Social Services, she remembers nine different people running the agency in charge of investigating child abuse and neglect.Ā  In March, Smith took the helm herself.Ā  She hopes to provide more stability in leading the agency which has seen growing scrutiny over the […]
Clara Bates