MoInd 📰

State Rep. Cathy Joy Loy, a Republican from Carthage, said her bill seeking to automatically retain Missouri third-grade students who are struggling to read is a “tourniquet” to “stop the bleed of children who are not reading.” But speaking to the Senate Education Committee Tuesday morning, school administrators said literacy rates are showing improvement three […]

A sweeping reorganization of the U.S. Forest Service signals that the agency is planning to lean heavily on states to help manage millions of acres of federal land, foresters across the West say. State officials and timber industry leaders say they’ve been given scant details about the plan, which will move the agency’s headquarters from […]

A Missouri Senate committee debated two bills Monday, one that would create a statewide alert system and another focused on children’s safety in school zones. The Senate Committee on Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety voted unanimously to pass legislation that would establish an alert system, similar to Amber or Silver alerts, for missing persons with […]

Missouri lawmakers are right to treat the collapse of rural health care as an urgent crisis. Nearly half of the state’s remaining rural hospitals are at risk of closure, and many communities already know what it means to lose emergency rooms, labor and delivery services and timely stroke care. In this environment, legislation allowing MU […]

The first-year cost of a House-passed proposal to eliminate the Missouri income tax ballooned to $4.2 billion under revisions made in the state Senate that were called “drafting errors” Monday during a committee debate. Despite the potential costs, and misgivings of some Republican members of the Senate Fiscal Oversight Committee, the bill passed Monday afternoon […]

The Missouri Senate peeled back its plans to establish broad state oversight of the Missouri State High School Activities Association, passing a less expansive bill Monday that would create a secondary appellate body for the association’s athletes. State Sen. Jason Bean, a Holcomb Republican and the bill’s sponsor, said the legislation he pitched last week […]

Bradley Breier had just settled in Cedarwood Terrace, an affordable housing complex in Springfield, when the notice arrived that all of the tenants were being evicted from their apartments. The owners planned to exit a federal low-income housing program at Cedarwood Terrace, and to convert another property they controlled, Rosewood Estates, into luxury senior living. […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump lashed out at Pope Leo XIV Sunday night following the pontiff’s sharp criticism of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran and wider Middle East conflict. In a lengthy post, littered with falsehoods, on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump accused the first U.S.-born pope of being “WEAK on crime” and of […]

Some anti-abortion state lawmakers are pushing to revise the definition of “abortion” so abortion bans don’t apply to cases in which the death of an “unborn child” is the result of medical care provided to the pregnant woman. In the four years since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to ban abortion, stories continue to emerge of […]

Alabama, Maine and Virginia recently adopted policies that make it easier for physician assistants to practice and serve more patients. Alabama became the 24th state to adopt the PA Licensure Compact, an agreement between states that authorizes these clinicians to practice across state lines. The compact can help remove administrative barriers for physician assistants, making […]

WASHINGTON — California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales both announced Monday evening that they would resign from Congress amid sexual misconduct allegations.   Swalwell’s announcement came just one day after he suspended his campaign for governor over allegations of sexual assault.  “I am aware of efforts to bring an immediate expulsion […]

Missouri hospitals and clinics that perform forensic exams following sexual assault are not required by law to offer emergency contraception to survivors, a coverage inconsistency a bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to correct with legislation aimed at standardizing care after rape. The proposal, called the Compassionate Assistance for Rape Emergencies Act, would require facilities […]

UM System President Mun Choi said he was responsible for the university’s funding cuts to several multicultural student organizations, citing concerns over Department of Justice investigations into other universities in a Wednesday faculty meeting. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but I decided that I needed to protect the institution, so that’s the decision that I […]

A political party is defined by the governing philosophy, values, policies and actions of its leaders and members. How would you define the Missouri Republican Party? The national Republican Party? One could argue that the behavior we are witnessing on the national stage is an extreme manifestation — not who the Republican Party really is. Or one could conclude that how President Trump operates, and how […]

I am a finance professor at Lincoln University, currently in litigation over a specific allegation: that failing grades I entered for plagiarism were later altered through the learning management system without my consent. I have an obvious stake in how that dispute resolves — but it pointed me toward a policy problem that exists entirely […]

As states enact stricter work requirements for the federal food stamp program, a new analysis suggests those requirements won’t enhance employment and will push more people off of food assistance.  The researchers conducted a review of studies on work requirements and concluded that “the best evidence shows they do not increase employment. Moreover, this research […]

WASHINGTON — Spikes in energy prices caused by the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran drove up inflation for Americans in March, according to the latest consumer price index figures released Friday. Costs jumped 0.9% in March compared to the previous month — that’s up from the 0.3% increase in February.  Prices for all items together, including food, […]

Torch Electronics shut down its slot machine-like games across Missouri this week under pressure from a federal investigation, Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said Thursday, marking a sharp reversal for a company that spent years insisting the games were legal. In an interview with The Independent, Hanaway also said her office will consider dropping charges already […]

Eliseo Affholter noticed a car following him, moving slowly as he walked through the streets of Milan. Walking was his wind-down routine after work at a Kraft Heinz plant, where on Feb. 24, he had just finished a 12-hour overnight shift. As he walked along East Grand Avenue, he saw flashing lights and vehicles lined […]

More states are piling up gold bars, or encouraging residents to use gold-backed debit cards, to hedge against inflation. Several states, including Western ones with rich mining histories, have been stockpiling gold as part of their broader state savings. And more states are looking to follow the lead of Texas and Florida by passing so-called […]