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State health officials faced tough questions Wednesday from the board overseeing Missouri’s Medicaid program — with a focus on the persistently long wait times for applicants and heightened federal scrutiny of the program.

The post Missouri officials vow progress as Medicaid applicant wait time remains at 100 days appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed legislation into law Wednesday that will provide health care and benefits to veterans exposed to burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq, achieving a long-term, personal goal. “I was in and out of Iraq over 20 times,” Biden said of prior trips to the war zone he took as both […]

The post Biden signs landmark bill aiding veterans exposed to burn pits overseas appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Tension among Republicans that has mired the Missouri Senate in gridlock over the last two years bubbled up again this week, as a GOP state senator and an adviser to the conservative caucus took aim at each other in dueling radio interviews.  Sen. Mike Cierpiot, R-Lee’s Summit, took the first shot, laying into the Senate […]

The post Republican divide in Missouri Senate boils over in Kansas City radio interviews appeared first on Missouri Independent.

One of the major aspects of Missouri’s recent primary was the number of races for which there actually was no contest. In more than half of the 180 state legislative districts on the ballot, one of the two major parties did not have a candidate. That meant that in those 100-single-party district primaries, the primary […]

The post Capitol Perspectives: Missouri’s one-party primaries appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Republicans in Congress fumed Tuesday in reaction to former President Donald Trump’s Monday evening statement that the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, his home in Palm Beach, Florida. Democrats had little to say Tuesday about the apparent search, though some defended the execution of justice regardless of a person’s political power. The massive publicity […]

The post Republicans in Congress line up behind Trump after he says FBI searched Mar-a-Lago appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Three St. Louis police organizations have filed a lawsuit against the city to block a law expanding civilian oversight of the police.  The law, which was approved by the St. Louis Board of Alderman last month and signed last week by Mayor Tishaura Jones, would create the Division of Civilian Oversight. Over the next year, the […]

The post St. Louis police associations sue city to block the new civilian oversight law appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri voters will decide this November whether to legalize recreational marijuana, four years after they first approved the drug for medicinal use. Secretary of State John Ashcroft announced Tuesday an initiative petition to put the question before voters received 203,551 valid signatures across six Congressional districts — barely overcoming the minimum threshold in two Congressional […]

The post Missouri voters will decide whether to legalize marijuana this November election appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Federal officials last month approved a plan to help Missouri deal with “ongoing and persistent” delays in processing Medicaid applications that have left the state out of compliance with federal standards for nearly a year. Longtime observers of the state’s Medicaid program say the decision by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to intervene is […]

The post Federal government steps in to help pull Missouri out of Medicaid backlog appeared first on Missouri Independent.

States have recently focused their efforts to reduce the nation’s teacher shortage by promoting strategies that “remove or relax barriers to entry” to quickly bring new people into the teaching profession. California, for example, allows teacher candidates to skip basic skills and subject matter tests if they have taken approved college courses. New Mexico is […]

The post Recent efforts to combat teacher shortages don’t address the real problems appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Investigate Midwest. A century ago, Congress wrote a law intended to counteract unfair business practices in the meatpacking industry. Fast forward to 2022: Just four companies control more than half of the beef, pork and poultry markets, and the meatpacking industry has fielded lawsuits alleging abusive behavior. The Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 largely […]

The post Congress could beef up meatpacking oversight this fall. But obstacles to enforcement remain appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by the Kansas City Beacon.  Community colleges traditionally have been commuter campuses. Fewer than one-third of the nation’s two-year schools have on-campus housing. But on Aug. 12, 258 students at Kansas City Kansas Community College in Wyandotte County will move into a sparkling new residence hall. Named Centennial Hall, the building has been designed […]

The post How a Kansas City area community college is helping students handle the housing crisis appeared first on Missouri Independent.

On the night of April 24, 2013, six residents living in a neighborhood just north of downtown St. Louis say they saw the same thing.  A young Black man – 25-year-old Cary Ball Jr. — crashed his car, got out, stumbled onto another car and limped away. And then each said they saw Ball drop […]

The post Grieving St. Louis families respond to police-involved shooting scenes, push for change appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In parts of the Midwest where lead mining and smelting lasted for over a century, communities are still dealing with toxic waste left behind by the industry. Lead, a dangerous neurotoxin, persists in the environment, including in water and soil, where it can pose a threat to the health of people living nearby. The risk […]

The post Kansas, Nebraska researchers use plants to limit exposure to toxic lead in soil appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Few things are more important in determining how well our government functions than each of us taking time to become informed, and to vote wisely in selecting those who will represent us. The primary elections in Missouri, and in most states, are over. The midterm elections are just around the corner on Nov. 8. Wherever […]

The post Our government only can function better if we vote wisely appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate, along party lines, passed a sweeping energy, health care, climate and tax package Sunday afternoon, following an overnight marathon of votes that resulted in just a handful of notable changes to the legislation. The 755-page bill was passed after Vice President Kamala Harris broke a 50-50 tie in the evenly divided Senate. […]

The post U.S. Senate passes major health, tax and climate bill in boost for Democrats appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The U.S. Senate voted along party lines Saturday night to advance to debate on Democrats’ sweeping energy, health and taxes bill, clearing a major hurdle to passage. The 51-50 vote, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie, cleared the chamber to debate and vote on amendments to the measure and indicated that it had enough support from […]

The post U.S. Senate Democrats’ climate, health and energy bill clears first hurdle to passage appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — A major spending bill from U.S. Senate Democrats would allow Medicare for the first time in its history to begin negotiating the prices of certain high-priced prescription drugs — a proposal that’s been around for years but has never come so close to the finish line. Under the legislation, Medicare would start negotiating the […]

The post How Medicare prescription drug coverage would change under U.S. Senate Democrats’ bill appeared first on Missouri Independent.

U.S. Senate Democrats’ wide-ranging tax, climate and health bill appears set to pass after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona struck a deal to soften the measure’s corporate tax increase and a second tax hike aimed at wealthy finance-sector workers, Schumer told reporters Friday. The revenue lost to obtain Sinema’s support […]

The post U.S. Senate preps big tax, climate and health bill after deal struck with Sinema appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri’s top Democratic lawmakers have yet to receive a formal response to letters urging governors in Kansas and Illinois to help pay for abortions for out-of-state Medicaid patients, though a Kansas lawmaker said it is highly unlikely given Republican dominance of the state’s legislature. In letters sent Wednesday and first reported by the Associated Press, […]

The post Missouri Dems hope Kansas, Illinois will help pay for out-of-state residents’ abortions appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Poisonous sand blowing in the wind.  Wells running dry.  A dark night sky ruined by constant lights.  These are the things residents in Ste. Genevieve County are worried about as they work to prevent a silica sand mine from moving into their community.  NexGen Mining Inc. plans to mine silica sand, commonly used for fracking, […]

The post Missouri law didn’t require environmental review before issuing silica mining permit appeared first on Missouri Independent.