MoInd 📰

A St. Louis man sentenced to 25 years in prison based solely on the testimony of one police officer is asking a federal court to vacate his conviction.

WASHINGTON — Tennessee Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen and two former police officers who protected the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, on Wednesday condemned President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to pardon those charged in connection with the insurrection. Cohen, former U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell and former D.C. police officer Michael Fanone said on a […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats raised concerns Wednesday that Republicans have scheduled a hearing for one of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees before he completed the necessary paperwork and an FBI background check. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Energy and Natural Resources Committee ranking member Martin Heinrich separately criticized the decision, saying it sets a […]

The Missouri legislature made history Wednesday as Republicans elected the first Asian-American speaker of the House and the first woman to be president pro tem of the state Senate. In the House, state Rep. Jon Patterson of Lee’s Summit won an overwhelming victory over a challenger from within the Republican conference, state Rep. Justin Sparks, […]

WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court late Tuesday to pause his sentencing in a New York hush money case, arguing it cannot go forward in light of the high court’s presidential immunity ruling last summer. Trump, who is days away from his second inauguration, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in Manhattan […]

A few months ago, children in the Child Development Lab on the University of Missouri’s Columbia campus were taking orders, measuring ingredients, cooking and reading menus with a server. A cow was scheduled to visit the lab at the end of the year for a lesson about farming. Learning involves real-life scenarios under the “project […]

Republican factional fights are nothing new in the Missouri General Assembly.  But what is new this year is the venue — the House of Representatives, where a sophomore lawmaker accusing his colleagues of corrupt politics seeks to upset the usually routine election of a speaker. State Rep. Justin Sparks of Wildwood admits history is against […]

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said during a wide-ranging press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday he wanted to see the country’s debt limit addressed while cutting spending and would not rule out military force to expand U.S. territory.  Trump, who will take office Jan. 20 after lawmakers breezily certified the election results Monday, continued to place […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday his “intention” is to address the country’s debt limit through the reconciliation process, pushing aside the possibility of negotiating a bipartisan compromise with Democrats. The GOP is planning to rely on the complicated budget reconciliation process to pass sweeping changes to immigration and border security as […]

Less than a month after a state constitutional amendment legalizing abortion went into effect, a national movement to establish pockets of resistance is dividing one Missouri town. Rolla, a town of about 20,000 people that sits 100 miles southwest of St. Louis, is being courted by Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn, an anti-abortion activist group […]

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s system for rating schools came under fire Tuesday morning as the State Board of Education looked at the accreditation status of districts. Questions about the department’s system arose as Kerry Casey, a board member from Chesterfield, pushed for St. Louis Public Schools to be demoted from fully […]

As a new legislator in 2023, state Rep. Justin Sparks became the leading advocate for a proposal to create a child care facility serving employees of the St. Louis County Police Department. A few months after lawmakers approved spending $6 million from federal COVID relief funds to create the center, Sparks took a job with […]

An education advocate filed a federal lawsuit Monday against St. Louis Public School Board alleging it illegally banned him from meetings and district property. Chester Asher, founder of Coalition for STL Kids, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Missouri with the help of the First Amendment Clinic at Washington University in […]

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers certified President-elect Donald Trump’s win Monday in a smooth process that four years ago was disrupted by a violent mob of Trump supporters bent on stopping Congress from formally declaring President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. Vice President Kamala Harris — the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee defeated by Trump — presided over the […]

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has expanded Social Security benefits for more than 2 million Americans by signing broadly bipartisan legislation that Congress approved late last year. The ceremony on Sunday marked one of the last times Biden is expected to sign major legislation as president, since Congress is now controlled by Republicans and his […]

State Rep. Dane Diehl says he wants rhinos to be in zoos, not the legislature. The second-term Republican from Butler prefiled a bill designating the rhinoceros as the official state zoo animal. Zoos in Kansas City and St. Louis feature endangered Eastern black rhinos among their exhibits. But he said he also knows the bill […]

Utility companies could base customers’ rates on projected expenses rather than actual costs under legislation critics worry would increase Missourians’ bills.  Several bills prefiled ahead of the Missouri General Assembly’s legislative session, which starts Wednesday, would apply the new ratemaking standard to gas, water and sewer — but not electric — utilities. Lawmakers considered similar bills last […]

BOONVILLE — In 2022, Heather Overstreet moved her growing dog grooming, training and boarding business into a converted garage. It was a milestone for a business she started at age 16 by training dogs for friends of her mother. She innovated on the furnishings, refurbishing a bathtub left behind by the previous owner to use […]

Quality Schools Coalition, a Missouri education advocacy organization that backs charter school expansion, ceased operations at the end of 2024. The nonprofit’s executive director, Dean Johnson, told The Independent that the closure was spurred after a top donor did not renew Quality Schools Coalition’s funding for 2025. “It was enough of an impact on us […]

Mike Parson wants to be remembered as the clemency governor. And he will be, but not with the admiration that he seems to expect. It is true, as Parson would have us know, that he has done more than any Missouri governor in decades to address a backlog of clemency petitions. He inherited more than […]