MoInd 📰

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 […]

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced in New York on 34 felony convictions on Jan. 10, just days ahead of his presidential inauguration, according to an order issued Friday by New York Justice Juan Merchan. Merchan wrote he won’t seek incarceration for Trump but rather an “unconditional discharge” that would leave Trump […]

WASHINGTON — Republicans took control of the U.S. Senate Friday under the new leadership of South Dakota’s John Thune, who promised to keep intact the body’s legislative filibuster — the 60-vote threshold for major legislation that some Democrats had targeted for elimination. Thune follows in the footsteps of the longest-serving Senate GOP leader, Mitch McConnell […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – With a record 62 elected Black officials, including historic firsts of two women senators and two representatives from Alabama, the Congressional Black Caucus held a swearing-in ceremony Friday morning before members took the oath of office for the 119th U.S. Congress. Democrats Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans on Friday elected Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson as their speaker for the 119th Congress, following weeks of speculation about whether the GOP would begin another protracted, public dispute over leadership. The drama-filled vote ensured that Johnson, who was first elected speaker in October 2023, will hold the gavel as Republicans […]

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday said the work his administration did in nominating judges confirmed to the federal bench will help protect the nation’s democratic institutions in the years ahead. “These judges will be independent, they’ll be fair, and they’ll be impartial,” Biden said. “I never thought I’d be saying this, they’ll uphold […]

President Joe Biden announced early Friday he will block the sale of U.S. Steel to the Japanese company Nippon Steel, in one of the last acts of his presidency. Biden had said that U.S. Steel should remain a domestically owned and operated company, so the order was not a surprise. The White House in December called for “serious scrutiny” of […]

WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin on Thursday urged Americans to demand President-elect Donald Trump justify each Jan. 6 defendant pardon if he issues them on his “first day” in office, as promised. The Maryland congressman, who sat on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, said it would be […]

The rain drizzled down Xavier Messiah, as he and his younger brother waited outside Union Station in St. Louis. Donning their black “Deer Owl Family Farms” hoodies — their family’s cannabis brand — they stood ready with stacks of business cards outside the MJ Unpacked cannabis conference on Nov. 4. “Happy Tuesday!” Xavier exclaimed, as […]

On Dec. 24, Amazon Prime released “Chiefsaholic: A Wolf in Chiefs Clothing,” charting the fame of Xavier Babudar, who rose to celebrity as a Kansas City Chiefs fan costumed each game as a wolf, before being arrested for bank robbery. The story became only more bonkers after his arrest: allegations of serial bank robberies on the way […]

The mass deportations of immigrants that President-elect Donald Trump has promised aren’t likely to make a dent in the nation’s housing crisis, many experts say, despite what he and his supporters claimed during his campaign. Experts say the reasons for that are many. Immigrants in the U.S. without documentation are more likely to live in […]