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Do no harm: Why Missouri must set guardrails for AI mental health tools

1 week 6 days ago
Imagine your physician offering you a new therapy for a serious medical condition—but with several warnings. You are told the treatment has never gone through carefully designed, peer-reviewed clinical trials. There is no professional licensure overseeing its use. And if something goes wrong, there is no clear system of accountability. Is that the care you […]
Chuck Hollister

Missouri governor withdraws ethics nominees amid fight over gerrymandered map

1 week 6 days ago
Gov. Mike Kehoe withdrew two nominees to the Missouri Ethics Commission Tuesday after Democrats pointed out the appointments were based on a congressional map that Republicans contend is no longer valid.  Senate Democrats have refused to allow any gubernatorial appointments to come up for a vote for the past two weeks, arguing that their stall […]
Jason Hancock

Homeland Security boss Noem in hot water after response to Minneapolis killings

1 week 6 days ago
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is facing mounting criticism, including from some congressional Republicans and moderate Democrats, for her response to a second killing by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. President Donald Trump reiterated his confidence in Noem Tuesday, but several Republican senators, a group that overwhelmingly voted last year for Noem to […]
Ariana Figueroa

These are the states where incomes grew the most, least in recent decades

2 weeks ago
Household incomes have grown in nearly every state over the past 50 years, but a new study concludes that growth has been uneven across the country. An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, released Tuesday from the Urban Institute’s Center for Local Finance and Growth, found inflation-adjusted incomes in Western, mid-Atlantic and New England states […]
Kevin Hardy

Democratic AGs stress importance of citizen-generated evidence in challenging ICE

2 weeks ago
PORTLAND, Ore. — Keith Ellison held up his cellphone. The Minnesota attorney general was onstage in an Oregon theater in front of hundreds of people, accompanied by four of his Democratic peers from other states, to mark a year of coordinated legal strategy to resist the Trump administration’s expansive use of executive power. “Can I […]
Erika Bolstad

House committee kills plan to reinstate Missouri presidential primary

2 weeks ago
The push to reinstate Missouri’s presidential primary suffered a defeat Tuesday when the House Elections Committee voted to remove it from a wide-ranging elections bill. On a voice vote, the committee removed the provision from the bill. The measure also extends the period for “no-excuse absentee” voting from two to four weeks. The committee then […]
Rudi Keller

Beyond the spectacle, Kansas City prepares for World Cup reality

2 weeks ago
Missouri will be one of just a handful of states hosting FIFA World Cup matches in the summer of 2026, with Kansas City serving as the region’s primary stage. It’s a rare opportunity to welcome the world. But if history is any guide, hosting mega-events brings real challenges alongside the spectacle — not all of […]
Patrick Tuohey

Missouri prisoners report being forced to shovel snow in subzero temperatures

2 weeks ago
With temperatures hovering near zero and windchills approaching minus 20 degrees, Spain Bady was ordered to leave his cell at Algoa Correctional Center on Saturday morning and clear snow from prison walkways. He refused, telling the corrections officer directing him to go outside that he has been enrolled in education programs and is exempt from […]
Rudi Keller

Cost of future Missouri school funding formula unclear as task force continues work

2 weeks ago
Missouri’s method for determining state aid for public schools is poised for substantial change, as a task force drafting the new funding formula began on Monday to synthesize four months of meetings into recommendations. The group, dubbed the Missouri School Modernization Task Force, met Monday morning for the first time since breaking into smaller cohorts […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Missouri’s abortion rights trial concludes, but a decision is still months away

2 weeks ago
KANSAS CITY — After 10 days of often emotion-filled testimony, a trial dissecting Missouri’s abortion regulations under the new constitutional right to reproductive health care concluded Monday.  In closing arguments, attorneys from both the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and Planned Parenthood brought the focus back to the crux of the case: are Missouri’s abortion regulations necessary […]
Kevin Hardy, Anna Spoerre

Congress hurtles toward partial shutdown after Alex Pretti killing in Minneapolis

2 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday urged Senate Democrats to advance the government funding package that must become law before the weekend to avoid a partial shutdown, rejecting their proposal to remove the Homeland Security funding bill. Democrats in the upper chamber say they are ready to help pass five of […]
Jennifer Shutt

As AI-generated fake content mars legal cases, states want guardrails

2 weeks 1 day ago
Last spring, Illinois county judge Jeffrey Goffinet noticed something startling: A legal brief filed in his courtroom cited a case that did not exist. Goffinet, an associate judge in Williamson County, looked through two legal research systems and then headed to the courthouse library — a place he hadn’t visited in years — to consult […]
Madyson Fitzgerald

US Senate Dems probe effect of Trump administration child care cutbacks on rural families

2 weeks 1 day ago
WASHINGTON — Several U.S. Senate Democrats launched an investigation into how the Trump administration’s child care funding cuts and policy changes are affecting rural families, in a Sunday letter provided exclusively to States Newsroom. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Raphael Warnock of Georgia led four of their colleagues in urging the respective heads of Rural […]
Shauneen Miranda

Homan heads to Minneapolis as White House, under siege, softens tone

2 weeks 1 day ago
WASHINGTON — U.S. border czar Tom Homan is expected in Minneapolis by Monday evening, President Donald Trump said, amid increasing criticism of the administration’s immigration enforcement methods following the second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by immigration officers in Minneapolis already this year. The move was part of an apparent toning down of the […]
Ariana Figueroa

Judge weighing whether to allow April votes on new Missouri property tax caps

2 weeks 1 day ago
While the Kansas City Chiefs are leaving Missouri and won’t use the incentives lawmakers created for them last summer, the question of whether other tax credits and property tax caps included in the legislation will be used by anyone remains undecided. Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh after a hearing on Wednesday promised he would […]
Rudi Keller

Gridlock and mutually assured destruction: The Missouri Legislature’s first three weeks

2 weeks 1 day ago
Let’s talk about how the first three weeks of Missouri’s legislative session are going. In short: Gridlock in the Senate. Scandal in the House. Senate Democrats entered the year divided after a contentious leadership fight. But the 10-member caucus appears to have coalesced around a simple two-pronged strategy: absolute opposition to increasing the sales tax […]
Jason Hancock

Missouri child welfare agency isn’t seeking to add staff despite chronic turnover

2 weeks 1 day ago
Missouri’s child welfare agency has for years struggled with high turnover rates among staff who work most closely with children and families. Children’s Division, the section of the state’s social services department responsible for foster care and investigating child abuse and neglect, has also had seven directors since 2018 — and during that time faced […]
Steph Quinn

Physical education requirements in Missouri schools could increase under proposed bill

2 weeks 1 day ago
A Missouri House bill aims to increase the physical education requirements for K-12 students. Introduced by Rep. Bishop Davidson, a Republican from Republic, the legislation would require all students to participate in a minimum of 60 minutes of physical activity each school day. PE classes, additional recesses and other supervised physical activities could fulfill the […]
Scout Hudson

State highlights women who regret abortions in emotional appeal for Missouri regulations

2 weeks 3 days ago
KANSAS CITY — A trial focused on the constitutionality of abortion access in Missouri included testimony from a range of witnesses, but only four who had undergone abortions. All four said they regretted ending their pregnancies. The state rested its case Friday after bringing to the stand a panel of witnesses who argued abortion is harmful […]
Kelcie Moseley-Morris

Mentoring is not a side project, it’s how we build Missouri’s leadership future

2 weeks 3 days ago
January is National Mentoring Month, a time often marked by good intentions and well-meaning reminders to “give back.” But mentoring is not a box to check or a seasonal act of generosity. In Missouri—at a time when leadership pipelines are strained, women continue to exit the workforce, and civic trust feels fragile—mentoring is essential infrastructure. […]
Katie Steele Danner