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MoInd 📰

Kalshi and Polymarket are skirting laws on sports betting, states say

1 week 6 days ago
Online prediction markets allow users to put money on the outcome of almost anything — this weekend’s NBA game between the Warriors and the Thunder, the next supreme leader of Iran, whether the government will confirm the existence of aliens. But those markets have no state oversight and operate even in states that ban gambling. […]
Kevin Hardy

After positive January, latest job report shows losses again

1 week 6 days ago
WASHINGTON — The United States lost 92,000 jobs in February, edging unemployment up slightly according to the latest employment figures released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report showed, for the third time in the last five months, losses among nonfarm jobs and highlighted a continued “trend down” in the information sector and federal […]
Ashley Murray

Missouri Senate approves mandatory minimums, juvenile justice legislation

1 week 6 days ago
The Missouri Senate passed a criminal and juvenile justice bill Thursday on a 20-9 vote after hours of negotiations. Introduced by state Sen. Nick Schroer, a Republican from Defiance, the legislation seeks to classify older juveniles who commit felonies as adults and share fingerprints of juveniles involved in felonies to a central database. The bill […]
Emily Skidmore, KJ Drazen

Federal funding for people in poverty heading to Missouri anti-abortion centers

1 week 6 days ago
The bulk of the money Missouri gives to its crisis pregnancy centers comes from federal funds meant to assist families experiencing poverty with basic necessities and child care, Republican Rep. Jason Smith said on the U.S. House floor in January. As many as $3 of every $4 for pregnancy centers in Missouri was from the […]
Kelcie Moseley-Morris

State-mandated paid leave programs now cover millions of American workers

1 week 6 days ago
Nearly one-third of the nation’s private sector workers are covered by paid leave programs as more states require employers to provide medical and family leave, according to a new analysis released this week. Currently, the District of Columbia and 13 states have passed laws requiring paid leave for many workers, according to a report from […]
Kevin Hardy

Rebuilding what was extracted: Black entrepreneurship, HBCUs and Missouri’s future

1 week 6 days ago
We often treat Black history as a February retrospective, but the work of rebuilding what was extracted from communities like Mill Creek Valley requires a calendar without an expiration date. Mill Creek Valley was a once-thriving Black community dismantled in the name of urban renewal. Its destruction wasn’t caused by a lack of talent, entrepreneurship, […]
Stacy Gee Hollins

US House also rejects restraint on Trump’s war power in Iran

1 week 6 days ago
WASHINGTON — House Republicans and a handful of Democrats followed the Senate in blocking a measure Thursday to stop President Donald Trump from furthering the war in Iran without authorization from Congress. The joint war with Israel that began six days ago has already claimed the lives of six U.S. troops and injured and killed […]
Ashley Murray

Kristi Noem out as DHS secretary; Trump to nominate Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin

2 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump Thursday said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will be leaving the post for a job as a special envoy, following an appearance before a U.S. Senate panel this week that provoked bipartisan criticism of her handling of the department that is tasked with fulfilling the administration’s mass deportation campaign.  Oklahoma […]
Ariana Figueroa

Missouri House sends $3.2B supplemental spending bill to governor’s desk

2 weeks ago
A supplemental spending bill pushing total state appropriations for the fiscal year to almost $55 billion was the first legislation sent to Gov. Mike Kehoe in this year’s session when the Missouri House voted 137-13 for final passage. The $3.1 billion spending package was pushed quickly through the General Assembly to speed distribution of $59.5 […]
Rudi Keller

Blue states push to ban ICE at the polls amid federal voter intimidation fears

2 weeks ago
Several Democratic states are moving to bar federal immigration agents from being near polling places and other election sites, amid persistent worries that President Donald Trump will use federal law enforcement or the military to disrupt the midterm elections. Measures to restrict federal agents from operating at or near election-related locations have been offered in […]
Jonathan Shorman

Missouri lawmakers weigh $294M price tag to carry out new federal Medicaid rules

2 weeks ago
Missouri lawmakers Wednesday once again discussed a request for $294.6 million — including $35 million in state general revenue — to help the state implement federally mandated changes to safety net programs. Starting Jan. 1, 2027, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress last summer will require states to verify that Medicaid enrollees […]
Steph Quinn

As federal immigration enforcement expands, local police struggle with cooperation

2 weeks ago
When Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore signed emergency legislation last month prohibiting agreements between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration authorities, he was pushing back against one of the fastest-growing pieces of President Donald Trump’s deportation strategy. The expansion of immigration enforcement hasn’t happened primarily through high-profile raids: It has unfolded through formal partnerships […]
Amanda Watford

HUD seeks to reduce time allowed for tenants to receive notice before evictions for nonpayment

2 weeks ago
Amid a slew of proposed changes scaling the federal government’s role in broadening assistance in federal rental programs, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to rescind a 2024 regulation requiring public housing agencies and certain federally subsidized landlords to give 30 days’ notice before filing for eviction based on unpaid rent.  Under […]
Robbie Sequeira

Judge revises ballot language for plan to make it harder to amend Missouri Constitution

2 weeks 1 day ago
A ballot measure pushed by Republicans to change how majorities are calculated in Missouri for constitutional amendments proposed by initiative must clearly alert voters that is its intent, a Cole County judge ruled Wednesday. The decision from Circuit Judge Daniel Green is the written version of his oral ruling from Feb. 19 that provisions critics […]
Rudi Keller

Republicans push forward with proposal to replace Missouri income tax with sales tax

2 weeks 1 day ago
The proposal to eliminate the state income tax is moving to the Missouri House floor following a party-line committee vote Wednesday. The 7-3 vote on Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe’s top priority followed a heated discussion where Democrats on the House Commerce Committee accused Republicans of steering the state into a fiscally dangerous future. “You don’t […]
Rudi Keller

Shopping around for power: Missouri bill aims to break up electric utilities

2 weeks 1 day ago
Don Mayhew believes in the free market. “We have choice in a lot of different things. Go to a grocery store — there’s four different brands of green beans you can buy,” said Mayhew, a Republican Crocker. “We know that competition in any marketplace is the foundation — the cornerstone — of our capitalist system.” […]
Jana Rose Schleis

Missouri Senate looks to fully ban controversial reading instruction system

2 weeks 1 day ago
A bill that would ban three-cueing and establish new reading assessments was discussed in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday. After legislation prohibiting three-cueing as a primary instructional method passed last year, legislators are now aiming for an outright ban. Three-cueing, also known as the Meaning Structure Visual system, teaches kids to read by using […]
Noah Symes