MoInd 📰

Members of both parties on the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee chastised a U.S. Department of Agriculture official Wednesday for not consulting Congress before proposing to shift thousands of jobs out of the Washington, D.C., area. USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Alexander Vaden defended the sweeping proposal, which Secretary Brooke Rollins announced with a five-page memo last week, saying […]

The top elected official in Missouri’s largest county was indicted Wednesday on four criminal charges for allegedly misusing public money to oppose passage of an April ballot measure. The indictment, secured by Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office acting as special prosecutor, accuses St. Louis County Executive Sam Page of spending public funds on a flyer […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats on Wednesday began charting a little-known legal path to force President Donald Trump’s administration to release the investigative files on the now deceased Florida sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein. In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, […]

Cattle farms and feedlots in Missouri today are populated by cows that are a far cry from those that roamed pastures 80 or 90 years ago. Cattle back then were referred to as “buckle cows” – named that way because they only went about as high as a rancher’s belt buckle. But in the 1950s, […]

PITTSBURG, Kan. — Amid a summer swelter last week, more than 80 people crowded into a trendy gastropub in downtown Pittsburg, Kansas, for cold drinks and hot talk. The subject? Democrats. After disappointing results in November, Kansas state House Democrats are touring the Republican-leaning state, trying to improve relationships and set the stage for a […]

States led by Democrats should resist the temptation to conduct their own mid-decade redistricting in response to Republicans in the Texas Legislature moving to redraw U.S. House lines before the 2026 elections, officials with the nonpartisan election integrity group Common Cause said on a press call Tuesday. While blasting Texas Republicans’ effort to remake congressional […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency submitted a proposal Tuesday to rescind a 2009 finding that has provided the foundation for the agency’s regulation of greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, drawing strong opposition from Democrats and climate groups. Administrator Lee Zeldin said the EPA would scrap what is known as its endangerment finding, established […]

WASHINGTON — The massive tax and spending cuts package signed into law by President Donald Trump earlier this month will affect not only Latinos using federal safety net programs but also those living in communities vulnerable to environmental pollution, Democrats and advocates said during a Tuesday virtual press conference. The president’s domestic policy agenda bill that congressional […]

An ethics complaint alleging a GOP state senator from Grain Valley was using his church as a political action committee has been formally dismissed.  The Missouri Ethics Commission determined the allegations against New Covenant Ministries and state Sen. Joe Nicola were unfounded, dismissing them at a meeting earlier this month.  Brad Ketcher, a Democrat attorney […]

Nonprofit organizations that provide refugee services in Missouri are pivoting to diversified financial strategies to reduce their dependency on government funding. These organizations are now focusing more on expanding community-based crowdfunding and scaling up revenue-generating programs to address anticipated financial gaps and ensure continued support for refugees. City of Refuge, a Columbia-based nonprofit that provides services […]

Who’s funding a state’s tax credit program for private school tuition is no longer available through Missouri’s transparency portal, following a decision by the State Treasurer’s Office to permanently remove the information. Donors and their contribution amounts were available July 2, 2024, when The Independent accessed the information and published a report three days later […]

The majority of Missourians can vote for something, but the elected officials we send to Jefferson City are bold and brazen enough to cave to special interests, lobbyists or their own self-interests and undo the people’s votes. Why should we let them undo the laws and policies we approve? Left unaddressed, it gives tacit approval […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and European Union leaders announced a trade framework over the weekend, just days ahead of Trump’s self-imposed Friday deadline to increase import taxes and his emergency tariffs come under scrutiny in federal appeals court Thursday. Under the agreement, a 15% tariff will be applied to all products, with some exceptions, […]

Planned Parenthood affiliates nationwide are once again protected from a “defunding” provision passed by Congress after a federal judge in Massachusetts granted an emergency request for a new preliminary injunction. The order from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, appointed by former Democratic President Barack Obama, comes one week after an initial injunction blocked only certain […]

Twenty-eight-year-old Michaela Bonner has been working 12-hour shifts as an emergency medical technician in Norfolk, Virginia, for the past four years, while attending and paying for college to finish her prerequisites for medical school. But now that President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending law bars students from borrowing more than $50,000 annually in unsubsidized […]

By limiting large-scale water exports from the state, experts and farmers said Missouri has taken forward-thinking measures to protect one of its most vital resources. According to them, it will benefit agriculture, industry and municipal services in the coming years. Governor Mike Kehoe signed new legislation into law on July 14 that limits large-scale water […]

Kevin Wehner has been there for Missourians as they have dealt with unanswered questions, long wait times and the confusion as they enrolled for government insurance. He was there as the Affordable Care Act marketplace came online, and as Missouri slowly expanded its Medicaid program, known as MO HealthNet. He’s witnessed Missouri struggling for years […]

Republican lawmakers’ decision to overturn a voter-approved expansion of paid sick leave means benefits Missouri workers accrued in recent months will disappear on Aug. 28.  They also placed a question on the 2026 ballot rolling back abortion rights that voters enshrined in the state constitution in November.  It’s not the first time the GOP-dominated legislature […]

This July marked 80 years since the U.S. government detonated the first atomic bomb in the desert of southern New Mexico, marking the start of the nuclear age — and an ongoing nightmare for the people who call the area home. That test, known as Trinity, blanketed rural communities in radioactive fallout. No one was […]

The Trump White House is ratcheting up pressure on Missouri Republicans reluctant to pursue a new map that could give the GOP seven of the state’s eight seats in Congress. Missouri House Speaker Pro Tem Chad Perkins of Bowling Green said he received a call Friday afternoon from the White House after staff read his […]