Ahead of the November midterm elections, President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have demanded Congress pass sweeping voting restrictions, including showing proof of citizenship to register — all in the name of election security. At the same time, the only federal agency dedicated solely to helping states and localities run smooth and secure elections […]
Congress is looking to roll back state animal welfare laws as it wrangles over reauthorization of the federal farm bill. The farm bill, which Congress generally reworks every five years, includes money and federal rules for food assistance programs, farm subsidies, and other ag-related programs. A pending version of the legislation includes the Save Our […]
Black midwives in the South, a region rife with racial disparities in maternal health access and maternal mortality, are leading lawsuits over state regulations that they say limit their ability to provide care. Women behind the litigation say midwives can help improve birthing outcomes in Southern states, where maternal mortality rates are higher than the […]
Missouri state Rep. Dave Griffith has spent the last five years digging into research on how psychedelic-assisted therapy has helped veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. This May marked the end of his final legislative session in the House, and he pushed one last time for legislation to allow clinical trials of psychedelic-assisted […]
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin appeared before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Homeland Security panel Tuesday and defended his threats to cripple international air travel into some cities led by Democrats. Democratic senators on the panel also pressed Mullin about aggressive immigration tactics from federal officers; whether the department would follow court orders from […]
The federal government released new guidance this week on how states should roll out the Medicaid work requirements that will affect healthcare coverage for millions of Americans. The new interim rule, issued by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is intended to give states more details on how they’re supposed to verify the […]
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has scrapped plans to use nearly $1.8 billion in taxpayer dollars to pay people who believe they were wrongly prosecuted by the Justice Department — a proposal that halted work on legislation to fund immigration and deportation activities. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified Tuesday before a House committee the […]
The Missouri Association of Realtors donated $1.9 million to the campaign opposing Amendment 5 on Tuesday, escalating the fight over a proposed constitutional amendment that would create a pathway for lawmakers to eliminate the state income tax through expanded or increased sales taxes. The contribution to Missourians for Fair Taxation came days after Missouri Promise […]
Robin Westphal knows this isn’t the first time the future of federal funding for her library has been uncertain. As the executive director of Daniel Boone Regional Library and president-elect of the Missouri Library Association, she’s familiar with the Trump administration’s past efforts to cut funds to public libraries. “This feels a little different this […]
Problems with how Missouri counties assess real estate are complicating an effort to update the formula that determines state aid for public schools. In a meeting Monday morning, the Missouri School Funding Modernization Task Force discussed how an updated formula could factor in local property taxes as real estate valuations struggle to keep up with […]
The racial wealth gap is widening as many workers of color go without retirement savings. The median wealth gap between Black and Hispanic families and white families expanded by about $50,000 between 2019 and 2022, according to research from The Pew Charitable Trusts. The typical white family had $240,000 more wealth in 2022 than the […]
There were fewer homeless people in the United States on a single night in January 2025 than in January 2024, but homelessness increased in 28 states, according to the latest federal count. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development counted 745,652 homeless people in its latest “point-in-time” estimate, down 3% from the year before. […]
When Barb Buchanan walked into her first support group for family members of people with mental illness in Columbia around 2010, Heather Harlan greeted her with a “huge smile.” Harlan started attending the meetings, run by NAMI Missouri, the statewide affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, in 2007. Her adult son, Micah Bacus, […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund appeared to be on shaky ground Monday as he continued to face opposition from his own party. Trump had not yet made a public announcement by late afternoon, but several media outlets reported the president planned to possibly drop the fund to clear the way […]
A proposal to replace the state individual income tax with expanded or increased sales taxes will be on the Aug. 4 ballot and voters will see the description written by lawmakers, a Cole County judge ruled Monday afternoon. The measure, the top legislative priority for Gov. Mike Kehoe, will appear on the ballot as Amendment […]
WASHINGTON — Transgender military members won a temporary victory against the Trump administration in federal appeals court Monday when two judges ruled a policy banning them from service violated their constitutional right to equal protection under the law. Judges Judith W. Rogers and Robert L. Wilkins for the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of […]
In at least four states, migrants detained in ICE facilities have launched hunger strikes in recent weeks to protest the conditions in which they are being held. An ongoing hunger and labor strike at the 1,000-bed Delaney Hall facility in Newark, New Jersey, reportedly involves roughly 300 people and has sparked daily protests outside the […]
Vaccine hesitancy fed by misinformation is causing new surges of measles and whooping cough, while COVID-19 hotspots persist in some states and a new threat looms from an Ebola outbreak in central Africa. Nationally there have been 1,983 measles cases this year, nearly the 2,288 total for all of 2025, which in itself was the […]
WASHINGTON — Democratic Party leaders from a dozen states traveled to Washington, D.C., at the end of May to press for their voters to cast the first ballots in the next presidential primary. State representatives argued that diversifying the early states would ensure Democrats nominate a presidential candidate who not only holds broad appeal among […]
Missouri Treasurer Vivek Malek’s office made a last-minute push in the closing hours of the legislative session to stop lawmakers from moving the state’s private school voucher program to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. But the largest scholarship-granting organization in the program did not join the public show of support. With just a […]
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