Missouri lawmakers have extended a rule allowing retired teachers to serve as substitutes without losing their retirement allowance. This measure is part of efforts to fill classrooms during a statewide teacher shortage. The state legislature first took notice of the issue in 2022, when the COVID-19 pandemic chiseled away at the teacher workforce. They passed […]
Republicans in the Missouri legislature want everyone to know that they are very concerned about protecting children. Not so much the 130 children and teenagers who die from gunfire in an average year. Those deaths, about two-thirds of which are homicides, are unfortunate collateral damage in the race to make firearms ever more accessible in […]
WASHINGTON — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man wrongly deported to his native El Salvador three months ago, was brought back to the U.S. on Friday and will face federal charges, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said. Abrego Garcia’s case had become a flashpoint in a debate over what due process rights protect immigrants from […]
WASHINGTON — Clean energy manufacturers and advocates say they’re perplexed how the repeal of tax credits in President Donald Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” will keep their domestic production lines humming across the United States, particularly in states that elected him to the Oval Office. While some Republicans have labeled the billions in tax credits […]
Over the past few months, Celina Damian’s phone has been ringing off the hook with one bewildered, anxious question after another: “What kind of loan is this?” “Am I in default?” “Will the government really take my wages?” “Sometimes they just don’t know where to start,” said Damian, California’s student loan servicing ombudsperson. “I’m talking […]
Missouri has begun issuing federal food benefits that could reach 475,000 kids this summer. The first batch of Missouri’s summer food benefits for children was issued on Thursday night, a spokesperson for the Department of Social Services told The Independent Friday. Each eligible child will receive a one-time benefit of $120, loaded onto a card […]
WASHINGTON — The unprecedented increase in immigration starting in 2021 brought extra revenue to states and local governments, but the cost of services for those newly arrived migrants was greater, leading to a net cost of $9.2 billion in 2023, according to a report the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office published Thursday. The roughly 4.3 million immigrants […]
As Congress continues its investigation into the role AI should play in government, members of the House Oversight Committee are questioning the uses and procurement of AI tools for government work, as well as the privacy concerns the technology poses when unregulated. Expert witnesses testified at a June 5 hearing that the federal government is currently […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republican Leader John Thune will spend a crucial next few weeks working behind the scenes with other top GOP senators to reshape the party’s “big beautiful bill” — a balancing test accompanied in recent days by incendiary exchanges between President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk over whether the current proposals […]
The Republican budget bill the U.S. House approved last month includes a surprise for the 40 states that have expanded Medicaid: penalties for providing health care to some immigrants who are here legally. Along with punishing the 14 states that use their own funds to cover immigrants who are here illegally, analysts say last-minute changes […]
WASHINGTON — Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus pledged Thursday to make more visits to immigration detention centers across the country to carry out oversight of the Trump administration’s crackdown. The members detailed their visits to various detention centers over last week’s recess. Many people they visited in those centers were arrested while attending their […]
State cannabis regulators will begin their first attempt next month to double check the work of licensed testing labs tasked with ensuring the safety of Missouri marijuana products. Starting July 1, staff with the Division of Cannabis Regulation will arrive unannounced at licensee premises and collect about 50 products a month off the shelves. They’ll […]
This week, Senators have started their consideration of President Trump’s big tax bill, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in May. Missouri U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley was clear in his priorities for the legislation, writing in early May that “slashing health insurance for the working poor is … both morally wrong and […]
LEAVENWORTH — A Kansas district court barred CoreCivic Wednesday from reopening its shuttered prison until the company goes through Leavenworth’s development process to receive a special use permit. Judge John Bryant, Leavenworth County District Court, was unconvinced by arguments from CoreCivic attorneys that the company was grandfathered into the city’s zoning codes and did not […]
Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday said that communication between states and the federal government under the second Trump administration “is nonexistent,” opening the door to catastrophe in the case of a natural disaster or other emergency. Walz, during an interview with Reformer editor Patrick Coolican at a States Newsroom conference in Minneapolis, said that the […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump late Wednesday ordered the White House legal counsel and U.S. attorney general to investigate when Biden administration staff used an autopen to sign the former president’s name on official documents, alleging that Biden might not have known or approved of their actions. The inquiry represents an escalation in Trump’s animosity […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump issued a long-awaited “travel ban” late Wednesday to bar entry of nationals from a dozen countries and partially restrict entry for nationals from a smaller set of countries. Countries that will have a full ban are Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan […]
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to allow Venezuelan men removed under an 18th-century wartime law and sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador to have their cases heard in court, though he conceded the logistics of the order would be challenging to sort […]
A St. Louis civil rights law firm filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the state takeover of the St. Louis police as unconstitutional. ArchCity Defenders filed the lawsuit in Cole County circuit court on behalf of two St. Louis city residents, Jamala Rogers and Mike Milton. The state and Attorney General Andrew Bailey are the defendants. […]
More Republican-led states are giving paid parental leave to public school teachers and other state employees, signaling a broader acceptance of family-friendly workplace policies once championed primarily by Democrats. “All of these red states, I think we’re late to the party,” said South Carolina state Rep. Beth Bernstein, a Democrat who sponsored a bill this […]
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