MoInd 📰

WASHINGTON — Democrats expect they’ll gain a majority of seats in the U.S. House following November’s midterm elections, giving the party a platform to serve as a check on the president’s power.  Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene said during an interview Monday that curbing the war in Iran and working on legislation to […]

President Donald Trump wants to sharply curtail mail ballots. He’s called them “inherently corrupt” and baselessly condemned them as a major source of fraud. But with Republicans falling behind in the polls, the president is now urging his supporters to vote in the midterm elections any way they can, including by mail. The White House […]

A state task force created by Gov. Mike Kehoe to recommend changes to Missouri’s child welfare system convened for five hours Monday to begin  developing clearer common standards for determining whether a child is safe that can be used by abuse and neglect investigators, the courts, juvenile officers and others across the state. The Missouri […]

I am riding on the front of a train barreling into a distant land. Physically, I am at home, in an inflatable pool cushioned by warm water, entering birthland. As my son emerges, I am in awe. We are surrounded by nothing but love: my husband, my certified nurse midwife (CNM), and doula. I feel whole, and present. […]

When Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin declared in September that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could serve warrants on individuals at polling places this fall, officials in Denver, a liberal city where roughly 14% of residents are foreign-born, quickly sued. “Every day we find new things to be astonished about but I think that we just […]

A court battle that began when conservative-led states sued to block protections for transgender people has ended in a rollback of protections for people with disabilities — a result disability advocates have feared for months. At the end of August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services joined the handful of conservative-led states suing […]

Kalshi, Polymarket and the Coalition for Prediction Markets have spent at least $3 million this year on lobbying and campaign contributions across the federal and state levels, according to a new report from the government watchdog group OpenSecrets. Prediction market platforms say they are like commodity markets that offer contracts to speculate on the future […]

WASHINGTON — This summer, arrests of immigrants in the United States soared to the highest levels since President Donald Trump returned to office. An unprecedented increase in cooperation between local and state law enforcement and federal immigration officers through collaborations known as 287(g) agreements helped drive numbers up.  The agreements allow state and local law […]

Missouri will not use optional federal exemptions designed to help low-income people keep Medicaid coverage when they are hospitalized, travel for medical care or live in areas affected by disasters or high unemployment. The exceptions are optional in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which starting Jan. 1, 2027 will require states to verify that […]

There are plenty of ways to tell when a political party is worried heading into an election. One is polling. President Donald Trump’s approval rating fell to 32% in a September Reuters/Ipsos poll, the lowest of his career, and sits in the mid-30s in national polling averages. Voters are especially unhappy about the cost of […]

As a high school teacher and parent, I see many things to change about our educational system, from funding and curriculum to choice.  A strengthened focus on financial literacy while re-thinking foreign language requirements should be also at the top of any reform list. Most American universities and colleges desire one or more years of […]

The U.S. Department of Education’s suspension this year of a comprehensive monitoring process puts billions of K-12 dollars at heightened risk of undetected waste, fraud and abuse, according to a new report by the nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office. The congressional watchdog’s report also raised concerns about the reliability of federal absenteeism data, noting that […]

WE BUY HOUSES. CASH 4 HOMES. FA$T CA$H. The signs, text messages and mailers promise cash, quick sales and a seamless means of unloading unwanted homes.  But advocates say the business of buying homes for cash can confuse vulnerable homeowners and rob them of home equity. And now, many states are cracking down.  Wholesalers often […]

Over the past year and a half, a dozen states have embraced a new vision for solar power: small, cheap panels that can be hung from a balcony or porch, be plugged into a standard wall outlet and take a dent out of residents’ utility bills.  These systems, known as balcony solar or plug-in solar, […]

Nearly 100 community-based organizations have lost their federal HIV-prevention grants this week as the Trump administration redirects dollars to state and local health departments. The funding change represents a departure from the decades-old national HIV prevention strategy favored by most public health organizations. President Donald Trump launched the Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic Initiative during his first […]

In December 2023, a woman living in a small community near Austin, Texas, made a $78.08 contribution through WinRed. A few weeks later, she made another. Then came four more contributions in January 2024. Those were the first six entries under her name in Federal Election Commission records stretching back decades. Since then, her name […]

As Missouri prepares to vote on whether to reinstate an abortion ban, a new information campaign by a local nonprofit is setting out to remind Missourians that regardless of what happens in November, some abortion options will remain available. The campaign launched last week and will run through Election Day, when Missourians will decide whether […]

The U.S. Department of the Treasury released new guidance Thursday for participating states, scholarship-granting organizations and taxpayers as the federal scholarship tax credit program prepares to take effect in January.  Created through President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending law in 2025, the Education Freedom Tax Credit program allows individuals to claim a dollar-for-dollar federal […]

Missouri drew its final round of marijuana microbusiness applicants on Sept. 9. The state received 888 applications and expects to issue approximately 77 licenses beginning in December. I want to write about the months in between, because I work in the trade that operates in them. I am a consultant. I run licensing, compliance and […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators departed Capitol Hill on Wednesday night for their campaign break, leaving numerous policy disputes unresolved. The chamber won’t return until Nov. 9 for the five-week lame-duck session, when party leaders will have to decide which bills they want to negotiate during what could be the final days of unified Republican control. […]