MoInd 📰

Before the Power & Light District became the hub of entertainment and economic activity in Kansas City that it is today, the area was blocks of unkempt parking lots and empty storefronts. The district’s overhaul was in part financed through a piece of 2003 legislation called the Missouri Downtown Economic Stimulus Act, MODESA for short. […]

May housing starts fell to the lowest level since the pandemic disrupted construction six years ago, the U.S. Census Bureau announced Tuesday. Builder confidence has dropped recently because of higher material and financing costs. The change threatens to exacerbate housing shortages and disrupt recent progress in most states toward building enough new housing for new […]

As election officials across the country steel themselves for the midterm elections in less than five months, President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting voting by mail threatens to upend their preparations. The executive order instructs the U.S. Postal Service to refuse to deliver ballots in states that don’t provide lists of voters or meet other […]

When SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and artificial intelligence company, began trading on the stock market last week, he became the world’s first trillionaire. The SpaceX IPO made the world’s richest man even richer, grabbing headlines worldwide. But it is merely the most vivid illustration of a U.S. trend that has been accelerating since 2022. The […]

I am one of 22 young Americans suing President Donald Trump. I didn’t want to have to sue the president as a teenager, but he left us no other choice. We are students, ranchers, scientists-in-training, artists and athletes. We come from Montana, Oregon, Hawai’i, California and Florida, from different places and different backgrounds, but we […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education announced sweeping efforts Tuesday to outsource its special education programs and civil rights enforcement to other agencies, in another major step by President Donald Trump’s administration to dismantle the department. The Department of Health and Human Services will administer programs under the Education Department’s Office of Special Education […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators from both political parties said Tuesday they had yet to see the text of the deal Trump administration officials struck over the weekend to end the war in Iran, though several indicated any final agreement will require their approval.  Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said administration officials have signaled they […]

Dustin Robinson says he was skeptical when a longtime friend first approached him about going into business selling a concentrated kratom compound known as 7-OH. Robinson had served seven years in a Kansas prison for marijuana offenses. Both of his parents struggled with addiction. And when Vince Sanders, owner of CBD American Shaman, began researching […]

The Missouri State Board of Education on Monday named educational consultant Stacey Preis as the state’s interim commissioner, putting a former department official and legislative researcher in charge as the agency navigates a leadership shakeup and a set of major policy changes ordered by Gov. Mike Kehoe. Preis told The Independent that she does not […]

People who carry out mass public shootings often display observable warning signs long before an attack, but those signals are frequently fragmented across friends, family members, coworkers and institutions, making them difficult to piece together, according to a new study from the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, a nonpartisan […]

Missouri election officials will begin mailing Aug. 4 primary ballots Tuesday to military and overseas voters using the state’s gerrymandered congressional districts, even as the legal status of those districts remains unresolved. Missourians in 28 counties have been assigned to a different congressional district than they were in 2024, thanks to a map that was […]

Days after President Donald Trump’s name was removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a large tarp and scaffolding was still blocking the building’s facade from public view Monday afternoon.  Construction crews took Trump’s name off the center early Saturday morning after a federal appeals court upheld a Friday deadline for its […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday he had signed a ceasefire with Iran, moving the two countries one step closer to ending the war that began in February. Trump, speaking from the G7 conference in Europe, said the memorandum of understanding ensures Iran cannot possess a nuclear weapon and clears the way for ships […]

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to weigh in on the issue of whether some immigrants with criminal records can be detained indefinitely. The court accepted a case, Genalo v. Black, from New York state involving a legal immigrant from the Dominican Republic arrested by immigration enforcement after an assault conviction and held for 21 months […]

The United States has a shortage of the only first-line medication recommended for pregnant women with syphilis to prevent passing it to their baby, even as congenital syphilis rates have been skyrocketing. Last July, drug manufacturer Pfizer issued a voluntary recall of brand name Bicillin L-A, or penicillin G benzathine — a long-acting injectable of […]

Dr. Quinn James testified in the Missouri Capitol for nine years before lawmakers passed legislation in 2018 that allows chiropractors like him to provide services through the state’s Medicaid program. What convinced lawmakers to get behind the legislation, James told The Independent, were predictions that it could help the state spend less on Medicaid. The […]

Editor’s note: If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. For the Veterans Crisis Line, dial 988, then press 1. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org. Veterans in the United States die by suicide at higher rates […]

Forty-six percent of U.S. adults — regardless of insurance type — reported struggling to afford healthcare last year, according to a report released Wednesday by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research think tank. The report analyzed findings from a December 2025 survey of 10,000 working-age adults across the nation. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson […]

Four days after Missouri lawmakers adjourned in May, a company hoping to crack open the state gambling market with video slot machines donated $200,000 to three of the proposal’s biggest boosters in the General Assembly. Conservative Leadership for Southeast Missouri, the political action committee aligned with state Sen. Jason Bean, a Holcomb Republican, received $100,000. […]

The fight over legalizing slot machines in Missouri gas stations and convenience stores is moving from the Capitol into Republican state Senate primaries. After years of Senate resistance, video lottery backers believe next year could bring a friendlier chamber. But three August primaries could determine how clear that path really is. The contests involve three […]