MoInd 📰

The fate of two proposed ballot measures —- a referendum on Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map and a constitutional amendment limiting legislative power to alter laws passed by initiative — will go on trial next week, a Cole County judge decided Wednesday. Circuit Judge Daniel Green ordered back-to-back hearings for the two measures Secretary of State […]

As a new school year begins, some classrooms may use artificial intelligence tools to flag a student struggling with classwork, track attendance or try to raise reading scores. But as school districts make decisions on which tools are safe and worth spending thousands or millions of dollars on, some officials feel overwhelmed by the array […]

When college students head back to campus for the fall semester, more of them will have guaranteed access to abortion medication. Colorado recently joined California, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York in requiring public colleges and universities to provide abortion medication to students on campus or arrange to make it available to them through an off-campus […]

In a small town where everyone knows everyone, it’s hard to keep secrets. So when local governments hide their business, it can be especially galling to the residents they represent, and faith in local governance begins to plummet. And when transparency and accountability are absent, it’s easier for drama and intrigue to take over. Take […]

On May 14, Kansas City was told in no uncertain terms by its own consultants that its practice of racial and sex-based preferences in city contracting faced serious legal problems. The Council chose not to end the program. There was no coverage of the report in local media until my column in The Kansas City Star […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump covertly traveled across Europe in a military plane in July after Iran threatened his life, according to a bombshell report Monday night by The Washington Post that revealed press and White House officials remained on a decoy Air Force One. The extraordinary episode unfolded July 8 after Trump boarded the […]

Twenty-eight states this year have reported over 3,500 cases of patients sick with the drug-resistant yeast candida auris, which can cause severe illness and is often reported in healthcare facilities. As of Aug. 1, 3,544 clinical cases of candida auris, or C. auris, have been reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, […]

The Missouri Supreme Court wants a quick resolution in lower courts of a lawsuit that will decide if voters will see a congressional redistricting referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot. In a Monday letter to Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green, Chief Justice W. Brent Powell noted that state law requires the case to be […]

On June 11,  ICE agents trailed a car into the parking lot of Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore. For the family riding in that car, an everyday school drop off quickly devolved into chaos. ICE agents pulled Jesus Acevedo Sanchez from the vehicle, pinned him to the ground and arrested him for being in the […]

A group of leading anti-abortion organizations sent a letter to newly confirmed U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche urging him to review the U.S. Department of Justice’s authority to use  a 150-year-old anti-obscenity law to prevent people from obtaining abortion medication or other related materials through the mail. Advancing American Freedom, a conservative advocacy group founded […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday signed a sweeping executive order that aims to reshape guidance surrounding childhood vaccines, standing alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and was met with immediate pushback. The order — which calls on federal programs and funding to “support maximal parental choice over childhood vaccines” — […]

Hemp-derived THC beverages could stay on Missouri shelves past Nov. 12 — the day the state’s ban on intoxicating hemp products takes effect — if Congress gives final approval to a short-term funding bill and the president signs it. In an overnight vote Saturday, the U.S. Senate approved a measure to fund federal agencies until […]

Roberto Archuleta was 21 years old in 1991 when he found out he was HIV-positive. At the time, the only medications available to treat the virus were difficult to tolerate and often ineffective. Being diagnosed was commonly a death sentence — something Archuleta, then a hairstylist in Kansas City, witnessed too often. An old snapshot […]

“I was 25 when I started. I can’t believe I still have to fight for women’s reproductive rights at 75,” Marlene Hammerman told me. Marlene notarized hundreds of signature sheets as a volunteer for the 2024 citizen-led ballot initiative that overturned Missouri’s criminal abortion ban. She’s one of the many women I met when I […]

WASHINGTON — Todd Blanche took the oath of office as U.S. attorney general at a brief ceremony in the Oval Office Monday, following the Senate’s narrow vote to approve his nomination as the nation’s top law enforcement official over the weekend.  Blanche, who served as acting attorney general and was President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer […]

Federal immigration agents are employing new tactics — from arresting academics at airports to setting up a checkpoint at a popular creek in a National Forest — to boost their arrest numbers, leading to more arrests in July than in any previous month of the Trump administration. Though it is striving to fulfill the White House’s demand for more […]

The Trump administration is increasing its efforts to turn more control of federal education money to the states as it continues working to dismantle the Education Department. Six states have received waivers allowing them to consolidate more than $109 million in federal education funding and bypass certain requirements for local education agencies, Kirsten Baesler, assistant […]

Gov. Mike Kehoe wasn’t on the ballot Tuesday. Two of his biggest priorities were, and voters handed them a historic defeat. Kehoe made the measure that became Amendment 5, which sought to put Missouri on a path toward eliminating its individual income tax, the centerpiece of his agenda for the year. Only two proposed constitutional […]

Missouri Republicans have been making the case for years that our state constitution is getting hijacked by out-of-state interests. Gov. Mike Kehoe said it plainly in a video backing Amendment 4, the proposal that would have made it virtually impossible for voters to amend the Missouri Constitution. “Our constitution,” he said, “shouldn’t be the victim […]

Missouri has officially been added to the list of states linked to the shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms that caused cyclosporiasis. Five other states — Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire and North Carolina — are also new to the list. They join Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Boone […]