WASHINGTON — Dr. Erica Schwartz got a step closer in her bid to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after a key U.S. Senate panel propelled her nomination to the Senate floor Thursday. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted, 13-10, to advance Schwartz’s nomination with all GOP members backing […]
WASHINGTON — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged during his confirmation hearing to do everything in his “power to put the health of America back on track.” Kennedy testified that when he worked as a lawyer he “learned that human health and environmental health are intertwined and inseparable.” He referred to […]
Gov. Mike Kehoe appointed a former mayor of St. Louis and a Kansas City math teacher to the State Board of Education Thursday, filling a voting seat representing the 1st Congressional District and an advisory position reserved for a classroom teacher that has been vacant since lawmakers created it eight years ago. Vince Schoemehl, who […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to pull acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to lead the Justice Department until two Republican holdouts, Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, leave office. “Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it! He has the potential to go down as […]
The same food supply chain that lets restaurants serve nearly identical produce in Missouri, Michigan or California can also make it remarkably difficult to figure out where contamination began when Americans get sick. As cyclospora cases climb across Missouri and Kansas, public health investigators are working backward through a supply chain that can stretch thousands […]
Since President Donald Trump has gutted much of the federal government’s consumer protection work, state attorneys general are increasingly left to fight high prices and investigate businesses themselves. Consumer protection work, long a growing focus of state AGs from both parties, has ramped up considerably more in the past two years, legal experts say. The […]
WASHINGTON — Suddenly there’s evidence that noncitizens were on voting rolls in New Jersey, and there are new questions about the credibility of Alaska’s voter data. Republicans say that’s a big deal and an important boost for their so-far stuck election integrity drive. But look more closely. Congressional lawmakers and independent experts said this week […]
More than 9,000 children in foster care had to temporarily stay in hotels, office buildings and other potentially unsafe settings when states couldn’t find suitable places for them, according to a new federal audit. The inspector general’s office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that states had an especially difficult time […]
A Cole County judge said Wednesday he will rule quickly on a case that will determine if property tax caps voted on in April take effect later this year. At the end of a three-hour hearing, Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh gave attorneys in the case one week to file proposed findings for him to consider. […]
Denny Hoskins wants to cut a library’s funding over two books he has not read. He Googled them, saw excerpts and looked at some pictures. For Missouri’s secretary of state, that was enough. The books are “Rainbowsaurus,” the tale of a family searching for a rainbow dinosaur, and “Big Wig,” about a child who wins […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen Wednesday tried to advance in the Senate a bill that would create a legal pathway for immigrants with Temporary Protected Status. However, his request for unanimous consent, a way to expedite legislation in the chamber, was blocked by Missouri Republican Eric Schmitt. Van Hollen said the […]
WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the nation’s most visible public health officials during the coronavirus pandemic, declined to answer questions from a U.S. Senate committee in a tense and confrontational hearing Wednesday, citing his Fifth Amendment rights. Fauci said during a brief opening statement he believed Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman […]
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has for more than a year used personal information airline passengers provide to the Transportation Security Administration for immigration enforcement, according to documents obtained by a government watchdog group. The documents, collected by the government accountability organization American Oversight, show for the first time a formal data-sharing agreement since May […]
WASHINGTON — Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, the main long-distance gateway to the nation’s capital, is set to receive a multi-billion-dollar makeover, President Donald Trump said Wednesday. Sitting behind a large model of the airport’s new proposed design, Trump unveiled the project at an event in the Oval Office with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, […]
New estimates put the U.S. undocumented immigrant population in mid-2024 at 14.6 million to 15.8 million, a sharp increase from around 11 million in the 2010s. Since then the non-citizen population has likely dropped, but the number is unclear since immigrants facing hostility are reluctant to cooperate with government surveys. The spike in the number […]
In 49 states, the number of people enrolled in Obamacare plans has declined since Congress made coverage more expensive by allowing federal subsidies to expire at the end of last year. The lone exception was New Mexico, the only state that has used its own money to fully replace the expired aid, according to a […]
Ballot measure campaigns raised almost $40 million through the third week of July as they paid for ads and direct mail appeals bombarding Missourians ahead of Tuesday’s primary election. Early voting is underway and the primary election is Aug. 4. The final full financial disclosure statements for state campaigns were due Monday to the Missouri […]
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the federal government can continue implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting vote-by-mail, reaching the opposite conclusion that another appeals panel decided over the weekend. The conflict appeared to make it even more clear the issue will have to be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court, which already […]
For more than two decades, Vincent McFadden has been sitting on Missouri’s death row. He’s watched a steady stream of his friends get marched off to their executions — and he’s waiting for his own as he fights in court to spare his life. So it came as no surprise to him that Missouri is […]
Next month, a child waiting for the bus in a rural district may stand beside a two-lane road, looking across land that has been in one family for generations. But more and more, that will not be the case. Rural land that once supported family farms and community life is being absorbed into something larger […]
stLouIST