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Missouri can keep using disputed federal database to review voter eligibility

2 weeks 5 days ago
Missouri can continue using a federal database to review voter eligibility after the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily cleared the way for states to use an expanded version of the system to check the citizenship status of registered voters. The court’s 6-3 emergency order on Friday stayed a federal judge’s ruling that had blocked the expanded […]
Rebecca Rivas

Appeals court poised to allow contempt probe of DHS deportation flights to El Salvador

2 weeks 5 days ago
WASHINGTON — Most judges on a federal appeals court seemed inclined during oral arguments Tuesday to allow a federal judge to continue investigating Trump officials for possible criminal contempt-of-court charges for defying a judicial order by sending more than 100 Venezuelan men to a brutal Salvadoran prison last year.   The administration is challenging if U.S. […]
Ariana Figueroa

Trump TV ads paid for with $20M in Homeland Security funds, Dems find

2 weeks 5 days ago
President Donald Trump is tapping $20 million in Homeland Security funding to pay for TV ads that heavily feature him ahead of the midterm elections, Democrats said Tuesday as the promos critics call propaganda come under bipartisan attack. The Trump administration recently moved the funds into a U.S. Customs and Border Protection budget line intended […]
Jonathan Shorman

Congressional watchdog says Trump administration can’t defy lawmakers to revoke $810M

2 weeks 5 days ago
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration must spend the $810 million that it said last week it planned to cancel, according to a report released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.  The congressional watchdog’s decision contends the White House budget office doesn’t hold the ability to claw back that funding without approval from Congress.  “Any […]
Jennifer Shutt

US Supreme Court allows Trump to resume deportations outside immigrants’ home countries

2 weeks 5 days ago
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday granted, for now, the Trump administration’s request to continue rapid third-country deportation of immigrants to countries not their own.  The decision will allow the Trump administration to carry out its aggressive deportation method of quickly removing immigrants to one of the countries — some with human rights concerns […]
Ariana Figueroa

Eric Schmitt bungles accusation against former special counsel Jack Smith in heated hearing

2 weeks 6 days ago
WASHINGTON — Former special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday defended before a U.S. Senate panel his past investigations of President Donald Trump’s possession of classified documents and alleged role in attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Judiciary Committee Republicans repeatedly dissected Smith’s work and accused him of weaponizing the Department of Justice. In a […]
Ashley Murray

Eric Schmitt’s Hawks-Hawkeyes blunder and the politician he’s become

2 weeks 6 days ago
On Monday, Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt showed he still knows how old-fashioned politics works. He helped pass a college sports bill he spent months negotiating with Democrats Maria Cantwell and Chris Coons. They disagreed over major provisions, compromised and produced legislation that passed the Senate 77-22. A day later, a different Eric Schmitt showed up. […]
Jason Hancock

Missouri judge hears challenge to Boone County charter school expansion

2 weeks 6 days ago
A Cole County Circuit Court judge will decide whether to strike down a 2024 law allowing charter schools in Boone County, a case that could further define Missouri’s constitutional ban on special laws. In a hearing Tuesday morning, attorneys representing Columbia Public Schools asked Circuit Court Judge Emily Fretwell to block a 2024 law that […]
Annelise Hanshaw

News orgs banned from White House accuse Trump of First Amendment violation

2 weeks 6 days ago
WASHINGTON — The three news organizations that President Donald Trump barred from entering the White House grounds earlier this month have asked a federal judge to ensure their reporters continue to have access after a temporary restraining order expires in early October.  Attorneys for CNN, MS Now and Politico filed paperwork late Monday requesting a […]
Jennifer Shutt

Trump thwarted in hunt for rare noncitizen voters as midterms near

2 weeks 6 days ago
Five weeks before Election Day, President Donald Trump’s sprawling effort to identify and remove noncitizen voters hasn’t produced the kind of large purges that could meaningfully affect the midterm elections. Even a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision giving states access to a supercharged Department of Homeland Security computer program to verify voters’ citizenship will have […]
Jonathan Shorman

Governors pledge to oppose federal overreach — even when their party runs Washington

2 weeks 6 days ago
Democratic and Republican governors say they will more aggressively push back on federal overreach regardless of which party controls Washington. Earlier this month, the bipartisan National Governors Association for the first time in over a decade updated its internal principles on federalism — the system of power sharing between Washington, D.C., and the states. That […]
Kevin Hardy

Trump used impossible foreign labor standards as tariff workaround, small businesses say

2 weeks 6 days ago
WASHINGTON — Small businesses will once again challenge President Donald Trump’s tariffs in federal court this week as they continue to feel the squeeze of the administration’s roller coaster policy on import taxes. Spice importer Burlap & Barrel and rare watch importer Collective Horology will argue Wednesday in the Court of International Trade in New […]
Ashley Murray

Missouri Republicans scramble to launch late campaigns on two ballot measures

2 weeks 6 days ago
Missouri Republicans are scrambling to organize late campaigns on ballot measures they spent most of the year trying to block from the Nov. 3 election. The party’s State Committee met Saturday in Columbia and passed resolutions asking for a “yes” vote on Proposition A, a referendum on the 2025 redistricting map, and a “no” vote […]
Rudi Keller

Union fight erupts at Missouri cannabis dispensary after 12 workers fired

2 weeks 6 days ago
Madison Taylor has spent the past eight days picketing outside her former workplace, Greenlight Dispensary in Springfield. Two weeks ago, Taylor says she and a group of coworkers met outside of work to discuss forming a union. Days later, 12 employees who attended the meeting were fired, she said, after management accused them of consuming […]
Rebecca Rivas

When will adequately funding Missouri public schools become a legislative priority?

2 weeks 6 days ago
Even when Missouri lawmakers fund public schools in accordance with the state’s foundation formula, the level is still inadequate to meet the needs of schools across the state. The practice of selling our public schools short has become the pattern — year after year, irrespective of the need. This year the practice seems to be […]
Janice Ellis

Major bill to set standards for college athletes’ pay passes US Senate

2 weeks 6 days ago
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan measure to overhaul the college sports landscape got a step closer to becoming law Monday after passing the U.S. Senate. The bill — which sailed through on a 77-22 vote — would set a national framework for college athletes’ compensation, provide certain antitrust protections to the NCAA, establish a five-year eligibility […]
Shauneen Miranda

‘Dumbfounds us all’: Congress struggles with policies rippling from AI development

2 weeks 6 days ago
The challenges and dire threats surrounding the unchecked growth of artificial intelligence appear unlikely to move Congress or President Donald Trump to act as the U.S. Senate enters its last week before the midterms.  The rapid emergence of the technology has sparked a host of policy debates, with some warning of an existential threat to […]
David Lightman

Trump administration revokes $810M approved by Congress for refugee aid and more

3 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has, once again, infuriated lawmakers from both political parties by using a controversial maneuver to cancel funding previously approved by Congress.  The $810 million in the “pocket rescission” would have gone to refugee assistance programs at the Department of Health and Human Services, a Treasury Department program that provided “debt […]
Jennifer Shutt