Gov. Mike Kehoe wants voters to determine whether Missouri should completely phase out its income tax and replace it with an expanded sales tax, leaving details on how to do it for lawmakers to decide next year. Kehoe laid out the plan in his annual State of the State address to a joint session of […]
Missouri politicians wouldn’t be able to lure donors into recurring contributions with emotional appeals that don’t disclose who would benefit from the money under a bill heard Tuesday. State Rep. Jim Murphy, a Republican from St. Louis County, said the scheme leaves contributors, who are often elderly people, confused when thousands of dollars are drawn […]
The Missouri State Board of Education stripped St. Louis Public Schools of its status as fully accredited on Tuesday, a move the only opposing board member called a “messaging device.” The school district has been downgraded to provisionally accredited. “Lowering accreditation is a broad signal and by itself does not fix audits, stabilize transportation or […]
New federal guidance to reduce the number of vaccines recommended for all children from 17 vaccines down to 11 comes as states already are charting their own courses on vaccine policy. The new federal guidelines mention a directive issued by President Donald Trump in December calling to align the U.S. vaccination schedule with “peer” countries, […]
I was struck by the inspirational tone of the year-end report issued by Chief Justice John Roberts. Roberts went back to basics with his review of the fundamentals spelled out by Thomas Paine in his “Common Sense” pamphlet and the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence. Although the Declaration of Independence is not […]
KANSAS CITY — Attorneys for Missouri’s only abortion provider presented a timeline Monday of two decades of restrictions on the procedure, laid out for a crowded courtroom across four easels. On the opening day of what promises to be a 10-day trial over which regulations should remain in place under Missouri’s voter-approved abortion rights amendment, […]
WASHINGTON — A dozen Democratic members of Congress Monday asked a federal judge for an emergency hearing, arguing the Department of Homeland Security violated a court order when Minnesota lawmakers were denied access to conduct oversight into facilities that hold immigrants. The oversight visits to Minneapolis ICE facilities followed the deadly shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good […]
WASHINGTON — Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly sued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the department on Monday for trying to demote Kelly’s retirement rank and pay after he appeared in a video where he and other lawmakers told service members they didn’t need to follow illegal orders. Kelly’s suit, filed in the federal district court […]
Although high and rising rents often are associated with big coastal states such as New York or California, new data shows that states once considered more affordable are seeing major rent hikes. A new analysis from Premier Timber Frame Builders – based on data from Zillow’s Observed Rent Index, which tracks prices for both apartment […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s feud with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has escalated into a Department of Justice investigation, raising alarm bells among some Republicans in the Senate, where Trump will need broad backing from GOP lawmakers to get his choice for the next Fed chairman approved after Powell’s term ends in May. Retiring […]
When Washington, D.C., agreed to hand over billions in land and tax breaks for a new Commanders football stadium, experts thought it would long remain an outlier in sweetheart deals for sports teams. But just months later, attention turned to Kansas, where officials in December announced plans to fund 60% of a new stadium for […]
VANDALIA, Mo. — Kathy Briggs slipped her arms through the thick straps of a brand-new baby carrier, tugging it over her beige shirt as two other women stood beside her, tightening buckles and adjusting the padded waistband. The carrier was still stiff from its packaging, and Briggs shifted her feet as one of the women […]
Since the fall of Roe, hundreds of individuals have been investigated, charged or prosecuted for their pregnancy outcomes across the nation. Women denied miscarriage treatment have been investigated or charged for how they disposed of fetal remains. Hundreds have been charged for using illegal, legal, and prescribed substances while pregnant, even when their babies were […]
In 2012, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback cut income taxes with promises of economic growth. Instead, the state faced years of budget shortfalls, education cuts, and credit downgrades. Just five years later, the Republican-controlled legislature voted to override Brownback’s veto and restore the income tax. Missouri is now debating a similar tax path at the same […]
Missouri has submitted “detailed justification” required to access federal funding owed to almost 2,000 child care providers across the state for services rendered in December, according to a Friday press release. The Office of Childhood in the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which found it could not access the funds earlier this week, […]
WASHINGTON — A pair of blockbuster cases to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court could carry far-reaching implications for transgender rights, even as the Trump administration during the past year has rolled out a broad anti-trans agenda targeting everything from sports to military service. The court on Jan. 13 will hear challenges to laws […]
Secretary of State Denny Hoskins admitted Friday that he wrote a ballot summary “likely to create prejudice” against a possible referendum on Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional district map. Hoskins’ lawyer, Kathleen Hunker of the attorney general’s office, made the admission during a hearing in a court case challenging the ballot summary and said it would be […]
A trial litigating the parameters of Missouri’s new reproductive rights amendment begins Monday in Kansas City. The outcome will reach far beyond the state’s borders. The trial, which will include testimony from abortion providers, Planned Parenthood leadership and anti-abortion doctors, will give an unusually detailed look at the inner-workings of abortion in Missouri, highlighting how […]
Megan Huffman is holding off paying rent and utilities this month for the day care she runs in Kansas City so she can guarantee that her employees won’t miss a paycheck. The state owes her business, Rising Sun Learning Center, around $49,000 in payments as part of a subsidy program that reimburses child care providers […]
A southeast Missouri judge on Tuesday threw out all of the Missouri Department of Corrections’ defenses in a mother’s wrongful death case over her son’s suicide because the department “repeatedly violated” court orders to produce records. As a result, the only question that a jury will consider if the case goes to trial is how […]
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