MoInd 📰

WASHINGTON  — As outdoor celebrations and events marking the nation’s 250th anniversary and the World Cup reach their peak, local officials across the country are urging caution amid a heat wave blanketing many East Coast and Midwestern states.  The National Weather Service has issued an extreme heat warning for parts of about 20 states, including […]

WASHINGTON — Republicans celebrated last year when they barred Medicaid payments from going to Planned Parenthood for one year, predicting the financial impact would hollow out the organization.  A year later, with that section of the “big, beautiful” law set to expire July 4, GOP lawmakers are trying to find a way to keep the […]

At least nine states have passed voting laws this year that will make it more difficult for some voters to cast their ballots during the midterm elections in November. Lawmakers in Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia passed laws between January and May of this year restricting access […]

The Planned Parenthood clinic in Gladstone began offering medication abortion on Wednesday, becoming the fourth location in Missouri to open appointments following a court ruling that expanded access to medication abortion for the first time since 2018. This is the first time the suburban Kansas City clinic has ever offered medication abortions. Planned Parenthood officials […]

Several laws restricting access to medications that can be used to terminate a pregnancy and others placing limits on minors’ access to sexual and reproductive healthcare — including the HPV vaccine — take effect Wednesday, July 1, in Iowa, Mississippi and Tennessee. Many bills were considered in state legislatures earlier this year that would have […]

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education sent its plan Tuesday for grading public schools on an “A” through “F” scale to Gov. Mike Kehoe, fulfilling a directive from his January executive order while warning that the work will come with new costs. The 24-page proposal estimates it will cost $518,000 to create the […]

Across Kansas City, it’s easy to find vacant office buildings and empty cubicles collecting dust. The companies once housed there saw employees switch to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic and never come back in-person. Or the companies downsized, moved or closed completely. Whatever the case, those buildings present a challenge to city planners attempting […]

WASHINGTON — Members of a U.S. House Education and Workforce subcommittee found rare common ground scrutinizing private equity’s stake in youth sports at a Tuesday hearing. Lawmakers from both parties on the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education stressed the importance of making sports accessible to all kids and discussed ways to prevent […]

State Medicaid agencies are concerned that many sick and disabled enrollees will lose their coverage because the Trump administration is narrowing the definition of who is “medically frail” enough to get an exemption from new work requirements. Under the tax and spending law President Donald Trump signed a year ago, states that have expanded Medicaid […]

Gov. Mike Kehoe vetoed nearly $53 million from Missouri’s $50.7 billion state budget Tuesday, but his larger move was to freeze $441 million in spending — including dozens of lawmaker-backed earmarks — as state revenues lag projections and Missouri’s pandemic-era surplus dwindles. The vetoes were relatively light, cutting only about $30 million in general revenue […]

WASHINGTON — White House budget director Russ Vought testified before a U.S. House panel Tuesday that his agency needs lawmakers to increase its annual budget, even though he hasn’t spent much of the $100 million Republicans approved in their “big, beautiful” law. That earlier funding, he said, is intended to help the agency keep track […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday struck down President Donald Trump’s attempt to redefine the constitutional right to birthright citizenship. In the decision, a majority of the justices upheld the country’s long understanding of automatic citizenship by birth on American soil, regardless of the immigration status of a newborn’s parents. The majority opinion, written by […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday kept in place state laws banning transgender athletes from participating on women’s and girls’ sports teams. The decision stems from challenges to bans in Idaho and West Virginia and marks a major setback for transgender rights across the country. The opinion also came as President Donald Trump’s administration has pursued a broad anti-trans agenda that […]

Gilberto Pacheco was driving to work for a construction job in California when he was pulled over in what court papers called a “traffic stop” in January. He was not accused of any crime, not even a traffic infraction, but he was imprisoned without bond for months because he arrived illegally in the United States […]

Two lawsuits filed in Cole County accuse Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway of unlawfully using threats of criminal prosecution to force bars and gas stations to shut down slot machine games. The latest case, filed Friday by an entity founded last year called the Missouri Licensing Advocacy Group based in Osage Beach, argues Hanaway and […]

Twenty-five Democratic-led states plus the District of Columbia have sued the Trump administration over its new work requirements for people who get their health insurance through Medicaid. At issue is a “medically frail” designation that the states say is too narrow and will make it too difficult for ill and disabled people to remain on Medicaid. […]

President Donald Trump was speaking to supporters at a Pennsylvania rally June 23 when he made an extraordinary admission about an election a continent away. Trump and his allies had spent several days in June savaging California over its slow vote counting and baselessly alleging its contests were fraudulent. But now the president divulged that his […]

When President Donald Trump moved from a stance of military confrontation with Iran to seeking a ceasefire and engaging in diplomatic talks, many commentators highlighted the political motives behind this change. Some viewed it as a retreat, whereas others questioned the administration’s genuine intentions. Nonetheless, an even more significant reason might be driving this shift: […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump both a win and a loss Monday in allowing his firing of Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, but ruling that he cannot remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors. The 6-3 decision in Trump’s favor in the Federal Trade Commission case essentially expands […]

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that law enforcement searches for the location history of cellphones near crime scenes are covered by the Fourth Amendment, requiring warrants to obtain the data. But the high court left unsettled when searches for the information are reasonable — likely meaning the justices will eventually weigh in again on […]