MoInd 📰

CHICAGO — A bipartisan group of state lawmakers is calling for an overhaul of the nation’s childcare system, which they say is failing children, parents and providers.  The group of 13 Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who have spent the last year studying childcare access and affordability problems, offered an array of policy recommendations during the […]

After investigators ruled 31-year-old high school counselor and coach Kelsey Harris’ death a suicide in 2021, her mother, Kellee, said she was not convinced the inquiry had answered the most important questions. About a week before Kelsey died, police had arrested her boyfriend on a strangulation charge after Kelsey reported he attacked her, according to […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not planning an aggressive campaign at voting sites during the upcoming midterm elections, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday in response to a States Newsroom inquiry about a letter from U.S. Senate Democrats voicing concerns about armed federal agents at polling places. ICE, an agency within […]

Voters have the opportunity Aug. 4 to put Missouri on track to be the 10th state without an individual income tax. Many of the states without an income tax have to get creative in the way they generate revenue to fund state operations. From property taxes and sales taxes to communication taxes and live entertainment […]

WASHINGTON — For the second time in as many weeks, a War Powers Resolution aimed at curbing President Donald Trump’s war with Iran failed to pass the U.S. Senate Thursday. The vote breakdown, 49-50, fell along familiar lines as previous War Powers votes, with Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Labor breezed through a key U.S. Senate committee vote Thursday to advance his nomination.  The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted 12-11, along party lines, to send acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling’s nomination to the full Senate.  The Floridian, vying […]

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, […]