The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s guidelines to states on how to request funding under counterterrorism grant programs include potentially illegal demands related to election administration, Democrats on the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee said Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security, which includes FEMA, sent states last month notices of available federal funding for non-disaster grants […]
A single-engine Piper sits on the ramp at the Jefferson City airport, a few minutes’ drive from the Missouri Capitol. On paper, it belongs to a limited liability company in Montana, a state with no general sales tax and no property tax on aircraft. The plane is one of at least 16 listed at Missouri […]
Missouri schools will be able to hire a new class of armed guards, and high school athletes will get a state-run avenue to appeal some eligibility and competition decisions under two bills signed Thursday by Gov. Mike Kehoe. The education provisions in a pair of bills create “Missouri Rangers” to respond to violent threats in […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s latest attack on the Smithsonian Institution represents an attempt to replace a shared American history with his own ideology, academics said as the Smithsonian defended its longstanding position as a nonpartisan actor. A July 4 White House report accused the Smithsonian Institution and its National Museum of American History of promoting […]
Firearm homicides in the United States fell sharply in 2024, but gun suicides reached a record high, according to a new analysis of federal mortality data by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. The report, based on newly released data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that […]
The math of buying or renting a home in the Kansas City region has gotten increasingly out of hand. Since 2010, home values in the area have risen nearly twice as fast as household incomes, Mid-America Regional Council Director of Economic Research Frank Lenk told the region’s leaders at a May board meeting. On top […]
WASHINGTON — The former U.S Olympian charged with damaging a section of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool pleaded not guilty during a brief court hearing Thursday and was released on his own recognizance. D.C. Superior Court Associate Judge Carmen Guerricagoitia McLean, who is presiding over the felony case against David C. Hearn, scheduled a status […]
WASHINGTON — Republicans are campaigning to keep control of Congress for another two years, but their message about being the “grown-ups” in the room keeps getting overshadowed by public feuds that have sidetracked work on major legislation. After enacting large swaths of their agenda during the last year and a half, GOP lawmakers can’t seem […]
The outcome of a crowded Republican primary for Missouri’s 6th Senate District could turn on the plan to eliminate the state income tax — and how much voters trust lawmakers to overhaul the tax code. Appearing on the ballot as Amendment 5, the top priority of Gov. Mike Kehoe would give lawmakers five years to […]
The Trump administration has rolled back teen pregnancy prevention grants and repurposed a program designed to reduce unintended pregnancies so that it promotes childbearing. But several states, including Republican-led ones, have protected or expanded access to contraception in recent months. Georgia Republican state Rep. Beth Camp sponsored a bill to expand contraceptive access in her […]
President Donald Trump is running out of time to decide what to do with a bipartisan bill meant to lower housing costs by making it easier to build. If Trump does not sign the measure, it would become law at 12:01 a.m. Saturday under a provision of the Constitution that gives the president 10 days, excluding […]
A new appeals court ruling is another blow to the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy that threatens millions of immigrants with unlimited incarceration without bond if they ever crossed a border illegally. A sharply divided 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on July 2 that such immigrants must receive a bond hearing within […]
Driving through the winding roads of Callaway County, often visible in the distance is a massive, 553-foot-tall concrete structure emitting what looks like white clouds. “A lot of people think that’s smoke coming out of the top; it is not. That is water vapor,” said Travis Hart, manager of the Callaway nuclear power plant that […]
Health insurance premiums are likely to grow more expensive next year for those who buy Marketplace plans, after increases this year. Affordable Care Act Marketplace insurers are proposing a median premium increase of 14% for 2027, which would be a double-digit hike for the second year in a row, according to a new analysis of […]
The Fourth of July holiday week found both Gina Mitten and Steve Butz pounding the pavement through a heat warning, making their final case in a Democratic primary where their priorities are often at odds. The two are competing in the Aug. 4 primary for the 4th Senate District seat. And with no Republican in […]
A host of high-profile Democrats called for Graham Platner, the party’s nominee to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in November’s election, to drop out of the race as they tried to save the party’s chances to retake the Senate majority. In the wake of Politico’s explosive Monday report that an ex-girlfriend of […]
WASHINGTON — The long, often agonizing struggle for Black political clout in Washington faces a new, uncertain and potentially troublesome chapter. Black political power in the nation’s capital is centered on the Congressional Black Caucus. In the U.S. House, the caucus has enough members to comprise roughly-one fourth of the votes needed to reach a […]
Gov. Mike Kehoe has announced he will sign legislation Thursday requiring pornography websites to verify that users are adults before allowing them to access sexually explicit content. The bill, which will take effect Aug. 28, applies to commercial websites and social media platforms that knowingly and intentionally publish or distribute content in Missouri if more […]
A quarter millennium after its founding, the United States faces a stark choice that will define its future. In the years ahead, the country can continue to follow the path blazed by President Donald Trump, who is attempting to bring states under the authority of a more powerful federal government led by him. Or it […]
Before Curtis Trent can try to run the Missouri Senate floor, he has to win reelection in southwest Missouri. Trent, a Springfield Republican seeking his second term in the state Senate, is also running for majority floor leader — one of the most powerful jobs in the Capitol and a position that could shape the […]