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MoInd 📰

White House yanks nominee to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement

2 weeks 4 days ago
WASHINGTON — The White House Thursday withdrew the nomination of Richard “Lance” Schroyer to lead the agency the president tasked with carrying out his mass deportation campaign, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, had yet to have his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.  […]
Ariana Figueroa

Trump admin aims to shift homelessness grants toward addiction treatment, enforcement

2 weeks 4 days ago
In its latest effort to overhaul federal homelessness funding, the Trump administration is proposing to provide more money to localities that prioritize treatment-first policies such as sober living, more cooperation with law enforcement and more temporary and transitional housing.  It’s a reversal from a decade-long federal approach known as Housing First that sought to permanently […]
Robbie Sequeira

FDA acknowledges estrogen patch shortage, says it’s working to increase supply

2 weeks 4 days ago
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it’s helping manufacturers increase the supply of estrogen-based hormonal patches and acknowledged a current nationwide shortage as more women seek hormonal therapies for symptoms related to menopause. In a release earlier this month, the FDA said it is expediting actions to increase supply, and said all six manufacturers […]
Kelcie Moseley-Morris

Missouri congressman urged leniency for Ponzi schemer who hired longtime consultant

2 weeks 4 days ago
Weeks before a federal judge in St. Louis sentenced Siddharth Jawahar to 11 years in prison for running a $35 million Ponzi scheme, he hired a prominent Missouri political consulting firm to help generate favorable publicity and support for a lighter sentence. Jawahar’s $10,000 agreement with Axiom Strategies – obtained by federal prosecutors and later […]
Jason Hancock

Working Missourians can’t afford hidden hospital contract games

2 weeks 4 days ago
Every year, the trustees of our carpenters’ health and welfare fund sit down to figure out how much it will cost to keep our members and their families covered. And every year, the number goes up. Not because our members are getting sicker. Not because they’re using more care. It goes up because health care […]
Mark Dalton

Fed raises interest rates for first time in 3 years, battling persistent inflation

2 weeks 5 days ago
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve raised interest rates Wednesday for the first time in three years as inflation continues to dog the economy, largely driven by soaring gas and fuel oil prices while the war in Iran drags on. The central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee voted 12-0 to increase its benchmark interest rate by a […]
Ashley Murray

US House leaves for campaign break without action on AI, affordability

2 weeks 5 days ago
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House departed Wednesday for a seven-week campaign break after spending less than two weeks in session during August and September. The extended “district work period” is intended to give incumbents from both political parties time to meet with constituents and fundraise back home before voting in this year’s midterm elections ends […]
Jennifer Shutt

Census data shows US poverty rate drops to lowest on record, but experts are cautious

2 weeks 5 days ago
The official poverty rate in the United States dipped slightly by half a percentage point last year to a historic low of 10.2%, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday. The supplemental poverty rate, a more holistic figure that includes an individual’s non-cash resources, remained essentially unchanged at 13.1%, according to the bureau’s annual […]
Shalina Chatlani

Past secretaries, union leader call for probe into Education Department slashing

2 weeks 5 days ago
WASHINGTON — Three former U.S. Education Department secretaries and the union representing agency workers on Tuesday urged the department’s top watchdog to investigate the cost and impact of mass firings last year.  Former U.S. Education Secretaries Arne Duncan and John B. King Jr., who led the department during the Obama administration, and Miguel Cardona of the […]
Shauneen Miranda

Bill to set rules for college sports clears first procedural vote in US Senate

2 weeks 5 days ago
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Tuesday moved forward on a sweeping bipartisan bill that would set national standards for college athletes’ compensation. The measure breezed through its first procedural vote that needed 60 senators to advance, 74-24.  The legislation is the latest congressional push to overhaul the college sports landscape, which continues to wrestle with […]
Shauneen Miranda

Missouri Republicans ask federal court to revive gerrymandered map, block referendum

2 weeks 5 days ago
Secretary of State Denny Hoskins wants the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to remove a congressional redistricting referendum from the Missouri ballot and order the state to hold the November election under the gerrymandered map Republicans muscled through the Legislature last year. In a filing Tuesday afternoon, state Solicitor General Lou Capozzi, writing on […]
Rudi Keller

Missouri Supreme Court decisions put two questions back where they belong: with voters

2 weeks 5 days ago
In a pair of unanimous decisions, the Missouri Supreme Court rejected the reasons given by Secretary of State Denny Hoskins for his refusal to approve two petitions. First, the court ordered Hoskins to certify a petition on whether voters want to accept or reject the legislature’s redistricting plan. Then the court ordered him to certify […]
Daniel R. Schramm

Iran war cost tops $40B and billions more monthly, budget analysis finds

2 weeks 6 days ago
WASHINGTON — The cost of U.S. military operations in Iran has exceeded $40 billion and the war will continue to cost taxpayers between $2 billion and $3 billion per month, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.  The ongoing bombing campaign, which President Donald Trump launched alongside the Israeli government […]
Jennifer Shutt

Missouri education board declines to seek $300 million increase in school aid

2 weeks 6 days ago
The Missouri State Board of Education declined Tuesday to seek the roughly $300 million increase needed to fully fund the state’s public school funding formula next year, opting instead to request lawmakers allocate the same amount schools are receiving this year. The decision came after board members deadlocked over the Department of Elementary and Secondary […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Missouri schools to get first look at ‘A’ through ‘F’ grades as public release is delayed

2 weeks 6 days ago
Missouri education officials on Tuesday pushed back the release of “A” through “F” grades for public schools until at least mid-November, giving districts a chance to review the ratings first after administrators raised concerns about the system. “We want to make sure that there’s not a premature release, and that all of a sudden schools […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Divorce becomes next battleground as states debate family values

2 weeks 6 days ago
Cerina Fairfax, a Virginia dentist and mother of two, spent nearly two years living in the same house as her husband while she was trying to divorce him. Virginia state law required couples with children, like the Fairfaxes, to wait a year before being allowed to file for divorce. Cerina’s husband, former Virginia Lt. Gov. […]
Anna Claire Vollers

US Senate could soon take up bill to set standards for college athlete compensation

2 weeks 6 days ago
WASHINGTON — With the U.S. Senate set to hold a procedural vote in the coming days on a sweeping bill to overhaul college sports, dueling press conferences Monday underscored the fierce debate over how to tackle the biggest issues plaguing that landscape.  Supporters of a bipartisan measure to set national standards for college athletes’ compensation, […]
Shauneen Miranda