Bayer has agreed to suspend for seven years pillars of its loyalty programs, which Trump administration officials called “unfair provisions” that “pose a danger to competition,” the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday. The agreement relates to how Bayer sells the seeds it produces through years of research and development. Bayer sells corn and soybean […]
With apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a recent article in The Beacon about Kansas City Public Schools potentially converting the long-vacant Bryant School into subsidized teacher housing had me thinking, “How has local government failed us? Let me count the ways” The Beacon story is ostensibly about teacher housing and the conversion of a long-unused […]
Lesley Turek is planning for a busy June traveling the state to educate people about the final lottery for 77 microbusiness marijuana licenses. Turek, the chief equity officer for the Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation, will hold education sessions in Kansas City, Jefferson City and St. Louis, along with five webinars to outline application requirements […]
This Memorial Day we need to seriously consider whether our actions and voices in this democratic republic are debasing or honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Are we guilty of taking the rights and privileges we enjoy for granted? Or worse yet, of totally abdicating our responsibility to continue to protect and preserve them? […]
Gov. Mike Kehoe will ask Missouri voters in August to decide whether lawmakers should have new power to expand sales taxes to replace the income tax and whether citizen-led constitutional amendments should face a higher bar for passage. Kehoe moved four proposed constitutional amendments to the Aug. 4 primary ballot: Amendment 1, renewing a sales […]
Katie Hazelwonder was ready for a change after 12 years working as a welder. The opportunity came unexpectedly, when one day she walked into a Proper Cannabis dispensary in St. Louis. “The people were great,” Hazelwonder said. “They were just so nice and welcoming, and no judgment. I was like, ‘You know what, I’m gonna […]
Budget constraints are forcing liberal-leaning states that spend their own money on healthcare for noncitizens to scale back that aid, as they grapple with federal Medicaid cuts and the expiration of federal subsidies that helped people buy Obamacare plans. Under federal law, immigrants who are in the country illegally are not eligible for federally funded […]
Private equity firms own nearly 3 million apartment units, about 13% of the total apartments across the country, according to a new analysis from watchdog group Private Equity Stakeholder Project. And most have been fairly recent purchases. The companies acquired more than 1.7 million of those, or 57%, since 2018, and about 45% of them […]
A wide-ranging education package backed by Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe collapsed in the final days of the legislative session after negotiations over school accountability became a fight over which communities should be opened to charter schools. The breakdown killed legislation that would have shaped Kehoe’s push for an A-F grading system for public schools, one […]
Philadelphia is poised to launch the nation’s first city-sponsored retirement plan for workers whose employers don’t offer them. Voters on Tuesday sanctioned the city council’s PhillySaves program by adopting a change to the city charter. The move will require employers without retirement benefits to enroll their workers in the new plan. Unless workers opt out, […]
HIGH HILL — A $5 million federal pandemic recovery grant helped Montgomery County prepare a rural industrial site along Interstate 70 for major development. Two years later, Amazon and Google are building data centers on nearly 2,000 acres near New Florence — and local officials are preparing to offer Google a 70% personal property tax […]
Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, sued the Trump administration Wednesday to block the creation of a nearly $1.8 billion fund to pay people said to be victims of judicial weaponization, saying the fund would aid and encourage the pro-Trump rioters who attacked that Capitol that day and still […]
WASHINGTON — A multibillion-dollar package to fund immigration enforcement for the rest of President Donald Trump’s term faced new delays Thursday as Senate Republicans showed a rare split with the president over his new “anti-weaponization” fund. The administration dispatched Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to Capitol Hill to meet with Senate Republicans as many fought to […]
U.S. House Republicans on Thursday denounced expanding the Supreme Court, an idea some Democrats support to dilute the court’s conservative majority after years of decisions that have angered liberals. Republican and Democratic lawmakers at a hearing clashed over the future of the high court following Louisiana v. Callais, a landmark decision gutting the federal Voting […]
Gov. Mike Kehoe will soon choose when several proposed constitutional amendments will appear on the statewide ballot, a decision that could affect whether they pass and the turnout in this year’s elections. Seven constitutional amendments are slated to go before Missouri voters this year, with two more possible ballot measures still awaiting decisions. Five could […]
There could be as many as nine ballot measures before Missouri voters in August and November, including proposals on abortion, taxes, initiative petitions, state parks and congressional redistricting. Seven are already slated for the ballot, while an initiative petition and a possible referendum on congressional redistricting are still awaiting decisions. If all nine appear, it […]
U.S. violent crime fell sharply in 2025, according to preliminary federal data, with murders dropping an estimated 18.1% — a decline that could push the national homicide rate to its lowest level on record if the figures hold. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program reported that overall violent crime fell an estimated 9.3% compared with […]
KANSAS CITY — When Vice President JD Vance pitched voters on electing Republicans to Congress this November during a trip to a Kansas City manufacturing plant on Monday, he delivered the message while standing in a newly gerrymandered U.S. House district. “If you want congressional leadership that fights to lower your taxes, that fights to […]
President Donald Trump is again demanding Congress pass a sweeping set of voting restrictions and refuses to rule out sending troops to the polls, as Democrats and voting rights groups assemble a sprawling effort to guard against federal election interference. The fight over election security is intensifying in Washington, D.C., as the White House and […]
Cameron Seip describes his job as being a connector. As the executive director of Mo-Kan LECET — the Western Missouri and Kansas Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust — he tries to make “connections that make sense” among union workers, contractors, developers and governments. All so the union members and contractors he represents are able to […]
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