A new federal rule will end Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming hormone therapies and procedures for kids under age 18. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Tuesday a rule that prohibits state Medicaid plans from covering gender-affirming procedures for minors and using federal Medicaid dollars for such care. The rule also prohibits Children’s Health […]
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice has sued New York, Connecticut and Vermont over laws that allow immigrants in the country without permanent legal status to pay in-state college tuition in the states where they live. The suits, filed Aug. 10, are part of a larger push from the Trump administration to go after states […]
A largely overlooked part of the executive order President Donald Trump issued this week scaling back the schedule for childhood vaccines threatens legal action against the four states that don’t allow personal or religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements. Those states — California, Connecticut, Maine and New York — are among the states with the […]
The organization that led the 2024 campaign to raise Missouri’s minimum wage and require paid sick leave is launching a $1 million grassroots campaign to defeat Republican lawmakers who helped repeal the paid leave requirement. Missouri Jobs with Justice Action has joined Progress Missouri, the Missouri Voter Project — State PAC, Missouri Workers Power, Abortion […]
The Trump administration on Wednesday renewed its request to the U.S. Supreme Court to quickly decide a case over an executive order restricting voting, a day after a Massachusetts federal judge expanded an injunction on the order nationwide. The Tuesday order from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani that blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order from taking […]
“They want to make a deal,” President Donald Trump announced. “There’s a good chance that something could happen.” He has made more than 50 such uncorroborated declarations of Iran’s intent to negotiate ending his war, and countless discordant statements of his goals. When Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins asked Congress for $11 billion for another farm […]
WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union has petitioned a federal court in New Hampshire to reaffirm a ruling that found President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order unconstitutional, after the president renewed his attempts to redefine American citizenship despite his loss at the Supreme Court. “This case has always been, and remains, about the […]
The fate of two proposed ballot measures —- a referendum on Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map and a constitutional amendment limiting legislative power to alter laws passed by initiative — will go on trial next week, a Cole County judge decided Wednesday. Circuit Judge Daniel Green ordered back-to-back hearings for the two measures Secretary of State […]
As a new school year begins, some classrooms may use artificial intelligence tools to flag a student struggling with classwork, track attendance or try to raise reading scores. But as school districts make decisions on which tools are safe and worth spending thousands or millions of dollars on, some officials feel overwhelmed by the array […]
When college students head back to campus for the fall semester, more of them will have guaranteed access to abortion medication. Colorado recently joined California, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York in requiring public colleges and universities to provide abortion medication to students on campus or arrange to make it available to them through an off-campus […]
In a small town where everyone knows everyone, it’s hard to keep secrets. So when local governments hide their business, it can be especially galling to the residents they represent, and faith in local governance begins to plummet. And when transparency and accountability are absent, it’s easier for drama and intrigue to take over. Take […]
On May 14, Kansas City was told in no uncertain terms by its own consultants that its practice of racial and sex-based preferences in city contracting faced serious legal problems. The Council chose not to end the program. There was no coverage of the report in local media until my column in The Kansas City Star […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump covertly traveled across Europe in a military plane in July after Iran threatened his life, according to a bombshell report Monday night by The Washington Post that revealed press and White House officials remained on a decoy Air Force One. The extraordinary episode unfolded July 8 after Trump boarded the […]
Twenty-eight states this year have reported over 3,500 cases of patients sick with the drug-resistant yeast candida auris, which can cause severe illness and is often reported in healthcare facilities. As of Aug. 1, 3,544 clinical cases of candida auris, or C. auris, have been reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, […]
The Missouri Supreme Court wants a quick resolution in lower courts of a lawsuit that will decide if voters will see a congressional redistricting referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot. In a Monday letter to Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green, Chief Justice W. Brent Powell noted that state law requires the case to be […]
On June 11, ICE agents trailed a car into the parking lot of Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore. For the family riding in that car, an everyday school drop off quickly devolved into chaos. ICE agents pulled Jesus Acevedo Sanchez from the vehicle, pinned him to the ground and arrested him for being in the […]
A group of leading anti-abortion organizations sent a letter to newly confirmed U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche urging him to review the U.S. Department of Justice’s authority to use a 150-year-old anti-obscenity law to prevent people from obtaining abortion medication or other related materials through the mail. Advancing American Freedom, a conservative advocacy group founded […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday signed a sweeping executive order that aims to reshape guidance surrounding childhood vaccines, standing alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and was met with immediate pushback. The order — which calls on federal programs and funding to “support maximal parental choice over childhood vaccines” — […]
Hemp-derived THC beverages could stay on Missouri shelves past Nov. 12 — the day the state’s ban on intoxicating hemp products takes effect — if Congress gives final approval to a short-term funding bill and the president signs it. In an overnight vote Saturday, the U.S. Senate approved a measure to fund federal agencies until […]
Roberto Archuleta was 21 years old in 1991 when he found out he was HIV-positive. At the time, the only medications available to treat the virus were difficult to tolerate and often ineffective. Being diagnosed was commonly a death sentence — something Archuleta, then a hairstylist in Kansas City, witnessed too often. An old snapshot […]
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