a Better Bubbleā„¢

MoInd šŸ“°

States gird for new Medicaid ā€˜medically frail’ rule

2 weeks 2 days ago
State Medicaid agencies are concerned that many sick and disabled enrollees will lose their coverage because the Trump administration is narrowing the definition of who is ā€œmedically frailā€ enough to get an exemption from new work requirements. Under the tax and spending law President Donald Trump signed a year ago, states that have expanded Medicaid […]
Shalina Chatlani

Gov. Mike Kehoe vetoes, restricts nearly $500 million from Missouri state budgetĀ 

2 weeks 2 days ago
Gov. Mike Kehoe vetoed nearly $53 million from Missouri’s $50.7 billion state budget Tuesday, but his larger move was to freeze $441 million in spending — including dozens of lawmaker-backed earmarks — as state revenues lag projections and Missouri’s pandemic-era surplus dwindles. The vetoes were relatively light, cutting only about $30 million in general revenue […]
Rudi Keller

White House budget director advocates more funding for own agency, cuts for others

2 weeks 2 days ago
WASHINGTON — White House budget director Russ Vought testified before a U.S. House panel Tuesday that his agency needs lawmakers to increase its annual budget, even though he hasn’t spent much of the $100 million Republicans approved in their ā€œbig, beautifulā€ law. That earlier funding, he said, is intended to help the agency keep track […]
Jennifer Shutt

US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump order

2 weeks 2 days ago
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday struck down President Donald Trump’s attempt to redefine the constitutional right to birthright citizenship. In the decision, a majority of the justices upheld the country’s long understanding of automatic citizenship by birth on American soil, regardless of the immigration status of a newborn’s parents. TheĀ majority opinion, written by […]
Ariana Figueroa

Supreme Court upholds state bans on transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports

2 weeks 2 days ago
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday kept in place state laws banning transgender athletes from participating on women’s and girls’ sports teams. The decision stems from challenges to bans in Idaho and West Virginia and marks a major setback for transgender rights across the country. The opinion also came as President Donald Trump’s administration has pursued a broad anti-trans agenda that […]
Jacob Fischler, Shauneen Miranda

Lawsuits challenge Missouri attorney general crackdown on gambling machines

2 weeks 3 days ago
Two lawsuits filed in Cole County accuse Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway of unlawfully using threats of criminal prosecution to force bars and gas stations to shut down slot machine games. The latest case, filed Friday by an entity founded last year called the Missouri Licensing Advocacy Group based in Osage Beach, argues Hanaway and […]
Rudi Keller

25 Democratic-led states sue Trump administration over Medicaid work requirements

2 weeks 3 days ago
Twenty-five Democratic-ledĀ states plus the District of Columbia have sued the Trump administration over its new work requirements for people who get their health insurance through Medicaid. At issue is a ā€œmedically frailā€ designation that the states say is too narrow and will make it too difficult for ill and disabled people to remain on Medicaid. […]
Anna Claire Vollers

Trump’s sharpened focus on investigating elections raises fears of midterm meddling

2 weeks 3 days ago
President Donald Trump was speaking to supporters at a Pennsylvania rally June 23 when he made an extraordinary admission about an election a continent away. Trump and his allies had spent several days in June savaging California over its slow vote counting andĀ baselessly alleging its contests were fraudulent. But now the president divulged that his […]
Jonathan Shorman

Why Trump chose a deal over a wider Iran War, and what it means for Missouri

2 weeks 3 days ago
When President Donald Trump moved from a stance of military confrontation with Iran to seeking a ceasefire and engaging in diplomatic talks, many commentators highlighted the political motives behind this change. Some viewed it as a retreat, whereas others questioned the administration’s genuine intentions. Nonetheless, an even more significant reason might be driving this shift: […]
Mamoun Benmamoun

High court issues split decisions on Trump’s control of executive board members

2 weeks 3 days ago
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump both a win and a loss Monday in allowing his firing of Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, but ruling that he cannot remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors. The 6-3 decision in Trump’s favor in the Federal Trade Commission case essentiallyĀ expands […]
Ashley Murray

US Supreme Court says police need warrants for cellphone location data

2 weeks 3 days ago
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that law enforcement searches for the location history of cellphones near crime scenes are covered by the Fourth Amendment, requiring warrants to obtain the data. But the high court left unsettled when searches for the information are reasonable — likely meaning the justices will eventually weigh in again on […]
Jonathan Shorman

Former Oklahoma trooper nominated by Trump to head up ICE

2 weeks 3 days ago
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has nominated a former Oklahoma state trooper to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency tasked with carrying out the president’s mass deportation campaign.Ā  Richard ā€œLanceā€ Schroyer’s nomination on June 27 comes on theĀ heels of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed the Trump administration to strip legal status […]
Ariana Figueroa

Missouri could be on the hook for $150 million in food benefits due to error rate

2 weeks 3 days ago
Missouri will be required to cover 10% of federal nutrition assistance starting in 2027 — roughly $150 million —  if it doesn’t improve the accuracy of benefit payments to low-income residents, according to data released last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress last July will […]
Steph Quinn

Police use of artificial intelligence grows as rules lag behind

2 weeks 4 days ago
Hundreds of people fill a downtown street for a protest, waving signs and chanting as they march past businesses and government buildings. Overhead, a police drone records video of the crowd. Nearby traffic cameras and license plate readers capture faces, vehicles and movements along the route. With artificial intelligence, experts say, hours of footage can […]
Amanda Watford

FCC adopts new rules as states transition to Next Generation 911

2 weeks 4 days ago
The Federal Communications Commission has approved new rules designed to improve the reliability of Next Generation 911 systems as states continue replacing decades-old emergency call infrastructure with internet-based networks. The rules require companies that operate critical parts of Next Generation 911 systems, known as NG911, to adopt reliability and redundancy measures intended to reduce service […]
Amanda Watford

What Amendment 5 ad gets wrong about Missouri data centers

2 weeks 4 days ago
There’s a television ad making the rounds for Amendment 5, and it would like you to be angry at a hum. ā€œThat hum is the sound of big tech making money from online gambling, from porn,ā€ a narrator says over footage of server racks. Data centers, the ad goes on, are ā€œmoney machines making millions […]
Jason Hancock

Older Missourians who are homeless for the first time point to weaknesses in support systems

2 weeks 4 days ago
When outreach workers with CoMo Mobile Aid surveyed people experiencing homelessness in Columbia, Missouri, earlier this year, one finding stood out — many were older Missourians experiencing homelessness for the first time. The survey, conducted by CoMo Mobile Aid and a research team at the University of Missouri, found that 59% of those surveyed were […]
Meg Cunningham