MoInd 📰

WASHINGTON — Proposed mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education have raised alarm among disability advocates and Democratic lawmakers over the potential impact on millions of students with disabilities.  Advocates warn that the department cannot carry out its legally mandated functions for special education services and support at the staffing levels put forward by President […]

WASHINGTON — The government shutdown became the second longest in U.S. history Wednesday, though the mounting repercussions for dozens of federal programs, including food aid for some of the country’s most vulnerable residents, failed to spur any momentum in Congress.  The Senate was unable for the 12th time to advance a stopgap spending bill that […]

Democrat and Republican U.S. senators voiced their outrage during a committee hearing Wednesday that Boeing cut off health care to 3,000 striking workers at its St. Louis-area facilities.   And they accused the world’s largest aerospace company of failing to offer its workers a fair contract.  “This is really unbelievable,” said Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley […]

WASHINGTON — More than 42 million low-income Americans are at risk of losing food assistance Nov. 1 if the government shutdown continues. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operates the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has about $6 billion in a multi-year contingency fund. That’s short of the roughly $9 billion needed to cover […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said late Tuesday he is personally owed a massive payment from the Department of Justice and would have the authority to approve it, saying he was “damaged very greatly” during the government’s investigations into his alleged hoarding of classified documents and Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Responding to […]

Missourians are preparing for the effects of state utility legislation passed this spring along with new policies contained in President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” both of which are expected to cause a spike in energy bills. Signed into law by Gov. Mike Kehoe in April, Senate Bill 4 allows utilities to charge customers for […]

As President Donald Trump prepares to send National Guard troops — from either Oregon, California or possibly Texas — into Portland, Oregon, entrepreneur Sarah Shaoul watches with deep concern. A three-decade resident of the Portland area, Shaoul leads a coalition of roughly 100 local small businesses, including many dependent on foot traffic. Armed troops could […]

In 2025, almost everyone is online. Overnight shipping, online bill pay and endless streaming services are at our fingertips. And as technology and society shift to meet those changes, people living in rural Missouri don’t want to be left out of the conversation just because their packages may take more time to arrive. Under a […]

Doug Boswell is no stranger to challenges. He grew up on a southern Oklahoma farm, helping his dad raise beef cattle, and grow forage crops. He left the farm after high school graduation, but the dream of farming again never left him. A few years after his parents moved to Missouri, he followed so he […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Education Department is looking to move the $15 billion Individuals with Disabilities Education Act program outside of the agency, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.  In a statement to States Newsroom, department spokesperson Madi Biedermann did not explicitly confirm the report, but said the department is generally looking for ways to move its […]

WASHINGTON —  On day 21 of the federal government shutdown, the political tensions and policy differences that contributed to it appeared likely to destroy any chance for the GOP-controlled Congress to find the bipartisanship needed to pass the dozen bills needed to fund the government.  While that is very inside baseball, failing to approve the […]

Every state with either a Democratic governor, attorney general or both signed a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to side with Illinois and Chicago to continue blocking President Donald Trump’s proposed deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago. In an amicus brief filed Monday in the Trump administration’s appeal to overturn lower […]

A circuit court judge was correct to dismiss a lawsuit claiming former Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher retaliated against a legislative staffer who reported allegations of misconduct, an appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The reason, Judge Lisa White Hardwick wrote in the unanimous decision, is because Plocher was not former House Clerk Dana Miller’s supervisor […]

The funding formula for Missouri’s public schools is poised for wide-ranging changes as work groups studying elements of the model reached the halfway point of their work at meetings on Monday. The groups, led by the state education department’s former finance chief Kari Monsees, have convened three times each. They are scheduled to meet three […]

The most popular idea for controlling property tax bills, the chairman of a Missouri House committee said Monday, is to set a separate tax rate for each of four types of property subject to the annual adjustments required in the state Constitution. Since June, the Missouri House Special Interim Committee on Property Tax Reform has […]

What would you say if I told you it’s possible to cut $250 million from the Missouri Medicaid budget while also improving the health of people on Medicaid? All we need to do is cut out the middleman by not renewing our state contracts with insurance corporations like Centene, Blue Cross and United Healthcare. Over […]

WASHINGTON — A group of Democrats on the U.S. House education panel urged the Education Department to withdraw its proposed supplemental priority on “promoting patriotic education” in a letter obtained Monday by States Newsroom.  House Committee on Education and Workforce ranking member Bobby Scott led a handful of his colleagues in writing to Education Secretary Linda McMahon […]

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department announced Monday it will pause efforts to lay off 2,050 employees throughout the country, after a federal judge expanded a temporary restraining order late last week. The new filing provides more information about how the Trump administration plans to reduce the size and scope of a department that oversees much […]

As the federal shutdown continues, states have been forced to fall back on their own resources to spot disease outbreaks — just as respiratory illness season begins. The shutdown has halted dashboards and expert analysis from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which monitors indicators such as wastewater to provide early warnings of […]

Missouri has lost nearly 1.6 million pounds of food aid since May due to sudden cuts to a federal program that buys food from U.S. farmers and sends it to food banks across the country. That’s 146,400 pounds of cheese, 433,070 pounds of canned and frozen chicken, 1.2 million eggs, 38,250 gallons of milk, 120,000 […]