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Missouri congressional incumbents flush with cash heading into primary election

2 weeks ago
Missouri congressional incumbents seeking reelection hold a huge cash advantage over their leading challengers, final preprimary campaign finance reports show. The seven incumbents seeking reelection held $13.6 million in their campaign accounts on July 15, filings with the Federal Election Commission show. Challengers held $1.9 million. Republicans hold six of Missouri’s eight seats in the […]
Rudi Keller

Landmark federal housing law tries new ways to boost local building

2 weeks ago
Championed as one of the most consequential and bipartisan federal housing laws in decades, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act enacted this month makes significant changes across federal housing policy. Included in the 139-page law are a host of provisions that will restrict some institutional investors from buying homes, ease rules for manufactured housing […]
Robbie Sequeira

States move to limit classroom screen time

2 weeks ago
After school cellphone bans passed many statehouses with bipartisan support in recent legislative sessions, state lawmakers are turning to legislation governing how long students should spend looking at screens. This year, four states passed laws restricting or regulating screen time for students from childcare through fifth grade. Iowa capped digital instruction at 60 minutes per […]
Robbie Sequeira

Missouri drops out of lawsuit challenging federal disability rights protections

2 weeks ago
Missouri withdrew this week from a multi-state lawsuit seeking to strike down a part of federal law requiring states to provide services to allow people with disabilities to live in their communities instead of institutions. The lawsuit began in September 2024 when 17 Republican-led states challenged a Biden administration rule updating decades-old regulations of the […]
Steph Quinn

US House and Senate split on ending Trump’s war in Iran, as gas prices rise

2 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — One day after President Donald Trump attended the dignified transfer of the remains of four U.S. service members killed as a result of the Iran conflict, the two chambers of Congress were at odds over whether to rein in the president’s military powers in the monthslong war. While members of the U.S. House […]
Ashley Murray

As national death rate dips, some states did better than others

2 weeks ago
The nation’s death rate may have fallen to a historic low last year as many of the killers of young people such as drug overdoses, gun homicides and traffic accidents continued receding in 2025, according to new federal statistics.   States have not shared equally in the success, though, according to a Stateline analysis of provisional […]
Tim Henderson

Feds have a new teen pregnancy prevention plan: Fertility and ‘reproductive goals’

2 weeks ago
The Trump administration has a new plan for teenagers learning about pregnancy: Beginning this summer, it will steer millions of dollars toward organizations that focus on anatomy, fertility tracking, hormonal production and “reproductive goals counseling.” The plan will also emphasize abstinence from sex and the importance of marriage.  In doing so, it will pivot away […]
Kelcie Moseley-Morris

Our safety net was already full of holes. They’re only getting bigger

2 weeks ago
Back when I was growing up, it seemed a bit easier to get by on next to nothing. People could afford food and shelter on a working-class wage and get a little help from safety net programs when needed. But since the 1990s, the cost of housing and healthcare has increasingly exceeded wage growth. We’re […]
Jessie Sicley

US Senate Judiciary holds over vote on Blanche nomination for AG as Grassley slams Dems

2 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. Senate tasked with advancing acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to be the nation’s top law enforcer on Thursday pushed the vote one week. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s delayed vote to send the controversial nominee to the full Senate is “per standard committee practice,” according to a spokesperson for […]
Ashley Murray

Leading Dem on US House education panel, advocates blast student loan changes

2 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — Education experts and advocates warned Wednesday that the recent federal student loan system overhaul stemming from the GOP’s mega tax and spending cut law will drive borrowers to private lenders and could derail their higher education plans.  U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Education and […]
Shauneen Miranda

Cyclosporiasis outbreak surges to over 4.1K confirmed cases

2 weeks 1 day ago
The number of cases of cyclosporiasis — a parasitic infection linked to contaminated water or food that causes severe intestinal issues — has more than doubled to over 4,173 cases across 41 states this week, up from the 1,645 confirmed cases in 34 states reported last week by the federal Centers for Disease Control and […]
Shalina Chatlani

State AGs join legal fight against Trump’s wind farm freeze

2 weeks 1 day ago
A coalition of Democratic state attorneys general has joined a lawsuit seeking to end the Trump administration’s halt of onshore wind projects in the United States. Last week, 18 states and the District of Columbia moved to intervene in a lawsuit filed by wind industry companies against the Department of Defense.  The companies and state […]
Alex Brown

Missouri maternal deaths remain mostly preventable, sixth state report finds

2 weeks 1 day ago
From 2019 to 2023, 340 Missourians died while pregnant or within a year after pregnancy. Of those, 108 deaths were classified as pregnancy-related — meaning caused or aggravated by the pregnancy itself — and nearly 80% of them were preventable. The findings were part of the sixth annual Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review, published this month by […]
Anna Spoerre

Trump administration claims court victory in mandatory detention

2 weeks 1 day ago
The Trump administration claimed a rare court victory for its embattled immigration detention policy when an appeals court, covering three states with large detention centers, agreed to stay court rulings that freed three Texas immigrants during an appeal.  The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a terse July 21 ruling, agreed to stay three […]
Tim Henderson

US House approves joint measure to curb Congress’ stock trading, require voter ID

2 weeks 1 day ago
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans passed a measure to curb stock trading by members of Congress that was packaged with an unrelated voter ID bill, part of President Donald Trump’s push for major federal involvement in elections. The legislation passed by a vote of 232-198. All Republicans and 13 Democrats voted in favor. The bill faces […]
Ashley Murray

US House GOP pushes through budget blueprint for Iran war funding, farm aid

2 weeks 1 day ago
WASHINGTON — Republicans in the U.S. House on Wednesday approved their outline for the third party-line budget measure of the second Trump administration, though they won’t be able to begin work on that package until they reach agreement with their Senate colleagues on a plan forward.  The 216-214 vote on a budget resolution sets up […]
Jennifer Shutt

After a man dies in police custody, residents in a Missouri town demand answers

2 weeks 1 day ago
SIKESTON — Not everyone at Lloyd Gilmore’s funeral knew him well. One woman, who had ironed her clothes two days in advance, said she just wanted to be there for his family. School-age children, guided by their parents, approached his open casket in the sanctuary of Cornerstone Baptist Church and peeked inside. Other people looked […]
Cara Anthony

Citing a hunger ‘crisis,’ US mayors call for end to federal SNAP cuts

2 weeks 1 day ago
More than 200 American mayors are calling on the federal government to reverse changes that will cost states billions and push millions of people off the food stamp program. This week, the United States Conference of Mayors asked the U.S. Senate’s agriculture committee to reconsider the deep cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or […]
Kevin Hardy

Missouri early voting period opens with a rush that points to high primary turnout

2 weeks 1 day ago
The first day of early voting in Missouri indicates a strong primary turnout, comparable to or possibly exceeding past primaries where hotly contested ballot measures drew more votes than candidate races. Four times as many voters cast ballots in St. Charles County on Tuesday than on the first day of early voting before the 2024 […]
Rudi Keller