MoInd 📰

New estimates put the U.S. undocumented immigrant population in mid-2024 at 14.6 million to 15.8 million, a sharp increase from around 11 million in the 2010s.  Since then the non-citizen population has likely dropped, but the number is unclear since immigrants facing hostility are reluctant to cooperate with government surveys.  The spike in the number […]

In 49 states, the number of people enrolled in Obamacare plans has declined since Congress made coverage more expensive by allowing federal subsidies to expire at the end of last year. The lone exception was New Mexico, the only state that has used its own money to fully replace the expired aid, according to a […]

Ballot measure campaigns raised almost $40 million through the third week of July as they paid for ads and direct mail appeals bombarding Missourians ahead of Tuesday’s primary election.  Early voting is underway and the primary election is Aug. 4. The final full financial disclosure statements for state campaigns were due Monday to the Missouri […]

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the federal government can continue implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting vote-by-mail, reaching the opposite conclusion that another appeals panel decided over the weekend. The conflict appeared to make it even more clear the issue will have to be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court, which already […]

For more than two decades, Vincent McFadden has been sitting on Missouri’s death row. He’s watched a steady stream of his friends get marched off to their executions — and he’s waiting for his own as he fights in court to spare his life. So it came as no surprise to him that Missouri is […]

Next month, a child waiting for the bus in a rural district may stand beside a two-lane road, looking across land that has been in one family for generations. But more and more, that will not be the case. Rural land that once supported family farms and community life is being absorbed into something larger […]

Missouri Republican officials threatened Tuesday to cut state funding for Columbia’s public library after staff held a reading of LGBTQ+ children’s books last week. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins and state Sen. Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville Republican running for Congress in Missouri’s 5th congressional district, held a joint press conference Tuesday to discuss their investigation […]

WASHINGTON — A proposed federal commission on artificial intelligence ethics could help address moral questions associated with the rapidly developing technology, but there are still some areas in which they believe the proposal falls short, experts say.    Sens. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, and Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, introduced a bill last week that would […]

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants could lose their legal status as early as Tuesday, subjecting them to deportation after the U.S. Supreme Court last month allowed the Trump administration to proceed with terminating their humanitarian protections.  The incoming loss of Temporary Protected Status for between 330,000 and 350,000 immigrants comes amid the […]

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress paid tribute to their longtime colleague, the late Republican Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda Tuesday morning ahead of a funeral service at Washington National Cathedral, where Graham’s close ally President Donald Trump was expected to speak. Heads of state, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and […]

WASHINGTON — Attorneys representing the former Olympic canoeist charged with damaging part of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool have asked the judge in the case to release more information from the grand jury.  David Hearn’s legal team wrote in a motion that “the Government’s sole grand-jury witness on damages testified that the property was already […]

WASHINGTON — Federal asylum officers can deny interviews to asylum seekers and send them immediately to an immigration judge, speeding up deportation proceedings, under a rule U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services published Tuesday. The rule, which takes effect immediately, will allow USCIS, a Department of Homeland Security agency, to refer directly to immigration judges certain asylum […]

About five years after hospitals were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, workforce trends appear to be stabilizing. In 2021, overall vacancy rates for hospital positions in Missouri were at 17%, but this rate declined to 10.1% in 2025, according to the Missouri Hospital Association’s 2026 Workforce Report. Despite a lower number of open positions, […]

Recent high-profile cases involving juveniles have reignited a difficult conversation in our region about youth crime, accountability and public safety. Victims do not suffer less because the person who caused the harm was 16. Families deserve to have that harm recognized, and communities have every right to expect protection. At the same time, a 16-year-old […]

It’s been nearly 21 years since Missourians living in Springfield could access abortion without driving at least a couple hours. That ended Monday. The city’s Planned Parenthood clinic began offering medication abortion this week, ending a stretch that started in October 2005, when Springfield Healthcare Center closed after three decades in business and left southwest […]

The Trump administration on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a district court ruling that blocked President Donald Trump’s broad March 31 executive order restricting vote-by-mail. The move came just two days after a federal appeals court denied the administration’s request to resume the controversial plan, which would force significant limits and voter […]

It is no secret that Missouri struggles to achieve proficiency in reading. In 2024, 42% of Missouri’s fourth grade students scored below basic, meaning they did not meet the lowest performance standard of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, according to the Nation’s Report Card. To combat the low scores, recent literacy mandates require evidence-based […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday called on the U.S. Senate to cancel its five-week August break, keeping lawmakers in session to advance several of his priorities, despite not having the votes. Trump wrote in a social media post that he wanted Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to keep the chamber open, preventing […]

WASHINGTON — Political party poll watchers are showing up more and more, usually outside polling places. They have a different mission than the nonpartisan election observers long regarded as bulwarks of credibility, and there’s concern that voters will be confused who’s there to influence them and who’s there to protect them. The growing presence of […]

Crime rates continued falling across a sample of large U.S. cities in the first half of 2026, with homicide rates dropping enough to put the nation on track for another historic low in killings. A new analysis from the nonpartisan think tank Council on Criminal Justice found that nine of 13 crime categories tracked in […]