It is easy to blame the president and Congress for the government shutdown — on track to become the longest in history — and the additional disruption and havoc it is causing. They surely are. This shutdown, however, is the result of a deeper more dangerous problem. What are local legislators doing to represent, promote […]
Most individual health insurance plans sold in Missouri will increase in price next year even as customers prepare to dig deeper into their own funds to replace costs previously covered by federal tax credits. The state Department of Commerce and Insurance on Friday released the approved rates for individual plans, most of which are sold […]
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Boston ruled Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plan to pause a food assistance program for 42 million people was illegal — but gave the Trump administration until Monday to respond to her finding before she decides on a motion to force the benefits be paid despite the […]
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Maryland on Friday approved the transfer of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from immigration detention in Pennsylvania to Nashville, Tennessee, for a multi-day hearing in his criminal case brought by the Trump administration after an erroneous deportation to El Salvador. The Trump administration previously planned as soon as Friday to again deport Abrego […]
The Trump administration now expects about 600,000 total deportations in 2025, fewer than under the Biden administration’s final fiscal year, as a drop in border crossings outweighs the effect of increased deportations elsewhere, according to a report released Oct. 30 by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. State and local officials are kept […]
Soybeans sit in storage, farm bankruptcies are rising, and total farm debt continues to climb. By nearly every measure, American farmers are struggling. Experts say financial pressures are expected to continue mounting. Due to rising costs, low crop prices and the effects of the trade war, economists project that growers could see roughly $44 billion […]
Clyde McQueen arrived in Kansas City 38 years ago not knowing how to operate a computer. As the then-new CEO of the Full Employment Council of Kansas City, he needed to get a handle on the technology on his desk. “I had to learn how to do this stuff — work the computer,” McQueen told […]
An administrative law judge fired last year won’t be reinstated and another who took a pay cut while on active military duty won’t win back his lost salary, a Cole County judge decided. In a ruling issued Oct. 23, Circuit Judge Cotton Walker said administrative law judges, who work in the Division of Workers’ Compensation […]
Millions nationwide could be cut off from access to government food assistance Saturday due to the shutdown, including those who are pregnant or have babies and young children. That possibility brings back a lot of difficult memories for Lynlee Lord, a mom of three in rural Idaho. In 2014, when Lord was 24, her partner […]
For many of the men who caravanned for hours in buses and cars to Washington, D.C., for the 1995 Million Man March, the event marked an attempt toward a modern Harlem Renaissance, also known as “the New Negro Movement.” To view the renaissance only as an intellectual and cultural cause misses the point. It meant […]
Brinda Sen Gupta was traveling by plane for work last month without her infant but with gel packs she would need to keep her breast milk cool on the return flight. Knowing how hard it can be to get through airport security with breastmilk and infant-feeding supplies, Sen Gupta arrived extra early and prepared. Sure […]
In the absence of much federal action, states have enacted dozens of laws this year to lower prescription drug costs for their residents — and many more are considering following suit. States cannot lower drug prices directly, but they can go after different parts of the drug supply chain to try to lower patients’ out-of-pocket […]
In U.S. cities big and small, mayors are finding their tenures shaped by housing shortages, and efforts to build more homes, so that people of any income can afford a place to live. In a series of conversations, mayors of big cities such as Atlanta and Seattle, as well as of midsize Midwest cities like […]
In 2020, Marcy Markes was confronted with a harsh reality. A nurse practitioner who has specialized in allergy and asthma care for more than two decades, she was forced to close three of her rural allergy clinics in central Missouri and consolidate her practice at her clinic in Columbia. Why? Missouri is one of 11 […]
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe and state health officials on Wednesday announced continued funding for food assistance amid worry that key federal safety net programs will run dry as the government shutdown enters its fifth week. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said federal nutrition benefits for low-income mothers and their young children will […]
TOPEKA, Kansas — Blueberries unpicked and dropping from plants in New Jersey, crops left to dry up in North Carolina fields and understaffed rural Kansas cattle operations are becoming more and more common, and food in the United States is going to waste, according to farmers and agriculture professionals. It is happening in large part […]
The Missouri House Ethics Committee on Wednesday wrapped up an investigation into an obscene text message sent from one lawmaker to another during September’s legislative special session. State Rep. Lane Roberts, a Republican from Joplin and chairman of the ethics committee, said after the panel adjourned that he does not plan any more hearings into […]
The six states that lead in corn production — Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana and Kansas — have seen higher rates of cancer among young people than other states over the past decade, according to Washington Post reporting published this week. The Washington Post data analysis found that six corn belt states have cancer rates […]
Members of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee sent a letter to Boeing Defense this week urging its leaders to offer a fair contract to the more than 3,200 striking St. Louis-area workers in the name of national security. “These workers are essential to the success of your company, and they deserve compensation that reflects […]
HYATTSVILLE, Maryland — Ginette Young lined up with hundreds of furloughed federal workers ahead of a special food bank distribution on Tuesday in a suburb just outside the District of Columbia. Ginette Young, a 61-year-old auditor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, waits in line for a special Capital Area Food Bank distribution to furloughed […]
stLouIST