MoInd 📰

A new lawsuit filed by the Missouri NAACP accuses Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey of failing to follow state law last year when the annual vehicle stops report omitted data that shows whether minority motorists are being stopped more frequently than white drivers. Filed Tuesday in Cole County, the lawsuit also accuses Bailey and the […]

Christopher “Kit” Bond’s death brought very deep memories for me about a governor I have missed since he left the office in 1985. My strongest memory of Bond was his pursuit as the Republican gubernatorial candidate to replace the Democratic governor who controlled a legislature dominated by Democrats. He began his election campaign critical of […]

Elon Musk says in an interview excerpt that he was “disappointed” in the U.S. House GOP’s massive legislative package of tax cuts, border funding and more of President Donald Trump’s domestic policy priorities, telling CBS News the bill would undermine the work of his U.S. DOGE Service to cut government spending. The interview, a portion […]

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is arguing that a Maryland federal court lacks the authority to require the return of wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia because he’s in prison in El Salvador — even though the U.S. Supreme Court has directed administration officials to “facilitate” his return. In addition, the judge in the highly publicized […]

WASHINGTON — Two top Democratic lawmakers are calling on the Trump administration to detail exactly how it’s spending money that Congress approved earlier this year for government operations. House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray of Washington released a two-page letter Wednesday demanding the White House […]

The European Union’s landmark AI Act, which went into effect last year, stands as inspiration for some U.S. legislators looking to enact widespread consumer protections. Others use it as a cautionary tale warning against overregulation leading to a less competitive digital economy. The European Union enacted its law to prevent what is currently happening in […]

German chemical giant Bayer received no relief from runaway litigation costs associated with Roundup herbicide Tuesday when the Western District Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a $611 million judgment that its product causes cancer. The decision, in a case involving three plaintiffs who sued in Cole County, is one of the reasons the company, which […]

Missouri has agreed to abide by a request from the federal government to turn over personal data about anyone receiving food assistance, the state social services agency confirmed to The Independent Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this month requested sensitive data from states about participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. changed the federal government’s recommendation for the coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday, saying healthy children and healthy pregnant people no longer need to get it. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic who had to broker several deals with Republican senators to secure confirmation, didn’t explain […]

The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a judge in Kansas City to lift an injunction that had blocked restrictions on abortion, a decision that upends access to the procedure six months after voters enshrined reproductive rights into the state Constitution. The two-page order imposes a “de facto abortion ban” in the state, according to […]

Disaster recovery, sports stadiums and major capital improvement projects will be on the agenda for a special legislative session that will begin June 2, Gov. Mike Kehoe said Tuesday. At a news conference, Kehoe said he has spoken to legislative leaders in hopes they can act quickly on all three items and set aside hard […]

WASHINGTON — A collection of National Public Radio stations sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, seeking to block an executive order that would cut off their federal funding. The 43-page filing says the order that President Donald Trump signed earlier this month “violates the expressed will of Congress and the First Amendment’s bedrock guarantees of freedom […]

The tax and spending bill the U.S. House approved last week targets a strategy states have used to boost the Medicaid dollars they get from the federal government. The measure would cap or freeze the taxes states levy on medical providers, potentially leaving states with major holes in their Medicaid budgets. As a result, states […]

Missouri parents may soon have a better understanding of whether their child is performing at or above grade level on the state’s standardized test under a sweeping education bill awaiting the governor’s signature.  The legislation contains a provision that would require the state’s education department to add a fifth category to Missouri Assessment Program results, […]

Violent tornado outbreaks, like the storms that tore through parts of St. Louis and London, Kentucky, on May 16, have made 2025 seem like an especially active, deadly and destructive year for tornadoes. The U.S. has had more reported tornadoes than normal — over 960 as of May 22, according to the National Weather Service’s preliminary count. That’s […]

The last time Missouri was in danger of losing an NFL franchise, deep disagreements between the governor and lawmakers over whether the state should pay for a new stadium led to litigation and the threat of a constitutional showdown. It was 10 years ago when then-Gov. Jay Nixon and the legislature quarreled over a $1 […]

Maybe you collected signatures last year so that Missourians could vote to overturn the state’s abortion ban.  Maybe you walked door to door asking voters to support paid sick leave benefits for lower-wage workers. Maybe you were one of millions of people who successfully voted to pass those measures on the statewide ballot last November. […]

A man who spent months in a Kansas City jail waiting to be transferred to a state psychiatric hospital for court-ordered treatment died on Monday.  Timothy Beckmann was arrested in late September and found incompetent to stand trial due to mental health diagnoses. He was ordered into Department of Mental Health custody in January, joining […]

Republican President Donald Trump, who called himself the “father of IVF” on the campaign trail, issued an executive order in February directing policy advisers to create a report on how to make in vitro fertilization more accessible for Americans. “Today, many hopeful couples dream of starting a family, but as many as one in seven […]

Murphy Smith says he was unemployed for four years because of medical issues before becoming a rideshare driver in Eugene, Oregon. Driving allows him to work without triggering his severe asthma, Smith, 47, says. But without a set minimum wage, he says he works 12 to 16 hours a day to support himself. Smith, who’s […]