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MoInd 📰

Hailey’s story illustrates Missouri’s failure — doing too little to preserve families

6 months 3 weeks ago
The Missouri Children’s Division has accomplished something most of us would have thought impossible: They got all sides in the debate over abortion to agree. They agree about Hailey, the young mother profiled in an outstanding story in The Independent. They agree that the behavior of the Children’s Division in surveilling, harassing, traumatizing and sometimes […]
Richard Wexler

Kennedy Center slated for huge funding increase while local arts slashed under Trump plans

6 months 3 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — A Democratic lawmaker is asking why House Republicans approved nearly six times the requested funding for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as President Donald Trump cancels federal grants for arts organizations across the United States. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, the ranking member of the subcommittee that oversees funding […]
Ashley Murray

Federal judge: Deportations to Libya, Saudi Arabia would ‘clearly violate’ court order

6 months 3 weeks ago
This report has been updated. WASHINGTON — Immigration attorneys are asking a Massachusetts federal judge for an emergency temporary restraining order to stop the Trump administration from removing their clients to Libya and Saudi Arabia as soon as Wednesday, in a major new development in President Donald Trump’s drive for mass deportations. “Multiple credible sources […]
Ariana Figueroa

Congressional budget agency projects sweeping Medicaid cutbacks in states under GOP plans

6 months 3 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that potential major cuts and changes to Medicaid under consideration by Republicans could mean states would have to spend more of their own money on the program, reduce payments to health care providers, limit optional benefits and reduce enrollment. The end result, under some scenarios, could be […]
Jennifer Shutt

Congressional budget agency projects sweeping Medicaid cutbacks in states under GOP plans

6 months 3 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that potential major cuts and changes to Medicaid under consideration by Republicans could mean states would have to spend more of their own money on the program, reduce payments to health care providers, limit optional benefits and reduce enrollment. The end result, under some scenarios, could be […]
Jennifer Shutt

Missouri bill exempting capital gains from income tax sent to governor

6 months 3 weeks ago
Missouri House Republicans muscled their biggest tax-cut priority of the year across the finish line on Wednesday, sending a bill exempting capital gains from income tax to Gov. Mike Kehoe. No Democrats supported the bill, although 10 did vote “present” to show they supported provisions of the legislation other than the exemption on profits from […]
Rudi Keller

Bill overturning protections for Section 8 renters sent to Missouri governor

6 months 3 weeks ago
Local laws prohibiting landlords from discriminating against tenants who receive public assistance would be unenforceable under legislation sent to the governor’s desk Wednesday. The bill passed by a final vote of 23 to 10 on Wednesday in the Senate, over the opposition of Democrats. It previously passed the House 103 to 37.  The legislation takes […]
Clara Bates

Missouri is still illegally denying food assistance despite court order

6 months 3 weeks ago
One year after a federal judge ruled Missourians were being illegally denied food aid by the state, the Department of Social Services has made “no progress” in addressing the problem, the judge wrote in a scathing order this week. “The excessive call wait times and denials based on the failure to provide a reasonable opportunity […]
Clara Bates

Republican filibuster blocks Missouri bill expanding access to child care

6 months 3 weeks ago
A faction of Missouri Senate Republicans held up a bill that sought to incentivize investment in child care Tuesday evening, arguing the chamber should instead move on to GOP priorities. The legislation, which would establish a tax-credit program at an estimated expense of nearly $70 million annually, was part of negotiations on a separate bill […]
Annelise Hanshaw

University of Missouri Health Care, Anthem negotiations have far reaching impact

6 months 3 weeks ago
The fallout from the failed contract negotiations between University of Missouri Health Care and Anthem is rippling far beyond Columbia — reaching counties more than 100 miles away. As of April 1, more than 90,000 MU Health Care patients were left out of network after the two sides were unable to reach an agreement. MU […]
Tierney Kugel

Missouri Senate passes bill to fund sheriffs’ retirement system

6 months 3 weeks ago
A bill to fund pensions for Missouri sheriffs from new fees on court documents and a slice of the money the state pays counties to house prisoners passed the state Senate on a nearly unanimous vote Tuesday, potentially rescuing a retirement system that voters refused to support at the ballot in November. Last year, lawmakers […]
Rudi Keller

‘We have to move’: USDA soon to disclose which staff jobs will leave D.C.

6 months 3 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced during a congressional hearing Tuesday the department will soon detail which staff positions it plans to move away from the nation’s capital and where in the country those jobs will be relocated. “We have to move,” Rollins said. “This is a customer service oriented agency. And why do […]
Jennifer Shutt

Planned Parenthood must comply with Missouri AG request for patient records, court rules

6 months 4 weeks ago
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers must turn over documents about gender-affirming care to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, an appeals court ruled Tuesday morning. Bailey has been looking into the use of cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers and gender-transition surgeries for minors in the state since March 2023, when a former case worker at the Washington University […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Poll finds ‘remarkably low’ trust in federal public health agencies

6 months 4 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — Less than half of Americans have confidence in federal public health agencies’ ability to regulate prescriptions, approve vaccines and respond to outbreaks, according to a poll released Tuesday by the nonpartisan health research organization KFF. The survey shows that just 46% of the people questioned have at least some confidence in federal agencies ensuring […]
Jennifer Shutt

Missouri House passes wide-ranging education bill as session enters its homestretch

6 months 4 weeks ago
The Missouri House passed a higher education bill loaded up with amendments on a 94-36 vote Monday evening, advancing largely bipartisan proposals as the end of session nears. The bill heads back to the Senate, where lawmakers can either send it to the governor or request a conference committee to work out differences between the […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Trump administration asks to dismiss Missouri AG’s lawsuit targeting abortion pill

6 months 4 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice wrote in a legal filing released Monday that three GOP-led states attempting to overturn federal prescribing guidelines for medication abortion have sought to keep a case going in the wrong place at the wrong time. The filing is significant since it appears to indicate the Trump administration will defend […]
Jennifer Shutt