MoInd 📰

For six years, Honesty Jade Bishop was held in solitary confinement in a Missouri prison after she was sexually assaulted by her cellmate. The Department of Corrections deemed that Bishop, a transgender woman who was living with HIV, was sexually active and needed to be isolated. And from 2015 to 2021, she was in administrative […]

Attorneys for Missouri’s largest teacher’s union are hoping to stop tax dollars from pouring into the state’s voucher program, arguing in Cole County Circuit Court Thursday that payments should be paused until a judge rules on the legality of the program’s funding. The State Treasurer’s Office has already begun dipping into a $51 million appropriation […]

A New York state appeals court on Thursday overturned as overly punitive a nearly $500 million civil penalty against President Donald Trump, but left in place a finding of fraud based on records that inflated the value of Trump’s business holdings. A five-judge panel of the New York Appellate Division for the First Department disagreed […]

WASHINGTON — Officials have already cleared dozens of homeless encampments in the District of Columbia in recent days as President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the nation’s capital for a “crime emergency” at the same time takes aim at people without housing. Advocates working to end homelessness within the district and across the country raised alarm […]

WASHINGTON — An appeals court late Wednesday said it will allow the Trump administration, for now, to move forward with ending temporary protections for 60,000 immigrants from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua. It means that Nepali immigrants with Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, will lose their legal status – including work permits and deportation protections – […]

With billions of dollars at stake, Bayer has gone on the offensive. Billboards along major highways. A social media offensive. Tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations in Missouri alone. And a major push in at least 11 states to change pesticide labeling laws. Such efforts by the agricultural biotech company and others are […]

Election officials turned over at the highest rate in at least a quarter century during the last presidential election, according to new research from the Bipartisan Policy Center. An analysis of shifts in election officials published Tuesday found nearly 41% of election officials administering the 2024 election were different than those in 2020. Turnover has […]

Missouri “is IN” for redrawing the state’s congressional districts in a special legislative session, President Donald Trump proclaimed Thursday on his social media platform. With Texas moving quickly toward a mid-decade revision of its congressional map to tilt five districts toward the Republican Party, Missouri would now be expected to follow suit to help the […]

Palestinians strive to practice “sumud,” Arabic for steadfastness in reference to their dignified, nonviolent resistance to Israel’s occupation of their ancestral lands over the past many decades.  Their resolve to remain is being tested as never before as Israeli military forces slaughter and starve the people of Gaza. Their perseverance and humanity merit expanded global […]

WASHINGTON — As the Trump administration moves to expand immigrant detention centers across the country through state partnerships, more than 60 Democratic lawmakers Wednesday pressed top immigration officials for details regarding a quickly constructed facility in the Florida Everglades, dubbed by Republicans as “Alligator Alcatraz.” “Brushing aside concerns from human rights watchdogs, environmentalist groups, and […]

WASHINGTON — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will no longer administer a grant program that has so far provided millions of dollars to local television and radio stations to upgrade the equipment they use to send out emergency alerts. The change comes after Republican lawmakers voted last month to defund the corporation, following a request […]

Black SUVs whizzing by were the first hint an immigration raid might be imminent. A Kansas City man riding his bike along the Trolley Track Trail felt his initial fear confirmed when a Waldo area construction site came into view. He saw handcuffed laborers, men he assumed to be Latino, being questioned by other men […]

Amidst a plethora of back-to-school reminders, Missouri public schools are making a special effort to inform parents about a new state law banning cell phones during the school day. The law, signed by Gov. Mike Kehoe in July, requires school districts to set a policy barring students from using mobile devices except for in emergencies […]

A recent WalletHub ranking labeled Missouri’s early education system the “worst in the nation,” based on data from the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). The problem? That label is based not on what’s happening in classrooms, but on what’s codified in state regulations. In other words, Missouri scored low not because we lack […]

Self-driving vehicle technology continues to advance, prompting a wave of liability and safety regulations from state lawmakers. This year, lawmakers in Arizona, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada and the District of Columbia enacted legislation to regulate driverless vehicles, according to a database from the National Conference of State Legislatures. While much of the legislation aims to update […]

NEW YORK — After a year in the U.S. Navy, Loceny Kamara said he was discharged in 2023, because while on base he had developed mental health issues, including severe anxiety and nightmares, and had fallen into alcoholism. Kamara, 23, went to rehab and managed to get sober for some time while living with family […]

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe announced Tuesday that Catherine Hanaway will replace Andrew Bailey as the state’s next attorney general. Bailey, 44, resigned Monday after a little more than two years on the job to become co-deputy director of the FBI.  Hanaway, 61, will be the fourth person to serve as Missouri attorney general since 2018, […]

A state audit of the Independence School District found the board discussed the four-day school week and other topics during closed meetings, violating the Missouri Sunshine Law. The district also had problems with cash handling procedures and hadn’t created policies on retaining electronic records, the Aug. 18 audit report said. But overall, the audit “has […]

Nestled in Missouri’s Bootheel is the small town of Kennett, the Dunklin County seat. With just over 10,000 residents, it’s a close-knit community where good-natured teasing is a common show of affection. Once a sprawling swampland, it has since been transformed into an expanse of flat, fertile fields where agriculture stands as the backbone of […]

A recent drop in women’s workforce participation is a blinking red light for women and our economy. For nearly a decade, women have driven the growth in overall prime-age labor force participation – strengthening local economies and contributing billions to GDP. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that continuing to advance women’s equality could add trillions […]