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 […]
On the evening of May 14, when the House side of the Missouri legislature was almost a ghost town, state Rep. Mark Sharp’s phone started buzzing with messages telling him that “things are getting ready to blow up in the Senate.” Sharp, a Kansas City Democrat, started making his way to the Senate when he […]
Like many moderate-income workers, public school teachers Julia and Scott Whitnall didn’t think they’d become homeowners in their early 30s. Especially in California. “We never felt homeownership was in our cards. But we did it!” Julia Whitnall said. “We’re extremely happy.” The couple moved May 16 to a $509,000 two-bedroom house in Ripon, east of […]
Missouri could lose around $400 million in federal funding for food assistance under a plan approved by Congressional Republicans Thursday — which would strain the state budget and likely strip thousands of low-income families of food aid across the state. Those cost-shifts could put pressure on the legislature to slash the state’s SNAP program or […]
The Missouri Veterans Commission has received $80 million from sales taxes collected from marijuana dispensaries and other fees since the state’s cannabis program began in 2020. Of that, $33.8 million has come in during the current fiscal year, which began in July and ends June 30. The money goes towards the operational needs of the […]
The U.S. Senate voted early Thursday to prevent California from enforcing regulations on tailpipe emission from new cars and trucks, upending state regulations for the nearly 40% of Americans whose states follow California standards. The House has already passed an identical measure, meaning the Senate vote sends the resolution to President Donald Trump’s desk. The […]
ST. LOUIS — Kevin Hines has been living in a house without a roof in the days since a tornado devastated his community. He has seen some of his neighbors sleeping in their cars. A different man has spent untold hours on a bench. In the aftermath of the May 16 tornado, Hines, 60, has […]
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education must temporarily reinstate the hundreds of employees laid off earlier this year and cannot follow through on an executive order from President Donald Trump seeking to dismantle the agency, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled Thursday. The ruling stems from a pair of March lawsuits — one from a […]
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