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US Senate Republicans launch debate on SAVE Act requiring photo ID to vote

3 weeks 2 days ago
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans pressed forward Tuesday with a bill that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot, despite long odds the legislation will ever become law amid bipartisan opposition.  The 51-48 vote to formally begin debate on the measure, which GOP lawmakers have […]
Jennifer Shutt

Judge again hears arguments over signatures on Missouri redistricting referendum 

3 weeks 2 days ago
A petition to force a statewide vote on Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map was less than 200 signatures away from meeting its goal Tuesday as a Cole County judge heard arguments over the status of 100,000 signatures set aside in December. There is no doubt that People Not Politicians, the political action committee pushing for a […]
Rudi Keller

Lawsuit says HUD directive undercuts states’ ability to investigate housing discrimination

3 weeks 2 days ago
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia are challenging guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that plaintiffs allege imposes new rules and funding conditions they say could weaken state protections against housing discrimination — and their ability to investigate them.  The lawsuit focuses on two HUD memos in September detailing how […]
Robbie Sequeira

Immigration enforcement threatens housing security, rippling through local economies

3 weeks 2 days ago
As federal immigration officers made more “at-large” arrests in communities across the country in the first year of the current Trump administration — including at homes, places of worship and workplaces — more than 1,100 Nebraska families developed family safety plans in the event a parent or breadwinner faced detention or deportation. These plans help […]
Robbie Sequeira

Missouri bill would allow foster kids in unlicensed Christian facilities

3 weeks 2 days ago
When Ashlea Belcher looks back on her conversations with young people about Agape Boarding School and Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch, “what set those cases apart was not chaos,” she said. “It was the structure.” Belcher, a former forensic interviewer and now director of the Children’s Center of Southwest Missouri, said young people who attended […]
Steph Quinn

Pain of soaring gas prices compounded by electricity rate increases across states

3 weeks 2 days ago
WASHINGTON — Electricity rates “increased significantly” in nearly every U.S. state in 2025, with residents in a dozen states seeing at least a 10% jump, according to a congressional report released by Democrats Tuesday. Minority members of the Joint Economic Committee released state-by-state figures from monthly utility bill data showing, on average, American households paid […]
Ashley Murray

Missouri poll finds ban on transgender care boosts support for outlawing abortion

3 weeks 2 days ago
A ban on gender-affirming treatments for minors appears to be the strongest selling point in a Missouri ballot measure that would outlaw abortion, according to a new poll that suggests the issue could be key to persuading voters to back it. And a year into new Republican administrations, President Donald Trump and Gov. Mike Kehoe […]
Rudi Keller

Will living with terrorism become a normal part of our American life?

3 weeks 2 days ago
Already in March, there have been four terrorist attacks in the U. S.: near the New York City Mayor’s home; in a synagogue in Michigan; on a university campus in Virginia; and in front of a bar in Austin, Texas. As terrorist attacks increase within our borders, will they become a part of our way […]
Janice Ellis

US Supreme Court will hear case on end of legal protections for 350,000 Haitians

3 weeks 3 days ago
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court Monday said it will hear oral arguments in April in two cases brought by immigrants hailing from Syria and Haiti after the Trump administration tried to end their temporary protections, initially granted because their countries had been deemed too dangerous for return.  Monday’s order consolidates two cases, one brought on […]
Ariana Figueroa

Utility profits rise as household bills soar, new analysis finds

3 weeks 3 days ago
Investor-owned utility profits have soared as consumer utility bills have skyrocketed in recent years, according to a new analysis of dozens of electricity providers. The Energy and Policy Institute, a watchdog group tracking fossil fuel and utility industries, analyzed financial disclosures from 110 investor-owned electric utilities between 2021 and 2024, as well as available 2025 […]
Kevin Hardy

States’ lawsuit argues Trump’s college data mandate threatens student privacy

3 weeks 3 days ago
A coalition of mostly Democratic-led states is suing the Trump administration over a new federal requirement that would force colleges to report detailed admissions data, including race, gender, test scores and financial aid for individual students.  The mandate is an expansion of a 40-year-old system known as IPEDS and follows the 2023 Supreme Court decision […]
Robbie Sequeira

Missouri doula program shows early success as lawmakers look to expansion

3 weeks 3 days ago
In the past year, Christian King, a doula based in Kansas City, has supported more than 40 mothers enrolled in Medicaid through their pregnancy, birth and postpartum.  In that role, she helps educate and support families about birth and babies, but her work also takes on a more nontraditional approach. When one mother’s water was […]
Anna Spoerre

Missouri House speaker backs crackdown on ‘date rape’ drug after lawmaker testimony

3 weeks 3 days ago
Missouri House Speaker Jon Patterson is pledging support for legislation aimed at cracking down on “date rape” drugs, after two Democratic lawmakers said they believe they were drugged in Jefferson City during last year’s legislative session. Patterson, a Republican and physician, said he found the lawmakers’ accounts “very troubling” and encouraged them to pursue criminal […]
Jason Hancock

Rural public transit advocates in push back on Missouri governor’s proposed cuts

3 weeks 3 days ago
Gov. Mike Kehoe has proposed decreasing state spending for Missouri’s transportation industry. According to a chart from Citizens for Modern Transit and the Missouri Public Transit Association, Missouri counties were provided $6.7 million for transportation for this fiscal year. The governor is proposing that the state cut spending to $1.7 million. For the past three […]
Ryan Brandt

Missouri lawmakers are promising tax cuts while making the math harder

3 weeks 3 days ago
The legislature offered a near-perfect snapshot of itself last week. On Thursday, the Missouri House advanced a proposed constitutional amendment designed to phase out the individual income tax and give lawmakers broad authority to expand sales taxes to replace lost revenue. Soon after, the same chamber approved a carveout from that very tax base, creating […]
Jason Hancock

Missouri should reward work, not tax it

3 weeks 5 days ago
Across Missouri, we believe in something simple. If you work hard, play by the rules, and take care of your neighbors, you should have a fair shot at building a good life. That belief is not complicated. It is not partisan. It is rooted in the way we were raised. That is why I support […]
Sam Turner

Senate panel pushes stricter reporting for foreign funding to US colleges and universities

3 weeks 6 days ago
WASHINGTON — Members of a U.S. Senate panel expressed bipartisan consensus Thursday that the country should be cautious of “malign” foreign dollars flowing to American colleges and universities, with some Democrats also arguing recent funding cuts undermine the country’s lead in global research. The hearing in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions […]
Shauneen Miranda

GOP cuts in federal food aid scramble passage of long-delayed farm bill

3 weeks 6 days ago
The U.S. House Agriculture Committee advanced a sweeping farm bill early this month, attempting to revive Congress’ stalled effort to rewrite the nation’s agriculture law the same way it’s been done for decades. But the vote also exposed the fragile coalition that will determine whether the legislation can ever move forward.  Those who watch the […]
Allison Winter

Six more US troops killed in Iran war, in crash of refueling aircraft

3 weeks 6 days ago
WASHINGTON — The Department of Defense announced Friday that six more American troops have died as a result of the war in Iran, bringing the total to 13 since the conflict began in late February.  U.S. Central Command wrote in an early-morning social media post that a “KC-135 refueling aircraft went down in western Iraq” […]
Jennifer Shutt