a Better Bubble™

MoInd 📰

Trump vows to levy ‘horrible’ tariffs on imports, rejecting fears of inflation spike

1 month ago
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump defended his plans for steep tariffs on Tuesday, arguing economists who say that those higher costs would get passed onto consumers are incorrect and that his proposals would benefit American manufacturing. During an argumentative hour-long interview with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait hosted by the Economic Club of Chicago, Trump vehemently […]
Jennifer Shutt

Grain Belt Express clears another legal hurdle with Missouri appeals court ruling

1 month ago
Chariton County cannot block construction of the Grain Belt Express electric transmission line by refusing permission to cross county roads, the Missouri Western District Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. The county can establish rules for how the transmission line crosses its roads, the court ruled as it modified a trial court decision that said the […]
Rudi Keller

Understanding the Kansas City-area rent strike: Tenant rights and other key facts

1 month ago
Nearly 200 tenants launched a rent strike at the start of this month over what they see as intolerable living conditions at two large apartment buildings in Kansas City and Independence. The renters at Quality Hill Towers and Independence Towers are demanding better upkeep, repairs, collectively bargained leases and capping annual rent hikes at 3% […]
Mili Mansaray

No country still uses an electoral college − except the US

1 month ago
The United States is the only democracy in the world where a presidential candidate can get the most popular votes and still lose the election. Thanks to the Electoral College, that has happened five times in the country’s history. The most recent examples are from 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote but George […]
Joshua Holzer

Overdose deaths are down nationally, but up in many Western states

1 month 1 week ago
Despite an encouraging national dip in the past year, overdose deaths are still on the rise in many Western states as the epicenter of the nation’s continuing crisis shifts toward the Pacific Coast, where deadly fentanyl and also methamphetamine are finding more victims. Overdose deaths remain sharply higher since 2019. Many states are working on […]
Tim Henderson

Josh Hawley draws rebuke over use of private jets for Missouri Senate campaign

1 month 1 week ago
One of Josh Hawley’s favorite lines of attack during his first run for U.S. Senate in 2018 was to lambaste his Democratic opponent for using a private jet to travel the state.  “I say, ‘Look, I’m driving everywhere, why don’t you drive?’ She can’t do it,” Hawley told Politico during the 2018 campaign about then-Sen. […]
Jason Hancock

Meet the disrupter who is about to become Missouri’s next lieutenant governor

1 month 1 week ago
For more evidence of Missouri’s drift to the far side of MAGA madness, look no further than the race for lieutenant governor. In the primary election, Republican voters turned aside Lincoln Hough, the veteran senator and state budget expert. They rejected Holly Thompson Rehder, a state senator with a compelling biography and rock-solid conservative values. […]
Barbara Shelly

As AI takes the helm of decision making, signs of perpetuating historic biases emerge

1 month 1 week ago
In a recent study evaluating how chatbots make loan suggestions for mortgage applications, researchers at Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University found something stark: there was clear racial bias at play. With 6,000 sample loan applications based on data from the 2022 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, the chatbots recommended denials for more Black applicants than identical white counterparts. They also […]
Paige Gross

Abortion decision weighs heavily on Missouri Supreme Court judge retention races

1 month 1 week ago
If three Missouri Supreme Court judges had their way, voters would not have a say on whether to legalize abortion statewide on this year’s general election ballot. This November, those voters will have the option to use a power they’ve never used before — to boot two of those judges off the state’s high court. […]
Josh Merchant

Rural Missouri groups threaten lawsuit over PFAS in meatpacking sludge

1 month 1 week ago
Industrial sludge often offered to Missouri farms as free fertilizer contains “forever chemicals,” several groups threatening to sue the state allege. Two advocacy groups along with a mid-Missouri farmer notified several sludge providers and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources of their intent to sue in a letter dated Wednesday, saying the waste presents “an […]
Allison Kite

Ameren Missouri’s Rush Island coal plant to close following years-long litigation

1 month 1 week ago
One of Ameren Missouri’s largest coal plants will shut down Tuesday after more than 13 years of litigation over its failure to comply with federal clean air regulations.  The St. Louis-based electric utility will retire the Rush Island Energy Center, a two-unit 1,178-megawatt coal plant on the banks of the Mississippi River in Jefferson County, […]
Allison Kite

Missouri regulators deny certification for majority of social-equity cannabis license winners

1 month 1 week ago
David Huckins, a disabled veteran from Leavenworth, Kan., threw his name into the lottery this spring for a chance to win a social-equity marijuana dispensary license in Missouri. In June, he learned he landed one of 57 microbusiness licenses meant to benefit disadvantaged business owners – including disabled veterans, those with lower incomes and people […]
Rebecca Rivas

Kansas City Chiefs owners fund radio ad campaign opposing Missouri abortion amendment

1 month 1 week ago
The family business that owns the Kansas City Chiefs is one of the biggest funders of a political action committee opposing a proposed amendment to overturn Missouri’s abortion ban.  Unity Hunt, the business that controls the assets of the late Lamar Hunt, including the Chiefs, in late September donated $300,000 to the Leadership for America […]
Anna Spoerre

Federal appeals court weighs fate of DACA program

1 month 1 week ago
WASHINGTON — After concluding oral arguments Thursday, a panel of federal judges will determine the fate of a program that has shielded from deportation more than half a million immigrants lacking permanent legal status who came into the United States as children. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a 12-year program that was meant […]
Ariana Figueroa

Regenerative farming practices require unlearning past advice

1 month 1 week ago
Early on a cool September morning, farmer Josh Payne tends to his flock in Concordia, just east of Kansas City.  As Payne opens the gate, about a thousand sheep round the corner and bound into fresh grass. The pasture the flock grazes was once corn and soybeans, along with the rest of the Payne family […]
Jana Rose Schleis

Challenges persist for St. Louis schools, as NAACP pushes for improved literacy rates

1 month 1 week ago
A complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. A fired school superintendent and an interim leader without proper state certification. Two government audits, and a shortage of school buses and bus drivers. The start of the 2024-2025 school year has been anything but routine for the St. Louis Public School […]
Debra Chandler Landis

Missouri Chamber backs Democrats in two swing state Senate districts

1 month 1 week ago
Democrats hoping to chip away at the GOP supermajority in the Missouri Senate got a big boost last week when its candidates in two swing districts won the endorsement of the state’s largest business advocacy group.  In a third hotly contested district, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry chose not to weigh in at […]
Jason Hancock