Soybeans sit in storage, farm bankruptcies are rising, and total farm debt continues to climb. By nearly every measure, American farmers are struggling. Experts say financial pressures are expected to continue mounting. Due to rising costs, low crop prices and the effects of the trade war, economists project that growers could see roughly $44 billion […]
Clyde McQueen arrived in Kansas City 38 years ago not knowing how to operate a computer. As the then-new CEO of the Full Employment Council of Kansas City, he needed to get a handle on the technology on his desk. “I had to learn how to do this stuff — work the computer,” McQueen told […]
An administrative law judge fired last year won’t be reinstated and another who took a pay cut while on active military duty won’t win back his lost salary, a Cole County judge decided. In a ruling issued Oct. 23, Circuit Judge Cotton Walker said administrative law judges, who work in the Division of Workers’ Compensation […]
Millions nationwide could be cut off from access to government food assistance Saturday due to the shutdown, including those who are pregnant or have babies and young children. That possibility brings back a lot of difficult memories for Lynlee Lord, a mom of three in rural Idaho. In 2014, when Lord was 24, her partner […]
For many of the men who caravanned for hours in buses and cars to Washington, D.C., for the 1995 Million Man March, the event marked an attempt toward a modern Harlem Renaissance, also known as “the New Negro Movement.” To view the renaissance only as an intellectual and cultural cause misses the point. It meant […]
Brinda Sen Gupta was traveling by plane for work last month without her infant but with gel packs she would need to keep her breast milk cool on the return flight. Knowing how hard it can be to get through airport security with breastmilk and infant-feeding supplies, Sen Gupta arrived extra early and prepared. Sure […]
In the absence of much federal action, states have enacted dozens of laws this year to lower prescription drug costs for their residents — and many more are considering following suit. States cannot lower drug prices directly, but they can go after different parts of the drug supply chain to try to lower patients’ out-of-pocket […]
In U.S. cities big and small, mayors are finding their tenures shaped by housing shortages, and efforts to build more homes, so that people of any income can afford a place to live. In a series of conversations, mayors of big cities such as Atlanta and Seattle, as well as of midsize Midwest cities like […]
In 2020, Marcy Markes was confronted with a harsh reality. A nurse practitioner who has specialized in allergy and asthma care for more than two decades, she was forced to close three of her rural allergy clinics in central Missouri and consolidate her practice at her clinic in Columbia. Why? Missouri is one of 11 […]
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe and state health officials on Wednesday announced continued funding for food assistance amid worry that key federal safety net programs will run dry as the government shutdown enters its fifth week. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said federal nutrition benefits for low-income mothers and their young children will […]
TOPEKA, Kansas — Blueberries unpicked and dropping from plants in New Jersey, crops left to dry up in North Carolina fields and understaffed rural Kansas cattle operations are becoming more and more common, and food in the United States is going to waste, according to farmers and agriculture professionals. It is happening in large part […]
The Missouri House Ethics Committee on Wednesday wrapped up an investigation into an obscene text message sent from one lawmaker to another during September’s legislative special session. State Rep. Lane Roberts, a Republican from Joplin and chairman of the ethics committee, said after the panel adjourned that he does not plan any more hearings into […]
The six states that lead in corn production — Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana and Kansas — have seen higher rates of cancer among young people than other states over the past decade, according to Washington Post reporting published this week. The Washington Post data analysis found that six corn belt states have cancer rates […]
Members of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee sent a letter to Boeing Defense this week urging its leaders to offer a fair contract to the more than 3,200 striking St. Louis-area workers in the name of national security. “These workers are essential to the success of your company, and they deserve compensation that reflects […]
HYATTSVILLE, Maryland — Ginette Young lined up with hundreds of furloughed federal workers ahead of a special food bank distribution on Tuesday in a suburb just outside the District of Columbia. Ginette Young, a 61-year-old auditor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, waits in line for a special Capital Area Food Bank distribution to furloughed […]
President Donald Trump sought to remove his status as the only felon to be elected president by appealing his conviction on 34 New York state charges just before midnight Tuesday, arguing, in part, that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling giving the president broad immunity invalidated the conviction. In a 96-page appeal nearly 18 months after […]
If a podcast episode titled “The audit of Ray County and the mystery of the 76 hams” seems worth listening to, then Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick has succeeded. Unbeknownst to many, “The World’s Greatest Audit Podcast,” is recorded here in the Show-Me State. “Well, you know, it’s a low bar,” said Fitzpatrick, whose team’s […]
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services issued an advisory Tuesday warning consumers of health risks it says are associated with a product called 7-OH. The name, 7-OH, is short for 7-hydroxymitragynine, and it’s made by chemically converting the main opioid-inducing element in kratom. Products containing it are sold in smoke shops, gas stations, […]
A coalition of Democratic state officials sued the Trump administration Tuesday, asking a federal judge to force the release of food assistance funds for 42 million people that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has said cannot be paid during the ongoing government shutdown. Attorneys general representing 22 states and the District of Columbia and three […]
This report has been updated. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Tuesday failed for the 13th time to advance a stopgap spending bill that would fund the government until Nov. 21 and end the nearly one-month government shutdown. Tuesday was also the day when air traffic controllers, who are working without pay, missed their first full […]
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