a Better Bubbleā„¢

MoInd šŸ“°

US Senate committee slams Boeing for cutting health care to striking St. Louis workers

1 month ago
Democrat and Republican U.S. senators voiced their outrage during a committee hearing Wednesday that Boeing cut off health care to 3,000 striking workers at its St. Louis-area facilities.Ā Ā  And they accused the world’s largest aerospace company of failing to offer its workers a fair contract.Ā  ā€œThis is really unbelievable,ā€ said Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley […]
Rebecca Rivas

Shutdown likely to halt food aid for 42 million, including 650,000 Missourians

1 month ago
WASHINGTON — More than 42 million low-income Americans are at risk of losing food assistance Nov. 1 if the government shutdown continues. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operates the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has about $6 billion in a multi-year contingency fund. That’s short of the roughly $9 billion needed to cover […]
Ariana Figueroa

Trump seeks to approve his own $230M payback from DOJ over past probes

1 month ago
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said late Tuesday he is personally owed a massive payment from the Department of Justice and would have the authority to approve it, saying he was ā€œdamaged very greatlyā€ during the government’s investigations into his alleged hoarding of classified documents and Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Responding to […]
Ashley Murray

Missouri braces for spike in energy costs with new laws in effect

1 month ago
Missourians are preparing for the effects of state utility legislation passed this spring along with new policies contained in President Donald Trump’s ā€œOne Big Beautiful Bill,” both of which are expected to cause a spike in energy bills. Signed into law by Gov. Mike Kehoe in April,Ā Senate Bill 4 allows utilities to charge customers for […]
Charley Duffin

Trump’s National Guard deployments raise worries about state sovereignty

1 month ago
As President Donald Trump prepares to send National Guard troops — from either Oregon, California or possibly Texas — into Portland, Oregon, entrepreneur Sarah Shaoul watches with deep concern. A three-decade resident of the Portland area, Shaoul leads a coalition of roughly 100 local small businesses, including many dependent on foot traffic. Armed troops could […]
Jonathan Shorman

Half of Missouri ZIP codes see postal service cuts under consolidation plan

1 month ago
In 2025, almost everyone is online. Overnight shipping, online bill pay and endless streaming services are at our fingertips. And as technology and society shift to meet those changes, people living in rural Missouri don’t want to be left out of the conversation just because their packages may take more time to arrive. Under a […]
Meg Cunningham

Next steps: Technology opens new options for greater mobility

1 month ago
Doug Boswell is no stranger to challenges. He grew up on a southern Oklahoma farm, helping his dad raise beef cattle, and grow forage crops. He left the farm after high school graduation, but the dream of farming again never left him. A few years after his parents moved to Missouri, he followed so he […]
Cheryl Tevis

Report: Trump administration mulling transfer of special ed from Education Department

1 month ago
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Education Department is looking to move the $15 billion Individuals with Disabilities Education Act program outside of the agency, the Washington PostĀ reported Tuesday.Ā  In a statement to States Newsroom, department spokesperson Madi Biedermann did not explicitly confirm the report, but said the department is generally looking for ways to move its […]
Shauneen Miranda

ā€˜A boundless power’: Dem states ask Supreme Court to halt Trump troop deployment to Chicago

1 month ago
Every state with either a Democratic governor, attorney general or both signed a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to side with Illinois and Chicago to continue blocking President Donald Trump’s proposed deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago. InĀ an amicus brief filed Monday in the Trump administration’s appeal to overturn lower […]
Jacob Fischler

Appeals court upholds dismissal of whistleblower suit against Missouri House

1 month ago
A circuit court judge was correct to dismiss a lawsuit claiming former Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher retaliated against a legislative staffer who reported allegations of misconduct, an appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The reason, Judge Lisa White Hardwick wrote in the unanimous decision, is because Plocher was not former House Clerk Dana Miller’s supervisor […]
Jason Hancock

Work groups zero in on proposed changes to Missouri school funding formula

1 month ago
The funding formula for Missouri’s public schools is poised for wide-ranging changes as work groups studying elements of the model reached the halfway point of their work at meetings on Monday. The groups, led by the state education department’s former finance chief Kari Monsees, have convened three times each. They are scheduled to meet three […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Missouri House committee eyes plan to silo property classes for taxation

1 month ago
The most popular idea for controlling property tax bills, the chairman of a Missouri House committee said Monday, is to set a separate tax rate for each of four types of property subject to the annual adjustments required in the state Constitution. Since June, the Missouri House Special Interim Committee on Property Tax Reform has […]
Rudi Keller

US House Democrats question Trump administration focus on ā€˜patriotic education’

1 month ago
WASHINGTON — A group of Democrats on theĀ U.S. House education panel urged the Education Department to withdraw itsĀ proposed supplemental priority on ā€œpromoting patriotic educationā€ in a letter obtained Monday by States Newsroom.Ā  House Committee on Education and Workforce ranking member Bobby Scott led a handful of his colleagues in writing to Education Secretary Linda McMahon […]
Shauneen Miranda

Trump tried to lay off more than 2,000 Interior staff in shutdown plan now on hold

1 month ago
WASHINGTON — The Interior Department announced Monday it will pause efforts to lay off 2,050 employees throughout the country, after a federal judge expanded a temporary restraining order late last week. The new filing provides more information about how the Trump administration plans to reduce the size and scope of a department that oversees much […]
Jennifer Shutt

Shutdown leaves gaps in states’ health data, possibly endangering lives

1 month ago
As the federal shutdown continues, states have been forced to fall back on their own resources to spot disease outbreaks — just as respiratory illness season begins. The shutdown has halted dashboards and expert analysis from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which monitors indicators such as wastewater to provide early warnings of […]
Tim Henderson