MoInd 📰

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said NATO “is more powerful than ever” in remarks Tuesday to honor the 75th anniversary of the alliance and reaffirm allied support for Ukraine one day after Russian missile strikes on a children’s hospital killed dozens in Kyiv. Biden spoke at the annual North American Treaty Organization’s summit happening this week in […]

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats appeared to quell some inner tumult over supporting President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, after highly anticipated internal meetings Tuesday showed the president retained considerable support from the Congressional Black Caucus and other lawmakers in public statements. Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Democrats from both chambers largely declined to detail their […]

Construction crews began work Monday night on an ambitious $2.8 billion project that will expand Interstate 70 to three lanes across Missouri. Crews are first tackling a stretch from Route J at Millersburg to Route M at Hatton, 7 miles of a 20-mile section that will ultimately add a third lane in each direction from […]

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Monday he doesn’t think the Kansas City Chiefs want to leave Arrowhead Stadium for Kansas, though he acknowledged he hasn’t actually talked to the team’s owners. Speaking to reporters after a bill signing in Kansas City, Parson said he thought the reigning Super Bowl champion wasn’t that interested in building […]

When Crystal Quade and Mike Hamra traveled to the Democratic Governors Association Conference in Minneapolis last month, they came with their stump speeches ready.  Yet before they could push their own platforms as gubernatorial candidates, they had to convince people that a Democrat from Missouri was worth paying attention to.  “Folks are excited about Missouri […]

Developers planning to expand a Kansas City facility manufacturing nuclear weapons components will get a break on sales tax under legislation Gov. Mike Parson signed Monday. Parson held a signing ceremony at the site, currently a gravel lot across from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s south Kansas City campus. The expansion is expected to cost […]

The post Missouri governor signs tax break for Kansas City nuclear weapons parts manufacturer appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Former state Sen. Bob Onder, one of the leading Republican candidates in Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District, on Monday landed the endorsement of former President Donald Trump in the seven-way contest for the Republican nomination. Trump, via statement on the Truth Social platform, said Onder “is an incredible America First Patriot” and a “highly respected physician […]

The post Donald Trump endorses Bob Onder over GOP rivals in Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District primary appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A St. Louis judge on Friday determined Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has no right to access unredacted private health information of transgender children treated at the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Joseph Whyte ruled that Washington University does not have to provide the unredacted medical […]

The post Judge rules Missouri AG has no right to medical records of transgender minors at Wash U appeared first on Missouri Independent.

President Joe Biden pledged Monday to stay in his race for reelection, even after a weekend in which a growing number of Democrats asked for him to withdraw and a key U.S. House Republican called for an investigation into the president’s doctor. In a letter to congressional Democrats, Biden argued that the calls for him to drop […]

The post Biden tells congressional Dems he is staying in the race, urges end to speculation appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Anna Wysock’s “aha” moment arrived in an Ohio amusement park, as she got ready to ride a roller coaster with her 7-year-old son: The safety bar across her lap would only click into place once. The attendant told her it had to click twice, or she couldn’t ride. She was mortified. “I had to do […]

The post ‘Compounded’ weight-loss drugs are a growing problem for state regulators appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has nearly completed work on a backlog of requests for records submitted to his office by the public last year.  That means work can finally begin processing requests submitted this year.  The 2023 requests were initially supposed to be completed by May. But a spokeswoman for the attorney general said […]

The post Missouri attorney general still working through 2023 Sunshine Law backlog  appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A recent national poll asked prospective voters in some states how Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony charges would impact their choice in this year’s presidential race. In Missouri, 31% of the respondents said that Trump’s new status as a convicted felon would make them more likely to vote for him. I had to read […]

The post Strike up the band: Missouri moves to the front of the MAGA parade appeared first on Missouri Independent.

All of Missouri’s votes at the Republican National Convention are pledged to the nomination of former President Donald Trump, but the fight over who will cast those votes is putting new rips in the fabric of the state GOP. On Wednesday, the executive committee of the Missouri Republican Party chose 27 at-large delegates and 26 […]

The post Missouri GOP snubs state convention results in new presidential delegate selections appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday in his first televised interview since the presidential debate defended his reelection bid and rejected calls that he should step aside amid growing anxiety among some Democrats about his mental and physical state. The 22-minute interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos came as some lawmakers and other prominent Democrats have […]

The post Biden in first TV interview since debate denies medical condition: ‘It was a bad episode’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The largest donors to a tax credit program supporting private school tuition scholarships in Missouri are a Fortune 500 health care corporation, a cable company and the founding family of the Kansas City Chiefs. UnitedHealth Group Inc. has given the most since 2023 to the state’s K-12 tax-credit scholarship program, dubbed MOScholars, with a $2 […]

The post Major corporations, wealthy donors fuel growth of Missouri private school scholarship program appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When Tanya Gillespie-Lambert goes to an event in a local park in Camden, New Jersey, she takes a handful of brochures about free preschool with her. She has no hesitation about approaching strangers — moms with kids especially — to plug the service in the local public school district, where she’s director of community and […]

The post When ‘universal’ pre-K really isn’t: Barriers to participating abound appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The cost of holding someone in a Missouri county jail for those days and months before and after a conviction ultimately falls to the state. In 2024, the state spent about $50 million to reimburse counties for the cost. But it’s had trouble keeping up with that tab. That’s left counties stuck with most of […]

The post Missouri counties say they lose money housing people headed to state prison appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In the days following the Biden-Trump debate, news stories and Facebook posts introduced a new term for many — Gish Gallop — defined roughly as throwing out numerous arguments that are typically unsupported by facts making it difficult to respond. The debate strategy was named in 1994 for Duane Gish, a creationist advocate who was known […]

The post The Biden-Trump presidential debate was a disaster, but not just for obvious reasons appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This spring, the state of Missouri owed Kimberly Luong Nichols $5,000 in backlogged payments for children at her Kansas City daycare who were part of a state subsidy program. For four years, she’s operated a licensed daycare inside her home, where she currently serves 10 children. Luong Nichols stopped drawing a salary last summer to […]

The post Payment backlog leaves Missouri child care providers desperate, on the brink of closing appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The stalemate over the current farm bill may be solidifying a new era in farm politics as it joins the last three farm bills in a trend of delays and partisan division — a contrast from the legislation’s history of bipartisanship. Every five years, Congress is tasked with drafting a new federal farm […]

The post ‘Frustrating’ partisan stalemate: the new normal for farm bills? appeared first on Missouri Independent.