MoInd 📰

We face a new year with the likelihood that the same divisive and hate-filled words and actions will intrude and dominate much of the public square. Some political leaders observing and adopting behavior from the lesser-civilized among us will prove useful. Little else seems to be working. We have all heard the saying, “They fight […]

State and federal officials are gearing up to stop the advance of a parasitic fly that is less than 70 miles from the United States border with Mexico. Since Nov. 25, at least 10 new cases of incidents involving the New World screwworm fly have been confirmed within 400 miles of the border. The flies […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States will “run the country” of Venezuela until “a proper transition can take place,” following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a strike against the South American nation, a stunning move conducted without congressional notice or approval. Trump in a press conference from […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will back off his plans to use National Guard troops in the Democratic-led cities of Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon.  The move follows the Supreme Court’s decision last week that found Trump could not deploy guard members to Chicago, ruling that the president did not […]

TOPEKA — Moving the Chiefs to Kansas will spur economic development, but the complexity and lack of details about the deal make it difficult to determine what taxpayers will ultimately pay. The announcement that the Chiefs and state of Kansas will spend an estimated $4 billion to build a domed stadium in Wyandotte County surrounded […]

WASHINGTON — States must now provide “justification” that federal child care funds they receive are spent on “legitimate” providers in order to get those dollars, President Donald Trump’s administration announced.  The Tuesday shift in policy came following allegations of fraud in Minnesota’s child care programs, which prompted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services […]

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in California Wednesday found the Trump administration unlawfully terminated temporary protections for more than 60,000 nationals from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua.  In a scathing 52-page order, Northern District of California Judge Trina Thompson found that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem did not go through the proper federal procedures to […]

Missouri has some of the worst rates for maternal and infant mortality in the country. This isn’t old news. Nor are the solutions that lawmakers like state Rep. LaKeySha Bosley, a St. Louis Democrat, continue to propose in the hopes of finally getting more people to pay attention. The numbers should raise alarms for Missouriians […]

The Kansas Chiefs are dead to me. After Kansas jayhawked Missouri’s last NFL team last week, I vowed I would never again watch them. I cursed the day the team formed and Clark Hunt’s performance in Topeka reminded of Mark Twain’s quote about gratitude:  “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, […]

During the upcoming spring semester, University of Missouri sophomore Cade Carman will spend a lot of his time in the state Capitol Building as a student intern. Over summer break, Carman will head to Washington, D.C., on a scholarship to enhance his study of political science. And while he’s there, he’ll get to spend time […]

The Trump administration will review frozen grants to universities without using its controversial standards that discouraged gender, race and sexual orientation initiatives and vaccine research. In a settlement agreement filed in Massachusetts federal court Monday, the National Institutes of Health and a group of Democratic attorneys general who’d challenged the new criteria for grant funding said […]

The economy has developed a split personality. Stock prices are near record levels. Some tech companies, particularly in the AI space, are being valued at staggering numbers, fueling a rush to develop data centers. Meanwhile, half of workers are struggling to get by and lines for food assistance block traffic. The mixed signals can get […]

The U.S. Postal Service has adopted a new rule that could create doubt about whether some ballots mailed by voters by Election Day will receive postmarks in time to be counted. A USPS rule that took effect on Dec. 24 says mail might not receive a postmark on the same day the agency takes possession […]

Missouri has been awarded $216.3 million in federal funding to improve rural health, according to a Monday press release from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. The funding — the ninth-largest amount awarded to any state — is the first of a potential five years of support for Missouri through the federal Rural Health […]

HAMILTON — On a gray morning late last month, Mati Waltemeyer loaded flowers for a funeral delivery while her sister McCall Bodehamer cut stems for bouquets. They’re partners in Olive and Honey, the name they chose when they bought a florist shop and the building that houses it in 2022. They renovated the 130-year-old brick […]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration unveiled Monday hundreds of millions of dollars each state will receive this fiscal year as part of a massive $50 billion rural health fund baked into Republicans’ “big, beautiful” law.  The five-year Rural Health Transformation Program — authorized under GOP lawmakers’ mega tax and spending cut package Trump signed into […]

Missouri’s budget faces a fiscal cliff by mid-2028 when accumulated surpluses will be depleted, state Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick said in a report released Monday analyzing spending trends since 2000. The report, following soon after revenue projections estimating general revenue will be $400 million less than expected, warns that a recession could deplete the surplus even […]

A trio of newspapers that cover Missouri’s capital city and surrounding communities will now be run by a familiar and polarizing figure in state politics whose career has been marked by scandal.  Scott Faughn announced on Monday that his company was taking over the Jefferson City News-Tribune, Fulton Sun and California Democrat from Arkansas-based WEHCO […]

WASHINGTON — This year produced a seemingly endless array of history-making events and nearly constant change to immigration policy, tariffs, the Education Department and federal health care programs. President Donald Trump came back into office emboldened by a decisive 2024 election victory and empowered by Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress. The unified GOP […]

Missouri public school students could see more agriculture-based science lessons starting in kindergarten through high school under bills prefiled in both state legislative chambers that would establish a new statewide program. Lawmakers in the state’s more populous cities filed the bills, hoping agriculture education can benefit students in both urban and rural areas. “I am […]