The Gateway

The Missouri Supreme Court will meet this morning to decide if an amendment to the state constitution that would protect some abortion rights will go in front of voters.

The shooting death of Sonya Massey by a Sangamon County Illinois Sheriff’s Deputy in July has prompted nationwide outrage. Massey, an unarmed Black woman, was shot and killed by Sean Grayson in her central Illinois home in July after she called for help. But as Farrah Anderson reports, Massey’s death wasn’t Grayson’s first issue as a police officer.

Agriculture is a notoriously tough career path. Farmers need to be able to take care of crops, livestock and a business. As Jana Rose Schleis reports from Sedalia, youth agricultural groups are now teaching members how to manage both animals and money.

The Missouri Department of Revenue updated the process that Missourians must go through to change gender markers on a state ID. A new rule requires either a court order or proof of gender reassignment surgery. But as Anna Spidel reports: advocates, health law experts and LGBTQ+ Missourians say the new regulations could create serious problems for transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people in the state.

When Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft blocked Governor Mike Parson’s emergency order banning the sale of hemp-derived drugs, he delayed the ban by at least six months. As Harshan Ratanpal reports, the looming ban leaves farmers and businesses in Missouri’s hemp industry holding their breath.

When someone wants to add chicks to their backyard farm or populate a larger operation, they often order from hatcheries. For the past 100 years, those hatcheries have used the U.S. Postal Service to ship live baby birds around the country. Increasingly, customers and suppliers say slow deliveries are causing birds to arrive dead. The Midwest Newsroom’s Kavahn Mansouri investigates.

The Western U.S. has seen decades of disputes over water. Now climate change could bring more water scarcity to the Midwest. That’s left states like Missouri wondering if the thirst for water could be headed this way. St. Louis Public Radio’s Kate Grumke reports.

The Mark Twain National Forest includes more than 1.5 million acres of land across southern Missouri and hosts more than half a million visitors a year. Vince Keeler is the new forest supervisor as of this month. He sat down with St. Louis Public Radio’s Jonathan Ahl to talk about his vision to manage the land in terms of conservation and recreation.

61 years ago this week—the Jefferson Bank protests paved the way for the region’s very own civil rights movement. St. Louis Public Radio’s Marissanne Lewis-Thompson reports the demonstrations are the center of the new play “We Shall Not Be Moved: The Jefferson Bank Protest.”

In about a month, the longtime arts center in Alton will be moving from its current building — with no official plan to return. What’s led to the departure of the Jacoby Arts Center from that building has some Metro East residents worried about what’s to come. St. Louis Public Radio’s Will Bauer reports on the uncertainty for a staple of downtown Alton.

The police killing of Michael Brown Junior and the Ferguson uprising that followed inspired music, visual art, and poetry, including this untitled poem from Ferguson inspired word artist Pacia Elaine Anderson.

On Wednesday afternoon, supporters of Marcellus Williams were relieved. A deal reached with prosecutors meant he would not be executed for a 1998 murder they believed he did not commit. But the deal fell apart in less than 24 hours. That means Williams could be executed on September 24th. St. Louis Public Radio’s Rachel Lippmann and Jonathan Ahl lay out the legal twists and turns in the case.

When a Ferguson police officer shot and killed Michael Brown ten years ago, it brought policing in the city under scrutiny - and federal oversight. A familiar face is now in charge of the path forward. St. Louis Public Radio's Rachel Lippmann has this profile Troy Doyle.

The Missouri Legislature expanded a tax credit for people who donate to crisis pregnancy centers right around the same time that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The resulting prohibition of nearly all abortions in Missouri led those pregnancy centers to take on a new tactic: taking their efforts to other states. St. Louis Public Radio’s Jonathan Ahl spoke with Jeremy Kohler of ProPublica who investigated how these taxpayer subsidized groups are operating.

Latino immigrant farmers in the Midwest face many obstacles starting their own business, especially when it comes to finding financial assistance. Federal grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture can help, but those can be challenging to access. As Isa Luzarraga from the Midwest Newsroom reports, nonprofit organizations are stepping in to help.

In February, twenty-five Kansas City Chiefs Fans went to Union Station to celebrate the Super Bowl victory, and left with bullet wounds. Nearly half of them were under 18. Countless more children experienced the trauma first-hand. More than 6 months later, these kids continue to endure fear, anger, sleep problems, Peggy Lowe reports, as part of ongoing coverage of the aftermath of the parade shooting, produced by KCUR and KFF Health News with reporter Bram Sable-Smith.

Science has been studying the growing of crops for a long time, but the study of soil is relatively new. Researchers are finding that there’s a lot to be learned about how farming has impacted soil over the decades. As Harvest Public Media’s Jim Meadows reports, that research could be greatly helped by the discovery of soil samples over a century old.

Poet Carl Phillips taught at Washington University for 30 years before winning the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry last year. He retired at the end of the school year. His new collection is out now. It’s called “Scattered Snows, to the North” and it includes poems about memory, sex and the natural world. St. Louis Public Radio’s Jeremy Goodwin asked Phillips how his prestigious award affected his writing.

Keeping the 300,000 who visit the small town of Sedalia for the Missouri State Fair requires a big, temporary, volunteer fire department.

Missouri frog hunting season is underway. Conservation experts say it's a slightly cruel but necessary practice to balance the ecosystem. Hunters say the frogs are a tasty but time-consuming snack.