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Republican infighting in the Missouri Senate often got in the way of passing bills, including many of the majority party’s priorities.

Ed Walter, 75, was hit by a car and killed Saturday while crossing the street near Ted Drewes, police and friends said.

Officers responded just before 5 a.m. to an intersection near the Missouri Botanical Garden to a call of a crash, police said.

A closed, historic hotel listed on the National Register of Historic Places has been renovated and opened as the Le Meridien St. Louis Downtown hotel.

Mizzou players are among college athletes teaming up with business collectives to capitalize on their name, image and likeness under new NCAA rules.

A golden water-like orb against a pink background on a short loop was St. Louis artist Zac Farmer’s first animation for the Angad Arts Hotel (3550 Samuel Shepard Drive, 314-561-0033). Farmer, who has a degree in art from Lindenwood University, was dabbling in 3-D art while working a corporate job when the hotel reached out and asked him to craft an animation for their first biannual exhibit. Farmer combined what he learned at Lindenwood with online video tutorials to start creating 3-D artwork on an old MacBook.

According to a newspaper article, Gen. Grant was a frequent visitor at the home.

Jeremiah and Kristy DeGuire have run the farm from their home since 2018.

These 75 companies donated a total of $127 million to the St. Louis area.

For companies across the region, all options are on the table — downsizing, expansion and maintaining status quo, executives and real estate experts say.

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. - St. Louis County Executive Dr. Sam Page addressed the area's recent COVID case spike Monday morning during a news conference. Page said the number of COVID cases in the community is steadily rising and that health experts are raising a caution flag. At the same time, Page said the increase, at least [...]

The 2022 legislative session ended last week the same way it began back in January: With the Missouri Senate bogged down and barely able to function thanks to bitter divisions within the Republican majority.  Over the course of five months, there were filibusters, procedural hijinks and ugly back-and-forths between members of the Senate’s conservative caucus […]

The post Winners and losers of Missouri’s raucous 2022 legislative session appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The 2022 regular session of the Missouri General Assembly was the most dysfunctional I can remember in more than 50 years covering the statehouse. Endless Senate filibusters stalled action for weeks on major issues for Missourians — contributing to the second lowest percentage of bills passed in an annual session in more than one-third of […]

The post Capitol Perspectives: A dysfunctional legislative session appeared first on Missouri Independent.

New research shows that dry weather is coming on more quickly than before, with little advance warning.

ST. LOUIS - Monday morning starts off cool. The afternoon will be mostly sunny and pleasant with highs in the 70s. Tuesday will start off dry. Clouds will increase in the afternoon with high temperatures in the 80s. Showers and storms move in Tuesday night. Showers and storms will stick around through the rest of [...]

Fans will head to America's Center this weekend for the pop culture convention

States and the federal government can do more to protect homebuyers, like reforming flood disclosure laws.

by Sarah Smith

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.

When it comes to reproductive care, Mississippi has a dual distinction. The state spawned the law that likely will lead to the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade. It is also unique among Deep South states for doing the least to provide health care coverage to low-income people who have given birth.

Mississippians on Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor, lose coverage a mere 60 days after childbirth. That’s often well before the onset of postpartum depression or life-threatening, birth-related infections: A 2020 study found that people racked up 81% of their postpartum expenses between 60 days and a year after delivery. And Mississippi’s own Maternal Mortality Review Committee found that 37% of pregnancy-related deaths between 2013 and 2016 occurred more than six weeks postpartum.

Every other state in the Deep South has extended or is in the process of extending Medicaid coverage to 12 months postpartum. Wyoming and South Dakota are the only other states where trigger laws will outlaw nearly all abortions if Roe falls and where lawmakers haven’t expanded Medicaid or extended postpartum coverage.

“It’s hypocrisy to say that we are pro-life on one end, that we want to protect the baby, but yet you don’t want to pass this kind of legislation that will protect that mom who has to bear the responsibility of that child,” said Cassandra Welchlin, executive director of the MS Black Women’s Roundtable, a nonprofit that works at the intersection of race, gender and economic justice.

Efforts to extend coverage past 60 days have repeatedly failed in Mississippi — where 60% of births are covered by Medicaid — despite support from major medical associations and legislators on both sides of the aisle.

Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn, a Republican, said shortly after he killed the most recent bill that would’ve extended postpartum coverage that he’s against expanding any form of Medicaid. “We need to look for ways to keep people off, not put them on,” he told The Associated Press in March. When asked about the issue during a May 8 interview on CNN, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said, “When you talk about these young ladies, the best thing we can do for them is to provide and improve educational opportunities for them.” (Neither Gunn nor Reeves responded to requests for comment.)

During the pandemic, a change in federal rules prevented states from cutting off Medicaid recipients, which has allowed people in Mississippi and elsewhere to retain postpartum coverage beyond 60 days. But at the end of the federal public health emergency declaration — which is set to expire in July 2022 — states will revert to their prior policies. “What we are afraid of is that when that does end, it will go back to what we knew was pre-pandemic health care,” Welchlin said.

We discussed the implications of Mississippi’s post-Roe reality with Welchlin and two other experts in the field: Alina Salganicoff, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s director for women’s health policy, and Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health. Their answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What services does Medicaid provide postpartum?

Salganicoff: Typically, everything from assistance if the person is having problems breastfeeding to screening for depression services.

Welchlin: We know the struggles of so many who have had life threatening illnesses such as heart conditions and hypertension. We know of course that Medicaid helps in that.

What have you seen in terms of postpartum needs in Mississippi?

Welchlin: One of the stories that really touched me over the course of this pandemic was that of a mom who already had a child, and she needed access to child care so she could get back and forth to the doctor. During this particular pregnancy she had a severe heart disorder where she couldn’t breathe, and she had to get rushed to the hospital. Because she was so connected to doulas and a supportive care organization like us, she was able to get admitted and sure enough that’s when they diagnosed her with that heart condition. And she was a mom on Medicaid.

What happens when mothers lose Medicaid coverage postpartum?

Miller: Only giving someone two months postpartum doesn’t allow for the kind of continuation of care that you need. If there are indications of problems in the postpartum period, they don’t all necessarily show up within the first two months. And we certainly know that the ability to have a healthy infant and keep an infant healthy is also related to whether you have coverage. The extension to 12 months really allows for that kind of continuum of care.

Welchlin: We know in the state of Mississippi, women die at higher rates, and of course it’s higher for Black women. And so, when women don’t have that coverage, what happens is they die.

What does it mean to not extend postpartum Medicaid coverage if Roe falls?

Miller: These bans on abortion are going to be layered on top of an already-unconscionable maternal and infant health crisis that most particularly impacts those who are struggling to make ends meet. It particularly impacts Black women and other communities of color. ... A state like Mississippi that is so clearly wanting to ban abortions — the fact that they refuse to extend basic health care benefits that will help during pregnancy and postpartum just clearly indicates that they are not interested in the health and well-being of women and families and children, that they are purely on an ideological crusade.

Anything else that you wanted to add?

Salganicoff: We’re very focused on that first year of life. But if you’re speaking about a woman who is not going to be able to get an abortion that she seeks and ends up carrying the pregnancy, the supports that she’s going to need and her child is going to need go far beyond the first year of life.

Miller: You can’t have a conversation about legality or soon-to-be illegality of abortion in these states and not have a conversation simultaneously about the existing crisis around maternal and infant health. These things are all interconnected, and that’s why it is so deeply disturbing that the states trying to ban abortion are the same states that are refusing to expand Medicaid under the ACA, that are failing to take advantage of the ability to extend postpartum [coverage] by 12 months, that don’t invest in child care, that don’t invest in education — these are all part of the same conversation.

Welchlin: Audre Lorde said, “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” So, abortion access, reproductive justice, voting rights, racial justice, gender equity — these are not separate issues, they are intersecting issues that collectively determine the quality of our lives.

Because most of the systems aren’t yet on the market, there’s precious little real-world data proving they work.