a Better Bubble™

MoInd 📰

Energy costs crushed my smelter job and now threaten Missouri farms

14 hours 39 minutes ago
When I fire up the tractor before sunrise in Campbell, the hum of the engine takes me back to a different kind of power — the kind that used to surge through the aluminum cells at Magnitude 7 Metals in Marston before it closed its doors almost two years ago. Back then, I worked nights […]
Dalton Ezell

As homeless population rises in Missouri, cities confront cross-border ‘drop-offs’

1 day 7 hours ago
For years, stories circulated around Joplin, Missouri, about the city’s homeless population and how they arrived in the city. Calls would come in to city officials following a recurring theme. “People were coming to the City Council meetings and saying, ‘I don’t know why you guys don’t know this, but I’m witnessing busloads of people […]
Meg Cunningham

An ever-larger share of ICE’s arrested immigrants have no criminal record

1 day 10 hours ago
Immigration arrests under the Trump administration continued to increase through mid-October, reaching rates of more than 30,000 a month. But, rather than the convicted criminals the administration has said it’s focused on, an ever-larger share of those arrests were for solely immigration violations. In 45 states, immigration arrests more than doubled compared with the same […]
Tim Henderson

New rules take aim at ‘predatory’ contracts in Missouri cannabis microbusiness program

1 day 11 hours ago
Missouri cannabis regulators have routinely revoked microbusiness licenses for relying on contracts they’ve publicly characterized as “predatory.”  The state is hoping to put a stop to the turnover through proposed rules that will be open for public comment starting Monday through Jan. 14.  Regulators first introduced the rules last December and have since held two […]
Rebecca Rivas

Trump signs order intended to block states from regulating AI

1 day 12 hours ago
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday night that aims to preempt states from enacting rules governing artificial intelligence, a major departure from the typical federalist structure of American government that Trump said was necessary because of the issue’s high stakes. In an early evening signing ceremony in the Oval Office, Trump said the order […]
Jacob Fischler

Unemployment rose in half the states in September

1 day 13 hours ago
September unemployment rates rose in 25 states and fell in 21 compared with last year, the government reported Dec. 11 in a shutdown-delayed analysis. The largest increase compared with September 2024 was in Oregon, where the rate rose from 4.2% to 5.2%, followed by the District of Columbia, increasing from 5.3% to 6.2% and Delaware, […]
Tim Henderson

In Trump rebuke, US House approves bill to overturn collective bargaining limit

2 days 4 hours ago
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House passed a bill Thursday that would overturn an executive order from President Donald Trump that strips collective bargaining rights for roughly 1 million federal employees.  The 231-195 vote was a rare bipartisan pushback against the president. The bill was sponsored by Maine’s Jared Golden, a Democrat, and Pennsylvania’s Brian Fitzpatrick, […]
Ariana Figueroa

US Senate hits stalemate on solution to spiraling health insurance costs

2 days 8 hours ago
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate in long-anticipated votes failed to advance legislation Thursday that would have addressed the rising cost of health insurance, leaving lawmakers deadlocked on how to curb a surge in premiums expected next year.  Senators voted 51-48 on a Republican bill co-sponsored by Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy and Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo […]
Jennifer Shutt

Kilmar Abrego Garcia leaves ICE custody as Trump administration vows to fight release

2 days 8 hours ago
WASHINGTON — The wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia is no longer in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after a federal judge ordered his release earlier Thursday, according to his attorneys and an immigrant rights group that has advocated his case. CASA, the immigrant rights group that has supported Abrego Garcia and his family since […]
Ariana Figueroa

Missouri set to block junk food from SNAP purchases after USDA approval

2 days 11 hours ago
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved Missouri’s request to restrict the use of food stamps for the purchase of some junk food items, according to a news release from the USDA. Starting in 2026, Missouri is set to stop allowing SNAP benefits to be used to purchase candy, prepared desserts, soda, beverage mixes, juices and […]
Jacob Richey

Republicans in Congress eye more power for states to remove voters

2 days 13 hours ago
Republicans in Congress want to give states more authority to remove ineligible voters — including noncitizens and people who have moved or died — from voter rolls, seeking to reinforce the Trump administration’s own push to scrub the lists.  At a U.S. House hearing on Wednesday, lawmakers weighed changing a landmark federal voter registration law, […]
Jonathan Shorman

Recent droughts hit the top cattle counties hardest, including in Missouri

2 days 14 hours ago
The nation’s cattle inventory is at its lowest level in decades, the result of a long-term decline that has been pushed even lower in recent years by drought. Much of the country endured severe dry spells in recent years, most notably in 2022. But the impact has been especially felt in the regions where America’s […]
Juan Vassallo

Sen. Josh Hawley amps up pressure campaign on FDA chief to limit medication abortion

3 days 7 hours ago
WASHINGTON — Missouri U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is ratcheting up pressure on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to finish a study into medication abortion and to change its prescribing guidelines, sending a letter to Commissioner Marty Makary on Wednesday that the pace of the review is “totally unacceptable.” The letter came just one day […]
Jennifer Shutt

Another judge grants request to unseal Epstein grand jury files

3 days 7 hours ago
WASHINGTON — A second federal judge in New York on Wednesday granted a U.S. Department of Justice request to unseal grand jury records in the case against Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 awaiting federal trial on sex trafficking charges and whose case files have become a target of Congress and victims in […]
Ashley Murray

Federal, state budget pressure threatens Missouri at-home disability care program

3 days 11 hours ago
Families of Missourians with developmental disabilities are urging legislators to protect a Medicaid program that allows them to manage their loved ones’ care as the state faces billions of dollars in federal cuts over the next decade. The program, self-directed services, lets people with disabilities or their family members hire, train and manage their own […]
Steph Quinn

Rising electric bills lead to state scrutiny — but little relief for residents

3 days 12 hours ago
The last time the Maine Public Utilities Commission considered an electricity price hike, the proposal received fewer than 90 comments from the public. Three years later, amid skyrocketing energy prices, more than 800 people weighed in on the plan, showing up to public hearings and even protesting outside. The commission last month ultimately rejected the […]
Kevin Hardy

US Senate GOP rolls out health care plan that fails to extend premium subsidies

3 days 13 hours ago
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans announced Tuesday they will hold a vote on their own health care proposal later this week to counter a Democratic bill that would extend enhanced tax credits for Affordable Care Act marketplace plans for three more years. The 32-page GOP bill would not address the expiring ACA marketplace tax credits but […]
Jennifer Shutt