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MoInd 📰

Supreme Court opens door to large-scale federal layoffs

1 month 2 weeks ago
The U.S. Supreme Court late Tuesday lifted lower court injunctions that had blocked attempts by President Donald Trump and his DOGE Service to restructure the federal government. Labor unions, advocates and local governments that sued to block the cuts said the president exceeded his authority with the executive order by moving to dismantle the federal […]
Danielle J. Brown, Sam Gauntt

Iowa State University researchers find legal deserts across U.S.

1 month 2 weeks ago
Small towns experiencing population decline often see staples like grocery stores, day cares and schools close, Iowa State University sociology professor David Peters said, leading to less access and hardship. One less-known, missing part of many of these communities is legal representation, Peters said, which leaves people without recourse to handle problems of that nature […]
Brooklyn Draisey

MU Health Care mulls new coverage offer from Anthem

1 month 2 weeks ago
MU Health Care confirmed Tuesday that it is reviewing a new offer from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield that could restore insurance coverage to an estimated 90,000 Missourians. The news comes a week after a state Senate hearing failed to result in any sort of agreement between the two actors. The initial deadline for negotiations […]
Tyler Kirwan

Liberty and justice for all includes the right to vote

1 month 2 weeks ago
The Fourth of July has just passed, and next year’s holiday will be defined by the 250th anniversary signing of the Declaration of Independence. As we celebrate this milestone, it is important to remind ourselves that everyone’s vote defines a democracy. However, more than 50,000 Missourians are barred from voting because they are on probation […]
Katie Quinn

USDA chief outlines plan to block China from U.S. farmland ownership

1 month 2 weeks ago
President Donald Trump’s administration will pursue a ban on Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland as part of an effort to strengthen farm security, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday. Appearing alongside other Cabinet officials, Republican governors and members of Congress at an event outside the U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters in Washington, D.C., Rollins announced […]
Jacob Fischler

Kansas district judge hears arguments on CoreCivic prison, maintains restraining order

1 month 2 weeks ago
TOPEKA  — A Leavenworth County District Court judge held off on a decision Monday on whether to lift a temporary restraining order he placed on CoreCivic last month, stopping the company from housing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees at its vacant Leavenworth prison. Judge John Bryant said he would take CoreCivic’s motion to reconsider […]
Morgan Chilson

Federal judge quickly rules in favor of Planned Parenthood in suit over Medicaid funding

1 month 2 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — The federal government cannot withhold Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood for at least the next two weeks, after a district court judge issued a temporary restraining order the same day the organization filed a lawsuit. Republicans included language in their “big, beautiful bill” that would block Medicaid payments from going to Planned Parenthood […]
Jennifer Shutt

‘In the sun’: St. Louis radioactive waste activists find hope in new federal law

1 month 2 weeks ago
After years of mourning family and friends who succumbed to aggressive cancers, activists in Missouri finally won federal recognition that radiation released during the development of nuclear weapons is to blame. Since the publication of a six-month investigation by The Missouri Independent, MuckRock and The Associated Press, Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley has pressed for […]
Rudi Keller

Smaller nuclear reactors spark renewed interest in a once-shunned energy source

1 month 2 weeks ago
ABILENE, Texas — Bolstered by $3.2 million from a former Midland oilman, this West Texas city of 130,000 people is helping the Lone Star State lead a national nuclear energy resurgence. Doug Robison’s 2021 donation to Abilene Christian University helped the institution win federal approval to house an advanced small modular nuclear reactor, which might […]
David Montgomery

Congress plans to scrap USDA Climate Hubs, following Trump guidance 

1 month 2 weeks ago
Not all farmers and ranchers will agree in a discussion about climate change, but it would be difficult to find a Midwest producer who did not value climate-related data addressing drought, precipitation, temperature and frost outlooks. These are all pieces of data gathered and distributed by the Ames-based Midwest Climate Hub, which along with the […]
Cami Koons

Anti-abortion leader argues US was not ready for Roe or Dobbs decisions

1 month 2 weeks ago
Despite heading one of the oldest anti-abortion organizations in the country at a time of huge upheaval for abortion rights, John Mize is new to the movement. The father of four became the CEO of Americans United for Life in January 2024. Previously he worked for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, after more than a […]
Sofia Resnick

Turns out, Medicaid was for us

1 month 2 weeks ago
The front-page headlines in the last few days have been jarring: “Medicaid Cuts May Force Retirees out of Nursing Homes.” While much of the battle over Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax bill for billionaires is theoretical to many of us who’ve always had health insurance and coverage for things like rehab and even nursing homes, […]
Keith Runyon

Trump administration ends protected status for Honduras, Nicaragua

1 month 2 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ended temporary protections Monday for nationals from Nicaragua and Honduras, opening up roughly 76,000 people to deportations by early September. The move is the latest effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to wind down legal statuses, such as Temporary Protected Status, amid an immigration crackdown and pledge […]
Ariana Figueroa

Planned Parenthood sues Trump administration officials over ‘defunding’ provision in budget bill

1 month 2 weeks ago
Days after President Donald Trump signed a massive budget bill, attorneys for Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its state members in Massachusetts and Utah filed a lawsuit Monday challenging a provision they say will affect more than 1 million patients who use their clinics across the U.S. Planned Parenthood says if the defund provision […]
Kelcie Moseley-Morris, Sofia Resnick

Trump floats high tariffs on Japan, Korea and more countries by Aug. 1

1 month 2 weeks ago
President Donald Trump on Monday threatened tariffs from 25% to 40% on all goods from seven countries, including major U.S. trade partners Japan and South Korea. The tariffs would go into effect Aug. 1, rather than Wednesday, which was the deadline Trump already extended once from an initial April date, Trump wrote in a series […]
Jacob Fischler

Parked cars are now a leading source of stolen guns, new report finds

1 month 2 weeks ago
A growing number of firearms are being stolen from parked cars, especially in urban areas, according to a new report that highlights a frequently overlooked source of illegally circulating guns. The nonpartisan think tank Council on Criminal Justice released an analysis examining five years of gun theft data reported to law enforcement in 16 cities […]
Amanda Hernández

Kansas lawmakers extend deadline for Chiefs, Royals to accept stadium incentives

1 month 2 weeks ago
TOPEKA — A bipartisan council of Kansas lawmakers voted Monday to extend by six months the deadline for the Missouri-based Kansas City Royals or the Kansas City Chiefs to accept economic development incentives from Kansas for construction of sports stadiums. The Legislative Coordinating Council unanimously agreed to grant the reprieve so the Kansas Department of […]
Tim Carpenter

Abrego Garcia lawyers try to return him to Maryland, fearing removal to third country

1 month 2 weeks ago
GREENBELT, Maryland — A federal judge at a hearing Monday sought more information on the Trump administration’s plans for wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose attorneys are pressing to have him transferred to Maryland from a Tennessee jail. Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland with his wife and family before he was mistakenly deported to the […]
Ariana Figueroa

In Kansas City, most immigrants facing deportation receive no legal counsel

1 month 2 weeks ago
Kansas City’s immigration court is on the fifth floor of a nondescript downtown office building. The area is better known for the bustling shops of Crown Center to the south, or nearby Washington Square Park, a potential site for a new Royals stadium. Yet thousands of life-changing decisions for immigrant families are routinely handed down […]
Mary Sanchez