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WASHINGTON — The roundtables, listening sessions and appearances at farm shows have largely wrapped up and lawmakers tasked with reauthorizing the nation’s agriculture and nutrition programs are comparing notes and beginning to draft the massive, multi-year farm bill. The 2018 version expires Sept. 30, just as many urgent priorities compete for floor time in Congress […]

The post Farm bill timeline in flux as a messy September for Congress nears appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After months of complaints from St. Charles County residents, riled up at a rumor that a librarian dressed in drag on the job, the county council on Monday approved a resolution scolding the library and seeking to limit employees’ online political speech. Decried as a bullying tactic by its critics, the move won praise from […]

The post Community uproar leads St. Charles County to admonish library to be ‘non-political’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick has begun an investigation into the state’s marijuana program, vowing to assess whether regulators are operating “in a manner that is efficient, accountable and transparent.” The audit is not a routine, scheduled review. It was initiated by Fitzpatrick after he pledged last year during his campaign to look into how Missouri […]

The post State auditor launches inquiry into Missouri marijuana program appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Three years ago, Brian Haimowitz slept behind buildings and under bridges because he couldn’t afford a place to stay with the money from his job as a cashier at a local Wendy’s. He said he tried to get help through Kansas City’s shelter system, but he was quickly turned off by roadblocks he encountered. One […]

The post Kansas City’s homeless residents want low-barrier shelter appeared first on Missouri Independent.

TOPEKA, Kansas — The Society of Professional Journalists’ board unanimously offered $20,000 to the family-owned Marion County Record for legal costs in wake of the seizure of newspaper and personal property by local law enforcement investigating allegations of identity theft and illegal use of a computer. The raid undermining operation of the weekly newspaper alarmed […]

The post National journalism group offers $20,000 to defend Kansas newspaper raided by police appeared first on Missouri Independent.

“How much is the ice cream?” A simple enough question, featured on a new TV and online advertisement, posed by a man who just wants something cold. A woman behind the counter responds with a smile: “Prices? No, we don’t have those anymore. We have estimates.” The satirical ad pretends to be a news report […]

The post Proposed rule would make hospital prices even more transparent appeared first on Missouri Independent.

For a generation, Missouri politicians who played between the 40-yard lines reigned supreme. From the 1980s through the mid-2010s, in race after race, center-right Republicans like Jack Danforth, Kit Bond and Roy Blunt were elected to the U.S. senate, and John Ashcroft and Matt Blunt captured the governor’s mansion.   After Ashcroft veered further right in […]

The post Missouri general elections used to matter. Now primaries reign — and extremists have the edge appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A network of 20 Missouri school districts is asking the state to implement a more responsive assessment system in order to personalize student learning. The state Board of Education is considering the districts’ proposal to change testing at its Aug. 15 meeting. If approved, it would be the inception of a shift in Missouri’s education […]

The post 20 Missouri school districts seek ‘innovation waivers’ to move away from state tests appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As more states require private insurers to cover fertility-related health care, many efforts to extend similar protections to Medicaid patients this year have foundered over cost concerns. Only two states provide significant fertility coverage through Medicaid: New York, which offers fertility medications, and Illinois, where Medicaid will cover the storage of sperm or eggs for those […]

The post Few states extend fertility treatment coverage to Medicaid recipients appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Ballot measures seeking to fund local libraries had mixed results Tuesday, with Cole County voters striking down a 15-cent tax increase and Taney County residents narrowly approving an 18-cent levy to create a public library. The votes come at a precarious time for Missouri’s libraries, as they have increasingly been pulled into the political scrum […]

The post Push for tax hikes to fund public libraries face mixed results this year in Missouri appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Get ready, Big 12 sports fans, for Kansas State vs. Utah and the University of Kansas vs. Arizona. The new Big 12 is coming in next year. In the aftermath of the PAC-12 crumbling — and losing four of its teams to the Big 12 — you might wonder why the schools migrated toward our […]

The post Big 12 conference realignment driven by same brutal economics as youth sports appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — One of the “most significant laws ever signed to help veterans” has already assisted over 340,000 former service members and their survivors seeking care for illnesses and cancers now presumed to be connected to open burn pits and other toxins, President Joe Biden said in Utah on Thursday as he marked one year since the […]

The post PACT Act in one year aided 340,000 ailing veterans and survivors, Biden says appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Consumers are getting some relief from higher prices as core inflation, which excludes food and energy, continues to show signs of cooling — an encouraging sign for the U.S. economy, according to economists. The Department of Labor’s report on Thursday showed the consumer price index rose 0.2% in July, in line with expectations, and 3.2% in the past […]

The post Consumers seeing relief in some food prices as inflation continues to slow appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Attorneys for the Biden administration argued Thursday that a district judge in Louisiana overstepped his authority by barring the federal government from communicating with social media companies to urge them to moderate information deemed harmful or misleading. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard arguments over whether […]

The post Appeals court weighs limits on Biden administration contact with social media platforms appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The new Republican chairwoman of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee said just before taking over the panel that she planned to “tweak” how the chamber earmarks spending for community projects — coveted state and local funding that members of Congress request. Some of those changes hinted at by Kay Granger of Texas have infuriated Democrats, […]

The post Congress brought back earmarks. Now they’re one more point of drama in a divided House appeared first on Missouri Independent.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he’s interested in expanding a federal program to compensate people who have gotten sick because of the country’s nuclear weapons development and testing programs.  The Associated Press reported Biden told a crowd in New Mexico he was ”prepared to help in terms of making sure that those folks are […]

The post Biden supports expanding compensation to radiation victims in Missouri, New Mexico appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s recent veto of an an omnibus criminal justice bill with bipartisan support was a disappointing setback. In the governor’s statement, he provided his reasoning behind the veto, citing proposed changes to the state’s petition-based expungement system that he believed would have an unintended and/or unclear impact on determining who qualifies to […]

The post Governor’s veto shows we can’t settle for piecemeal changes to Missouri expungement process appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Former President Donald Trump is a defendant in three criminal proceedings. Two cases are federal, brought after investigations by Special Counsel Jack Smith. The other case is in New York state court and is being prosecuted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. A fourth indictment, on state charges in Georgia related to Trump’s efforts to […]

The post The Trump indictments: A seven-year timeline of key developments appeared first on Missouri Independent.

During the 2023 legislative session, Missouri lawmakers looked to follow the lead of other Republican-led states by curbing environmentally minded investing practices, which they disparaged as “woke.” The attempt to ban state involvement with banks that prioritize climate action or other socially driven investments fell by the wayside. That failure came as a relief to […]

The post Missouri’s secretary of state reins in environmentally minded investing appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is spending more than $3 billion to cultivate more American farmers and forest landowners as partners to mitigate climate change — even while some Republicans on Capitol Hill try to stop the program entirely. The administration launched a new farm program, Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities, this year. It is the […]

The post USDA’s climate grants for farms and forests run into Republican buzzsaw appeared first on Missouri Independent.