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Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court stripped federal oversight from millions of acres of wetlands long protected under the Clean Water Act. Now, any safeguards to ensure those waters are not polluted, drained or filled in by development fall to the states. They’re finding that it’s not easy. “States and tribes already didn’t have […]

The post After Clean Water Act ruling, states that want to protect affected wetlands need millions appeared first on Missouri Independent.

State Sen. Karla Eslinger will be Missouri’s next commissioner of education beginning in June, the State Board of Education announced during its meeting Tuesday. Board President Charlie Shields told reporters Eslinger was the only candidate the board considered. The board has met in closed session twice since the last public meeting — in which current […]

The post Karla Eslinger announced as Missouri’s next commissioner of education appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Pulling off a successful ballot initiative campaign in Missouri is an undertaking so difficult that one Democratic political consultant compares it to skiing the slalom at the Olympics.  There is a laundry list of deadlines to meet, an army of signature gatherers to hire, a host of legal battles to fight — all with a […]

The post Missouri abortion-rights amendments face ‘torturous’ process to make it to 2024 ballot appeared first on Missouri Independent.

If the five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, Americans can be found at all points along the continuum when it comes to global climate change and the environmental crisis that accompanies it. Like many who’ve contemplated a grim healthcare diagnosis that seems to belie of how they feel in the moment, millions […]

The post Climate grief and the stark choice that confronts us appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Members of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation are leading a bipartisan effort to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Hmong veterans of the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency recruited the Hmong people as soldiers to help combat communism’s spread through Southeast Asia. The Hmong, who lived and worked as […]

The post Hmong veterans of the Vietnam War would receive Congressional Gold Medal under push by lawmakers appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Andy Gipson gets concerned even when American allies such as the Netherlands and Germany invest in large swaths of Mississippi’s farmland. “It just bothers me at a gut level,” he said. For Gipson, Mississippi’s commissioner of agriculture and commerce, the growing trend of foreign ownership could threaten what he views as the state’s most valuable […]

The post This land is our land: States crack down on foreign-owned farm fields appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — As Congress negotiates the White House’s $106 billion supplemental aid request for Israel, Ukraine and U.S. border security, fights over immigration policy have tied up the request. The White House sent its proposal that includes nearly $14 billion in supplemental border security funding to Congress in late October, but it will likely look different after going through […]

The post Congress is haggling over border security: Where does it stand? appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The first day was a breeze.  Sean Shannon and Danny Foster walked into several marijuana dispensaries around Missouri with their matching “Union For Cannabis Workers” shirts and talked to employees about the possibility of unionizing. “The first day, there were 57 stops amongst the teams,” said Shannon, lead organizer with UFCW Local 655, which actually […]

The post Cannabis workers across Missouri begin push to unionize dispensaries  appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Hundreds of election workers in Washington state’s second-largest county were busy opening mail-in ballots earlier this month when one of them came across a plain white envelope. As she cut it open, white powder leaked out. She carefully took off her gloves, put them down, backed away and called her supervisor. Workers evacuated the building […]

The post In face of threats, election workers vow: ‘You are not disrupting the democratic process’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Utilities in Kansas and Missouri would have to pull hundreds of thousands of lead pipes out of the ground within 10 years under a proposed rule the Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday. The EPA announced a proposed update to the lead and copper rule strengthening President Joe Biden’s earlier goal of eradicating lead pipes. The […]

The post Kansas and Missouri have 256,000 lead pipes. EPA wants them removed within 10 years appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — New York Republican George Santos on Friday became the sixth lawmaker in history and the first member of the GOP to be expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives. The 311-114 bipartisan vote, which required two-thirds support, followed months of scandal that culminated in a federal criminal indictment and a damning report from the […]

The post New York Republican George Santos expelled by U.S. House in bipartisan vote appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenging period for Missouri and the entire nation, with few positive outcomes to highlight. However, one notable exception has been the advancement of telehealth services, especially audio-only telehealth, which emerged as a critical healthcare solution during this crisis. Although the use of telehealth has declined with society returning to […]

The post Promoting telehealth in Missouri is a step to making health care more accessible, cost-effective appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Jody Dorcy has been living with HIV for 20 years. He said the hardest part about having HIV is the stigma surrounding it. Society thinks he’s “contagious,” “dirty” and “infectious.” But, Dorcy said, people with HIV shouldn’t be treated differently. “Just not being part of the HIV-negative world, being that person that’s different … it’s […]

The post HIV prevention, education improve in Missouri. But stigma still stands appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House Thursday passed a bill to bar the use of public lands for temporary housing for migrants applying for asylum. The bill, H.R. 5283, passed with a majority of Republicans in support, 224-203.  Six Democrats voted with Republicans: Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Vicente […]

The post U.S. House votes to bar use of public lands for housing migrants appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gavin Newsom from California, two of the nation’s most well-known governors who sit on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum, engaged in a fiery 90-minute debate on Thursday night broadcast live on the Fox News Channel. The stakes were undoubtedly higher for DeSantis, 45, who hopes that the primetime platform […]

The post DeSantis and Newsom clash in TV debate, charging each other with lies and bullying appeared first on Missouri Independent.

By the end of the month, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey expects to complete work on the mountain of public records requests submitted to the office last year. That will allow the five-person team working through the Sunshine Law backlog to finally turn its attention to the nearly 300 pending requests filed since Bailey took […]

The post Missouri AG set to finally start work on public records requests submitted this year appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Republican colleagues stormed out of a Democratic-led U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Thursday to authorize subpoenas for two high-profile GOP operatives as part of an ethics probe into undisclosed financial ties to U.S. Supreme Court justices. The panel voted 11-0 to subpoena billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow […]

The post GOP senators walk out of vote on subpoenas in U.S. Supreme Court ethics inquiry appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Over the past two decades, Greg Gunthorp carved out a niche operating a small meat processing plant in northern Indiana. He sold several kinds of meat to chic Chicago and Indianapolis restaurants and to Chicago O’Hare International Airport, he said. He also sold direct to consumers. But selling in grocery stores was not an option, […]

The post Small meat processors say USDA measures don’t address consolidated industry’s root problems appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Republicans on a U.S. House panel argued Wednesday against aggressive moves to meet carbon reduction goals, saying U.S. fossil fuel companies are working to make their products cleaner. Democrats on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment, Manufacturing and Critical Minerals countered that to achieve further reductions, federal policies should be continued […]

The post Ahead of climate conference, U.S. House panel tussles over curbs on emissions appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Sometimes, the true outcome of a political campaign isn’t reflected in the final vote count.   Jason Kander’s 2016 Senate race is a prime example. Despite Donald Trump winning Missouri by nearly 19 points, Roy Blunt only squeaked out a win with a margin under 3%, thanks in part to a viral advertisement featuring Kander assembling […]

The post Missouri politics proves that sometimes just entering a race makes you a winner appeared first on Missouri Independent.