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Republican lawmakers rejected an effort Thursday evening to spend $900 million to assist hundreds of Missourians with developmental disabilities who lack proper residential support, including dozens languishing in hospitals, jails and homeless shelters. State Rep. Deb Lavender, D-Manchester, asked the House Budget Committee for $910 million, all from federal tax dollars, to push base pay […]

The post Push to spend $900M to help Missourians with developmental disabilities voted down appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A bill that would stop physicians from providing gender-affirming care to transgender minors who have not already begun treatment passed Missouri’s Senate Thursday in a party-line vote. The legislation originally sought to ban all gender-affirming care, but after negotiations was amended to allow transgender youth to continue their treatment if they started before Aug. 28, […]

The post Missouri Senate advances bill banning transgender care for minors appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Congress’ Joint Economic Committee released a report Thursday detailing the economic repercussions of defaulting on the nation’s debt, adding fuel to the fire as Democrats pressed Republicans to address the nation’s borrowing limit without tying action to spending cuts. The report, from Democratic staff on the bipartisan Joint Economic Committee, says that a […]

The post Democratic report on U.S. debt default predicts disrupted benefits for seniors, veterans appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Members of a U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday previewed what they would push for in bipartisan rail safety legislation likely to progress through Congress in the aftermath of the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment. Democrats and Republicans on the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hinted they wanted to strengthen requirements about reporting hazardous cargo, […]

The post Priorities for rail safety bill debated in U.S. Senate hearing with Norfolk Southern CEO appeared first on Missouri Independent.

On one end of the Missouri Capitol, House Republicans seem poised to divvy up the money Gov. Mike Parson wants to use widening portions of Interstate 70 on a bunch of smaller projects. Across the rotunda in the Senate, Appropriations Chairman Lincoln Hough is looking for ways to pour more money into the project to […]

The post Missouri House Republicans scramble for slice of governor’s I-70 money for other projects appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A year after private equity-backed Noble Health shuttered two rural Missouri hospitals, patients and former employees grapple with a broken local health system or missing out on millions in unpaid wages and benefits. The hospitals in Audrain and Callaway counties remain closed as a slew of lawsuits and state and federal investigations grind forward. In […]

The post Legal questions, inquiries intensify around rural Missouri hospital closures appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Like a lot of Missourians, Shelley Swoyer of Jefferson City was surprised to see that the state had switched from its long-used method of selecting presidential primary candidates to a caucus system last June. “I’m just a voter. I encourage people to vote, I register people to vote. We live in a democracy that extols […]

The post Lawmakers consider bill switching Missouri back to a presidential primary appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The CEO of Moderna on Wednesday defended the company’s decision to drastically increase the price of its COVID-19 vaccine later this year, arguing that an expected drop in demand, changes to its distribution process and the overall benefit of the vaccine warrant the higher cost. That decision was met with bipartisan condemnation from […]

The post Moderna plan to hike COVID vaccine price to $130 a dose rebuked at U.S. Senate hearing appeared first on Missouri Independent.

On a Friday afternoon in late December, Geri Curtis received a disturbing phone call informing her she had only five days to find a new home for a developmentally disabled person. As part of her job as public administrator for Livingston County, she had become legal guardian of a person with severe developmental disabilities two […]

The post Missourians with developmental disabilities languish in hospitals, jails, shelters appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri’s marijuana businesses have extra obstacles when it comes to getting help from financial institutions.  With recreational marijuana now legal in Missouri but still illegal at the federal level, it creates more hoops to jump through for both banks and businesses to meet federal scrutiny. Missouri lawmakers have an opportunity to streamline that process by […]

The post Missouri banks ask lawmakers to approve sharing of marijuana business inspections appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Some of the biggest items in Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s proposed spending plan are in danger of being cut in the House Budget Committee, including money for child care providers, state universities and widening Interstate 70. The budget revisions submitted Tuesday by committee Chairman Cody Smith, R-Carthage, cut $1.5 billion in general revenue and about […]

The post House committee takes aim at I-70, child care funding in Missouri governor’s budget appeared first on Missouri Independent.

At the center of the federal anti-abortion lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is the abortion drug mifepristone and the regimen that reportedly accounts for the majority of abortions in post-Roe America. That’s why the whole country is bracing itself for a ruling from a notoriously anti-abortion judge in Amarillo, Texas.  The attention […]

The post What plaintiffs targeting abortion pill want might not even be possible appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A state law prohibiting counties from imposing regulations on industrial hog facilities does not violate the Missouri Constitution, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The unanimous ruling upholds a Cole County Circuit Court judge’s decision to toss the case before trial. It says county ordinances attempting to set rules for industrial farms are invalid.  At […]

The post Missouri Supreme Court upholds state law prohibiting local CAFO regulations appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Missouri House gave first-round approval to a $1 billion personal and corporate income tax cut Tuesday, as Republicans pushed the bill through despite Democratic warnings that vital services would be starved for funds. The bill would cut the top rate on personal income taxes, cut the corporate income tax rate in half and exempt […]

The post Missouri House votes to cut corporate, personal income taxes by $1 billion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After 13 hours of overnight debate, the Missouri Senate gave initial approval Tuesday morning to a pair of bills that would limit medical procedures for transgender children and place restrictions on transgender girls playing school sports. Both bills still need to be approved one more time by the Senate before being sent to the House. […]

The post Missouri Senate approves four-year ban on medical procedures for transgender minors appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Will you use taxpayer money to prosecute a woman for getting an abortion? That’s the question attorneys general candidates across the United States, and especially in Missouri, will have to answer in the lead up to 2024. Missouri is a unique case study for the role a state’s top prosecutor can play in the abortion […]

The post Missouri Attorney General: Anti-abortion activist? appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Missouri Senate returned from its spring break Monday with Democrats resuming their filibuster of a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender children. The Senate reconvened to debate legislation sponsored by Sen. Holly Thompson-Rehder, R-Scott City, that began as a ban on transgender girls participating in school sports but was expanded to include […]

The post Missouri Democrats once again filibuster ban on medical procedures for transgender minors appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. director of national intelligence has three months to declassify information on potential links between China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of COVID-19, after President Joe Biden signed legislation Monday. The bill was one of the first Biden has signed since a 118th Congress split between the two parties began […]

The post Biden signs Josh Hawley bill declassifying information on the origin of COVID-19 appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The pills came in a dark salmon-colored envelope sealed with a plastic covering that traveled more than 7,000 miles, over a dozen time zones from Nagpur, India, in almost exactly one week. They were placed partially under the doormat of a home in a state with one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the […]

The post Ending a pregnancy in 14 states leaves few options. Some are looking to Europe and India for help appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Federal departments and agencies say U.S. House Republicans’ plans to cut federal spending would result in reductions to key programs like food aid, education assistance and wildfire management. The series of letters from across the federal government released Monday detail exactly how plans to cut at least $130 billion in domestic spending during […]

The post Biden administration details potential cuts in education, food aid and more under GOP plan appeared first on Missouri Independent.