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In St. Louis in the 1980s, if you got caught with even a “butt of a joint,” you were going to do jail time, said Bob Ramsey, who was assistant public defender at the time.   Ramsey particularly remembers the head of the prosecutor’s marijuana task force, under then-Circuit Attorney George Peach.  “She was just absolutely […]

The post Missouri ‘micro’ cannabis license rules limit review of jail data to 20 years appeared first on Missouri Independent.

June 19th, Juneteenth, has been set aside as a national holiday to celebrate the end of the enslavement of Black people. Today is a good day to take inventory of the state of Blacks in America. There is no better place to begin than to revisit the journey of the Black family unit to help […]

The post What is the state of the Black family unit in America today? appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After decades of being celebrated at mostly the local level, Juneteenth – the long-standing holiday that commemorates the arrival of news of emancipation and freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 – became a federal holiday in 2021. In honor of this year’s Juneteenth, The Conversation reached out to Wake Forest University […]

The post 6 books that explain the history and meaning of Juneteenth appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.  The makers of Roundup, the world’s top weedkiller, will pay $6.9 million for violating an agreement with the state of New York to stop making false […]

The post Roundup weedkiller manufacturers to pay $6.9 million in false advertising settlement appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Despite top U.S. military retirements beginning in less than a month, Sen. Tommy Tuberville refuses to budge on his blockade of hundreds of armed services promotions in protest of the Pentagon’s reproductive care policy instituted after the reversal of Roe v. Wade. The first-term Alabama Republican is provoking concern among his own party […]

The post Swelling crowd of top military nominees blocked from U.S. Senate vote by Tuberville  appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Kansas’ largest electric utility – also a major supplier in western Missouri – has drastically scaled back its plans to add more clean energy over the next decade and will keep open its oldest coal plant for years longer. Two years ago, Evergy announced plans to retire the Lawrence Energy Center by the end of […]

The post Evergy slashes planned renewable energy additions, proposes more natural gas appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When Missouri lawmakers passed bills restricting gender-affirming care and barring transgender athletes, many wondered: When will the governor sign the much-debated legislation? Representatives and senators signed up to receive alerts about the bills from the governor’s office and asked for signed copies of the legislation. People emailed, called and sent handwritten letters to the governor […]

The post Missouri governor’s office hid plans on gender-affirming care, transgender athletes bills appeared first on Missouri Independent.

U.S. House Republicans and GOP Govs. Kristi Noem of South Dakota and Mark Gordon of Wyoming teamed up Thursday to rail against the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed rule to allow conservation leases on federal lands. Noem and Gordon joined the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee for about half of a 4 1/2 hour hearing […]

The post Republicans from Western states attack public lands plan in heated U.S. House hearing appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As Missourians go out to celebrate Juneteenth this weekend and commemorate the end of slavery in the United States, local advocates say they may feel a new sense of hope brewing.  In the past year, the state’s two major cities, St. Louis and Kansas City, have established reparations commissions. These groups of community members are […]

The post Juneteenth events grow statewide, as advocates celebrate progress on reparations appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As another school year defined by mass shootings ends in America, Republican-led state legislatures passed measures this session to fortify schools, create guidelines for active shooter drills and safety officer responses, and allow teachers to be armed. Firearm restrictions, however, were a nonstarter in red states trying to curb school shootings. The legislation pushed by […]

The post Republican states arm teachers, fortify buildings in another year of school shootings appeared first on Missouri Independent.

RICHMOND, Va. — Although a new Virginia law requires schools to inform parents when sexually explicit materials are used in the classroom, some districts are using that law as the basis to go further and remove certain books from schools altogether. Book ban requests across the state often have cited the Virginia law, which was signed last year by Republican […]

The post School districts struggle to implement new laws on sexually explicit books appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri began distributing pandemic-relief summer food benefits that were designed to cover summer 2022 just last week. Since last fall, thousands of families have been asking the state if and when they would receive the promised benefits, called summer Pandemic EBT — a federal COVID relief program administered by states.  The summer 2022 benefits were […]

The post Missouri begins distributing summer 2022 food benefits as deadline for 2023 application looms appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Thursday marks the 11th anniversary of a program that was created during the Obama administration to temporarily protect undocumented children from deportation. But congressional inaction and legal challenges have led to more than a decade of limbo for the 600,000 people enrolled, with no end in sight. They are often called “Dreamers,” based […]

The post ‘We’re just trying to live our lives’: DACA hits 11-year mark still mired in the courts appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Though they only make up a fraction of cars and trucks on the road now, many projections — from Wall Street firms, trade groups and automakers themselves — predict an imminent surge in electric vehicles over the next decade. S&P Global estimates that the nearly 2 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads today will grow […]

The post Statehouses debate who should build EV charging networks appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Investigate Midwest.  A May 30, 2021, ransomware attack on JBS, one of the world’s largest meat companies, disrupted the company’s operations internationally and ended when the company paid an $11 million ransom to Russian hacker group REvil. While food production companies are potentially lucrative targets for cyberattacks, JBS was poorly […]

The post Cybersecurity at JBS was unusually poor before ransomware attack, records show appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans outlined Wednesday how they would cut $130 billion from the dozen annual government funding bills — producing a plan with significantly lower spending than the level both parties agreed to in the debt limit deal just two weeks ago. The spending levels likely set up a stalemate later this year […]

The post D.C. spending standoff ahead as U.S. House Republicans demand $130 billion in cuts  appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats for the third time this year made their case that U.S. Supreme Court justices must follow stronger ethics rules, including recusing themselves from cases where they have a financial stake or other connection to a case. The series of hearings by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and its subcommittees came […]

The post Tougher ethics rules for U.S. Supreme Court justices advocated in Senate hearing appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Now that cannabis is legal in Missouri, drug-sniffing police dogs face early retirement if they are attracted to the smell of marijuana. Because some police dogs are sensitive to the odor of pot, they can compromise an investigation and prevent a successful drug prosecution. If a dog is trained to detect marijuana as well as […]

The post Legal marijuana puts drug-sniffing police dogs out of work in Missouri appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In one sense, the Supreme Court’s surprise ruling striking down Alabama’s 2022 congressional maps maintains the legal status quo. By 5-4, the justices rejected the state’s attempt to restrict the ability of the Voting Rights Act to block gerrymanders that suppress the power of minority voters. But that dramatically understates the impact of the case, titled Allen v. Milligan, […]

The post Ruling in Alabama case could boost suits increasing Black voters’ power in other states appeared first on Missouri Independent.

New research shows Missouri has among the lowest court fees for landlords to file for eviction in the nation — and that raising filing fees would reduce eviction rates. In Missouri, the average cost for a landlord to file for eviction is $56, and is as low as $33 in some counties.  The fees vary […]

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