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Ukraine’s desperate fight to avoid authoritarian rule is a stark reminder of how important our democracy is — how much we need to treasure it, protect it and continue to work to make it better. Ensuring that our democracy prevails must be done in every unit of government in this great republic. The threats that […]

The post The biggest threat to American democracy comes from within | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The U.S. House passed legislation Friday to legalize marijuana nationally, but its future is much less clear in the Senate. The House voted 220-204 to approve the measure, which would fix the split between federal law and 19 states where recreational marijuana is legal. Three Republicans joined all but two Democrats in approving the measure. Matt Gaetz and […]

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Listen to this.  Read this and this.  Watch this. If you still doubt that Eric Greitens is a threat to anyone he deems an enemy, and potentially even to himself, then you may also believe O.J. Simpson spends his days searching for the real killers.    And yet recent polling in the wake of the latest […]

The post Eric Greitens will never drop out of the Missouri Senate race | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The House Budget Committee on Thursday reversed a $360 million cut to a program to improve water infrastructure, including removing lead pipes, as it completed a plan for using federal stimulus funds. Budget Chairman Cody Smith had planned to cut $51 million from the program, but said objections from Rep. Don Mayhew, an engineer by […]

The post Budget committee restores funding for Missouri water projects, including lead pipe removal appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri’s record general revenue surplus was off-limits for spending plans as the House Budget Committee worked Thursday, defeating Democratic efforts to give boost money for public schools and state colleges. The only significant addition to education budgets approved by the committee was to restart the teacher Career Ladder program, providing $21 million to give experienced […]

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The Missouri House overwhelmingly rejected a proposed congressional map drawn by the state Senate Thursday, once again asking for a conference committee to negotiate a compromise. On Wednesday, the Senate’s conservative caucus threatened to upend the chamber unless it rejected the House’s original offer to go to conference. They wanted the House to approve the […]

The post Missouri House rejects Senate’s congressional map, asks again for conference committee appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story is a collaboration between ProPublica and APM Reports. When the final numbers showed that St. Louis had reduced its murders last year while other big cities were hitting records, city officials said their success was due to smart use of crime data and effective anti-violence programs. But over the past two years, St. Louis […]

The post St. Louis’ murder total has fallen, but some killings went uncounted appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Some of the biggest items in Gov. Mike Parson’s $47.3 billion budget proposal won’t be in the plan House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith will bring up for discussion on Thursday. On Tuesday, Smith distributed a 52-page list of changes he would like to see, including major cuts to how federal stimulus funds are used […]

The post Major revisions likely in Parson’s $47.3 billion Missouri state budget appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri will officially transition from treating COVID-19 as a public health crisis to treating it as endemic, much like the seasonal flu, Gov. Mike Parson announced Wednesday.  That shift will be complete on April 1, Parson said. The change, which was first reported by the Documenting COVID-19 project and The Independent in February, comes as […]

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WASHINGTON — A U.S. Supreme Court dominated by conservative justices could fundamentally reshape the college admissions process later this year when it takes up two landmark cases challenging affirmative action in higher education. The court recently agreed to hear two cases that challenge race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest private and […]

The post Upcoming U.S. Supreme Court cases could curb colleges’ use of affirmative action appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Members of the Missouri Senate’s conservative caucus on Wednesday made it clear they would once again derail the chamber with procedural maneuvers in order to block negotiations with the House over a new congressional map. Republican Sens. Bob Onder of Lake St. Louis, Bill Eigel of Weldon Spring and Denny Hoskins of Warrensburg stalled routine […]

The post Conservative caucus demands Missouri Senate reject talks with House on congressional maps appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Candidate filing closed Tuesday with a flurry of last-minute action but no movement in the General Assembly on a new map for Missouri’s eight congressional districts. The Missouri House closed off the last chance for a new congressional district map before filing closed when it rejected the plan approved last week in the state Senate […]

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Two dozen congressional Democrats are calling for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from cases involving the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, following revelations his wife communicated with the Trump White House about overturning the election. In addition, it appears likely that the U.S. House committee probing the attack will […]

The post U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas pressed to recuse himself from Jan. 6 cases appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A bill that would make it a felony to donate fetal tissue from abortions for research or therapies won first-round approval in the Missouri House Tuesday, but lawmakers blocked an effort to make it illegal to help a women obtain an abortion outside the state. The bill sponsored by Rep. Hannah Kelly, R-Mountain Grove, grew […]

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Missouri children would be better protected from lead poisoning under a state legislative bill to  require schools to nearly rid their drinking water of the dangerous toxin. The bill, heard Monday by the House Conservation and Natural Resources Committee, would require schools to test drinking water, remove old coolers and filter water where lead is […]

The post Missouri House bill would cut down on poisonous lead in school drinking water appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Beer heiress Trudy Busch Valentine entered the Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate on Monday, giving the party a candidate who could potentially match Republican spending this year out of her own pocket. In a three-minute video announcing her campaign, Valentine says she is entering the race to bridge divisive politics but provides no specifics […]

The post Beer heiress joins Missouri Democratic primary for U.S. Senate appeared first on Missouri Independent.

With mental health issues on the rise nationwide, Missouri lawmakers are weighing bills that would provide pharmacists and teachers with more training to recognize the signs of suicide. A bill sponsored by Rep. Adam Schwadron, R-St. Charles, heard Monday in the House Health and Mental Health Policy Committee, would allow suicide awareness and prevention to […]

The post Lawmakers weigh bills to offer suicide prevention training as mental health issues rise appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee reopened partisan disagreements Monday as members scheduled a vote for April 4 on Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Republicans’ criticisms of Jackson’s record and responses were either untrue or disingenuous. Meanwhile, ranking Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa again raised process concerns. Jackson […]

The post U.S. Senate panel bickers over Supreme Court nomination but sets vote next week appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri House members are not ready to accept the congressional redistricting map approved by the state Senate. The House met Monday without voting on the Senate plan, approved Thursday at the end of a Senate session that lasted almost 24 hours.  State Rep. Dan Shaul, R-Imperial and chairman of the House Redistricting Committee, said after […]

The post Missouri Senate congressional redistricting plan stalls on return to the House appeared first on Missouri Independent.

For seven weeks, factional fights among Republicans stalled a Missouri Senate vote on a new map for the state’s eight congressional districts. And when the deadlock was finally broken Thursday, was over, no one was predicting the final seven weeks of the session would see an end to the intra-party strife. The conservative caucus, which […]

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