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A report published Monday by a federal watchdog sheds new light on the scope of missing foster kids in Missouri, an issue that infuriated state lawmakers last year and led to accusations that Department of Social Services leadership was failing to take accountability. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General […]

The post ​​Federal watchdog’s report sheds new light on scope of Missouri’s missing foster kids appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Investigate Midwest. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general is reviewing the agency’s handling of the tens of thousands of reported incidents of harm linked to the Seresto flea-and-tick collar, the agency announced last week. The EPA Office of Inspector General said it plans to determine whether the agency’s response […]

The post EPA watchdog launches probe into incidents linked to popular Seresto pet collar appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This column was inspired by a discussion with Missouri Independent Reporter Rudi Keller the day after the 2022 legislative session adjourned. We reminisced about earlier years when there seemed to be a more intense focus on the specific details of public policy rather than ideology and pondered what caused the change. Has it been the […]

The post Capitol Perspectives: Possible reasons for Missouri’s legislative dysfunction appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Matt Valentine was 499 days sober in a court-supervised diversion program when painkillers taken for a broken nose triggered a long-term addiction. He died of an overdose in August 2020. When beer heiress Trudy Busch Valentine announced her campaign for U.S. Senate, she pointed to her son’s 2020 overdose death as a key motivation for […]

The post Opioid death of son inspires first agenda item for Democratic Senate candidate appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The bill started out as just one word.  “Literally adding the word ‘Captain’ to the David Dorn Memorial Highway on Highway (State Route) 180 here in St. Louis County,” said Rep. Shamed Dogan, R-Ballwin.  When they named the highway in his honor last year, legislators accidentally left out the title for Dorn, a retired St. […]

The post Missouri legislators load up state’s official calendar with awareness days appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Embedded in the protracted abortion debate are many existing conditions and facts that are often omitted or distorted, along with blatant hypocrisy when it comes to promoting and protecting the wellbeing of millions of women and children already among us. Whether you take to the street in protest, seethe in anger or shudder silently in […]

The post The abortion debate is filled with misinformation, hypocrisy | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

By the time state lawmakers return to the Capitol next year, nearly all abortions could be illegal in Missouri. With a trigger ban already on the books that would go into effect if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the GOP supermajority that controls the Missouri legislature is already mulling what types of […]

The post ‘Anything’s on the table’: Missouri legislature may revisit contraceptive limits post-Roe appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Our environmental safeguards are being decimated by none other than the agency meant to protect us from pollution, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Staff from DNR met secretly with corporations and consulting firms before releasing a proposed rule that would drastically reduce oversight at coal ash dumps by allowing them to continue leaching […]

The post Missouri proposes ‘permit lite’ for leaking coal ash dumps | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Students and teachers told U.S. House members during a Thursday hearing that their right to talk about race and LGBTQ issues in public schools is being silenced due to an onslaught of new state laws as well as pressure on school boards from right-wing advocates. “To be crystal clear, this is about disrupting and destroying […]

The post Freedom of speech is under attack in public schools, U.S. House panel told appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Members of a U.S. Senate panel and election administrators raised a bevy of concerns Thursday about the challenges elections officials will face this fall, saying problems ranging from a lack of paper to coordinated misinformation campaigns could affect confidence in U.S. democracy. A bipartisan panel of current and former elections officials and experts told the […]

The post Misinformation, violence and a paper shortage threaten midterm elections, officials say appeared first on Missouri Independent.

If Missouri’s primary election were held today, three candidates in the 4th Congressional District Republican contest would not be able to vote for themselves. The new district lines that took effect Wednesday already led state Rep. Sara Walsh of Ashland to quit the campaign she started last year because her home and legislative constituency will […]

The post New maps make residency an issue in Missouri’s 4th Congressional District appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Food and Drug Commissioner Robert Califf told Congress Thursday that the infant formula shortage will likely begin to improve in the coming days, though he declined to explain to unhappy lawmakers why his agency didn’t act sooner on a whistleblower report that detailed safety issues at an Abbott Laboratories facility in Michigan. […]

The post Under fire from Congress, FDA chief says baby formula shortage will improve soon appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Gridlock in the Missouri Senate doomed issues that the GOP should have used its supermajority to accomplish, Gov. Mike Parson said Wednesday, pointing specifically at legislation targeting transgender students and banning critical race theory in schools. In an interview with KFTKs Mark Reardon, Parson lamented that the legislature spent so much time and effort this […]

The post Missouri governor laments failure of transgender sports bill, ban on critical race theory appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Both the Biden administration and Congress moved Wednesday to try to relieve a national infant formula shortage, as the White House invoked the Defense Production Act and the U.S. House approved $28 million for the Food and Drug Administration. President Joe Biden said he would use the law to address the formula shortage, requiring suppliers […]

The post Congress, White House scramble to ease baby formula shortage appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft will not use random sampling to verify whether a pair of initiative petitions submitted this month collected enough signatures to be placed on the November ballot, his office confirmed Wednesday. Instead, Ashcroft will rely on the traditional method of line-by-line checking by local election officials to verify and count […]

The post Ashcroft won’t use random sampling to certify marijuana, ranked-choice initiatives appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Gov. Mike Parson signed the bill revising the boundaries of Missouri’s eight congressional districts Wednesday afternoon, officially ending the most contentious legislative battle of the year. The revised districts have already led to one candidate, state Rep. Sara Walsh of Ashland, withdrawing from her campaign for the open 4th District seat. Walsh on Monday lamented […]

The post Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signs new congressional redistricting plan appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Attorney General Eric Schmitt is preparing for a new round of lawsuits challenging school mask rules if districts reinstate orders in the face of an uptick in COVID-19 cases. During a hearing Tuesday in Boone County Circuit Court, assistant attorney general James Atkins said the new cases would involve districts that have policies triggered by […]

The post Attorney General Eric Schmitt preparing new round of school mask lawsuits appeared first on Missouri Independent.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday commemorated the victims of last weekend’s mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, and condemned the ideology that drove the killer to “carry out a murderous, racist rampage” at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood. In a visit to the Upstate New York city, Biden and other New York […]

The post Biden condemns racist theory of white supremacy in visit to Buffalo after mass shooting appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz used his exit from the legislature to blast Attorney General Eric Schmitt, arguing he failed to stop the proliferation of illegal gambling machines and cost public schools millions in revenue. Schatz, who is opposing Schmitt in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, was stymied by a filibuster in […]

The post Missouri Senate president accuses AG of turning ‘blind eye’ to illegal gambling appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Investigate Midwest.  Lawyers for Tyson Foods, one of America’s largest meatpacking companies, drafted an early version of a 2020 executive order that allowed plants to continue operating during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new Congressional report based on company emails shows. It’s been reported that the meatpacking industry wrote a draft […]

The post Tyson Foods wrote draft of Trump order keeping meatpacking plants open during pandemic appeared first on Missouri Independent.