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In an election, all the attention is on the winners. That’s normal. Our expectations are focused on what candidates will do if they win. But this year, maybe for the first time, we need to be clear about our expectations for the candidates who fall short on Election Day. These would-be public servants have a […]

The post We have to raise our expectations for election losers appeared first on Missouri Independent.

For years, electric vehicles posed something of a chicken-and-egg problem.  Mass adoption, seen as critical to cutting the largest single source of U.S. carbon emissions, couldn’t happen until the infrastructure to allow drivers to recharge wherever they were heading was in place. And those charging stations weren’t coming until more drivers switched to plug-in electric […]

The post Amid major federal investment in electric cars, it’s time for states to step up, advocates say appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In the wake of major coal ash spills from power plant containment ponds in Tennessee and into the Dan River along the North Carolina and Virginia border, the federal Environmental Protection Agency in 2015 laid out the first federal rules for managing the ash, one of the nation’s largest waste streams, and the toxins it contains. But more than […]

The post Coal plant operators shirking responsibilities on ash cleanup, report contends appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Within seven minutes of receiving a 911 call about an active shooter in a St. Louis high school, police and armed security guards were already in the building and engaging the suspect in gun fire.  The immediate response by police and school security on Oct. 24 at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School has […]

The post Missouri Republican explores legislative push to require schools to have armed security appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Voters around the state have been taking advantage of Missouri’s first ever no-excuse early voting period the last two weeks.  The early voting period ends at 5 p.m. Monday, and polls will be open for everyone else from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday.  Among the races on the statewide ballot this year include […]

The post Missouri election guide: The big questions voters will face on Tuesday’s ballot  appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In the last two decades, hundreds of thousands of U.S. cattle producers have gone out of business, and we are currently losing 40 operations per day by some estimates. Just in the last two years, around 1,700 small feedlots run by independent family farmers were put out of business because of corporate consolidation. This has […]

The post Just four meatpackers control 85% of the market. Missouri cattlemen like me need a voice appeared first on Missouri Independent.

On Sunday evening, the Kansas City Chiefs will host the Tennessee Titans in a game essential to both teams’ hopes to enter the NFL playoffs with the best record in their conference. With Election Day approaching on Tuesday, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Schmitt is targeting the enormous hometown audience expected to tune in with […]

The post Eric Schmitt pays $75,000 for ad during Chiefs game to close out Missouri Senate race appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Republicans who may be taking control of Congress in next week’s midterm elections have not been very specific about many policy goals—but the farm bill is an exception. Members of the GOP in the U.S. House and Senate are sending strong signals they want to strip climate funding from the massive legislation in 2023 […]

The post Climate funding could suffer in the farm bill under GOP control of Congress appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A close ally of Republican Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano has a plan that she claims will help win him the election and prevent voter fraud: She wants voters to cast their ballots “as late in the day as possible” on Election Day. Conspiracy theorist Toni Shuppe, who has ties to QAnon and who is rumored […]

The post Conspiracy theorists urge voting as late as possible on Election Day to ‘stop the steal’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In the first four months of Missouri’s fiscal year, the state earned $42.8 million in interest for the general revenue fund, more than in the past two full years combined. The enormous increase is due to two factors — a record surplus in the fund and the rapid rise in interest rates. On Tuesday, voters […]

The post Missouri ballot measures put state investments, National Guard before voters appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Kaiser Health News.  On Nov. 2, 2021, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s reelection campaign received 10 separate $10,000 contributions from what appeared to be unrelated health insurance plans from across the country. The Buckeye Community Health Plan of Ohio, Louisiana Healthcare Connections, and Peach State Health Plan of Georgia were […]

The post Centene showers politicians with millions as it courts contracts, settles overbilling allegations appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A traveling variety show of Christian Nationalism, anti-vaccine rhetoric and election conspiracies will make its final stop before the midterm elections this weekend in Branson. Headlined by Michael Flynn, Roger Stone and Eric Trump, the ReAwaken America Tour co-opts Christian language and worship to push profane politics designed to undermine our democracy. As a Baptist minister who […]

The post Missouri leaders should condemn this weekend’s Christian nationalist rally in Branson appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Democratic candidates in tough legislative races around Missouri were holding their own in fundraising against their Republican opponents heading into the campaign’s homestretch. But the tide quickly turned. Groups like the House Republican Campaign Committee, or HRCC, and the pro-school choice Missouri Federation for Children PAC have been spending big to protect GOP incumbents and […]

The post Outside spending boosts Republicans in swing legislative races around Missouri  appeared first on Missouri Independent.

PHOENIX — The two outdoor ballot drop boxes in Maricopa County are both unassuming — secure metal boxes, about the size of blue mailboxes, located just outside county buildings. But in recent weeks, they’ve at times been monitored by volunteers with far-right organizations, prompted by former President Donald Trump’s claims of widespread fraud and misinformation […]

The post Concerns grow that voter intimidation could disrupt midterm elections appeared first on Missouri Independent.

President Joe Biden asked voters Wednesday night to focus on the threats candidates aligned with his predecessor pose to the foundation of U.S. democracy in the midterm elections. In a 20-minute speech at Washington, D.C.’s  Union Station, before a Democratic audience, Biden decried a rise in political violence, and blamed former President Donald Trump for […]

The post With ‘democracy itself’ on the ballot, Biden warns of ‘path to chaos’ by election deniers appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that in its continuing efforts to tamp down inflation, it would raise interest rates yet again by another three-quarters of a point to a target range of 3.75 to 4%. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said during a press conference following the announcement that the “historically fast pace” of […]

The post The Fed raises interest rates again, signals more coming despite pressure to slow the pace appeared first on Missouri Independent.

President Joe Biden’s administration told hospitals in July they must provide emergency abortions when necessary even in states with strict bans in place.  And here in Missouri, a Joplin hospital is apparently the first in the nation to be investigated for possibly violating federal law by telling a woman experiencing an emergency that she needed […]

The post Missouri hospital the first confirmed federal investigation of denied emergency abortion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In Colorado, an error in early October involving voter registration postcards that were mailed to non-citizens in the state morphed into a conspiracy theory about voter fraud. In Iowa, voters in late September received phone calls spreading misinformation about how they could vote, with Iowans falsely told they could cast their ballots over the phone, the Iowa Capital Dispatch […]

The post Misinformation about voting crops up around the U.S. as midterm elections near appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The year was 1990.  St. Louis County Executive H.C. Milford, a Republican and kindly insurance broker who rose to power when his predecessor Gene McNary received a federal appointment, was seeking election to a full term against a hard-charging three-term county prosecutor named George “Buzz” Westfall. Milford, an accidental county executive who was, by all […]

The post Has stark polarization between Missouri Republicans and Democrats led to detente? appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The road to hell isn’t paved anymore with good intentions. The asphalt is hatred. Chances are you have experienced it recently. A person may have confronted you because of race or ethnicity. One study shows that 22% of Americans have encountered that or had their property damaged because of their skin color or culture. You may hate […]

The post The optics of American hate appeared first on Missouri Independent.