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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration Wednesday announced its plans to extend the pause on federal student loan repayments until the end of August. “I recognized in recently extending the COVID-19 national emergency, we are still recovering from the pandemic and the unprecedented economic disruption it caused,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.  “If loan payments […]

The post Pause on federal student loan repayments extended by Biden through Aug. 31 appeared first on Missouri Independent.

If the Missouri Senate debates a sports wagering bill that passed the House last month, it will likely include a higher tax rate and more money to combat problem gambling. At the close of a hearing on the bill Wednesday, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Dan Hegeman didn’t specify what tax rate on sports wagering profits […]

The post Senators seek higher tax on profits at hearing for bill to legalize sports wagering in Missouri appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request by five counties and health departments to quickly hear arguments and review a case that they say “upended the longstanding public health framework” in Missouri. The decision means an appeal of a Cole County judge’s November ruling will have to first go through the Western District […]

The post Missouri Supreme Court declines to immediately hear appeal of COVID ruling appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has food safety inspectors in every large meatpacking plant in the country. Just like the industry’s workers, the government’s inspectors entered the high-risk work spaces almost every day during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sonny Perdue, USDA’s leader during the […]

The post Watchdog says OSHA, USDA should have done more to protect meatpacking workers from COVID appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Missouri House gave first round approval Tuesday to a package of budget bills spending $46.2 billion, with Republicans defeating repeated Democratic efforts to tap the state’s record surplus. The budget includes boosts to higher education funding, both for institutions and scholarships, as well as funding one of last year’s most controversial issues, Medicaid expansion. […]

The post Missouri House signs off on $46.2 billion budget, leaves most of huge state surplus untouched appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Missouri Senate is poised to take up a long-running effort to stymie the Grain Belt Express, a massive transmission line meant to carry wind energy from southwest Kansas across three states.  The $2 billion project would carry 4,000 megawatts of energy, dropping some off in Missouri before ending at the Illinois-Indiana border. It’s been […]

The post Missouri Senate committee takes up bill targeting Grain Belt Express transmission line appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The new director of the Department of Social Services’ Children’s Division painted a grim picture Tuesday of an atrophying child welfare department that is facing severe staffing shortages and leaving remaining caseworkers overwhelmed. Darrell Missey, the director of the Children’s Division, told lawmakers on the Joint Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect, that there are […]

The post Missouri caseworkers ‘drowning’ as Children’s Division plagued by staff shortages appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Former Missouri First Lady Sheena Greitens says in a new court filing that she has photos and other evidence to back up her claims that former Gov. Eric Greitens physically abused her and their children as his political career unraveled. In a statement embedded in a court filing Thursday in Boone County Circuit Court as […]

The post Sheena Greitens says she has photos, records to document abuse by former Missouri governor appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The U.S. Senate advanced Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic Supreme Court nomination in a 53-47 procedural vote Monday evening, hours after the Judiciary Committee deadlocked along party lines. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah voted with all 50 Senate Democrats on the procedural vote Monday. The […]

The post Jackson wins 3 GOP votes as U.S. Senate advances her Supreme Court nomination appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This year’s process to redraw Missouri’s legislative districts represents the danger of handing that responsibility to partisan politicians. Every 10 years following the national census, district lines must be redrawn to meet the U.S. constitutional requirement for near equal distribution of population among the districts. The 2018 Clean Missouri ballot issue gave the job of […]

The post Capitol Perspectives: There’s got to be a better way appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Kaiser Health News.  Korra Elliott has tried to avoid seeing a doctor while waiting to get on Medicaid. She worries she can’t afford more bills without any insurance coverage. But in early March — five months, she said, after applying and with still no decision about her application — […]

The post Months-long wait for Missouri Medicaid coverage is a sign of what’s to come appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In just two weeks since allegations of domestic violence surfaced, Eric Greitens’ campaign for the U.S. Senate has been under siege from fellow Republicans urging him to drop out of the race.  With one notable exception. The state party, which in recent years has denounced several candidates running under the GOP banner for behavior it […]

The post Women within Missouri GOP speak out against Eric Greitens as party remains silent appeared first on Missouri Independent.

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 […]

The post U.S. House votes to decriminalize marijuana in federal law appeared first on Missouri Independent.

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 […]

The post House Budget Committee rejects adding surplus revenue to Missouri public schools, colleges appeared first on Missouri Independent.

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 […]

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