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WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats are urging the White House to extend the freeze on student loan repayments, and for the president to cancel up to $50,000 of student debt — but so far the administration is not budging. The standoff is one of the more noticeable splits between President Joe Biden and members of his […]

The post Biden administration resists Democrats’ pleas on student debt relief as deadline nears appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by the Kansas City Beacon. Expanding state financial aid programs, banning COVID-19 vaccine requirements on campus, and restricting lessons about racism and sexism are just some of the topics of higher education laws being proposed in the Missouri legislature. The next legislative session starts Jan. 5, but representatives and senators  […]

The post Scholarships, guns, teaching about racism: Missouri higher education bills to watch appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s giant social and climate spending bill on Thursday night appeared stalled in the U.S. Senate for some time to come, a deep frustration for congressional Democrats who aimed to pass the ambitious package by the Christmas recess. At risk also is a temporary expansion of the child tax credit, the […]

The post Joe Biden’s big social spending bill caught in snags in the Senate appeared first on Missouri Independent.

If school districts want to take advantage of a lower interest rate on bonds, Missouri Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick is requiring them to certify compliance with a recent court ruling targeting local health orders before his office will approve of the deal. Fitzpatrick detailed the decision he described as “unprecedented” in an interview Wednesday with Missourinet. […]

The post Missouri schools must comply with COVID ruling to win treasurer approval of bond deals appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A protracted court battle over what is and is not an illegal gambling machine will be decided in early January, just a few days before a Florida company will go on trial for putting its devices in a Linn County Eagles lodge. Associate Circuit Judge Tracey Mason-White will rule on whether Tritium International Consultants, which […]

The post Missouri judge to rule in January on legality of electronic raffle games appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As a growing number of Missouri school districts drop COVID mitigation measures under threat from Attorney General Eric Schmitt, at least two closed the doors on their fall semester early due to large numbers of staff and students out sick. Meanwhile, local public health departments said Tuesday they still have not heard from the state […]

The post Confusion around COVID ruling swirls as two Missouri school districts end semester early appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Ameren will shutter a Jefferson County coal plant found in violation of federal clean air laws rather than install what it says are expensive pollution controls, the company announced Tuesday.  The St. Louis-based electrical utility will close the Rush Island Energy Center, built in the mid-1970s, by the spring of 2024, if not sooner. Ameren […]

The post Ameren to shutter Rush Island coal plant by 2024 following Clean Air Act violation appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri revenue collections will record another $1 billion surplus this year and a growing economy will produce record receipts in the coming year, data released Tuesday by Gov. Mike Parson’s office shows. Parson and legislative budget leaders released estimates for revenue in the year that begins July 1, 2022, showing revenues are expected to total […]

The post Missouri revenue to hit record $11.4B in coming year, estimate from Gov. Parson shows appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A company denied licenses to grow medical marijuana in Missouri urged the state Supreme Court Tuesday to compel regulators to provide application info that the health department has argued it’s constitutionally obligated to protect. At issue is the Department of Health and Senior Services’ refusal to turn over applications of successful license holders, despite being […]

The post Missouri Supreme Court weighs whether medical marijuana applications can be disclosed appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A bipartisan commission drawing a map for 163 Missouri House districts that will be used in the coming decade is “more than 50 percent” in agreement, members said Monday as they worked toward a Dec. 23 deadline. The 20-member House Independent Bipartisan Citizens Commission met for more than three hours Monday, but most of that […]

The post Bipartisan commission moving toward plan for new Missouri House districts appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In Randolph County in central Missouri, there are places where a person can take two steps and move through three state House districts. The county, with 24,716 people, doesn’t have enough population for a single House district, yet after the 2010 census, it was split among four.  The same is true for Miller County, with […]

The post New redistricting rules reduce county splits in Missouri House map appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Jackson and St. Louis counties requested Monday that they be permitted to intervene and appeal a recent court ruling that they argue has “upended the longstanding public health framework” in Missouri. In a filing submitted Monday afternoon and obtained by The Independent, the two counties asked Cole County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Green to stay […]

The post Missouri’s largest counties seek to appeal ruling overturning local health orders appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The recent personal and racially tinged partisan attacks by a couple of U.S. House members, and the absence of swift discipline, stands in stark contrast to how legislators treat one another in Missouri’s General Assembly. This contrast reminded me of a speech by the late Sen. Richard Webster made on the night of his final […]

The post Capitol Perspectives: Personal attacks in Congress versus Missouri  appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by the Riverfront Times. It is not available for republication.  A few months ago, Kevin FitzGerald was driving along Interstate 44 toward St. Louis when his iPhone buzzed. FitzGerald picked it up. The voice on the other end: A man in his early twenties in Ontario, Canada, who had just […]

The post The war on drugs failed. Will ‘radical compassion’ work? appeared first on Missouri Independent.

While lawmakers are considering whether to approve big building projects for college campuses and awaiting more of Gov. Mike Parson’s plans for using an unprecedented budget surplus, a fight is brewing over a smaller pot of funds used to combat domestic violence and child abuse. Each year, the Department of Social Services distributes grants from […]

The post Social Services department, local agencies at odds over use of Missouri crime victims’ funding appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Whether driven to hang on to power, have access to money, or intoxicated by fame—when politicians say and do things that hurt and harm the people for their personal gain, it is greed of the most grievous kind. Greed? Yes, greed. Greed has many faces and is manifested in many ways. Whatever form of greed […]

The post Some politicians deliberately sacrifice public health and safety for personal greed | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Paying down debt. Taking a family vacation. Defraying child care costs. These are a few of the ways Kansas City families have used extra income they received this year from monthly federal child tax credits. Since 1997, most working families have been eligible for an income tax credit based on the number of children in a […]

The post Kansas City families prepare for the end of the expanded federal child tax credits appeared first on Missouri Independent.

For the past 20 years, I have been engaged in efforts to end the opioid epidemic, as a public health official, researcher and clinician. And for every one of those years I have looked on as the number of deaths from drug overdoses has set a new record high. Yet even knowing that trend I was […]

The post How the pandemic helped spread fentanyl, drive opioid overdose deaths to a new high | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The death Sunday of Bob Dole was a potent reminder of what we have lost as a nation. Another member of the Greatest Generation has left us — another of those Depression-era kids who came together to save democracy in the dark days of World War II. The career of the 98-year-old Kansas Republican reminds […]

The post Our political system has withered since Bob Dole’s days | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Sen. Robert J. Dole arrived at the U.S. Capitol for the final time on Thursday, for a Rotunda ceremony in which former colleagues and congressional leaders from both parties honored the life and career of the late Kansas political icon.  President Joe Biden and others remembered Dole — who died Sunday at […]

The post Kansas’ Bob Dole remembered at U.S. Capitol ceremony for public service, sense of humor appeared first on Missouri Independent.