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Under pressure from Missouri regulators, and with assurances from federal regulators that certainty would come soon, Spire Missouri ratcheted down its campaign warning St. Louis area customers they could experience outages this winter.  Spire was widely criticized by state and federal regulators and environmental groups when it sent an email to St. Louis area customers […]

The post Under pressure from regulators and elected officials, Spire tones down pipeline messaging appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Spire Missouri customers will see big hikes in their natural gas bills this winter, with residents in the Kansas City area hit the hardest, as the energy market continues to struggle following February’s deep freeze.  The utility, which serves nearly 1.2 million customers around Missouri, says natural gas prices are up almost 60% compared to […]

The post Bills for Spire customers in Kansas City spike 40%, St. Louis 25% appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — State health officials on Thursday welcomed the Biden administration’s plan to require private health insurers to reimburse Americans for the cost of rapid, at-home COVID-19 tests — though the officials also raised questions about whether the process will be burdensome. Making those tests more accessible will allow Americans to get results quickly and […]

The post At-home COVID tests to be covered by insurance — but details still to come appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Democrats on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee on Thursday encouraged President Joe Biden to take stronger action to limit oil and gas production, while Republicans said reducing domestic production would only increase global emissions from overseas suppliers. In a hearing less than a week after the U.S. Interior Department released a report that called for fiscal […]

The post Biden’s oil and gas policy falls short on climate goals, House Democrats say appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Attorney General Eric Schmitt will not appeal a consequential court ruling that strips powers from local health departments, despite a request from Missouri’s state health director to do so. In an email to The Independent, Schmitt’s spokesman said the attorney general’s office notified the Department of Health and Senior Services of its decision. “We have […]

The post Missouri health director wanted to appeal judge’s COVID ruling. AG Schmitt refused appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As the delta variant ran rampant this summer, Missouri officials pleaded with the federal government to allow a $100 gift card program to incentivize COVID-19 vaccines. But months later, just 20 of the 115 eligible local health departments have opted into the vaccine incentive program, an investigation by The Missouri Independent and the Documenting COVID-19 […]

The post Missouri allocated $11M for vaccine gift cards. Most health departments said no thanks appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is weighing potentially sweeping changes to the right to an abortion, after two hours of arguments Wednesday morning on a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The court’s conservatives, who hold a 6-3 majority, appeared through their questions to be sympathetic to Mississippi’s arguments that its […]

The post U.S. Supreme Court considers new limits on abortions in Mississippi case appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Lucia Ruta remembers a time when abortions were illegal. A native of Washington, D.C., she says she received an abortion in a back alley when she was 16, in the 1960s.  “The doctor told me that if I made as so much a whimper, he was going to stop and kick me out,” […]

The post Protesters rally at U.S. Supreme Court as justices hear landmark abortion case appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Mask mandates saved lives and prevented COVID-19 infections in Missouri’s biggest cities during the worst part of the delta variant wave, an analysis by the state Department of Health and Senior Services shows. But the analysis, conducted at the request of Gov. Mike Parson’s office in early November, was never made public and was only […]

The post Missouri health department found mask mandates work, but didn’t make findings public appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The state saw a historic number of Missourians apply for unemployment benefits in 2020. About 639,000 Missourians filed in the first three months of the COVID pandemic, as businesses shut down to stave off the virus’ spread. “They were encouraged to apply,” said Jim Guest, director of the volunteer lawyers program at Legal Services of […]

The post Missouri bill seeks to forgive mistakenly overpaid unemployment benefits appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In April, when I received my first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, I was hopeful for the first time in over a year that my life was going to return to normal. However, seven months later, I tested positive for COVID-19 and it was as if the isolating feeling of the early months of the […]

The post After a breakthrough COVID infection, I believe in the vaccine more than ever | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri lawmakers trained their focus Tuesday on how school boards interact with the public and the ways in which history is taught in schools. For over three hours, the Joint Committee on Education discussed how social studies curriculum makes its way into the classroom, raising questions about whether the Sept. 11 attacks are taught and […]

The post Ahead of session, lawmakers scrutinize Missouri social studies standards, school boards appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A waning delta variant summer surge gave way to a spike of cases in November, as infections and hospitalizations rose amid concerns about a new variant spreading out of South Africa. The omicron variant hasn’t been detected in Missouri, but public health officials are watching. The first place it is likely to be detected is […]

The post Delta variant cases spike again in November as health officials watch for arrival of new strain appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Nearly three months after being removed from the Missouri Capitol by Gov. Mike Parson’s administration, an exhibit on the history of the LGTBQ movement will now be on display in several St. Louis locations.  Called “Making History: Kansas City and the Rise of Gay Rights,” the exhibit documents the early days of LGBTQ activism in […]

The post After being booted from Missouri Capitol, LGBTQ history exhibit headed to St. Louis appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Former Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton liked to say that the minute you put your name on a ballot, you lose 50 IQ points. Trust me: He was only half-kidding. It’s not just that political neophytes do dumb things once they decide to run for office. It’s that ambition often clouds the thinking of even […]

The post The biggest threat to Missouri’s 2022 legislative session? Ambition | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Enforcement of the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for millions of health care workers was blocked in 10 states on Monday, after a ruling by a federal judge in Missouri. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp affects the states involved in the lawsuit, including Missouri. The others are Iowa, Kansas, New Hampshire, […]

The post Federal vaccine mandate for health care workers in 10 states blocked by judge appeared first on Missouri Independent.

An effort to do away with partisan primaries in Missouri and replace them with a “ranked choice” method got a big boost last week, receiving roughly $670,000 from a Virginia-based nonprofit hoping to put the idea on the 2022 statewide ballot. A group called Better Elections is pushing an initiative petition that would amend Missouri’s […]

The post Group hopes to amend Missouri constitution to enact ranked-choice voting appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by The Kansas City Beacon. A new Missouri law allowing employers to continue paying some people with disabilities less than minimum wage has positioned the state at the forefront of a national debate over disability rights in the workplace. Part of a wide-ranging piece of legislation signed by Gov. Mike Parson in […]

The post Amid debate over sheltered workshops, Missouri pays people with disabilities less appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When people are checked into the Clay County Detention Center, they all have to pay an intake fee of $8. But for women on their periods, entering the jail used to cost them extra. Incarcerated women at the facility used to be charged about $6 for two packages of 12 pads. If they didn’t have […]

The post With new law and state funds, some Missouri jails lift fees for tampons and pads appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As we begin to resume some sense of normalcy in our lives during this holiday season, and as we gather with family and friends, it behooves us to think about and discuss a not so simple question: “Who are we?” Who are we becoming, as a nation, as a city, as a community or as […]

The post A time to think about who we are and who we are becoming | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.