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Missouri set pandemic peaks for COVID-19 hospitalizations and daily net new admissions this week. The Department of Health and Senior Services reported there were 2,933 inpatients, a number that grew an average of 91 per day over the previous seven days. The previous peaks were 2,862 inpatients on Dec. 22, 2020, before vaccines were widely […]

The post Missouri COVID hospitalizations set new record as omicron variant spread accelerates appeared first on Missouri Independent.

With Gov. Mike Parson promising state employees a pay raise by Feb. 1 and the state’s Medicaid program likely to run short of money sometime next month, one of the first items on the legislature’s agenda this year is a supplemental $5.3 billion spending bill. The House Budget Committee will meet at 11 a.m. Monday […]

The post Deadlines loom on $5.3B spending bill for Missouri Medicaid, federal COVID aid for schools appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A version of this commentary originally appeared in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. One year ago on this day, U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle was at his desk at the Longworth House Office Building, near the U.S. Capitol, when he heard an enraged mob, fueled by a former president’s false claims of fraud, making its way up Independence Avenue. Boyle, a […]

The post The next Jan. 6 should worry us more | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A panel of experts on election security hosted a conversation on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Their goal was to provide an update on how election security had been updated or improved since the 2020 election. But really, their hope was to not let history repeat itself. The four […]

The post Election experts: Still more to be done on state, federal elections before 2022 midterms appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Kansas City will reinstate a mask mandate for K-12 schools as COVID-19 cases reach record figures driven by the omicron variant. Council members voted 10-2 on Thursday to require that students and staff in school buildings wear masks starting next week and running until Feb. 3. Its previous mask mandate expired late last year.  Mayor Quinton […]

The post Kansas City reinstates mask mandate for K-12 schools amid COVID surge appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday warned of the dangers of a collapse of American democracy, standing in a historic chamber in the U.S. Capitol that was besieged by an angry mob of pro-Trump supporters who attempted to halt the certification of the 2020 presidential election. “We are in the battle for the soul […]

The post Biden in Jan. 6 speech decries ‘web of lies’ created by Trump about 2020 election appeared first on Missouri Independent.

At the west end of the Missouri Capitol on Wednesday, the state House opened the annual legislative session in the traditional way, with routine business and a quick adjournment. At the east end, in the state Senate, bitter divisions exposed last year resurfaced, as members of the conservative caucus aired their grievances and Democrats brooded […]

The post Missouri Senate opens annual session with bitter divisions on display appeared first on Missouri Independent.

St. Louis area hospitals are getting “crushed” by the highest number of COVID patients they’ve seen yet in the pandemic, hospital leaders said in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. And those patients are on track to double in the next couple weeks, according to projections from the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, which […]

The post ‘We’re quite frightened’: Missouri hospitals sound alarm over latest COVID wave appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Evergy will build a 10-megawatt solar farm near its coal-fired power plant in northeast Kansas City, the company announced on Wednesday.  The electric utility serves 1.6 million customers in Kansas and Missouri. Half of the energy produced at the solar farm will go to serve that entire base. The other half will be reserved for […]

The post Evergy announces plan for large solar farm near coal plant in Kansas City appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A group of congressional Democrats on Tuesday called for preserving the climate portions of President Joe Biden’s stalled domestic spending bill as Democrats in the U.S. Senate rewrite the measure. U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Tina Smith of Minnesota and John Hickenlooper of Colorado, along with Reps. Kathy Castor […]

The post Some Democrats push to rescue climate plan in Biden spending package appeared first on Missouri Independent.

This story was originally published by Kaiser Health News.  Marvin Querry, 86, was on his tractor, planting rye on his 770-acre western Missouri farm, when the call came in early November. It was the social worker from Barone Alzheimer’s Care Center, where Querry’s wife, Diane, is a resident. The facility would be closing because of […]

The post As COVID hits nursing homes’ finances, Missouri town fights to save Alzheimer’s facility appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri lawmakers will return to the Capitol at noon on Wednesday faced with a lengthy to-do list and still simmering dysfunction. And while most legislative sessions ease slowly into gear, that won’t be the case in 2022. Or rather, it can’t be the case.  Lawmakers face fast-approaching deadlines to pass a supplemental budget and work […]

The post Missouri legislature set to convene with packed agenda — and continued GOP infighting appeared first on Missouri Independent.

In most jobs, most of the time, you determine your own destiny. If you’re a salesman who wants to sell more copiers the next year, you make a plan to develop more leads, make more calls every morning, get more sits and refine your pitch to close more effectively. If you’re a software engineer who […]

The post A 2022 wish list for Missouri politicos | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The only solution offered Monday for the disagreement over Jackson County’s districts in the Missouri House would end the use of Troost Avenue as a boundary for seats in western Kansas City. While the major road was once a useful boundary to design districts likely to be represented by Black Missourians, Kansas City resident Michael […]

The post Few public comments offered on Missouri House redistricting plan appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A Louisiana federal judge has put a hold on President Joe Biden’s mandate that Head Start workers be vaccinated against COVID-19. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, who previously ruled against a vaccine mandate for health care workers, issued a preliminary injunction on New Year’s Day restricting the executive branch from enforcing in 24 states a mandate for […]

The post Federal judge blocks vaccine mandate for Head Start workers in 24 states, including Missouri appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The night before the anniversary of a mob incited by false claims of a stolen election storming the U.S. Capitol, one of the main peddlers of the so-called “big lie” is scheduled to be in Missouri.  Rep. Ann Kelley, R-Lamar, sent out invitations late last month for a dinner in Jefferson City with Douglas Frank, […]

The post A year after Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a key purveyor of the ‘big lie’ is heading to Missouri appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After the issue ground legislative work to a halt last year, Missouri Republican lawmakers plan to renew their efforts to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving taxpayer dollars when they return to the state Capitol this week. More than half a dozen bills have been filed so far that aim to strip abortion providers or their […]

The post GOP lawmakers renew effort to bar Planned Parenthood from Missouri Medicaid program appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Marijuana reform in Missouri has been a hotly contested topic since at least 2016, as thousands of entrepreneurs and commercial entities have competed for access to commercial licensing. In 2018, the New Approach Missouri campaign won the support of 66% of Missouri voters to put a medical marijuana program into the state’s Constitution. In 2020, […]

The post Missouri’s marijuana legalization efforts should learn from the legal hemp industry | Opinion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

It was never a question.  As the St. Louis region began to close schools and issue stay-home orders due to the pandemic, Rebeccah Bennett knew that the most vulnerable — the Black community, the unhoused and immigrant populations — would bear the brunt of this deadly virus.  And Bennett, founder of the consulting group Emerging […]

The post Rebeccah Bennett was ‘spiritual center,’ strategist in St. Louis’ COVID-19 response appeared first on Missouri Independent.

For the state commission drawing new Missouri House districts, the work began in acrimony but seems likely to end in harmony. For the commission in charge of new Senate maps, the opposite is true. When the House Independent Bipartisan Citizens Commission met for the first time in August, the 20 members spent hours arguing, locked […]

The post Commission sets Monday public hearing for competing Missouri House district maps appeared first on Missouri Independent.