Anna Pesek saw a federal program supporting local food purchases as much more than a boost to her Iowa pork and poultry farm. The U.S. Department of Agriculture grant program that allowed schools and food banks to buy fresh products from small farms helped her forge new business relationships. It allowed her to spend more […]
In a video on her store’s Facebook page in late March, Oak Grove shop owner Jill Easley announced she would be closing her storefront earlier than planned — later that day. Easley decided to shut down her store in downtown Oak Grove after more than eight years on South Broadway. She relocated her business to […]
The price tag for a tax cut poised for passage in the Missouri General Assembly is likely many times bigger than estimated, and lawmakers should learn more before voting, the research director of the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said last week. On Monday afternoon, the state Senate Fiscal Review Committee will hold […]
The imminent return of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police to state oversight is rooted in the belief that policing remains a crucial force for crime reduction. Safer streets, in turn, fuel business growth and community development. These legislative developments — and the changes that come with them — will undoubtedly affect ongoing crime reduction initiatives. […]
WASHINGTON — Judge James E. Boasberg on Thursday strongly implied there was probable cause that the Trump administration violated his orders over deportation flights carried out under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. “It seems to me … that the government acted in bad faith throughout that day,” he said of March 15, when the […]
WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump takes drastic steps to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, disability advocates are worried about whether the agency can carry out its responsibilities to serve students with disabilities. Representatives of several disability advocacy groups cited “chaos,” “fear” and “uncertainty” in describing the situation to States Newsroom. They said there’s […]
GREENBELT, MARYLAND — A federal judge in Maryland Friday ordered the Trump administration to return a national from El Salvador by April 7 who was erroneously deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, despite an order blocking such removal. The ruling from U.S. District Court of Maryland Judge Paula Xinis sets up a fight with […]
State Rep. Scott Cupps strolled into a Missouri Capitol hearing room wearing a sport coat made of old quilts and toting a hand-cranked Bingo ball spinner. The jacket was a gift from friends back in his Shell Knob district, commissioned by his grandmother’s old quilt club. The Bingo spinner, procured from “the nuns at St. […]
Included in the massive federal workforce cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services this week was the elimination of an office that runs a program over 100,000 Missouri families rely on to help pay their heating and cooling bills.
The nation’s historically Black colleges and universities, known as HBCUs, are wondering how to survive in an uncertain and contentious educational climate as the Trump administration downsizes the scope and purpose of the U.S. Department of Education — while cutting away at federal funding for higher education. In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive […]
WASHINGTON — Markets and business owners in the United States and around the world reeled Thursday following President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping and steep tariffs that are not “reciprocal” but rather punish many countries that U.S. importers heavily rely on, experts say. U.S. stocks plummeted, posting the worst one-day drop since June 2020, financial media […]
Evenezer Cortez Martinez wanted to pay respects to a beloved grandfather who died last fall. He ended up deported, sent back to Mexico, a country the 39-year-old Kansas husband and father left at the age of 4. “Everything was approved, and I arrived here with no problem,” said Cortez Martinez, a DACA recipient, in a […]
The Missouri House sent the state Senate a budget of almost $48 billion to fund state agency operations in the coming fiscal year, a spending plan almost certain to grow as the upper chamber adds more money for public schools and child care. The 13 spending bills use about $2.1 billion less overall and $800 […]
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department’s Office of the Inspector General announced Thursday it has opened an investigation into Secretary Pete Hegseth’s highly criticized use of the Signal messaging app to communicate about plans to bomb Yemen. The evaluation stems from a letter the chairman and ranking member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Republican […]
This story was updated at 6:44 p.m. EDT. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education demanded in a letter to state education leaders on Thursday that they certify all K-12 schools in their states are complying with an earlier Dear Colleague letter banning diversity, equity and inclusion practices if they want to keep receiving federal financial […]
Democrats on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee and a panel of experts on Wednesday blasted the Trump administration’s reduction to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s budget and workforce, citing consequences for everyday weather data, national security and affected industries. Virtually every American interacts with NOAA’s weather data, which supplies forecasting services across the […]
WASHINGTON — Amid dozens of injunctions placed against the Trump administration, Republicans on the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary discussed a bill Wednesday to curb the nationwide effects of those orders from federal judges. The bill, sponsored by GOP Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who leads the committee, would prohibit district court judges from issuing injunctions […]
The first thing Sandra “Sandy” Hemme did after walking out of prison in July 2024 — after spending 43 years behind bars — was visit her father. He was in the hospital battling kidney failure. Ten days later, he was gone. Hemme, now 65, had been held for a crime she said she didn’t commit […]
A Republican state senator spent hours Wednesday trying to block the appointment of his former colleague to a county office over a grudge that goes back more than seven years. Shortly after 1 a.m., the filibuster sputtered and the appointment was confirmed by the Missouri Senate. State Sen. Mike Moon, an Ash Grove Republican, sought […]
A Missouri House member violated a state disclosure law by voting on an appropriation that helped his employer, according to a report approved unanimously on Wednesday by the House Ethics Committee. The committee, made up of five Republicans and five Democrats, was investigating a complaint against state Rep. Justin Sparks, a Republican from Wildwood, related […]
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