A bill to authorize video gambling machines commissioned by the Missouri Lottery got off to a fast start in the Missouri House, clearing a committee just 12 days after it was introduced in late January. The bill then stalled on the next step, and a month passed before the House Rules-Legislative Committee approved it for […]
Friends and family arrived bearing flowers. Smiling volunteers pointed the way to seats. Everyone loves a naturalization ceremony. I attended one recently at a branch of the Kansas City Public Library and watched 71 new American citizens swear allegiance to the Constitution of the United States. Even more immigrants had taken the oath earlier in […]
U.S. Supreme Court justices will hear arguments Wednesday about whether South Carolina can remove Planned Parenthood clinics from the state’s Medicaid program because they offer abortions in a case that could imperil health care options for patients with low incomes. At the center of the lawsuit is a conflict over whether a section of the Medicaid Act […]
Missouri’s Senate Bill 196 is a dangerous throwback to a bygone era of criminal justice. The bill aims to make certain crimes where no death occurred, such as statutory rape and child sex trafficking, eligible for the death penalty — a direct violation of the 8th Amendment as established in the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court case Kennedy […]
Missouri Planned Parenthood clinics remain unable to offer medication abortions after the state rejected their complication plans this week. Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which operates clinics in the St. Louis region, Rolla and Springfield, and Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which operates clinics in Kansas City and Columbia, received a letter from the Missouri Department of […]
While the role and actions of the Elon Musk-headed Department of Government Efficiency remain somewhat murky, data privacy experts have been tracking the group’s moves and documenting potential violations of federal privacy protections. Before President Donald Trump took office in January, he characterized DOGE as an advisory body, saying it would “provide advice and guidance from […]
Health insurance companies are under increasing scrutiny for allegedly using artificial intelligence bots and algorithms to swiftly deny patients routine or lifesaving care — without a human actually reviewing their claims. The high-profile killing late last year of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has focused even more attention on so-called prior authorization, the process by which […]
An initiative effort begun Friday by a well-known Missouri Democrat would, if passed by voters next year, force Tesla to close its St. Louis and Kansas City showrooms. Brad Ketcher, a St. Louis attorney who was chief of staff to Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan in the 1990s, said he hopes the effort spreads to other […]
Lexis Dotson-Dufault’s second pregnancy, like her first, was marked by incessant vomiting. She suffered from the pregnancy-related condition hyperemesis gravidarum, and she wasn’t prepared to parent. So in late summer of 2022, after deciding to terminate at a California reproductive health clinic where she was already a patient, she was surprised when the doctor refused […]
More than a dozen states in the past two years have launched or expanded programs that allow families to use taxpayer dollars to send their students to private schools. Now, President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress want to supercharge those efforts. Trump in January issued an executive order directing several federal agencies to allow […]
As Missouri lawmakers debate the $47.9 billion state budget, they are also deciding how to spend an unexpectedly large chunk of cash from sales taxes collected from marijuana dispensaries. The nearly $86 million paid by recreational cannabis users is constitutionally required to be divided up evenly between funds benefiting veterans, public defenders and programs that […]
A St. Louis-based company with an Iowa grain dealer license has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Iowa farmers with unpaid grain sold to Benson Hill Holdings, Inc. prior to March 20, can file a claim for indemnity, according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. Don McDowell, communications director for IDALS, said the […]
For the Day Eagle Hope Project, federal money has helped volunteers deliver fresh produce and meat to families in need across the remote Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in northern Montana — while putting cash into the hands of farmers, ranchers and meat processors. The nonprofit generally has less than $300,000 to spend per year. So […]
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press and the Trump administration delivered arguments in federal court Thursday in a case that could alter decades of established press access in the White House. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden for the District of Columbia heard details from the AP’s White House reporter and photographer about their exclusion for the […]
Missouri lawmakers are considering a proposal that would significantly limit free speech rights at Missouri universities and high schools. House Bill 937 would force schools to create speech codes based on a widely criticized definition of antisemitism. Bill supporters talk about Jewish safety, but their real goal is to shield Israel from criticism as it […]
WASHINGTON — The chairman and ranking member on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee sent a letter to the Defense Department inspector general on Thursday asking the independent watchdog to open an investigation into top officials’ use of the Signal chat app to discuss plans for bombing Yemen. Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker and Rhode […]
WASHINGTON — The top Republican and top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee sent the Trump administration a joint letter on Thursday, telling the Office of Management and Budget it’s on thin ice with the panel. The dispute has to do with how the White House is implementing the stopgap spending law that Congress approved […]
Doctors and other health professionals could face the death penalty if they don’t offer life-saving care to a baby born after an abortion is induced under legislation that cleared the Missouri House Thursday. Critics have raised concerns about how such a bill could affect families who choose to induce early labor following a fatal fetal […]
The Missouri House on Wednesday advanced a bill that would enact new regulations on kratom products, which the National Institute on Drug Abuse defines as “an herbal substance that can produce opioid- and stimulant-like effects.” Kratom products are currently legal both federally and in Missouri, and the legislation that received initial approval Wednesday would put […]
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced a sweeping plan Thursday to restructure the Department of Health and Human Services by cutting an additional 10,000 workers and closing down half of its 10 regional offices. The overhaul will affect many of the agencies that make up HHS, including the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease […]
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