a Better Bubble™

MoInd 📰

Sports wagering, minimum wage hike headed for November vote in Missouri

10 months 3 weeks ago
An end run around the Missouri General Assembly has the nation’s two largest sports books driving hard to their goal of crossing home plate with a big payday. A constitutional amendment to legalize sports wagering will be Amendment 2 on the Nov. 5 ballot, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office said Tuesday, after finding that […]
Rudi Keller

Missouri voters will decide whether to legalize abortion in November 

10 months 3 weeks ago
Abortion will be on Missouri’s statewide ballot in November. An initiative petition to enshrine the right to abortion up until the point of fetal viability received final approval Tuesday, securing a place on the general election ballot. If the measure receives a majority of votes, Missouri could become the first state to overturn an abortion […]
Anna Spoerre

Judge upholds ballot language to ban noncitizen voting, already illegal in Missouri

10 months 3 weeks ago
The ballot language written by lawmakers for a proposed constitutional amendment stating “only citizens of the United States” can vote and banning ranked-choice voting is fair and should be on the Nov. 5 ballot without changes, a Cole County judge ruled Monday. The “fair ballot language” summary written by Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft also […]
Rudi Keller

At Guardian Hills, Missouri veterans find a way to heal after the trauma of combat

10 months 3 weeks ago
Navy veteran Jennifer Badger enlisted in 2001, was deployed to the Persian Gulf in 2002 and came home with post-traumatic stress. After years battling addiction and homelessness, she found a refuge at the recently opened Guardian Hills Veterans Healing Center north of Columbia. She calls it “a different type of healing” where veterans can spend […]
Zoe Homan

Mass deportations would be a moral, logistical and economic disaster

10 months 3 weeks ago
There’s an image that’s stayed with me for weeks: A sea of people holding up “Mass Deportation Now” signs at the Republican National Convention. Since then, I’ve been plagued with nightmares of mass raids by the military and police across the country. I see millions of families being torn apart, including families with citizen children. […]
Alliyah Lusuegro

States want to lower drug prices. A federal law stands in their way

10 months 3 weeks ago
Oliver Lackey opened a pharmacy in his hometown of Fairview, Oklahoma, so he could “provide the best patient care.” He set up shop a decade ago in the local grocery store with “zero prescriptions.” Before long, business took off — yet he was still struggling. “I was getting more patients and was filling more prescriptions,” […]
Shalina Chatlani

State lawmakers eye promise, pitfalls of AI ahead of November elections

10 months 3 weeks ago
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Inside a white-walled conference room, a speaker surveyed hundreds of state lawmakers and policy influencers, asking whether artificial intelligence poses a threat to the elections in their states. The results were unambiguous: 80% of those who answered a live poll said yes. In a follow-up question, nearly 90% said their state laws […]
Kevin Hardy

Thinking about the frightening past while living in Missouri after the fall of Roe

10 months 3 weeks ago
What happened to Evelyn? What happened to Marsha? These questions still come up among my friends from high school 55 years later. Both disappeared from our high school class after they became pregnant. The question of how their teenage pregnancies impacted their lives is increasingly on my mind, living in Missouri after the fall of […]
Frances Levine

Added delays in store for Trump in 2020 election interference case

10 months 4 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — Special counsel Jack Smith was granted more time on Friday before having to give an outline on the next steps his office is taking in the 2020 election interference case against former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee. The delay pushes the case proceedings further into the thick of the presidential race, […]
Shauneen Miranda

Congress aims to boost enforcement at the border – with Canada

10 months 4 weeks ago
WASHINGTON – While much of U.S. border security talk focuses on the southwest corner of the country, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan bill in June aimed at a different target —  growing migration along the U.S.-Canada border. The legislation, titled the Northern Border Coordination Act, was co-authored by Sens. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and […]
Lia Chien

Fertilizer from human waste faces scrutiny but remains a profitable industry

10 months 4 weeks ago
The cool morning spring breeze hit Saundra Traywick “like a punch to the face.” Walking through her wooded 38-acre donkey farm in central Oklahoma, Traywick suddenly found it hard to breathe as the air smelled “toxic” and “like death.” Less than a mile away, a truck was spreading a chunky dark fertilizer on a hay […]
Ben Felder

After Kansas newspaper raid, journalists remain defiant in battle for accountability

10 months 4 weeks ago
This story is part of a series by Kansas Reflector and The Handbasket to examine the one-year anniversary of the raid on the Marion County Record. Support independent journalism by subscribing to The Handbasket or donating to Kansas Reflector. MARION, Kan. — Marion County Record editor and publisher Eric Meyer began speaking out about the […]
Marisa Kabas

Josh Hawley, Lucas Kunce remain at an impasse on Missouri U.S. Senate debates

10 months 4 weeks ago
BOONVILLE – U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley said Thursday that he will participate in moderated television debates with Democrat Lucas Kunce, but first he wants Kunce to agree to debate without moderators at the Missouri State Fair. In response, Kunce said he will take part in the Lincoln-Douglas style debate Hawley wants, but first the incumbent […]
Rudi Keller

Missouri standardized test scores show progress, continued challenges statewide

10 months 4 weeks ago
Missouri students are showing progress on standardized tests administered by the state, with results in some categories approaching — and even exceeding — pre-pandemic levels. But in other areas — most notably English language arts — students continue to struggle. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education revealed preliminary scores in the Missouri Assessment […]
Annelise Hanshaw

Senators urge better access to disability payments for Long COVID patients

11 months ago
Several U.S. senators have called on the Social Security Administration to take steps to make it easier for people with Long COVID to access disability benefits, actions that disability rights advocates and patients say are desperately needed. Sens. Tim Kaine , Ed Markey, Tammy Duckworth, Bernie Sanders, Tina Smith, Angus King, and Richard Blumenthal signed the letter […]
Casey Quinlan

Trump agrees to Sept. 10 debate with Harris, claims two more upcoming

11 months ago
WASHINGTON — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Thursday he has agreed to debate Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Sept. 10, a reversal from his position last week that he would not participate in the ABC News event. During a press conference at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, the former president said […]
Ariana Figueroa