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Independence School District Superintendent Dale Herl feels targeted by the state for moving to a four-day school week. On Wednesday, Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick announced a plan to audit the district. Independence schools aren’t accused of wrongdoing, and no one asked for an audit. Rather, it’s Fitzpatrick’s first foray into conducting more routine audits of […]

The post Independence’s four-day school week draws Missouri auditor probe appeared first on Missouri Independent.

As the summer travel season approaches, new parents may be navigating airports with their babies — and the complexities of keeping them fed. Despite federal guidelines for airport agents laying out how to treat nursing moms, stories about problem encounters with security sometimes go viral. In 2023, actress and singer Keke Palmer said she was at Houston […]

The post A bipartisan push to make air travel easier for new parents packing breast milk and formula appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The addition of Negro Leagues baseball players’ statistics to MLB’s record books is bigger than baseball, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick said Wednesday. It’s a part of American history. Negro Leagues players were added to the MLB record books this week after a multi-year project by MLB, which decided in 2020 to reclassify […]

The post ‘America at her best’: Negro Leagues museum head says stat recognition is bigger than baseball appeared first on Missouri Independent.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office on Wednesday scrapped a proposal to extend a compensation program for victims of radiation exposure without expanding it to thousands of Americans across nine states. In a statement that came less than four hours after Johnson’s office said a proposal to expand the program was too expensive, a spokesperson […]

The post U.S. House speaker reverses on radiation compensation bill that excluded Missouri appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A Jay Ashcroft campaign letter that attacked his opponents Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe as a closeted Democrat and state Sen. Bill Eigel as a “political gadfly” shows illegal coordination between his gubernatorial campaign committee and a political action committee, a complaint to the Missouri Ethics Commission states. Ashcroft’s campaign is denying the allegations. The complaint, […]

The post Complaint alleges Jay Ashcroft campaign letter runs afoul of ethics law appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Melvin White sits with his generation at a demographic Ground Zero for mental stress. The Schlagle High School junior survived COVID isolation during middle school. He’s never known a world without smartphones. And he’s finishing high school amid the FOMO energy of a social media world in its own adolescence. All of those factors, experts […]

The post More KC schoolkids are asking for help with their mental health. A few are finding it appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — As part of its ongoing effort to replace diesel-fueled school buses, the Biden administration on Wednesday said it will provide approximately 530 school districts across nearly all states with almost $1 billion to help them purchase clean school buses. The initiative, part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program rebate […]

The post Funds for clean school buses coming to hundreds of districts, White House says  appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — A fund to compensate Americans sickened by exposure to atomic bomb tests, uranium mining and radioactive waste expires in just under 15 days, and activists and lawmakers are scrambling to keep the fund active and open to additional victims. A bill to reauthorize and expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, often shortened to […]

The post Missouri residents affected by radiation exposure push Congress to extend benefits appeared first on Missouri Independent.

After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, former NBA player Royce White became an outspoken advocate of defunding the police. Over those ensuing months, he appeared at a number of protests and marches in Minnesota – demonstrations that conservative politicians and pundits excoriated. Four years later, White accepted the endorsement of the Minnesota […]

The post What QAnon supporters, butthole sunners and New Age spiritualists have in common appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A proposal to renew compensation for cancer victims who were exposed to radioactive material from the nation’s weapons development without expanding the program to Missouri and several other states amounted to a betrayal, Missouri advocates and lawmakers said Tuesday. Members of Congress from Missouri learned late Tuesday that U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to […]

The post U.S. House may consider extending nuclear weapons damages program without Missouri appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Closing arguments in the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president concluded Tuesday, leaving the jury to now decide if Donald Trump is guilty of faking reimbursement to his personal lawyer for hush money paid to a porn star just before the 2016 presidential election. Just outside the Lower Manhattan courthouse during […]

The post The jury now will decide Trump’s fate in hush money trial, after lengthy closing arguments appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri will have two constitutional amendments on the Aug. 6 primary ballot, one to grant tax exemptions for child care facilities and another to rerun a 2022 election result on police funding thrown out by the state Supreme Court.  Gov. Mike Parson said Tuesday that he would put the two proposals from the General Assembly […]

The post Missouri governor sets vote on tax exemption for child care centers, Kansas City police funding appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Stefani Goerlich, a certified sex therapist and social worker with a private practice in Detroit, sees several dozen clients a month, most of them from underserved and minority backgrounds. She speaks to them about sensitive matters such as gender-affirming care, and building trust takes time. Those hard-won relationships often are upended when clients move away […]

The post Amid mental health crisis, new compact allows social workers to practice across state lines appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The courts cannot shield Missouri’s biggest vendor of games offering cash prizes from criminal prosecution for gambling violations, the Western District Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. In a unanimous decision, the court upheld last fall’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Torch Electronics that sought an order barring the Missouri State Highway Patrol from seizing […]

The post Appeals court rules Torch Electronics had no grounds to sue over Missouri gambling enforcement appeared first on Missouri Independent.

State lawmakers tasked the Missouri Veterans Commission with a new mission.  They’ve mandated the commission to make it a top priority to understand why the suicide rate among Missouri’s veterans is nearly double the state rate and one of the highest in the country. After three years of trying, Republican state Rep. Dave Griffith of […]

The post Bill designed to lower suicide rate of Missouri veterans awaits action by governor appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Since recreational weed was legalized in 2022, it has led to more than $19 million going towards three causes — supporting veterans, expanding substance use treatment programs and adding to the Missouri Public Defenders System’s budget. “It is so rewarding to see the impact of this voter-approved program on organizations that provide vital services to […]

The post Legal cannabis in Missouri has generated $19 million for veterans, treatment, public defenders appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A Cole County Circuit Court judge ruled Friday that Republican James Coyne cannot be blocked from the August primary ballot by Democrat Stephen Webber. Both are seeking the 19th District state Senate seat now held by Republican Caleb Rowden, whose term expires this year. Coyne was selected Tuesday by the Boone County GOP candidate selection […]

The post Court ruling keeps Boone County state Senate candidate on August GOP primary ballot appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Since being elected Boone County Clerk in 2018, Brianna Lennon’s job verifying initiative petition signatures has been pretty easy, with only a few hundred pages to sort through at most.  That changed after state lawmakers cut her county in half when they redrew Congressional maps.  In 2022, after long-fought battles and filibusters over the new […]

The post Boone County new focus of Missouri initiative petition campaigns following redistricting appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Here is a tidbit from my years as a newspaper reporter and editor: I never voted in a primary election, never stuck a candidate’s sign in my yard, never had a bumper sticker on my car, never signed a petition, never donated to a campaign. When Sue and I married, she got something more in […]

The post Justice’s distress signal should distress us all appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Over the course of half a dozen trips to Washington, D.C., Dawn Chapman has become accustomed to long days of congressional meetings and questions about St. Louis’ decades-long struggle with radioactive contamination. Chapman, co-founder of Just Moms STL, wraps her feet with duct tape to keep her shoes from giving her blisters, and she and […]

The post Missouri advocates push for compensation for radioactive waste victims as deadline looms appeared first on Missouri Independent.