Meg Cunningham is The Beacon’s rural health reporter. She graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism, where she covered state government and health. She spent roughly three years covering national politics, including the 2018 and 2020 elections, at ABC News in Washington. She’s spent over five years covering politics and policy, with the last three of those years focused on Missouri state government, developing expertise on state policy and agencies, democracy and representation, and health outcomes in Missouri. She grew up in the Kansas City suburbs.
Columbia, Missouri
English
Politics and policy
Health outcomes
It’s possible to imagine Kansas City — anguished by chronic gun violence and freshly angered by Wednesday’s nightmarish Super Bowl rally — clamping down on guns.
If only it could.
State lawmakers and the governor of Missouri see guns more as a tool of self-defense than as the source of carnage. They put laws in place that bar Kansas City, Jackson County or anywhere else in the state from imposing local gun control.
This year, the way Missouri Republicans weigh in on the presidential race will be a bit different. Thanks to a 2022 law, Missouri counties are no longer responsible for conducting presidential preference primaries. Instead, that falls to county Republican and Democratic parties across the state. Registered Republicans and unaffiliated voters will have the opportunity to […]
As the Kansas City Chiefs get ready for a Super Bowl appearance with the San Francisco 49ers on Feb. 11, Missouri lawmakers advanced a measure to raise the penalty for shooting a gun skyward in celebration. Kansas City saw more celebratory gunfire on Sunday — an increase from when the Chiefs won the AFC championship […]
Every year — on New Year’s Eve, July 4, when a sports team wins a championship — police and politicians practically beg people not to fire their guns into the air in celebration. In Kansas City, reports of shots fired go up when the NFL playoffs roll around. Meanwhile, a proposal to slightly strengthen the […]
Members of the 2024 Missouri General Assembly begin their spring legislative session in January. Much of the work happens behind closed doors, but floor debates, bill hearings and other legislative happenings are easy to tune into online. Lawmakers meet from January to May, with an occasional extra session if the governor decides a topic is […]
Takeaways: In a state where fees topping four figures effectively put public records out of reach, lawmakers want to put their written discussions about legislation completely out of view. Missouri lawmakers have looked to use the legislature for years to limit access to various democratic processes. They put limits on access to public records, rolled […]
Takeaways: For about as long as passengers have stepped onto buses, public transportation in most of Missouri has meant fixed routes and schedules. The idea of on-demand, point-to-point service as a public amenity was unheard of. Today, those rides are being offered in Kansas City and St. Louis. Smaller Missouri cities are mulling whether microtransit […]
Takeaways: A little sales tax on the buds or gummies you buy at the neighborhood cannabis dispensary is one thing. But another tax? And another? Various state and local sales taxes lumped onto your recreational marijuana purchase can add upwards of 20% to the cost of legalized Missouri weed. The state cannabis trade association, which […]
Takeaways: Subdivisions, restaurants and retail shops pop up around Lee’s Summit and Raymore amid rising property values as single-family homes spread across what was farmland just a few years ago. But residents say a proposed 430-acre landfill could threaten that growth. And they’ve rallied together to block it — raising money and deploying lobbyists to […]
All but the smallest companies have to agree not to participate in any movement that aims to boycott, divest from or sanction companies in Israel.
