Editor’s note (Aug. 2, 2024): This story has been updated to add an endorsement from the KC Biz PAC for Patty Lewis. Missouri Senate District 7 became a vacant seat this year after former Sen. Greg Razer was appointed to the State Tax Commission. Now, two candidates are facing off on your Aug. 6 Missouri ballot […]
State Government
Posted inElections
In Missouri Senate District 31, a Freedom Caucus incumbent faces a challenge from two House members
Sitting Sen. Rick Brattin, who represents the 31st district, is running for reelection in the Aug. 6 Missouri primary. The district represents Cass, Johnson and Bates counties just south of Kansas City. Brattin, a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus who has focused on hot-button issues related to gun rights and anti-LGBTQ efforts, faces a […]
Posted inState Government
Missouri counties say they lose money housing people headed to state prison
The cost of holding someone in a Missouri county jail for those days and months before and after a conviction ultimately falls to the state. In 2024, the state spent about $50 million to reimburse counties for the cost. But it’s had trouble keeping up with that tab. That’s left counties stuck with most of […]
Posted inState Government
Missouri Amendment 4: What to know about the Kansas City Police funding ballot question
When you look at your Aug. 6 Missouri ballot and see the same question about funding for the Kansas City Police Department as two years ago, that’s not a mistake. In April, the Missouri Supreme Court ordered the state to run the vote again. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas’s lawsuit challenging the police funding question prompted the court to throw out […]
Posted inState Government
A Missouri woman could go free after 43 years. But wrongful imprisonment payments in the state are low
After serving 43 years in prison for a murder case hinged on things she said as a psychiatric patient, Sandra Hemme could be cleared of the killing and freed in less than three weeks, by July 14.
Posted inState Government
Two years after Roe v. Wade fell, what’s changed around abortion in Missouri and Kansas?
Correction (June 28, 2024): This story has been updated to correct information about a Missouri bill related to insurance coverage of birth control. It’s been two years since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and remade the national landscape of abortion law. That ruling cleared the way for Missouri to ban the […]
Posted inState Government
Why rural Missouri schools and hospitals might become homebuyers
In Kirksville, Missouri, an entire floor of the hospital sits empty. The community could easily fill beds with patients — if only it could hire nurses and other workers to tend to them. Just up U.S. 63 near the Iowa border, the Schuyler School District can’t keep teachers on the payroll. A manufacturer wants to […]
Posted inElections
Here’s how to register and vote in Missouri
To vote, you now need a photo ID such as a current Missouri driver’s license or nondriver license, a current U.S. passport, a current military ID or another U.S. or state-issued photo ID.
Posted inHealth
Missouri and Kansas families will be getting money for kids’ summer meals — eventually
Summer may be half over by the time Kansas families get extra food aid meant to see them through long hot days when school breakfasts and lunches disappear. For Missouri families, the aid may not arrive until a new school year is well underway. But that still beats the 13 states where families won’t be […]
Posted inState Government
Lawmakers clarify some confusion to let more counties freeze property taxes for seniors
Missouri lawmakers gave counties a dose of much-needed clarity in May when they passed a bill aimed at clarifying a 2023 law that lets counties pass a senior property tax freeze, aimed at those 62 and older. The law passed last year gave counties the power to freeze property tax rates for Missourians who were […]