Gov. Mike Parson and four statewide officials took their oaths of offices on Monday — ushering in four more years of near total Republican rule over Missouri.

An ordinance introduced by Mayor Quinton Lucas would force some taxpayer-funded organizations to pay employees at least $15 an hour by 2022.

The officer is charged with using excessive force against the teenager, who pleaded ‘I can’t breathe.’

Kansas City officials are deliberating who will become the next city manager, overseeing everything from snow removal to the annual budget.

Federal authorities say the effort led to over 500 arrests in Kansas City, but that included arrests under other operations. Civil rights leaders were highly critical of it, calling it "undue civilian terror."

Currently, only the governor and state auditor are restricted to two consecutive terms in Missouri. Opponents of the Amendment 1 ballot measure say it's a solution in need of a problem.

Members of the city’s Transportation, Infrastructure and Operations Committee refused to attend Wednesday’s meeting, stalling city business. They’re calling on Teresa Loar to be removed as committee chair.

Most of the money will go towards supporting small businesses in Clay County, in the form of grants of up to $50,000 each.

Changing who is ultimately responsible for the department’s actions requires support from the Missouri General Assembly or a statewide vote.

Most of the cuts will effect higher and K-12 education. The Office of Administration, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Health and Senior Services, and the Department of Social Services will also see cuts in funding.

A local baseball fan created a Facebook group to "save Kauffman Stadium" over two years ago. Now, their movement claims over 7,500 members, even as the campaign to build a new downtown Royals ballpark gains momentum and legislative support.

Across the U.S., thousands of children and young adults serve as informal interpreters for family members that don’t speak English. For kids of Latino immigrants in Kansas City, being the family interpreter is an honor and burden. Plus: Gov. Laura Kelly is again calling for lawmakers to expand Medicaid to provide health care to about 150,000 low-income Kansans.

The Shrewsbury lawmaker recently bowed out of the Missouri attorney general’s race. Unsicker was stripped of her committee assignments and later kicked out of the House Democratic caucus because of her social media posts and association with an accused Holocaust denier.

Missouri lawmakers will gavel in the 2024 legislative session today. But where did they leave off last year? The 2023 session had a promising start – a budget surplus meant more money to work with. In politics, though, few things go according to plan.

As the 2024 legislative session begins, the Republican-led Missouri General Assembly is prioritizing expanding child care access and restricting ballot initiative restrictions. But the stakes of an election year could exacerbate divisions between the parties.

Sheriff Calvin Hayden, the conservative incumbent under fire for his controversial election investigation, will need to beat a former colleague and a current police chief to keep his job for a third term.

Former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele and David Axelrod, former chief strategist for Barack Obama's presidential campaigns, both say the country is headed toward a Trump vs. Biden rematch.

The NAACP and the League of Women Voters are challenging Missouri's 2022 voter ID law, arguing it imposes unconstitutional burdens on the right to vote without actually achieving the stated goal of reducing fraud. Two previous attempts by Missouri Republicans to require voter IDs have been struck down by the courts.

The Missouri Secretary of State's language for reproductive rights ballot issues has been savaged by two courts, most recently when the Western District Court of Appeals unanimously ruled his summaries are “replete with politically partisan language." Ashcroft called the lower court decisions "inappropriate."

Unsubstantiated voter fraud claims and harassment are making it harder to be an election official in Kansas. Plus: A Louisburg, Kansas, fabricator is known for his world-class sculpture restorations.