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Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri IndependentThe proposed amendment drafted by Republican lawmakers will appear before voters in November 2026, two years after Missourians codified the right to reproductive health care in the state constitution. -
Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri IndependentState Senate Democratic Leader Doug Beck said Gov. Mike Kehoe should not have authorized a deployment just hours before the federal shutdown.
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Kansas City is a regional hub for federal offices and the almost 30,000 federal workers who make up the largest workforce in the area. Many of those workers are furloughed without pay, their agencies closed until the government reopens. -
Tuesday's election saw 85% of voters supporting the recall of Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr., which will set off a rush by county legislators to appoint his replacement. But White is asking the Missouri Supreme Court to stop the vote certification. -
Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins will have to rewrite the ballot summary for a proposed constitutional amendment a third time, because the judge ruled that it "fails to adequately alert voters" that the measure would ban abortion. -
The Unified Government could vote this week on an ordinance that would make it illegal for people to sleep outside on public and private property. But without a single overnight shelter in Wyandotte County, community groups say the crackdown will only worsen conditions for unhoused residents. -
The Democratic National Committee announced it will send people and money to Missouri, to help a referendum effort aimed at blocking a new congressional map from going into effect. -
White has served as county executive since 2016. Tens of thousands of signatures were gathered to trigger the special election, which White believes was called illegally. -
Kansas Republican lawmakers are circulating a petition for a special session to redistrict. The goal is to defeat the state's only Democrat in Congress. -
The move comes amid President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement practices garnering increasing criticism. Kehoe said that Missouri National Guard troops will help with "administrative, clerical and logistical duties." -
The federal shutdown will affect people across the United States. NPR's network of member stations explains what will be impacted and where. -
A rarely-used maneuver could force a vote in the U.S. House on a bill requiring the Justice Department to publicly disclosed unclassified records and documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver has signed onto the petition, but of Missouri's GOP representatives, only Rep. Mark Alford says he will vote to advance the bill. -
Federal Medicare and Medicaid regulations mandate staff vaccinations for employers that receive funding. But the high court ruled that Katlin Keeran was protected by a 2021 Kansas law making it illegal for employers to question the sincerity of religious beliefs for opting out of vaccines. -
The fourth lawsuit to be filed over the recent redistricting plan, this one argues that the Missouri Constitution does not allow lawmakers to revise congressional districts without new census data. It also argues that the districts are not legal because they stretch for hundreds of miles across the state.
Government
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TOPEKA, Kansas — Gov. Laura Kelly appointed lawyer Keynen “KJ” Wall to the Kansas Supreme Court on Wednesday.Wall will fill the seat of former Justice… -
TOPEKA, Kansas — The state lost 13% of its public defenders over the past year.That’s actually an improvement. Nearly a fourth of the state’s public… -
A federal judge in Washington state issued a temporary injunction on Friday blocking Trump administration rule changes that could allow people to share… -
Kansas health officials say the state is ready to deal with the new coronavirus now that Kansans are starting to get sick.Lawmakers still aren’t ready to… -
TOPEKA, Kansas — A pressure campaign led by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly aims to force Republican Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle to drop her blockade… -
TOPEKA, Kansas — Kansas has one of the highest rates of suspended drivers in the country, and the majority of those more than 215,000 licenses are… -
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas is rethinking some of his proposed budget cuts.The budget Lucas announced earlier this month included major cuts to arts,… -
Kansas lawmakers sped through dozens of bills this past week to keep them alive past a “turn around” deadline marking the midpoint of the session.Measures… -
TOPEKA, Kansas — From 2000 to 2019, the women’s prison population in Kansas rose by 60%. Over the same time period, the men’s population rose by only… -
Conservative Republicans at the Kansas Statehouse are attempting to block passage of Medicaid expansion until lawmakers send a constitutional amendment on…
Elections
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Derron Black is running as a Republican for the first time for a Missouri Senate district in Kansas City's urban core. He says local Democratic leadership has failed to get his community what it needs, and that voters are ready to look elsewhere for help. Plus: What Missouri voters should know about the 2024 races for secretary of state and treasurer. -
A new survey from The Midwest Newsroom and Emerson College Polling Center asked registered voters in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska about measures on Nov. 5 ballots as well as a variety of political, social and economic subjects. -
New legislatures could overhaul school vouchers in Arizona, give the Democratic governor more clout in Kansas, and counter a progressive trend in Minnesota. -
In addition to federal, state and local races, judges will be on the ballot in every Missouri county this November. While some judges are elected in partisan elections, Missouri also has a non-partisan merit selection system. -
According to a recent poll, Republicans have a lead in every statewide race in Missouri. The largest gap between candidates is in the race for secretary of state, the top election official. -
With the election for Johnson County Sheriff now between Democrat Byron Roberson and Republican Doug Bedford, polarizing issues that Calvin Hayden had campaigned on — election skepticism and immigration for example — have dropped in prominence. -
Nearly a third of Missouri’s workforce could get a raise and paid sick time if voters pass Proposition A in November. But some economists and small-business owners say companies may struggle to keep their workforce. -
Voters in a record number of states — including the battlegrounds of Arizona and Nevada — are set to decide this fall whether to enact far-reaching changes to how their elections are run. In Missouri, a constitutional amendment could ban ranked-choice voting if it passes in November. -
During the Super Bowl, money changes hands based on the result of almost everything — the coin toss, the color of Gatorade dumped on the winning coach and even the length of the national anthem. Kansas' attempt to cash in on sports betting has yielded paltry results so far, and Missouri voters are considering a similar measure this November. -
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the coalition behind Amendment 3, has raised more than $16 million since launching in January. The largest donations have come from four out-of-state progressive nonprofits that are supporting abortion rights campaigns in several states.
