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Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe mobilized Guard members to assist ICE with "data entry, case management, and logistical support." Military experts say they also worry how these new deployments will affect recruitment and public trust.
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The Kansas Supreme Court’s decision to reject an appeal from Attorney General Kris Kobach allows the state to resume a process that had been in place for more than 20 years.
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A new draft White House memo suggests a 2019 law signed by President Trump that guarantees federal employees get paid after a shutdown ends would not apply to furloughed workers. The Kansas City region has tens of thousands of federal workers who could be affected.
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The federal government is currently shut down. NPR's network is following the ways the government shutdown is affecting services across the country, including in Missouri and Kansas.
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The office of Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway is subpoenaing patient medical records, incident reports, “adverse event documentation” and more from Planned Parenthood. The organization called the request "nothing more than an attempt to harass" them and is fighting back in court.
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The St. Louis Democrat's decision sets up a nationally watched rematch against Congressman Wesley Bell, who defeated Bush in one of the most expensive primaries in American history. Pro-Israel groups had spent millions of dollars against her 2024 campaign.
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Shawn Koch saved hundreds of threatening emails from her ex, Christopher Koch. He threatened to kill her, get her fired, keep their children from her and ruin her life.
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Kansas has been trying to sway the region’s NFL and MLB teams to cross the border. Lawmakers in both Kansas and Missouri have lobbed tax incentives and construction fund packages at the teams.
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The 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.
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State 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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The director of the presidential library and museum in Abilene, Kansas, said he was suddenly told to resign or be fired. He refused to give the Trump administration a historic sword from the museum’s collection.
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Fred Wellman is the host of the On Democracy podcast, which has been critical of the Republican Party gravitation to Donald Trump. He's the second candidate to join the Democratic primary for the 2nd District, which has become more competitive in recent years.
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A group called "Stop The Ban" is already receiving six-figure donations for its effort to defeat a proposed constitutional amendment that would repeal abortion rights in Missouri. The amendment was written by Republican lawmakers and is set to appear on the 2026 ballot.
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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.
Government
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If the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is as bad at the 2008 financial crisis, furloughs and layoffs could be widespread, a new report says.
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U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley’s proposes that the federal government help pay employee’s wages at companies affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
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Senate majority leader says this is not an appropriate time to push controversial legislation.
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Abundant Life Baptist Church, which drew 4,500 worshipers every Sunday before the pandemic, claims the county’s orders favor restaurants, salons and other businesses over houses of worship.
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Different reopening dates and restrictions have resulted in “an almost impossible situation for people to be able to comply with," according to one mayor.
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While the interruption was initially met with laughter and confusion, city staff quickly moved to end the meeting after the hijackers used a racial slur.
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House Democrats say the budget is unbalanced and they’ll need to return later in the year to make adjustments.
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Missouri Gov. Mike Parson's new order will remain in effect until Sunday, May 31, and will be re-evaluated before it expires.
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Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has yet to deliver his updated recommendations, but lawmakers must pass a state budget by May 8.
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Blunt likened his idea to "Shark Tank": $1 billion in federal funding would underwrite testing ideas.
Elections
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Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft threatened to unilaterally kick President Joe Biden off of the Missouri ballot if Donald Trump is disqualified in other states for violating the U.S. Constitution's insurrection clause. But an appeals court ruling found Missouri law did not give the secretary of state that power.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."