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A Kansas City teenager is leading a push to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in city council and school board elections. DJ Yearwood says it would make voting a habit from an earlier age and create a "civic transition into adulthood."
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Kansas City teen DJ Yearwood is the campaign director of Vote16MO, an initiative to lower the voting age in municipal and school board elections in Missouri. The group wants to get a measure on the ballot by November 2024.
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Mid-Continent Public Library has banned LGBTQ Pride book displays in children’s areas after rules issued by Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft ban libraries from “age-inappropriate” materials under threat of losing state funding. Staff say the new policies are confusing and point to a work environment that is not inclusive of LGBTQ staff.
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The new policies are a reaction to rules from Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft that ban libraries from “age-inappropriate” displays for teens and children. Staff of Mid-Continent Public Library say the policies are confusing, and point to a work environment that is not inclusive of LGBTQ staff.
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Emails show Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick’s office completed its work on the cost estimate for an abortion rights ballot issue, but Attorney General Andrew Bailey refused to give what has traditionally been considered perfunctory approval — and demanded the auditor falsely inflate the numbers.
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The rule include prohibiting libraries from giving materials to minors without parental permission, and banning “age-inappropriate” displays from children’s areas. Libraries risk losing state funding if they don’t comply.
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Missouri is one of a growing number of places where government funding is being deployed as the newest weapon in the fight over books. Beginning May 30, a new state rule could deny state funding to libraries over books deemed inappropriate for young readers — although it's not clear how it will be enforced.
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Missouri’s Republican secretary of state will take on Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and potentially state Sen. Bill Eigel and others in next year’s Republican gubernatorial primary. Recent, Ashcroft has been vocal on hot-button issues, pushing a rule banning "age inappropriate material" in libraries and supporting restricting health care for transgender kids.
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Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft tweeted that a job posting for a “diversity, inclusion and belonging leader” was an example of “left-wing indoctrination in the workplace” and the wrong use of taxpayer dollars. State agency leaders say inclusion and belonging programs help retain employees during a severe staffing shortage.
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Florida, Missouri and West Virginia announced they're pulling out of the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, the only system states have to share voter registration data. The system has been the target of a sustained misinformation campaign from the far-right.
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The public comment period is ending for proposed rules from Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, which threaten to take away state funding from libraries unless they restrict "non-age-appropriate materials" from minors. Ashcroft says the rules are meant to empower parents, but library administrators call it a slippery slope.
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Public comment is closing soon on a proposal from the Missouri Secretary of State, who wants to crack down on which materials children can access in public libraries. But former library administrators are speaking out against what they see as government overreach.