Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services

St. Charles County officials are investigating 10 cases of E. coli infection, but have said they don’t yet know the source of the illnesses.

Victims of the opioid crisis, health advocates, and policy experts have called on state and local governments to clearly report how they’re using the funds they are receiving from settlements with opioid companies. So where are Missouri's dollars going?

A circuit court in May ruled that both a county and a local municipality can impose a 3% sales tax at dispensaries in their jurisdictions. That's led to marijuana sales tax rates of nearly 18% in some places.

Missouri's microbusiness program was sold as a way to help victims of the War on Drugs get a toehold in the burgeoning industry. But contracts reveal out-of-state companies or industry insiders repeatedly attempted to use qualified applicants to win the licenses and then shut them out of the profit.

Following a lawsuit from the state's hemp industry, Missouri health regulators will stop embargoing products simply because they contain hemp-derived THC. Instead, they'll focus on identifying "misbranded" products.

For every 100,000 births in Missouri between 2017 and 2021, more than 32 people died because of pregnancy-related complications — an average of 70 deaths annually.

Missouri has some of the highest rates of tobacco usage in the country, the lowest cigarette tax and some of the most lax smoking policies. Some rural health departments and activists are pushing their own policies to change those statistics.

Gov. Mike Parson signed an executive order to remove all hemp-derived THC edibles and beverages from store shelves and threatening penalties to any establishment that continues selling them. But industry leaders say the ban goes too far.

A summer COVID surge is starting to recede in Kansas and Missouri, but the next wave of infections is likely only weeks away. People covered by Medicare, Medicaid and most private insurance can get the updated vaccine for free or for a small fee.

Thirty-four Missouri residents — aged 11 months to 96 years — died last year due to heat-related illness, according to the Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services.

Around this time last year, a quarter of Missouri nursing homes hadn’t been inspected in at least two years. Now the number is closer to 3%, according to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data.

Missouri has removed roughly 136,000 kids from its Medicaid rolls since June 2023. But the state's worst-in-nation processing delays make it difficult to re-enroll — causing many to miss doctor’s appointments and critical prescriptions.