The Missouri Supreme Court has denied a request by U.S. Senate candidate Mark McCloskey and his wife to give free legal advice to a conservative activist group as a condition of their professional … more

Twenty years after a spate of deaths at a rural Missouri hospital, a former worker has been charged with murder. According to a police investigator, in the five months that Jennifer Anne Hall was a … more

A lawsuit alleges that administrators at a Missouri school district that is the subject of a federal civil rights investigation failed to protect a Black teen from repeated racial taunts that … more

Workers at a public library system based in Columbia are voting this week on whether to join a union. If the union is ratified, employees at the Daniel Boone Regional Library would become the only … more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch. May 16, 2022. Editorial: Break up this abusive football cartel The outright duplicity that guided the words and actions of Rams owner Stan Kroenke and National … more

Kansas City Star. May 4, 2022. Editorial: Missouri has a shortage of teachers. We’ll lose more if they don’t get a pay raise It’s no secret that Missouri teachers are among the poorest … more

An Associated Press analysis has found a growing number of hazardous dams in poor condition across the U.S. The AP tallied more than 2,200 dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition that are rated as … more

Police have erected a low metal fence outside of the Supreme Court blocking access to all but the lowest level of the building’s steps and separating demonstrators into separate pens. Anti-abortion rights protestors carried signs Tuesday that said “Ignore Roe” and “In God We Trust,” while their pro-abortion-rights counterparts held placards declaring “Bans off our Bodies” and “Impeach Kavanaugh.” One man with a bullhorn shouted, “Before the United States, before the constitution, there was God’s law.”The crowds were expected to build throughout the day as people finished work. Multiple pro-rights groups called for a 5 p.m. mass-gathering at the court. A leaked draft opinion shows that a majority of theS upreme Court is prepared to overrule Roe v. Wade. more

A man whose death sentence for killing a Missouri couple while robbing their home was overturned three times is scheduled to be executed. Carman Deck would be just the fifth U.S. inmate to be executed this year if his lethal injection goes ahead Tuesday evening. His hopes for a reprieve were all but dashed on Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court turned aside an appeal and Republican Gov. Mike Parson declined Deck’s clemency request, though he could file new appeals. Deck was convicted in the 1996 deaths of James and Zelma Long at their home in De Soto. more

Kansas City Star. May 3, 2022. Editorial: Missouri already has an abortion ‘trigger’ ban. Kansas, your freedom is on the line The Supreme Court’s apparent decision to reverse its … more

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to halt the upcoming execution of Missouri inmate Carman Deck, and Republican Gov. Mike Parson says he will not grant clemency. Both decisions were announced Monday, a day before the 56-year-old Deck is scheduled to die by injection at the state prison in Bonne Terre. Deck would become just the fifth U.S. inmate put to death this year if he's executed. He admitted that he killed James and Zelma Long while robbing their home in the eastern Missouri town of De Soto in July of 1996. Deck’s death sentence was thrown out three times due to procedural errors before a federal appeals court panel restored it in 2020. His attorney declined to comment. more

Fair housing advocates have announced a settlement to resolve a lawsuit against real estate brokerage Redfin that will expand housing opportunities for consumers in communities of color. Under the agreement announced Friday, Seattle-based Redfin will change its minimum housing price policy, alter other practices, and pay $4 million to settle the suit brought by the National Fair Housing Alliance and nine other fair housing organizations. The changes will increase access to Redfin’s real estate services across the country and help counter redlining and residential segregation that the alliance and the other plaintiffs alleged Redfin’s policies perpetuated. The lawsuit was filed in 2020 in Seattle.  more

Kansas City Star. April 20, 2022. Editorial: Kansas, Missouri senators do nothing as veterans exposed to toxins get sick and die One by one, U.S. military veterans walked to a podium at … more

Michael Politte walked out of prison, paroled after nearly two decades behind bars for a crime he says he didn’t commit — the killing of his mother. Politte was released Friday from the Jefferson City Correctional Center, two months after he was granted parole. Now 38, he was just 14 when Rita Politte died in a fire at the family home in the eastern Missouri town of Hopewell in 1998. The Midwest Innocence Project and the MacArthur Justice Center, which both work to overturn wrongful convictions, have sought to exonerate Politte, saying he was convicted based on debunked science and a biased investigation. more

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt recently announced that the Attorney General’s Office has worked with 169 law enforcement agencies to clear their backlogs of untested, report sexual … more

Having grown up on a farm in the foothills of the Missouri Ozarks, Jerry Richards was prepared for droughts, snowstorms and torrential rains. He wasn’t prepared for feral … more

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft announced Thursday that the Judicial Redistricting Commission has filed Missouri State Senate redistricting maps with his office.  Ashcroft, who is … more

Every 10 years, following the U.S. Census, legislative district maps are redrawn to reflect shifting populations. A lot of attention has been paid to new boundaries for Missouri’s eight … more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch. April 13, 2022. Editorial: Missouri should fund basic government services before passing out surplus cash Republicans criticized the Biden administration’s … more

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear a St. Louis-based natural gas company's appeal of a lower court’s decision that could close a pipeline that runs through parts of Illinois and Missouri. The court rejected Spire Inc.'s appeal Monday without comment. Spire President Scott Smith pledged to fight to keep the pipeline operational. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted approval for the pipeline in 2018 and it became fully operational in 2019. The pipeline connects with another pipeline in western Illinois and carries natural gas to the St. Louis region. A 2020 lawsuit filed by the Environmental Defense Fund called the pipeline unnecessary and harmful to land in its path. more