(Missouri Independent) -Employers grappling with a nationwide labor shortage gave low-wage workers the largest pay increases in most states between 2019 and last year. But even so, many of those workers — more than 40% of all U.S. households, by one estimate — are struggling to cover the inflated costs of basic expenses. In the […]
Category: National News
Former correctional center supervisor indicted for covering up assault of a restrained inmate
A former Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex sergeant was indicted by a federal jury in Lexington, Kentucky, for three counts of obstruction based on his efforts to cover up the assault of a restrained inmate by multiple officers that he supervised. The indictment alleges that on July 24, 2018, Sgt. Eric L. Nantell, 47, watched lower-ranking […]
CDC Director endorses new RSV vaccines approved for those 60 and older
CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., has endorsed the recommendations of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for the use of new Respiratory Syncytial Virus vaccines from GSK and Pfizer. Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms. Most people recover in a week or […]
Biden, in South Carolina, calls out Republicans who tout major legislation they opposed
(Missouri Independent) – President Joe Biden traveled Thursday to South Carolina — home of the first-in-the-nation 2024 Democratic presidential primary as well as two GOP presidential candidates — to rebuke Republicans for voting against bills in Congress that are now providing billions in federal dollars. “All those members of Congress who voted against it, suddenly […]
Cities have ways to curb gun violence; feds are giving them more money
(Missouri Independent) – When shots ring out on the South and West sides of Chicago, Sam Castro, and his team at the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago race to the scene of the shooting and to the hospital where emergency responders are treating the gunshot victim. Knowing most of the city’s gun violence is caused by […]
Some states to landlords: You can’t evict tenants without a good reason
(Missouri Independent) – For years, Charlene Redrick worked double shifts to make sure she made rent each month. The 64-year-old nursing home aide always paid on time — even at the height of the pandemic. But in 2022, Redrick’s landlord moved to evict her from the three-bedroom apartment she shared with her granddaughter and infant […]
Judge limits Biden administration contact with social media platforms in censorship case
(Missouri Independent) – A federal judge on Tuesday prohibited Biden administration officials from communicating with social media platforms about “protected speech,” a ruling emerging from litigation originally filed by former Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt. The ruling, by Judge Terry A. Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, granted a […]
U.S. House Dems seek to stiffen penalties for employers violating federal child labor law
(Missouri Independent) – U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee Democrats announced the introduction of a bill to increase civil and criminal penalties for employers who knowingly violate child labor laws. The measure would also prevent states from easing federal child labor standards. The bill, The Protecting Children Act, comes as multiple states have passed laws that roll […]
Former deputy U.S. Marshal sentenced to 10 years in prison for cyberstalking, perjury, and obstruction of justice
A former deputy U.S. Marshal was sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison for conspiracy to commit cyberstalking, cyberstalking, perjury, and obstruction of justice. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Ian R. Diaz, 45, of Glendora, California, and his then-wife, an unindicted co-conspirator (CC-1), posed as a person with whom […]
Supreme Court delivers landmark ruling in favor of web designer’s First Amendment rights
In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court has sided with a web designer from Colorado who objected to creating websites for same-sex weddings. The court determined that Colorado’s anti-discrimination law infringed upon the designer’s First Amendment rights. The 6-3 decision is expected to have far-reaching implications, potentially enabling business owners to discriminate against LGBTQ customers […]
Department of Justice says 78 people face charges for $2.5 billion in attempted health care fraud
The Justice Department, together with federal and state law enforcement partners, announced a strategically coordinated, two-week nationwide law enforcement action that resulted in criminal charges against 78 defendants for their alleged participation in healthcare fraud and opioid abuse schemes that included over $2.5 billion in alleged fraud. The defendants allegedly defrauded programs entrusted for the […]
White House unveils $42.5 billion plan to connect every American to high-speed broadband internet
(Missouri Independent) -The Biden administration on Monday announced $42.45 billion to connect all Americans to high-speed broadband internet by the end of the decade, likening the ambitious goal to FDR’s New Deal-era rural electrification program that brought the then-modern technology to farms and rural areas across the United States. Missouri is set to receive more […]
U.S. Senate Democrats ask for more specifics on SNAP changes resulting from debt deal
(Missouri Independent) – Democratic U.S. senators want more details about who will be affected by new work requirements for government food assistance that was a Republican demand under a deal to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. Led by Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, the lawmakers sent a letter on Monday to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack requesting four […]
U.S. Supreme Court rejects theory that would have radically reshaped election rules
(Missouri Independent) – The U.S. Supreme Court rejected North Carolina Republican legislators’ argument that state courts cannot review laws legislatures pass governing federal elections. Republican lawmakers claimed the Elections Clause in the U.S. Constitution makes legislatures the sole state authorities on federal elections law, including congressional redistricting. Critics said the high court’s endorsement of the […]
Hawley and Braun challenge Biden Administration over incomplete COVID-19 origin report
U.S. Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, after the Director and the Biden Administration failed to comply with the Senators’ COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023, by releasing an incomplete report on the origins of COVID-19 well beyond the statutory deadline. The Senators demanded […]
CVS to pay $70,000 to resolve allegations that it filled fake prescriptions
CVS has agreed to pay $70,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the Controlled Substances Act at CVS stores in New Hampshire. “Pharmacies have a legal responsibility to ensure that controlled substances are dispensed only pursuant to valid prescriptions,” said United States Attorney Jane E. Young. “When pharmacies ignore red flags that a prescription is […]
More blue states declare themselves sanctuaries for transgender health care
(Missouri Independent) – Democratic governors and state lawmakers across the country are mobilizing against a surge of Republican restrictions on transgender health care by establishing their states as sanctuaries for gender-affirming care. Earlier this month, Democratic Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order making Maryland the 11th state, plus the District of Columbia, to declare itself a […]
Where the GOP presidential candidates stand on national abortion bans, restrictions
(Missouri Independent) – The 2024 Republican presidential primary marks the first time in half a century that candidates will debate whether abortion should be restricted or banned at the federal level without the Roe v. Wade ruling making most of their proposals moot. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last summer to overturn the nationwide, constitutional […]
ACLU vows to block abortion restrictions, but Iowa’s Governor says “The fight is not over”
Civil liberties advocates in Iowa are vowing to fend off any new legislation to restrict abortion in the state. The Iowa Supreme Court recently upheld a rule blocking a ban on abortions at six weeks of pregnancy. When the state’s high court deadlocked 3-to-3 on overturning the six-week ban, it upheld a 2018 state law leaving abortion […]
GOP committee leaders raise concerns over Biden Administration’s delay in implementing WOTUS decision
House and Senate Republican committee leaders this week requested a detailed update from the heads of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about how the agencies plan to immediately implement the Supreme Court’s decision in the Sackett v. EPA case in which the Court ruled that the Biden Administration’s […]