A former journalist pleaded guilty today to transportation and possession of child sexual abuse material. According to court documents, while visiting South Carolina in February 2020, James Gordon Meek, 53, of Arlington, Virginia, used an online messaging platform on his iPhone to send and receive images and videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct […]
(Missouri Independent) – The U.S. House on Wednesday night passed a bill to bar the use of public K-12 school facilities to provide shelter for migrants seeking asylum. The bill, approved 222-201, is known as the “Schools Not Shelters Act” and is a rebuke of the Biden administration’s immigration policy. If enacted into law, public […]
(Missouri Independent) – Congressional Democrats said they plan to again introduce a bill to set national voting standards in response to state legislatures passing strict voting laws. The bill, known in a previous Congress as the Freedom to Vote Act would establish national standards for early voting, mail-in ballots, and protection of poll workers and volunteers from […]
(Missouri Independent) -A panel on the U.S. House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Tuesday grilled a Biden administration official about the White House’s decision to allow undocumented people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in Medicaid or private insurance provided under the Affordable Care Act. The chair of the subcommittee, Republican […]
The Justice Department, together with the Federal Trade Commission announced that Amazon.com Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Amazon.com Services LLC (collectively Amazon), have agreed to a permanent injunction and a $25 million civil penalty as part of a settlement to resolve alleged violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection […]
The U.S. Department of Education released state-by-state data on the number of borrowers who are eligible for automatic loan relief under fixes to Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans implemented by the Biden-Harris Administration to ensure all borrowers have an accurate count of the number of monthly payments that qualify toward forgiveness. On Friday, the Department started […]
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida ruled on Friday that the State of Florida violates the rights of children with complex medical needs by keeping some children unnecessarily institutionalized in nursing facilities while placing other children at serious risk of unnecessary institutionalization. Following a two-week bench trial in May, the court […]
A Wisconsin mother, Katie Rae Koch, 34, is facing multiple felony charges after her two children, ages 7 and 9, were discovered wandering the streets naked, covered in blood, bruises, and excrement. The criminal complaint, filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, revealed that the children had been locked in a squalid bedroom with boarded-up windows […]
(Missouri Independent) – Donald Trump has received a target letter from Special Counsel Jack Smith, he said Tuesday, indicating another indictment of the former president is likely over his role in encouraging the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump posted to his social media site, Truth Social, on Tuesday, announcing that he’d […]
(Missouri Independent) – As artificial intelligence finds its way into aspects of everyday life and becomes increasingly advanced, some state legislators feel a new urgency to create regulations for its use in the hiring process. Artificial intelligence, commonly known as AI, has been adopted by a quarter of businesses in the United States, according to […]
Two Florida men pleaded guilty last week for their roles in a scheme to defraud Medicare by submitting over $67 million in false claims for genetic testing and durable medical equipment that patients did not need and that the defendants procured with kickbacks. The pleas came after four days of trial in the Southern District […]
Amid the summer vacation buzz, children in Minnesota are seizing the opportunity to shed light on the impact of gun violence on their lives and those of their peers. Coming up on Wednesday, over 1,000 students will lead a march to the Minnesota state Capitol as part of the Children’s Defense Fund‘s National Day of […]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Business-Cooperative Service Administrator Dr. Karama Neal, announced that USDA is making $21 million in technical assistance grants available through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) to help agricultural producers and rural small businesses access federal funds for renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements. “Rural America deserves its share of […]
(Missouri Independent) – The Department of Education and the White House announced Friday that more than 800,000 federal student loan borrowers will have their remaining debt wiped out. The $39 billion in debt relief will come through fixes to the mismanagement of the agency’s income-driven repayment plans. Many long-time borrowers, including those who had been […]
(Missouri Independent) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday it has approved the country’s first daily birth control pill that can be used without a prescription, a move that reproductive health advocates celebrated after more than 20 years of advocating for an over-the-counter option. The contraceptive, called Opill, is a progestin-only oral pill that could […]
To help ensure that millions of uninsured and underinsured American adults continue to have access to no-cost COVID-19 vaccinations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is launching the Bridge Access Program for COVID-19 Vaccines this fall. There are an estimated 25-30 million adults without insurance in the U.S., and there are additional adults whose insurance […]
Three Cuban nationals were sentenced for sex trafficking and related crimes in strip clubs in the Houston area. Rasiel Gutierrez Moreno, 38, Hendry Jimenez Milanes, 39, and Rafael Mendoza Labrada, 29, were each sentenced to 210 months in prison and to pay $451,298 in restitution, 120 months and $359,108 in restitution, and time served of […]
(Missouri Independent) – Experts on antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections on Tuesday urged Congress to pass legislation that would address the issues that lead to so-called superbugs. Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, the top Republican on the panel and an OB-GYN said the issue is critically important for Congress because more than 3 million Americans will be diagnosed […]
(Missouri Independent) – The White House is unveiling a plan to combat the growing threat of drug overdose deaths involving the combination of illicitly manufactured fentanyl and the powerful sedative xylazine, approved only for veterinary use. The plan comes ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’s meeting with state attorneys general next week to discuss the […]
(Missouri Independent) – Top Democrats on the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee asked federal agencies Monday to track possible negative effects from a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limited federal authority to regulate clean water. Washington’s Rick Larsen, the ranking Democrat on the committee, and Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee ranking member Grace […]
