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Dave Wasinger wins Republican primary for Missouri lieutenant governor
Dave Wasinger secured the Republican nomination for Missouri’s lieutenant governor on Tuesday, emerging out of a crowded primary where candidates spent millions seeking the office. With all precincts reporting, Wasinger led state Sen. Lincoln Hough of Springfield by just under 7,500 votes. Wasinger is an attorney from St. Louis who has not previously held elected […]
Andrew Bailey defeats Will Scharf to capture GOP nomination for attorney general
COLUMBIA — Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey survived a tough primary challenge from a member of former president Donald Trump’s legal team on Tuesday to win the GOP nomination for a full term in office. His opponent, Will Scharf, conceded the race shortly before 8:30 p.m. with Bailey leading 62% to 37%. Bailey soon addressed […]
Missouri education officials apologize for ongoing backlog of child care subsidy payments
Missouri’s education department hopes to resolve a backlog of payments to daycares across the state in the next two months, agency staff told the State Board of Education on Tuesday. The department previously predicted the backlog — which has left many daycares on the brink of closure — would be overcome by the end of […]
Suit claims Missouri agency violated Sunshine Law while awarding housing funds, tax credits
The Missouri Housing Development Commission awarded millions of dollars in public funds and tax credits without notice or public votes, a former employee alleged in a lawsuit filed last week. The lawsuit, filed in Jackson County, claims the commission regularly violated the state’s Sunshine Law and the law governing its actions, which requires an “affirmative […]
Missouri has dramatically reduced its backlog of nursing home inspections
Missouri in the last year has significantly reduced its backlog of overdue nursing home inspections, recent federal data shows, though it still stands out for how low nursing staff is at many facilities. Around this time last year, a quarter of nursing homes hadn’t been inspected in at least two years. Now the number is […]
Missouri governor candidates say higher pay, improved tech needed to fix ailing safety net
In just the last three months, Missouri has come under fire from two federal agencies and a U.S. district court judge over how it administers programs designed to help the most vulnerable. The state’s dysfunctional call centers serve to deny low-income residents food aid that is guaranteed to them by federal law, a judge ruled […]
Missouri children are losing Medicaid coverage at rate that is alarming pediatricians
Dr. Maya Moody, a community pediatrician in St. Louis, knows a new month has begun when her clinic’s billing department runs patients’ names and she hears about the children no longer covered by Medicaid. One of those patients, now 3 years old and deaf in one ear, was scheduled for a cochlear implant. But when […]
Crowded GOP primary field vying to be Missouri’s next lieutenant governor
When Eric Greitens was forced to resign from the Missouri governor’s office in 2018, he was replaced by Lt. Gov. Mike Parson. Two years later, Parson won a full term of his own. Being next in line for governor is the major constitutional requirement for the lieutenant governor. In Missouri, unlike many other states, the […]
Payment backlog leaves Missouri child care providers desperate, on the brink of closing
This spring, the state of Missouri owed Kimberly Luong Nichols $5,000 in backlogged payments for children at her Kansas City daycare who were part of a state subsidy program. For four years, she’s operated a licensed daycare inside her home, where she currently serves 10 children. Luong Nichols stopped drawing a salary last summer to […]
Missouri is breaking federal law by housing mentally ill in nursing homes, DOJ finds
Missouri is violating federal disability law by unnecessarily institutionalizing thousands of adults with mental illness in nursing homes, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a scathing report published Tuesday. The report, which is based on a year-and-a-half of investigation, determined that those suffering with mental illness are “subjected to unnecessary stays in nursing facilities, […]
Feds to scrutinize Missouri’s worst-in-the-nation Medicaid application delays
Missouri’s delays in processing Medicaid applications — among the worst in the nation — have the attention of federal regulators, who will conduct a “focused review” of the problem, according to a letter obtained by The Independent. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in a letter sent to the state May 22 and […]
Missouri statewide candidates decry inaction on St. Louis area nuclear waste
Several Republican candidates for Missouri statewide office on Wednesday evening urged stronger state and federal action to clean up St. Louis-area radioactive waste and compensate victims. Parts of the St. Louis area have been contaminated for 75 years with radioactive waste left over from the effort to build the world’s first atomic bomb during World […]