Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) sued the Department of Justice on Monday for trying to place poll monitors at polling locations in the state on Election Day. The DOJ announced on Friday that it was planning “to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in 86 jurisdictions in 27 states” for the general election. One of those jurisdictions is St. Louis.
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Immigration and the unchecked border disaster that President Biden and Vice President Harris have unleashed in their first term is a top issue on the minds of voters this year. So, a first look at a recent set of ads in Missouri from Stand For Us PAC talking about “Joe Biden’s open border policies” normally wouldn’t catch much attention.
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New York District Attorney Letitia James on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to block a lawsuit from Missouri that is attempting to stop former President Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money case.
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The Supreme Court is expected to release all of its remaining decisions by the end of the week.
Opinions coming down the line include decisions on former President Donald Trump’s presidential immunity appeal, an abortion case from Idaho and a consequential challenge to the Biden administration’s censorship efforts. The next opinion day is scheduled for Wednesday.
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After almost a month following former President Donald Trump’s conviction by a New York City jury on May 30, Missouri Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced on June 20 that his state is suing New York for its “direct attack on our democratic process through unconstitutional lawfare against President Trump”.
That’s good — better late than never — as Bailey stands as the first Republican Attorney General to actually announce such a lawsuit, with not much time before Trump’s scheduled sentencing on July 11, which could imprison to presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
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Missouri GOP Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced Tuesday evening that a judge has rejected a motion by Planned Parenthood to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the state that alleges a clinic traffics minors out of state to obtain abortions.
“One step closer to eradicating Planned Parenthood from the State of Missouri,” Bailey wrote on the social media platform, X.
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) plans to spend more than $25 million on the November elections and will particularly focus on pro-abortion state constitutional amendments.
This year, the ACLU is spending the largest amount of money it ever has on elections, Deirdre Schifeling, ACLU’s chief political and advocacy officer, told NBC News.
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As the number of states banning ranked-choice voting (RCV) is increasing, some are facing ballot measures this November that would implement the voting system.
While 10 states have banned RCV and more may join them this November if voters vote for the ballot measures, six other states will have ballot measures to switch their elections to RCV.
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In February, Harrison Butker kicked the longest field goal in Super Bowl history—a massive 57-yard three-pointer—to help carry the Kansas City Chiefs to a rollicking win over the San Francisco 49ers.
Recently, he’s made headlines again—this time, arguably, for far more profound reasons.
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Parents, children, and supporters of school choice have cause to celebrate this National Charter Schools Week.
Charter schools earned the top two spots on a list of the best high schools in America, according to a recent report by U.S. News & World Report. And, of the top 100 public high schools, charter schools claimed 19 spots—10 in Arizona alone—despite accounting for only 8% of all public schools in the country.
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Four law enforcement officers were shot dead in Charlotte, North Carolina, last week. On hearing the news, I was reminded of my mother’s frequent warnings about police work. Her message? Steer clear. With her husband and her brother patrolling the mean streets of Newark, she didn’t need the added anxiety of having her sons do the same. Today, for the children and spouses of police officers, that anxiety must be unbearable — and not just because of the obvious danger.
You may not have heard of the Charlotte shooting. It vanished from the national news in a flash. Despite the magnitude of the offense, within two or three days the national media had dropped the story cold.
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A coalition of states has filed a legal challenge to President Joe Biden’s latest executive effort to forgive a portion of Americans’ student loan debt.
The lawsuit comes after Biden on Monday announced the plan, which the states in question say is an overreach of executive authority. The White House claims that Biden has so far canceled at least some of the debt for 4 million Americans, totalling $146 billion so far.
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Forty-five years ago today, future vice president Albert Gore Jr. stood in the well of the House of Representatives to discuss an innovative development in television programming. There was nothing remarkable about that in itself: Al Gore had been a newspaperman before becoming a Tennessee congressman and had a genuine interest in both new technology and mass communication.
Except that there was something momentous about Gore’s speech that day. It was the first time that remarks delivered on the House floor by a member of Congress were televised. It was an event long envisioned by a 38-year-old Indiana-born, Purdue-educated, U.S. Navy veteran who had worked as a White House and Capitol Hill aide before returning to journalism. His name was Brian Lamb. As the Washington bureau chief of the trade publication Cablevision, Lamb had dreamed of creating a nonprofit cable network that would focus exclusively on public affairs, particularly Congress. It was called C-SPAN, and on March 19, 1979, that dream became reality.
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Federal officials privately scold reporters and attempt to shape or even stop their coverage on a regular basis, without getting sued for First Amendment violations.
How close is that to White House aides privately and repeatedly badgering their counterparts at social media companies and President Biden publicly accusing Facebook of “killing people,” for insufficient censorship of disfavored narratives on COVID-19?
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Donald Trump swept the Missouri and Idaho Republican caucuses on Saturday and captured all 39 delegates at the Michigan GOP convention ahead of Super Tuesday as he marched toward a third straight presidential nomination.
As he easily dispatched of Nikki Haley and rolled up new delegates in three states, Trump stumped for votes in Virginia ahead of Tuesday’s 15-state primary bonanza.
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Missouri must continue to allow taxpayer dollars to flow to Planned Parenthood, the state’s supreme court ruled on Wednesday.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that a 2022 state budget measure cutting Planned Parenthood off from state funds was unconstitutional, according to court documents. The legal dispute stemmed from a line in the state’s 2022 budget, which allocated $0 in Medicaid funds for any healthcare organization that provides abortions or is affiliated with an abortion provider, the Missouri Independent reported.
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California is adding Missouri, Nebraska and Wyoming to its list of states to which government-paid travel is restricted, over legislation considered to be anti-LGBTQ+.
A 2016 California law banned state-funded travel to any state determined by the California Justice Department to be discriminatory against the LGBTQ community. And state Attorney General Rob Bonta must maintain and post a list of such states whose total numbers is now at or nearing 26, according to The Center Square.
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by Philip Lenczycki A Chinese intelligence agency quietly operates “service centers” in seven American cities, all of which have had contact with Beijing’s national police authority, according to state media reports and government records reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work Department (UFWD) — which at least one U.S. government commission has characterized as a “Chinese intelligence service” — operates so-called “Overseas Chinese Service Centers” (OCSCs) that are housed within various U.S.-based nonprofits. OCSCs were ostensibly set up to promote Chinese culture and assist Chinese citizens living abroad, according to Chinese government records. State media reports, Chinese government records and social media posts show that during a 2018 trip to China, U.S.-based OCSC representatives met with Ministry of Public Security (MPS) officials. During the meeting, state security officials demonstrated how they’re leveraging new technology to conduct “cross-border remote justice services” overseas. MPS is China’s national police authority and has been referred to as “China’s FBI” by China experts. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says MPS also conducts covert “intelligence and national security operations far beyond China’s borders,” including “illicit, transnational repression schemes” on U.S. soil. In April 2023, the DOJ charged two men for allegedly opening a secret police station…
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At least 20 states have either restricted or banned transgender procedures for minors, with many of them facing lawsuits and temporary blocks by courts as a result, while future litigation is possible in states considering adopting such laws.
The states that have enacted legislation against such procedures are: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia – essentially all conservative-leaning.
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Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) signed two bills Wednesday, one that blocks biological males from competing in women’s sports and another that protects minors from experimental transgender drug treatments and surgeries.
“Today, in an effort to protect the integrity of female sports and Missouri children from potentially harmful experimental surgeries and treatment, I have signed Senate Bill (SB) 39 and SB 49 into law,” Parson posted to Twitter.
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A Missouri elementary school allowed a parent to read the transgender-promoting children’s book “I Am Jazz” to a second-grade class without first informing other parents, although state law requires school districts to notify parents beforehand about lessons on sexuality.
Webster Groves School District, located in the suburbs of St. Louis, allowed the parent to read “I Am Jazz” to the second graders in September as part of Clark Elementary School’s “Mystery Reader” program, where a family member surprises a child by reading to the class.
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by Eric Lendrum On April 7th, an amicus brief was filed in favor of Florida’s current ban on using state funds to support “transgender” treatments, with 17 state attorneys general voicing their support for the law. According to the Daily Caller, the brief’s filing was part of an ongoing legal battle in the state of Florida, where far-left, pro-transgender activists have teamed up with several pseudo-medical organizations to file a lawsuit against the law. The groups involved include the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the Endocrine Society, and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The law in question states that Medicaid funds cannot be used to cover any transgender operations, including sex change surgery, cross-sex hormones, and puberty blockers. The 17 states that have filed in support of Florida are: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia. In their filing, the AGs argue that the organizations involved in the lawsuit have “prioritized politics over science.” “The amici States submit this brief in support of Florida’s right to regulate medicine and determine appropriate treatments for Medicaid coverage,” the brief states. “Moreover, there is particular reason to…
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Three more red states — Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia — this week followed Louisiana and Alabama in withdrawing from a multistate data-sharing partnership that facilitates voter registration and maintenance of voter rolls, citing unmet concerns over protecting voter information and partisan influence at the nonprofit.
The latest withdrawals from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) came after the nonprofit’s board of directors rejected changes proposed by a bipartisan working group of several member states.
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Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey led 19 other Republican state attorneys general (AGs) in a warning letter to CVS and Walgreens that asserts federal law forbids using the mail to send or receive drugs that are intended to be used to produce an abortion.
Bailey and the coalition of attorneys general wrote to the two drugstore chains, informing them that their announced plan to use the mail to distribute abortion pills is both unsafe and illegal.
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Eleven states will reduce their individual income tax rates on Jan. 1.
Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, and North Carolina will cut the individual income tax rate on New Year’s Day, according to the Tax Foundation. Over the past two years, more than 20 states have cut individual income tax rates.
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Google agreed to a $391.5 million settlement with 40 states after an investigation found that the tech giant participated in questionable location-tracking practices, state attorneys general announced Monday.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong called it a “historic win for consumers.”
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Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick announced on Tuesday that the state’s pension fund is selling all of its assets that are managed by BlackRock, a move that will divest up to $500 million from the asset manager.
The Missouri State Employees’ Retirement System (MOSERS) is withdrawing its assets from BlackRock’s control because the state believes that the company is using its control of pension funds to push a “left-wing” agenda as opposed to making money for its clients, according to a press release. Missouri joins several other Republican-run states that have also pulled funds from BlackRock for similar reasons.
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A Missouri school district will use spanking as a form of punishment in the 2022-2023 school year, according to the school handbook.
Cassville School District in Cassville, Missouri, is implementing a policy that uses spanking with a paddle as a form of punishment for students, according to the school handbook. Corporal punishment, or the use of physical force, will only be used to correct a K-12 student’s behavior when deemed necessary by the principal of the school.
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Democratic Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri abruptly ended an interview with a St. Louis reporter Monday after being asked about a possible re-election bid by President Joe Biden.
“Do you want to see Joe Biden run for a second term?” a reporter asked Bush in a video posted by Mark Maxwell, political editor for KSDK News on Twitter.
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A federal judge in Tennessee ruled in favor of Tennessee, Georgia, and 18 other states in their effort to block federal guidelines on transgender athletes and school locker rooms.
The lawsuit, brought by Tennessee, challenged guidance from the United States Department of Education and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that would allow athletes who were marked as males on their birth certificates to compete in girls and women’s sports. The federal guidance also would have prohibited student shower and locker room access from being determined by birth gender and provided guidance on required pronoun use.
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Former President Donald Trump is ruling out the idea of endorsing Republican Missouri Rep. Vicky Hartzler in her Senate bid and praised one of her “controversial” primary opponents.
Trump made the Hartzler comments Friday evening on Truth Social, his social media platform. He later joined One America News on Friday and called Eric Greitens, the former governor, “a little controversial” but “tough” and “smart.”
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Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, covered the plot by an ex-wife and her sister, a political consultant linked to Senate Majority Leader A. Mitchell “Mitch” McConnell (R.-KY.), to force Navy SEAL veteran Eric Greitens out of his run for the 2022 Missouri Republican Senate nomination.
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Missouri and Kansas are no strangers to border conflict. No, we’re not talking about the chaos that inspired “The Outlaw Josey Wales.” The fear today is over cross-border job poachers. However, that doesn’t justify giving Fidelity Security Life Insurance $12.7 million just to stay inside Kansas City. No one gets a gold medal in a race to the bottom — but politicians will waste endless taxpayer dollars trying to tell you that they’re “winning.”
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Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, interviewed Missouri GOP Senate hopeful Eric Greitens about Karl Rove’s role in his ex-wife’s accusations against him.
Greitens, a Navy SEAL combat veteran and former Missouri, said told The Star News Network, his ex-wife has admitted that she wrote her statements off a draft by Rove and that her accusations have been disproven.
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Most of the nation’s 48.2 million public K-12 students are assigned to their schools based on geographic school districts or attendance zones, with few options for transferring to another public school district. This method of school assignment intertwines schooling with property wealth, limiting families’ education options according to where they can afford to live.
A 2019 Senate Joint Economic Committee report found that homes near highly rated schools were four times the cost of homes near poorly rated schools. This presents a real barrier for many families – and 56% of respondents in a 2019 Cato survey indicated that expensive housing costs prevented them from moving to better neighborhoods. The challenge has only deepened as housing prices skyrocketed during the pandemic, putting better housing and education options out of reach for many.
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The Republican-controlled Missouri State House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted on Tuesday to reject the Senate-passed redistricting plan and requested that the two chambers resolve their differences via a conference committee.
By voting to reject the Senate-passed plan, the Missouri state House also ignored the 5pm, March 29 candidate filing deadline.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed National Political Editor Neil W. McCabe to the newsmaker line to explain the smear campaign on former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens.
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The attorney for conservative Missouri Republican hopeful Eric Greitens told reporters at a Tuesday press conference in front of the Prettyman Federal Courthouse here that if Republican Mandarin Karl Rove facilitated the candidate’s ex-wife Sheena Greitens committing perjury, he also committed a crime.
“Karl Rove has admitted that he spoke with Sheena Greitens about this,” said Timothy Parlatore, the Navy SEAL veteran’s lawyer. “Karl Rove has called donors, before this was filed, to tell them: ‘Back away from Eric Greitens.’”
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An attorney for Missouri Republican primary candidate for US Senate Eric Greitens said Thursday he filed four subpoenas to obtain phone records to determine whether Greitens’ ex-wife had contacts with any political operatives prior to making abuse allegations earlier this month.
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Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, attended the March 29, 2022, press conference held by Tim Parlatore, the attorney for Missouri GOP Senate hopeful Eric Greitens, about how Republican establishment mandarin Karl Rove worked with the hopeful’s ex-wife Sheena Greitens as she crafted an affidavit that claimed her ex-husband was abusive.
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Twenty-one states have filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s continued mask mandate on public transportation, including on airplanes.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody are leading the effort. Moody filed the suit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida along with 20 other attorneys general. DeSantis said the mask mandate was misguided and heavy-handed.
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Missouri’s Republican Majority state House is likely to agree to the timid Senate-passed compromise on the state’s congressional redistricting plan on Monday.
The Missouri state House stands adjourned until Monday, March 28. The filing deadline for candidates seeking to run in primaries for one of Missouri’s eight U.S. House seats is the following day, March 29.
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The Missouri State Senate has passed a redistricting plan that keeps the current partisan makeup of the state’s eight congressional districts.
The current Missouri delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives consists of six Republicans and two Democrats.
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The New Hampshire State Senate is set to vote on the House-approved redistricting plan on Thursday.
New Hampshire is one of four remaining states that have yet to complete their congressional redistricting process. The others are Louisiana, Florida, and Missouri.
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Democrats currently have the lead in redistricting efforts with four states still working on new maps.
Forty states, 46 if the states that have one congressional district are included, have finished the process of drawing new maps for U.S. House of Representatives districts. Only Florida, Missouri, Louisiana, and New Hampshire have yet to finish their redistricting process.
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Missouri Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler scored another major endorsement in her bid to succeed Sen. Roy Blunt as polls show that the race’s frontrunner could be a risky general election candidate.
The Susan B. Anthony List endorsed Hartzler Tuesday, calling her an “unwavering pro-life champion” who is “Planned Parenthood’s worst nightmare.” It comes just days after Republican Sen. Josh Hawley also endorsed her over the rest of the crowded GOP field.
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On Wednesday, the Biden Administration announced its intention to sue the state of Missouri over a law passed last year that protects residents’ Second Amendment rights from federal government overreach.
As reported by The Hill, the lawsuit was announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland, targeting Missouri’s House Bill 85 as an alleged violation of the “Supremacy Clause,” which “is preempted by federal law and violates the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity.” Garland’s Department of Justice (DOJ) will argue that the law harms cooperative efforts between the federal government, state governments, and local jurisdictions.
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On Friday, Charles A. “Chuck” Jones, 51, a Kentucky businessman, pleaded guilty to a decade-long scheme and conspiracy to defraud the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) E-Rate Program.
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If the federal government’s .25% assessment on each bushel of soybeans is halted, a bill in the Missouri legislature would capture that amount and add it to the state’s current collection of .25%, giving additional millions to the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council.
“If the federal goes away and this (bill) were to go into effect, we would continue to collect at a rate of one-half of 1% like we are now,” Rep. Curtis Gregory, R-Marshall, told the House Agriculture Policy Committee on Tuesday during testimony on HB2387. “If the bill doesn’t go into effect and the federal is done away with, we’d revert back…to one-half a penny per bushel…That would not bring in the amount of funds necessary to fund the checkoff mission.”
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The day after the St. Louis County Council voted 4-3 along party lines to enact a mask mandate, Missouri Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a lawsuit to stop it.
Schmitt, a candidate for the seat of retiring U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, filed a 17-page petition in St. Louis County Circuit Court on Wednesday. Last week, St. Louis and Jackson Counties filed an appeal with the Missouri Court of Appeals over the November ruling by a Cole County Circuit Court stating all COVID-19 public health orders were null and void.
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