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Social Security benefits increase will hit 3.6% in 2027

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Social Security benefits increase will hit 3.6% in 2027

Oct 15, 2026 · 12:00 PM · States Newsroom staff

WASHINGTON — The Social Security Administration announced on Wednesday that recipients will receive a 3.6% increase in benefits in 2027. The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, will begin for 72 million Social Security beneficiaries in January. It will apply for Supplemental Security Income,…

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Missouri Democrats aim to break Republicans’ streak of House supermajorities

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Missouri Democrats aim to break Republicans’ streak of House supermajorities

Oct 15, 2026 · 10:55 AM · Rudi Keller

Over five consecutive elections from 1974 through 1982, Missouri Democrats elected supermajorities — more than two-thirds of the 163 members — to the Missouri House. The party drew its strength from rural voters, union households and Black-majority urban districts. The supermajority ended…

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Missouri’s education board was designed to resist politics. Transparency is essential

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Missouri’s education board was designed to resist politics. Transparency is essential

Oct 15, 2026 · 10:45 AM · Duane Martin

Most Missourians probably could not name a member of the State Board of Education. Most could not explain why board members serve eight-year terms or why Missouri’s Constitution limits the number of members from the same political party. That is understandable. The…

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How one unpaid medical bill landed a KC-area patient in court

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How one unpaid medical bill landed a KC-area patient in court

Oct 14, 2026 · 6:00 PM · Suzanne King

In December 2022, a surgeon at NKC Health removed Karrie Krause’s gallbladder. Three years later, a lawyer representing the hospital took her to court over her unpaid bill. The middle school English teacher is far from alone. As the price of getting…

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Researchers point to community violence programs, pandemic recovery in historic homicide decline

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Researchers point to community violence programs, pandemic recovery in historic homicide decline

Oct 14, 2026 · 4:00 PM · Amanda Watford

As candidates debate public safety ahead of the midterm elections, a new assessment of the nation’s historic homicide decline suggests there is no single explanation for the drop — and that some widely discussed enforcement strategies may have played little role. A…

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Trump immigration policies could turn away much-needed foreign doctors, critics say

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Trump immigration policies could turn away much-needed foreign doctors, critics say

Oct 14, 2026 · 2:00 PM · Shalina Chatlani

As the nation’s physician shortage worsens, some fear the Trump administration’s immigration policies will dissuade or prevent doctors who earned their medical degrees in foreign countries from practicing in the United States. Among all U.S. doctors, an estimated one quarter were educated…

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Trump administration appeals judge’s order blocking White House ban of 3 news outlets

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Trump administration appeals judge’s order blocking White House ban of 3 news outlets

Oct 14, 2026 · 12:20 PM · Ashley Murray, Jane Norman

WASHINGTON — A federal judge late Tuesday extended a block on a Trump administration ban of press passes for three news organizations, which will allow them to continue to enter the White House grounds while a legal challenge to the ban, including…

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Students to compete in civics bee championship in nation’s capital, carried on C-SPAN

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Students to compete in civics bee championship in nation’s capital, carried on C-SPAN

Oct 14, 2026 · 12:00 PM · Shauneen Miranda

WASHINGTON — As partisan tensions rise in advance of the fast-approaching midterm elections, students will test their knowledge Wednesday in a field that’s long enjoyed bipartisan support: civics. Fifty-two middle school students hailing from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and American Samoa,…

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Amendment 6 would remake balance of power between Missouri voters and lawmakers

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Amendment 6 would remake balance of power between Missouri voters and lawmakers

Oct 14, 2026 · 10:55 AM · Jason Hancock

Missouri voters are being asked on Nov. 3 to fundamentally rewrite the balance of power between themselves and the state lawmakers they elect. If Amendment 6 passes, future legislatures could no longer change laws enacted by voters through the initiative process on…

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Some of us never left Ukraine’s side — even if Washington did

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Some of us never left Ukraine’s side — even if Washington did

Oct 14, 2026 · 10:45 AM · Lynn Schmidt

I did not leave the Republican Party, and I am not going anywhere. But I am tired of watching most of my party’s leaders in Washington behave as if abandoning Ukraine to Vladimir Putin is simply the price of loyalty to this…

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