State Rep. Aaron McMullen, R-Independence, presents a bill in committee on Jan. 16, 2024 (Tim Bommel/Missouri House Communications). Rep. Aaron McMullen is fighting an uphill battle — and he knows it. McMullen, a Republican from Independence, is pushing legislation that would require Missouri’s members of Congress to reside in the district they represent. But there’s one problem: His proposal conflicts with the U.S. Constitution. Article 1 Section 2 of the Constitution states that to be a U.S. representative, a candidate must be at least 25 years old, have been a U.S. citizen for seven years ..read more

Washington Metropolitan Police body camera footage shows Joseph W. Fischer in the U.S. Capitol at 3:25 p.m. Eastern on Jan. 6, 2021 (U.S. District Court documents). WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a Jan. 6, 2021, case that could potentially upend convictions for a mass of Capitol riot defendants and slash some election interference charges against former President Donald Trump. The case, Fischer v. United States, centers on whether former Pennsylvania police officer and Jan. 6 defendant Joseph W. Fischer violated an obstruction statute when he joined the mo ..read more

A rendering of the Royals proposed downtown ballpark (image submitted). The Royals and the Chiefs had everything. Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce — fresh off of a Super Bowl victory — endorsed a “yes” vote in ads airing on TV and on YouTube. Endorsements rolled in from the city’s top political players: Mayor Quinton Lucas (belatedly), U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver and nearly every union in town. All in all, the teams spent $3 million trying to convince voters a 40-year sales tax for a downtown ballpark would mean a win for everybody. From a thorny stadium location and murky financial details to ..read more

Over the past several years, national voting rights and gun violence prevention advocates have been sounding the alarm over increased threats around elections, pointing to ballooning disinformation, looser gun laws, record firearm sales and vigilantism at polling locations and ballot tabulation centers (Photo illustration by Getty images). Facing increased threats to election workers and superheated political rhetoric from former President Donald Trump and his supporters, more states are considering firearm bans at polling places and ballot drop boxes ahead of November’s presidential election ..read more

Missouri state Sens. Denny Hoskins, left, and Rick Brattin, center, confer with Freedom Caucus Director Tim Jones, right. Hoskins and Brattin are Republicans and members of the State Freedom Caucus Network, which aims to push the party further to the right (Elaine S. Povich/Stateline). When a Republican colleague threatened to read aloud from a 2-foot stack of books — including a biblical guide to leadership and a tome by anti-tax activist Grover Norquist — to protest inaction on his bills last week, Missouri state Sen. Rick Brattin quickly took up the cause. Seizing on a chance to ..read more

Jamie Corley, a longtime GOP Congressional staffer, announced she is running for Missouri Secretary of State after ending a campaign effort for an initiative petition that would add rape and incest exceptions to Missouri’s abortion ban and legalize abortion up to 12 weeks (photo submitted by Jamie Corley). A longtime GOP Congressional staffer and leader of an abandoned campaign to legalize abortion is now running for Missouri Secretary of State.  Jamie Corley, a Republican from University City, officially filed to run in the GOP primary on Monday. This is her first time running for publi ..read more

KCPS wants the Royals to fund the DeLano Youth Housing and Supportive Services project, which would rehabilitate the closed school to provide shelter to at-risk youth (Mili Mansaray/The Beacon). The Royals, vying for support weeks before voters will decide whether to promise them decades of tax money, are finalizing terms to give Kansas City Public Schools money to offset the loss of property taxes. The team’s plans for a stadium and entertainment district in the East Crossroads would swallow up six blocks of real estate that would otherwise represent nearly $1.4 billion in property taxes ove ..read more

A lawsuit filed by attorneys general in Missouri and Louisiana alleges the federal government pressured social media companies to target conservative speech across a range of topics, from the efficacy of vaccines to the integrity of the 2020 presidential election (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images). The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday morning in a potentially landmark case involving the federal government’s efforts to encourage social media companies to remove misinformation from their platforms. The lawsuit was filed in 2022 by attorneys general in Missouri and ..read more

State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman on Tuesday presents her Senate-passed proposal to raise the threshold for passing constitutional amendments proposed by initiative petition to the House Elections and Elected Officials Committee. (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent) When Terrence Wise explains Missouri’s initiative petition process to his children, he brings up one particularly remarkable play by the Kansas City Chiefs. The famous 13 second overtime win against the Buffalo Bills secured the Chiefs a place in the 2023 Super Bowl. As a result of the win, the NFL changed its overtime rules. “That ..read more

House Speaker Dean Plocher during the legislature's annual veto session on Sept. 13, 2023 (Tim Bommel/Missouri House Communications). Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher arranged a series of meetings in the state Capitol last month between GOP legislators and an out-of-state technology vendor, inviting renewed bipartisan criticism of the embattled Republican as he remains the focus of an ongoing ethics investigation.  The unusual arrangement — including a meeting with GOP leadership that took place in the speaker’s Capitol office — is drawing comparisons to Plocher unsuccessfully pushing ..read more