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Missouri faces a backlog of child abuse and neglect investigations — the Kansas City region has the most, with 3,036 cases that have been open for at least 46 days. With a shortage of investigators at the state's Children’s Division, lawmakers consider hiring private contractors to help.
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With about 85 members, including individuals with just a single plant as well as those with acres of land, Kansas City Black Urban Growers, or KCBUGS, works to address obstacles faced by Black farmers and improve community health.
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An abortion rights group has raised millions of dollars and recruited a large number of volunteers for an amendment to legalize abortion up to fetal viability. But unless Missouri's Secretary of State uses an unusual procedure to speed up counting petition signatures, it won't make it on the August primary ballot.
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According to the Missouri Department of Transportation, motorcycle fatalities have increased 47% since 2020. Last year was Missouri's deadliest on record, with 174 motorcycle deaths.
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Missouri banned gender-affirming health care for minors, and Kansas could follow suit this spring. So families are forced to move to other states or travel hundreds of miles, sometimes with the help of a growing network of groups determined to make the care available.
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Missouri Democrats filibustered for more than 11 hours to try and block the bill, which they say will hurt low-income and disabled patients. The legislation would make it financially difficult for Planned Parenthood clinics in the state — which do not provide abortions — to provide health services for Medicaid recipients.
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Lobbyists and legislators have been pushing for years to eliminate copays for supplemental and diagnostic breast cancer screening, which other Midwest states have already done. Advocates say they create cost barriers that can lead to late diagnosis.
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Missouri was one of only four states, along with Georgia, Iowa and Texas, that saw an increase in infant mortality between 2021 and 2022, according to federal data. And Black women are dying at much higher rates than their white counterparts.
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Delta-8 THC products — including a large variety of drinks that are popular at bars and available at gas stations throughout the state — can be sold in Missouri stores because they are made from hemp, which is federally legal.
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Since 2017, the percentage of Missouri's kindergarten-age children who have received the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine has dropped from 95% to around 90%, according to state health officials.
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A Republican-backed bill would block Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood. Health care providers fear it will harm patients’ access to critical care.
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The Supreme Court heard a case Tuesday about whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration overstepped when it revised requirements for how a medication abortion drug should be dosed and prescribed. The case was brought by attorney Erin Hawley, the wife of Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.
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The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requires that Medicaid applications for the largest group of participants — who are low-income children, families and adults — be processed within 45 days. In February, Missouri took an average of 77 days to process applications.
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The Douglas County Sheriff's Office is working with local mental health providers to cut down the state’s notoriously long wait times to provide services to inmates declared incompetent to stand trial.