Trans Adults in Missouri Brace For Cutoffs to Gender-Affirming Health Care

Ellie Bridgman spent her Thursday night shift at a local gas station in Union, Missouri, planning for the day she’ll lose access to gender-affirming treatments the transgender and nonbinary 23-year-old credits with making “life worth living.” A first-of-its-kind emergency rule introduced this week by Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey will impose numerous restrictions on … Read more

Why Two States Remain Holdouts on Distracted Driving Laws

Max Herrick pulled over on the interstate near Harrisonville, Missouri, on a spring night in 2020 to offer antifreeze to a woman whose car had overheated. He had lost a grandson to an overdose just hours before, but aiding stranded motorists was second nature to the 73-year-old retired school custodian, who remembered thousands of students’ … Read more

Abortion Debate Ramps Up in States as Congress Deadlocks

Anti-abortion advocates are pressing for expanded abortion bans and tighter restrictions since the Supreme Court overturned the national right to abortion. But with the debate mostly deadlocked in Washington, the focus is shifting to states convening their first full legislative sessions since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Although some state GOP lawmakers have filed bills … Read more

A $30 Million Gift to Build an Addiction Treatment Center. Then Staffers Had to Run It.

DECATUR, Ill. — The question came out of the blue, or so it seemed to Crossing Healthcare CEO Tanya Andricks: If you had $30 million to design an addiction treatment facility, how would you do it? The interim sheriff of Macon County, Illinois, posed the question in 2018 as he and Andricks discussed the community’s … Read more