St. Louis Post-Dispatch

FLORA, Ill. — As Ruthie Welty waited for her coffee at Common Grounds Coffee Lounge last month, she thought about who she’ll vote for in the upcoming Republican primary election for the U.S. House. Her options are a conservative incumbent who sees bipartisanship as necessary to making government work, and a far-right challenger who says he’s willing to shut government down to advance his agenda. But the 76-year-old military veteran from rural southeast Illinois had one dominant feeling about the race. “I hate to see Christian Republicans going against each other,” Welty said. The contest in th......

As Missouri lawmakers embark on yet another legislative session sure to be defined by right-wing extremism and entrenched partisanship, positive exception has arisen regarding, of all things, public assistance: A bipartisan proposal would finally end a cruel and counterproductive lifetime ban on food stamp eligibility for people with felony drug convictions in their past. Technically, the state modified that ban a decade ago, but under such onerous restrictions that it effectively still prevents almost anyone with a felony drug record from accessing the federal-state Supplemental Nutrition Foo......

WASHINGTON — U.S. Reps. Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib in a joint statement issued Thursday that voices support for South Africa's current case against Israel before the International Court of Justice. In arguments before the United Nations' top court Thursday, South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians and pleaded with the United Nations' top court on Thursday to urgently order a halt to the country's military operation. Israel has vehemently denied the allegations. Bush, a two-term Democrat representing St. Louis, and Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat and the first Pal......

For those who recognize Donald Trump as the looming threat to democracy that he so clearly is, the news out of Colorado on Tuesday might sound unambiguously positive. The state’s supreme court ruled that Trump can be barred from next year’s Colorado presidential primary, based on the argument that he committed insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and is therefore ineligible to become president. Yet as dangerous as Trump is, we must express some discomfort with this development. Whatever constitutional validity the court’s ruling may or may not have will be determined as the legal process continues pl......

To those who grumble that Jan. 6, 2021, is ancient history and everyone should just move on already, we offer rebuttal in the person of Missouri state Sen. Denny Hoskins. The Warrensburg Republican, who is in the running next year to become the state’s top election official, has filed legislation to require hand-counting of the state’s roughly 3 million ballots. His backward rationale is that it would make voting more secure and accurate. In fact, all serious data indicates the opposite is true — unless, of course, you’re fully vested in the MAGA-manufactured myth that ballot-counting machines......