Federal judge

The decision by U.S. District Judge John Ross lands as Missouri lawmakers debate whether to legalize the video slot machines. Meanwhile, Attorney General Catherine Hanaway has vowed to shut them down.

Distributing food stamps could get even harder for Missouri’s aid system, which a judge has called “broken and inaccessible.”

A federal judge has struck down a Missouri law that directly challenges the so-called contraceptive mandate under the federal health law. The result of…