Lawmakers, pope ask Missouri governor to halt execution Pope Francis has joined the chorus of people calling on Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to grant clemency to a death row inmate who is set to be executed for killing three people during a 1994 convenience store robbery. Ernest Johnson is scheduled to die by injection at…
NEW YORK (AP) — Teachers and other school staff members are supposed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when the bell rings Monday morning for New York City’s sprawling school system. Mayor Bill de Blasio has warned that unvaccinated school staffers will not be allowed to work Monday. De Blasio said 90% of Department of Education…
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Not a single hurricane has hit Puerto Rico this year, but hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. territory feel like they’re living in the aftermath of a major storm: Students do homework by the light of dying cellphones. People who depend on insulin or respiratory therapies struggle…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Former conservative Republican U.S. Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri has died. Akin’s son, Perry, says in a statement that his father died late Sunday at age 74 from cancer. Akin’s comment in 2012 that women’s bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of “legitimate rape” sunk his bid for…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The relentless toll of the pandemic has worsened the ongoing nursing shortage at St. Louis area hospitals. Over the past decade, the nation’s nursing shortage has been growing but now with the number of nurses leaving the profession during the pandemic, it’s turning into a crisis, nurses and hospital administrators say.…
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Sign-waving, chanting crowds rallied in Illinois Saturday in support of abortion rights just weeks after Texas restrictions all but banned the procedure in that state. Thousands of people gathered in Daley Plaza in Chicago chanting, “Our body, our choice” before marching through the Loop. In Springfield, several hundred people gathered on…