WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has passed a stopgap spending bill that avoids a short-term shutdown and funds the federal government through Feb. 18 after leaders defused a partisan standoff over federal vaccine mandates. The measure now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. Earlier in the day, congressional leaders announced they…
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Just before Missouri Gov. Mike Parson condemned a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter for exposing a state database flaw, records show the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education was preparing to thank him for finding the glitch. The reporter discovered a flaw on a DESE website that left more than…
ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) — Even Christmas trees aren’t immune to the pandemic-induced shortages and inflation plaguing the economy. Extreme weather and supply chain disruptions have reduced supplies of both real and artificial trees this season. Industry officials say American shoppers should expect to have fewer choices and pay up to 30% more for both types…
OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Authorities say a 15-year-old sophomore opened fire at his Michigan high school, killing three students, including a 16-year-old boy who died in a deputy’s patrol car on the way to a hospital. Eight other people were wounded, some critically. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard says investigators are still trying to…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A former Southwest Airlines employee is being sentenced to six months in prison after pleading guilty to possessing stolen guns. Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that Mark Hunter of St. Louis admitted to the thefts. After a passenger traveling through the St. Louis airport reported a pistol being stolen from his luggage,…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Binnington was looking for a place to hide. The St. Louis goalie gave up three goals on the first nine shots he faced Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning, including an embarrassing miscue on a shot that bounced off the glass and went into the net under his feet.…
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Prosecutors are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review Bill Cosby’s sexual assault case and restore his conviction. In a petition released Monday, they wrote that courts should not equate a decision announced in a press release to lifetime immunity. They believe the Pennsylvania Supreme Court erred when it overturned Cosby’s conviction…
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A federal judge has blocked President Joe Biden’s administration from enforcing a coronavirus vaccine mandate on health care workers in 10 states that had brought the first legal challenge against the requirement. The preliminary injunction issued Monday applies to Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis man is being hailed as a hero after he caught a 3-year-old girl tossed by her mother from the second-floor window of a burning home. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the fire broke out about 9:30 a.m. Monday in an apartment building in north St. Louis. Authorities…
NEW YORK (AP) — It’s an omnipresent truth: Merriam-Webster has declared vaccine its 2021 word of the year. Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for the dictionary company, tells The Associated Press that lookups for the word vaccine increased 601% over 2020. Even more telling, searches on the Merriam-Webster website increased by 1,048% over 2019, before…