ZURICH (AP) – FIFA’s ethics committee has banned Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini for eight years years from all soccer-related activities. Platini’s bid to succeed Blatter as FIFA president in a Feb. 26 election is now likely ended. Ethics judges ruled that Blatter broke FIFA Code of Ethics rules on conflicts of interest, breach of…
BROOKLYN, Ill. (AP) – Police in southwestern Illinois say they found a 35-year-old shooting victim’s lifeless body in the trunk of a car that had just crashed into a pole near a village police department outside St. Louis. St. Clair County Coroner Rick Stone identified the victim as Roderick Taylor of Cahokia. The Belleville News-Democrat…
( KTRS ) A St. Louis police officer who fatally shot 18-year-old VonDerrit Myers Jr. last fall has resigned after police opened an investigation into whether he was drunk when crashed his squad car. Police spokeswoman Schron Jackson reports that officer Jason Flanery was driving his patrol car Saturday morning when he struck a parked…
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Cash-strapped Illinois has at least $4 billion in the bank. The money is sits in special funds in the state budget created for specific purposes. But an Associated Press analysis shows it’s in 531 accounts that could be ripe for picking as a fix to the budget mess. No one has…
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri lawmaker says he will try again to get his state on permanent daylight saving time, but his proposed measure calls for at least two neighboring states to do the same before it can go into effect. Republican state Rep. Mike Kelley of Springfield says it doesn’t make sense…
SIKESTON, Mo. (AP) – A 35-year-old southeast Missouri man is dead after being shot outside a liquor store, and police say they have identified a person of interest. The Southeast Missourian (http://bit.ly/1Zj8v6T ) reports officers found the Sikeston man shot in the chest and lying in the road after the incident, which happened around 5…
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts’ highest court will hear a challenge to the state’s criminal harassment law from a man convicted of sending profanity-laced letters to a local elected official. Harvey Bigelow, of Rehoboth, was convicted of writing letters to Selectman Michael Costello and his wife in 2011. The letter writer called Costello a “scumbag,” ”loser”…
HANNIBAL, Mo. (AP) — A nature preserve planned in the northeast Missouri town of Hannibal will be more than a place to picnic or walk in the woods. It also will serve as a protected area for about 168,000 federally endangered Indiana bats, which hibernate in a former limestone mine that closed a half-century ago…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Three Missouri lawmakers are proposing measures that would forbid motorists from texting while driving, regardless of their age. Current state law bans texting for drivers under the age of 21 and drivers of commercial motor vehicles. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports State Senator Jill Schupp, a Creve Couer Democrat, is sponsoring…
HONOLULU (AP) — President Barack Obama has vetoed two bills that would have blocked steps that his administration is taking to address climate change. One bill would have nullified carbon pollution standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The second bill would have voided a set of national standards designed to reduce the amount of…