St. Louis, MO (KTRS) Mayor Lyda Krewson is urging regional leaders to work with Bi-State to create a plan to restart the embattled Loop Trolley. This comes after Bi-State rejected a trolley takeover plan on Friday. Wednesday, Krewson said she is concerned that the federal government could sue cities and municipalities for unused grant funds,…
Springfield, IL (AP) Gov. J.B. Pritzker delivered his first State of the State address Wednesday, talking tough about ending fraud and graft in a state notorious for corruption, and urging support for such contentious ideas as halting the so-called revolving door, the time-honored practice of lawmakers leaving the Legislature to immediately become lobbyists. The Democrat…
Sioux City, IA (AP) Joe Biden plans an address Thursday in Iowa at the same time President Donald Trump is to stage a rally in Des Moines. And the Biden campaign is promising an aggressive and direct counterstrategy ahead of Monday’s Iowa caucuses, as the former vice president fends off a new onslaught of GOP…
New York, NY (AP) After a day of intense testimony at Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial, prosecutors are expected to shift gears Thursday with a slate of ancillary witnesses. Two aspiring actresses testified Wednesday that Weinstein preyed on their vulnerabilities while pushing the notion that sex could lead to film roles. Tarale Wulff choked back tears…
(AP) The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a low level Wednesday amid an economy that looks solid but faces potential global threats. The Fed sketched a mostly positive picture of the U.S. economy in the statement it released after its latest policy meeting. It also repeated its pledge to “monitor” the…
(AP) Authorities say former Springfield, Illinois, Mayor Frank Edwards and his wife, Sangamon County Coroner Cinda Edwards, were two of the three people killed when a small plane crashed in a central Illinois field. Jim Allmon, chief deputy coroner for Sangamon County, says the crash Tuesday also killed 69-year-old John Evans of Glenarm,. The 69-year-old…
(AP) Opioid prescriptions are down significantly in Missouri’s Medicaid health care program. New figures show that the number of Medicaid participants receiving opioid prescriptions fell to fewer than 110,000 in 2019 — the second straight year with a 12% decline. Meanwhile, the number of pills prescribed to those people fell by 25% last year. State…
Springfield, IL (AP) Three people were killed when a small plane crashed in a field southeast of Springfield, Illinois. The Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department says the pilot of the twin-engine Piper Aerostar reported having trouble with the plane’s instruments prior to the crash. Springfield Airport Authority executive director Mark Hanna says the plane went down…
Jefferson City, MO (AP) Missouri officials say parents who no longer qualify for government health care but do not then sign up their children separately are partly to blame for the drop in children’s Medicaid coverage. Roughly 100,000 children lost coverage through the program between January 2018 and December 2019. Rep. David Wood says families…
Jerusalem, Israel (AP) Israel appears to be heading for a showdown with the international community over its half-century-old settlement enterprise in the West Bank. Emboldened by a supportive White House, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced plans to move ahead with the potentially explosive annexation of large parts of the occupied West Bank, including its…