SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Leaders of a public-employee union say Gov. Bruce Rauner administration’s plans to implement bereavement leave for union members is meant to distract Illinois workers and the public from larger contract negotiation issues. The State Journal-Register reports the contract terms will give American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees members paid…
Construction should begin next year and wrap up by 2020
ST. LOUIS (AP) – A federal judge has ordered a school district that includes Ferguson, Missouri, to institute a new method of electing school board members in an effort to remove racial bias from the process. U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel’s order Monday requires the Ferguson-Florissant School District to adopt cumulative voting, which will allow…
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republican leaders are urging President Barack Obama to take no more action on Iran that could reinforce the nuclear deal before he leaves office. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce are issuing the request in a letter to Obama dated Tuesday. The…
CINCINNATI (AP) — An Ohio prosecutor said Tuesday he will again seek a murder conviction against a white former University of Cincinnati police officer, and wants to move the trial after a jury couldn’t agree on a verdict in the fatal shooting of a black man during a traffic stop. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters…
LOS EBANOS, Texas (AP) — All along the winding Rio Grande, the people who live in this bustling, fertile region where the U.S. border meets the Gulf of Mexico never quite understood how Donald Trump’s great wall could ever be much more than campaign rhetoric. Erecting a concrete barrier across the entire 1,954-mile frontier with…
St. Louis, MO (KTRS) A man is dead following a shooting in south St. Louis. Police say the victim was gunned down along the 600 block of Fassen Street at around 9 p.m. Monday. There’s no word on a motive or of any arrests. The victim’s name hasn’t been released. This brings the St. Louis…
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Illinois is trying to open job opportunities for people with criminal records by making changes to paperwork for professional licenses. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation announced Monday it has made the process more welcoming. The department is using less formal legal language in cover letters. And the department…
VERSAILLES, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri state trooper charged in the death of an Iowa man who drowned while in his custody is scheduled for trial this summer. The Kansas City Star reports (http://bit.ly/2fjtLYp ) a July 10 trial was set Monday for Trooper Anthony Piercy. He is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death…
CHICAGO (AP) – Aaron Schock is accused of allegedly using government and campaign money to subsidize a lavish lifestyle, as well as pocketing thousands of constituents’ dollars. The indictment unveiled this month says the 35-year-old former Illinois Republican ex-congressman hosted annual Washington tours and meet-and-greets, charged a special fee and secretly kept some of the…