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…
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…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A man on Missouri’s death row for a 2002 botched bank robbery that left a security guard dead has died in federal prison. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 58-year-old Robert Bolden Sr. died Sunday behind bars. The Federal Bureau of Prisons did not give the cause of Bolden’s death, but…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A lawyer for a former St. Louis police officer who has twice faced trial on charges in the 2017 beating of a Black undercover police officer says a plea deal for his client has been reached. Lawyer Scott Rosenblum tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Christopher Myers plans to plead guilty…
JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri (AP) — Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway is suing a state board that investigated her after she issued critical audits of Sen. Josh Hawley over his use of funds while he was Missouri Attorney General. Galloway says in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that the State Board of Accountancy is threatening to discipline her…
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri law banning most abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy has led to a legal battle over the state’s referendum process that has gone all the way to the state Supreme Court. Judges heard arguments Wednesday on whether the people’s right to overturn laws passed by the Legislature has…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Police say a man was run over and killed by his own car in a carjacking in St. Louis’ Central West End neighborhood. Police say the carjacking happened around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. Minutes later, police found an injured, unresponsive man on the street. The man was later identified as 72-year-old Chen-Hsyong…
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Boone County judge has denied Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s efforts to expand his lawsuit against mask mandates in public schools. Schmitt sued the Columbia Public Schools after it required students and staff to wear masks while indoors. He had sought to expand the action to every school district in…