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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…
WASHINGTON (AP) — With only hours to spare, President Joe Biden signed legislation to avoid a partial federal shutdown and keep the government funded through Dec. 3. Congress had passed the bill earlier Thursday. The legislation averts one crisis, but efforts to stave off a second crisis seem likely to continue for the next couple…
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…
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Health care workers who were once saluted for saving lives in the COVID-19 outbreak are now being issued panic buttons and ditching their scrubs before going out in public to avoid harassment. Across the country, doctors and nurses on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic are dealing with hostility, threats…
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…
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Difficult decisions await a Los Angeles Superior Court judge at what could be a pivotal hearing in the conservatorship controlling the life and money of Britney Spears. Judge Brenda Penny will hear arguments Wednesday afternoon on whether Spears’ father should be removed from the conservatorship, or whether she should end it…
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…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators have blocked a bill to keep the U.S. government funded and allow borrowing. But Democrats determined to avoid a federal shutdown say they will try again this week. All this as Democrats also press ahead on President Joe Biden’s big domestic policy agenda. The tangled efforts Monday are not necessarily…
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court is set to hear arguments about whether Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft used an unconstitutional set of laws last year to derail an effort to put the state’s new abortion restrictions on the ballot for a public vote. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the…
JOPLIN, Mont. (AP) — Federal officials sent a team of investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board to the site of an Amtrak derailment in north-central Montana that killed three people and left seven hospitalized Sunday. The westbound Empire Builder was en route to Seattle from Chicago, with two locomotives and 10 cars, when it…