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WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats have taken a major step toward meeting President Joe Biden’s proposals for massive spending on government programs for climate change, health care, family services and more. Lawmakers reached an agreement Tuesday night to pour $3.5 trillion over the next decade into Biden’s proposals. Included is money to expand Medicare coverage…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A former St. Louis police officer has been sentenced to more than four years in prison in the beating of a Black, undercover officer during a protest in St. Louis. Thirty-four-year-old Randy Hays was sentenced Tuesday to 52 months in prison. He pleaded guilty in November 2019 to using unreasonable and…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is preparing to lay out the “moral case” for voting rights as he faces growing pressure from civil rights activists and other Democrats. They want the president to do more to combat efforts by Republican-led state legislatures to restrict access to the ballot. Biden has declared that protecting voting…
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is expected to sign into law the state’s first gas tax increase in decades. Parson is scheduled to sign the legislation Tuesday. The law will gradually raise the state’s 17-cent-a-gallon gas tax to 29.5 cents over five years, with the option for buyers to get a…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pfizer says it plans to meet Monday with top U.S. health officials to discuss the drugmaker’s request for federal authorization of a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine. President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser is acknowledging “it is entirely conceivable, maybe likely” that booster shots will be needed in the coming months.…
ROBERTSVILLE, Mo. (AP) — Several high-profile conservatives joined former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens at a rally for his Senate campaign. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik joined Greitens at a campaign event Saturday in rural Franklin County. Greitens was forced from the governor’s office by…
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A Confederate monument that helped spark a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been hoisted off its stone pedestal and hauled away to storage. Work to remove the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee began early Saturday morning. Crews also took down a statue of Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A 12-year-old girl swept away by flooding in St. Louis has died. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the girl was riding in a car on Interstate 70 near St. Louis Lambert International Airport on Saturday when the vehicle was swept into a large concrete storm drain. Missouri Highway Patrol Cpl. Juston…
ST. ANN, Mo. (AP) — Federal agents are joining the search for three men who escaped a suburban St. Louis jail. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the men escaped from the St. Ann jail Friday. The U.S. Marshals Service is looking for 38-year-old Walter Wilson, 47-year-old Jason William Woolbright and 31-year-old Joshua Brown. Wilson and…
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The nation’s first African American winner has breezed to victory at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Fourteen-year-old Zaila Avant-garde of Harvey, Louisiana, didn’t show much stress on stage and only struggled with one word in Thursday’s finals. She is only the second Black champion in the bee’s 96-year history…