The Justice Department sued Volkswagen on Monday over emissions-cheating software found in nearly 600,000 vehicles sold in the United States, potentially exposing the company to billions of dollars in penalties for clean air violations. The civil complaint against the German ...
Read More »Pentagon: Hundreds of military kids sexually abused annually
The children of service members are victims in hundreds of incidents of sexual abuse each year, according to data the Defense Department provided exclusively to The Associated Press. The abuse of military dependents is committed most often by male enlisted ...
Read More »Retiring Newtown police chief reflects on school shooting
Michael Kehoe doesn’t want his 37-year career with Connecticut’s Newtown Police Department defined by one event, but that’s difficult when your sleepy suburban town of 28,000 people was the site of one of the country’s deadliest school shootings. The 60-year-old ...
Read More »Vote to repeal Obama’s health law marks testy start to 2016
Legislation repealing President Barack Obama’s health care law comes to the forefront when the House reconvenes this week, marking a sharply partisan start to a congressional year in which legislating may take a back seat to politics. The bill undoing ...
Read More »Improved economy creates prison staffing crisis for Kansas
Unemployment is down and wages are up in Kansas — except for corrections officers. They are leaving state prisons in droves because of low pay, creating a public safety crisis that legislators will have to deal with on top of ...
Read More »Roberts: Court rule changes should cut lawsuits’ cost, time
Chief Justice John Roberts highlighted changes to federal court rules that he hopes will make lawsuits less expensive and time consuming. Roberts said in the annual report he issues on the last day of the year that the rule changes ...
Read More »Missouri’s social safety net shrinking with new laws
Missouri’s social safety net will shrink in January as new laws force an end to welfare payments for some families and reduce how long the unemployed can receive benefits to one of the shortest periods nationally. Additional tax breaks also ...
Read More »States plan renewed debate on LGBT rights, religious freedom
With same-sex marriage now legal nationwide, lawmakers in numerous states are preparing for a new round of battles in 2016 over whether to grant discrimination protections to LGBT people or religious exemptions to nonprofits and businesses that object to gay ...
Read More »UPDATE: VP resigns after no credible evidence that Missouri State discriminated
A Missouri State University official at the center of an investigation into racism complaints has resigned. Ken Coopwood, the vice president of diversity and inclusion, said Monday his resignation would be effective April 30. The resignation comes less than a ...
Read More »Record heat sets the tone for year’s searing headlines
When a devastating heat wave hit India in 2015, it killed more than 2,500 people and melted the pavement of New Delhi’s streets. In California, where an ordinary year sees mountain snow pile six-feet-deep or more — supplying much drinking ...
Read More »Pope’s comments on global warming top notable quotes list
Pope Francis’ comments that human activity is mostly to blame for global warming top a list of the most notable quotes of 2015, as compiled by a Yale Law School librarian who also included several sound bites from the U.S. ...
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