The Senate approved a wide-ranging energy bill Wednesday that would promote a variety of energy sources and speed federal approval of projects to export liquefied natural gas to Europe and Asia. Senators backed the measure, 85 to 12, the first ...
Read More »Missouri education officials approve new English, math goals
Missouri became the latest state to adopt a new set of education benchmarks to replace the national Common Core standards, ditching the benchmarks Tuesday following conservative backlash. The State Board of Education approved new goals for what children from kindergarten ...
Read More »Ferguson reform may be swift with federal agreement approval
Reforms are expected to begin quickly in Ferguson now that a federal judge has approved a settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice and the city where 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer. Federal Judge Catherine ...
Read More »Court once again OKs wrongful death damage cap
The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the state’s noneconomic damage cap for medical malpractice cases involving wrongful death. In a 5-2 ruling, the court said the cap is not an unconstitutional violation of equal protection rights, even though until ...
Read More »Appeals court affirms most of wrongful foreclosure award
A state appeals court on Tuesday upheld most of a record judgment in a wrongful foreclosure case, though it said the plaintiffs cannot keep the title to the property. Early last year, a Clinton County judge awarded David and Crystal ...
Read More »Former legislator receives interim suspension
Lee’s Summit attorney and former Missouri legislator Dennis Bonner received an interim license suspension Friday for misappropriating client funds as well as more than $55,000 in third party funds. According to the discipline file, Bonner had multiple incidents involving ...
Read More »Give drug felons food stamps, many states now say
Nebraska is desperate to stop the runaway growth of its prison population, but doing so depends a lot on people like Ronald Tillman. Tillman, 54, a paroled drug dealer who suffers from bipolar disease and a debilitating back injury, has ...
Read More »Oklahoma City a defining moment in Merrick Garland’s career
In Judge Merrick Garland’s courthouse office in Washington, there’s a framed photo of Oklahoma City’s Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building after the 1995 bombing that ripped away most of its front. There’s also a courtroom artist’s sketch from the prosecution ...
Read More »VW owners seek trial if there’s no fix in emissions case
Lawyers representing thousands of people who own diesel Volkswagens that cheat on emissions tests are asking a judge to order repairs and compensation if the company and government regulators don’t agree to a fix by Thursday. The request was made ...
Read More »Missouri Senate OKs prison options for kids guilty of murder
Missouri senators on Monday endorsed changing the state’s sentencing guidelines to eliminate the mandatory sentence of life in prison for minors convicted of first-degree murder. Lawmakers voted to alter the guidelines to bring them into line with a 2012 U.S. ...
Read More »16th Circuit found not liable for age discrimination
The 16th Judicial Circuit won a defense verdict Monday in the case of a retired court employee who had accused court officials of age discrimination. A Jackson County jury found in favor of the court over plaintiff Gary Hartman, who ...
Read More »