Attorney General Loretta Lynch defended President Barack Obama’s executive actions curbing guns, telling lawmakers Wednesday that the president took lawful, common-sense steps to stem firearms violence that kills and injures tens of thousands of Americans yearly. Lynch’s justification for the ...
Read More »Woman indicted in veterans’ benefits fraud after she died
Federal prosecutors discovered a Springfield woman indicted this week on suspicion of embezzling more than $288,000 from disabled veterans’ benefits had died four days earlier. A federal grand jury returned the indictment Tuesday against Beverly Sue Wright. Shortly after the ...
Read More »Court sides with US agency in decades-old land-grazing case
Siding with the government in a decades-old battle over grazing rights, a federal appeals court overturned a lower-court ruling in favor of a Nevada rancher and strongly admonished a judge in Reno for abusing his power and exhibiting personal bias against ...
Read More »High court could give Obama his final chance on immigration
After seven years, 2 million-plus deportations, two executive actions and 720,000 “Dreamers,” the bottom line on President Barack Obama’s immigration record still remains an open question for many immigrants and their advocates. In the end, the Supreme Court may fill in ...
Read More »Missouri bill on expert witness change advances in Senate
A bill to add requirements for expert testimony in Missouri court cases could be up for a final Senate vote Thursday. Senators voted 19-12 for initial approval of the measure Tuesday. The bill would require expert witnesses to base testimony ...
Read More »US Supreme Court rejects Arkansas bid to revive abortion law
The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to revive an Arkansas law that would have banned abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy if doctors can detect a fetal heartbeat. The justices did not comment in rejecting the state’s appeal of ...
Read More »Verdict upheld in white officer’s racial discrimination claim
A federal appeals court has upheld a $620,000 verdict for a white police sergeant who sued the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department for racial discrimination. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday denied the department’s request for a ...
Read More »Mandatory minimum sentences play a role in ranching standoff
The seeds of this month’s insurrection at a Harney County wildlife refuge were planted in an unusual midnight deal struck in 2012 between prosecutors and Harney County ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond. The long blood feud between the Hammonds and ...
Read More »Supreme Court sets election-year clash on immigration
The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to an election-year review of President Barack Obama’s executive action to allow up to 5 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally to “come out of the shadows” and work legally in the United States. ...
Read More »Cruz joined fight for gun rights as political fortunes rose
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz huddled with a borrowed shotgun in a Louisiana duck blind last week, his face smeared with black greasepaint. He was there to shoot a campaign video with Phil Robertson, the gray-bearded patriarch of reality TV’s ...
Read More »Public gets $16.2 million bill for Rams retention effort
An effort to persuade the owner of the St. Louis Rams to keep his team in Missouri by building a new riverfront football stadium not only failed but also left the public on the hook for $16.2 million in expenses. ...
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