A Missouri appeals court ruled Tuesday for the first time that possession of child pornography is a “continuing course of conduct” that doesn’t end until the defendant loses possession of the images — such as when the police seize them. ...
Read More »Kansas Supreme Court hears Kleypas death-penalty appeal
An attorney for the first prisoner condemned to death in Kansas in more than three decades asked the state’s highest court Monday to throw out his sentence, alleging jurors should have been removed from the case after seeing the victim’s ...
Read More »Study: Smaller counties driving US jail population growth
While big-city jails get most of the attention, lockups in small and medium-sized counties have actually driven the overall explosion in the U.S. inmate population, according to a new analysis of 45 years of jail statistics. U.S. jails now hold ...
Read More »Missouri bill would strip scholarships if athletes strike
A state legislator is proposing that student athletes should lose their scholarships if they go on strike, a response to a threat by University of Missouri football players not to play over criticism of the administration’s handling of campus racial ...
Read More »Auditors: EPA broke law in social media blitz on water rule
The Environmental Protection Agency broke the law in a social media campaign intended to generate public support for a controversial rule to protect small streams and wetlands from development and pollution, congressional auditors said Monday. The EPA’s campaign violated restrictions ...
Read More »US looking at ways to better screen would-be immigrants
The Obama administration is reviewing procedures for vetting would-be immigrants, with an eye toward examining applicants’ online presence, to close security gaps in the U.S. visa system, the White House said Monday. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the Homeland ...
Read More »High court says DirectTV can cut off class action lawsuit
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that satellite provider DirecTV can avoid a class action lawsuit in California over early termination fees and force customers into private arbitration hearings instead. In a 6-3 opinion, the justices said that DirecTV’s contracts can specifically ...
Read More »Supreme Court blocks Alabama court order in adoption case
The United States Supreme Court on Monday sided with a lesbian mother who wants to see her adopted children, blocking, at least temporarily, an Alabama court’s order that declared the adoption invalid. The justices issued an order in a case that ...
Read More »Supreme Court weighs back pay for judges
The Missouri Supreme Court on Monday seemed willing to entertain the possibility that state judges could sue the state for back pay. Under a state pay plan created in 2011 and effective in mid-2012, state judges’ salaries are tied to ...
Read More »Freed Kansas inmate faces challenge getting compensated
After serving more than 15 years for a crime his brother admitted to in a suicide note last month, Floyd Bledsoe had little more than the flannel shirt and jeans he wore when a Kansas judge freed him Tuesday. But ...
Read More »Missouri bill would prevent abortion for Down syndrome
A Missouri state senator is proposing a bill that would prevent abortions solely because a test indicated the baby has or could develop Down syndrome. The bill, pre-filed by Sen. David Sater, R-Cassville, also would require doctors who perform abortions ...
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