The Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was for years known primarily for rising from political obscurity in rural Illinois to spending eight years in the nation’s third-highest office. Then came a federal indictment in a hush-money case centered on sex abuse allegations. Hastert, then 74, pleaded guilty and was
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A gay Missouri lawmaker is speaking out against the removal of an LGBTQ history exhibit from the Capitol. Kansas City Democratic Sen. Greg Razer on Wednesday said the action shows that there’s still discrimination against LGBT people in Missouri. The exhibit was only up for a few days before it
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The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting that today’s update will be posted Thursday morning. Boone County ranks seventh in the state with the most coronavirus cases in total volume in the past week. Cases are down 14.5% on the week. The county has a 8.4% positive test rate, according to the Missouri
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By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Public health officials in Los Angeles County will begin requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for patrons and workers at indoor bars, wineries, breweries, lounges and nightclubs next month. The new initiative in the nation’s most populous county begins Oct. 7, with proof of at least one
Continue Reading By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — A divided federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of an ACLU lawsuit challenging a portion of the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international email and phone communications. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the lawsuit must be dismissed
Continue Reading By MICHAEL MAROT AP Sports Writer INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Eric Fisher’s life changed almost as soon he felt the pain in his left foot during the AFC championship game. He agonized about his inability to play in the Super Bowl. After eight seasons in Kansas City, he was released in March as a cost-cutting move
Continue Reading By JOHN HANNA AP Political Writer TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A top Republican lawmaker in Kansas says he’s concerned about President Joe Biden’s plan to resettle almost 500 Afghan evacuees in the state because he doesn’t know how well they’re being vetted. Senate President Ty Masterson said Wednesday that he’s worried both that the evacuees
Continue Reading By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has rejected a request by lawyers for former President Donald Trump to delay progression of a defamation lawsuit while an appeals court decides if the United States can be substituted as the defendant. A Manhattan federal judge issued a denial Wednesday of the request
Continue Reading By The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors at the sex trafficking trial of R. Kelly have played video and audio recordings for the jury they say back up allegations he abused women and girls. Jurors listened to the tapes on Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn using headphones. The press and public weren’t
Continue Reading By DREW COSTLEY AP Science Writer Los Angeles County’s board of supervisors voted unanimously on Wednesday to phase out oil and gas drilling and ban new drill sites in the unincorporated areas of the county. Over 1,600 active and idle oil and gas wells in the county could be shuttered as a result. The sites
Continue Reading By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — An Australian man who pleaded guilty to securities fraud for cheating investors in his cryptocurrency fund of over $50 million has been sentenced to over seven years in prison. U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni imposed the sentence Wednesday on 24-year-old Stefan He Qin after saying
Continue Reading By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — An Australian man who pleaded guilty to securities fraud for cheating investors in his cryptocurrency fund of over $50 million has been sentenced to over seven years in prison. U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni imposed the sentence Wednesday on 24-year-old Stefan He Qin after saying
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By Christina Maxouris, CNN Local and federal authorities are looking for 22-year-old Gabby Petito, who was reported missing by her family over the weekend after she had been traveling with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie. Laundrie returned to the pair’s North Port, Florida, home earlier this month without Petito and is now refusing to talk to
Continue Reading By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A man previously described by U.S. authorities as the world’s most prolific purveyor of child pornography has been sentenced to 27 years in federal prison. Eric Eoin Marques was arrested in Ireland in 2013. The 36-year-old created and operated computer servers on the dark web that
Continue Reading By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Biden administration says federal protections may need to be restored for gray wolves in the western U.S. after Republican-led states made it much easier to kill the predators. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that the region’s wolves face new potential perils, after
Continue Reading Iowa is expected to receive 695 Afghan evacuees from the first group of arrivals to be resettled in the United States. The Biden administration on Wednesday began notifying governors and state refugee coordinators across the country about how many of the nearly 37,000 arrivals from that first wave are slated to be resettled in their
Continue Reading By CEDAR ATTANASIO Associated Press/Report for America NAMBÉ, N.M. (AP) — Tesla has sidestepped car dealership laws by setting up shop on Native American land for the first time. The move in New Mexico could be a model for Tesla’s efforts to sell in other states that require car companies to sell through dealerships. The
Continue Reading By CEDAR ATTANASIO Associated Press/Report for America NAMBÉ, N.M. (AP) — Tesla has sidestepped car dealership laws by setting up shop on Native American land for the first time. The move in New Mexico could be a model for Tesla’s efforts to sell in other states that require car companies to sell through dealerships. The
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The University of Missouri Office for Civil Rights & Title IX are investigating reports of individuals harassing community members with racist and homophobic slurs in and around campus. On the evening of Sept. 6, officers responded to a report of people in a truck yelling inappropriate comments near Hitt Street and University
Continue Reading By MICHAEL TARM Associated Press YORKVILLE, Ill. (AP) — Lawyers say once powerful former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and a man who accused him of child sexual abuse have reached a tentative out-of-court settlement over Hastert’s refusal to pay $1.8 million in exchange for the man’s silence. The lawyers would not release details of
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