Coach to plead not guilty in Missouri girl’s kidnap, murder -defense
(Reuters) – A seventh-grade football coach was ordered held without bail on Friday and will plead not guilty to the kidnap and murder of a 10-year-old girl snatched off a Springfield, Missouri, street and later found dead in his basement, his lawyer sa…
Drive as I say, not as I do? New York mayor’s convoy seen speeding
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Friday he remained committed to reducing speed limits and cutting down on traffic deaths in the city, a day after a local television news crew captured his convoy speeding and ignoring stop sig…
California’s fracking opponents introduce new moratorium bill
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California lawmakers have unveiled a new bill that would halt fracking and other controversial oil extraction practices in the state until a comprehensive review of their impact is complete, reigniting a legislative debate tha…
California lawmaker indicted on bribery, corruption charges
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A California state senator has been indicted on federal charges that he accepted some $100,000 in bribes from a businessman and undercover FBI agents posing as Hollywood movie executives in exchange for steering legislation in t…
Same-sex couples allowed to wed in Cook County, Illinois
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Same-sex couples in Illinois’ Cook County, which includes the city of Chicago, can wed immediately and do not have to wait to tie the knot until a new state law legalizing gay marriage takes effect in June, a federal judge ruled on …
U. of Mississippi seeks to question 3 students about noose on statue
JACKSON, Mississippi (Reuters) – The University of Mississippi wants to question three white male students who may have been involved in draping a noose over a statue of James Meredith, the African-American student who braved segregationist mobs to int…
Man charged in fan beating death outside NFL game in Missouri
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – A Missouri man was charged with involuntary manslaughter on Friday in the beating death of a football fan in the stadium parking lot outside a Kansas City Chiefs game.
Oregon teens charged in swastika-carving attack on student
PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) – Four Portland teenagers have been charged with luring another teen into a shed, hitting him with a crowbar, shooting him with a BB gun, forcing him to eat cat feces and carving a swastika on his forehead, court documents pr…
Federal water allocation for drought-stricken California farms cut to zero
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The worsening drought in California will force a first-ever complete cutoff of federally supplied irrigation water to most farm districts throughout the state’s Central Valley heartland this year, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation …
Winds batter southeast after snowstorm, tornadoes blast Midwest
(Reuters) – A powerful storm that blasted the north central United States with heavy, wet snow and damaging tornadoes pushed onward Friday, threatening more twisters, severe thunderstorms and high winds in the southeastern states, forecasters said.
