List of All Articles with Tag 'm'

A constitutional amendment to restore abortion rights in Missouri will move forward after a judge on Tuesday broke a standoff between two Republican officials that had halted the process. Cole County Presiding Judge Jon Beetem ordered Attorney General Andrew Bailey to approve fellow Republican Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick's estimated $51,000 price tag on the proposal within 24 hours. Bailey had refused to approve the price estimate, arguing that if the proposal were to succeed, it could cost the state as much as a million times more than that figure because of lost Medicaid funding or lost revenue that wouldn’t be collected from people who otherwise would be born. But Beetem said Bailey has “no authority to substitute his own judgment for that of the Auditor.” “There is an absolute absence of authority to conclude the Attorney General is permitted to send the Auditor’s fiscal note summary back to revision simply because he disagrees with the Auditor’s estimated cost or savings of a proposed measure,” Beetem wrote in his ruling. A spokesperson said the attorney general's office will appeal. If approved by voters, the proposal would enshrine in the constitution the individual right to make decisions about abortion, childbirth and birth control. Missouri's Republican-led Legislature and Republican governor banned nearly all abortions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer. The state now allows exceptions for medical emergencies, but not for cases of rape or incest. In Missouri, the auditor is required to calculate how much taxpayer money it could cost to implement ballot measures. The attorney general then reviews and approves the cost estimate in an administrative step that historically has been uneventful. Fitzpatrick’s office in March found that the proposal would have no known impact on state funds and an estimated cost of at least $51,000 annually in reduced local tax revenues, although “opponents estimate a potentially significant loss to state revenue.” Bailey said that cost estimate was so low it would bias voters and told Fitzpatrick to change it. Fitzpatrick refused, arguing that a multibillion-dollar projection for the initiative petition would be inaccurate, despite Fitzpatrick’s personal opposition to abortion. “As much as I would prefer to be able to say this IP would result in a loss to the state of Missouri of $12.5 billion in federal funds, it wouldn’t,” Fitzpatrick wrote in an April 21 letter to Bailey. “To submit a fiscal note summary that I know contains inaccurate information would violate my duty as State Auditor to produce an accurate fiscal note summary.” The standoff had blocked the secretary of state from allowing the pro-abortion rights campaign to start collecting signatures from voters. The campaign would need to collect signatures from 8% of legal voters in six of the state’s eight congressional districts in order to get the proposal on the 2024 ballot. ___ For more AP coverage of the abortion issue: https://apnews.com/hub/abortion Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Watch: Andrew Bailey questioned on BoE independence by House of Lords committee Missouri governor signs ban on transgender health care, school sports Hunter Biden reaches deal with DOJ to plead guilty to federal charges

A pronoun slip can be embarrassing, especially if you pride yourself on being generally good at using the language people have asked you to use. Why do pronoun slips happen, and why do we seem to mess up pronouns more than names or other gendered words?

Tropical Storm Bret could reach the Lesser Antilles islands in the Caribbean Sea by late Thursday.

By Luc Cohen NEW YORK JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon may have ordered a 2019 review of

Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, will plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax crimes and enter an agreement

By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Dozens of his fellow Democrats urged U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday to raise human

The early-morning fire at an e-bike store in lower Manhattan that left four dead was caused by lithium-ion batteries, the city's fire commissioner said Tuesday.

By Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union executive presented on Tuesday its economic security plan which seeks to convince

By Trevor Hunnicutt WASHINGTON The Biden administration picked the chairman of Google parent Alphabet, John Hennessy, and four

(Reuters) -Groundbreaking on U.S. single-family homebuilding projects surged in May by the most in more than three decades and permits

Judge Aileen Cannon has set a date for the trial in the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump. The Trump-appointed judge has signed a court order listing the trial as starting on 14 August of this year in Fort Pierce, Florida. “This case is hereby set for a Criminal Jury Trial during the two-week period commencing August 14, 2023, or as soon thereafter as the case may be called,” the court order states. “Any change of plea must be taken prior to 5:00 p.m. on the last business day before trial is scheduled to begin,” it adds. The court order is likely to be challenged as motions are filed, including requests for the trial to be delayed. “All pre-trial motions and motions in limine must be filed by July 24, 2023,” the court order states. Scott MacFarlane of CBS News noted that “This timeline seems quite aspirational.. not likely to hold”. Judge Cannon appears to have created what’s called a “rocket docket” seemingly in an attempt to push the trial through the judicial system. Most federal trials take as long as a year as both parties prepare for the proceedings, The Daily Beast noted. Legal experts have previously indicated that Judge Cannon can be unpredictable and that she has ruled in favour of Mr Trump in the past after he appointed her shortly before leaving the White House. While overseeing Mr Trump’s challenge to the raid of his Mar-a-Lago estate last year, she added more red tape, slowing down the FBI probe. Former federal prosecutor Brandon Van Grack told The New York Times that the proposed trial date probably won’t stand as the discovery process of handing over classified evidence to the defence legal team hasn’t started yet. But he said that the date “signals that the court is at least trying to do everything it can to move the case along and that it’s important that the case proceed quickly”. “Even though it’s unlikely to hold, it’s at least a positive signal — positive in the sense that all parties and the public should want this case to proceed as quickly as possible,” he added. As Mr Trump struggles to retain lawyers to represent him, it’s unclear if the defence wants the case to move quickly and for the case to be resolved ahead of the 2024 election or if there will be attempts to delay it until after the election. But Mr Trump has for decades attempted to delay legal cases and this case is likely to be given the same treatment. If the trial goes beyond the election and Mr Trump is elected, he may theoretically attempt to pardon himself. He may also order his attorney general to drop the charges against him, The Times notes. Following Mr Trump’s indictment in Miami, Special Counsel Jack Smith indicated that he wanted a speedy trial. Judge Cannon wrote in the court order that the trial is set to be held at her home courthouse in Fort Pierce, a small town in the north of the Southern District of Florida. More follows...

Temperatures in parts of the North Atlantic Ocean are soaring off the charts, with an "exceptional" marine heat wave happening off the coasts of the United Kingdom and Ireland, sparking concerns about impacts on marine life.