States aren’t waiting for the Supreme Court to tighten abortion laws
Both sides of the abortion debate anticipate that come July, the Supreme Court will have overturned Roe v. Wade and with it the constitutional right to abortion, handing anti-abortion activists a victory they have sought for five decades. But from Florida to Idaho, Republican-led state legislatures are not waiting. They are operating as if Roe has already been struck down, advancing new restrictions that aim to make abortion illegal in as many circumstances as possible. While some states closer to the coasts — California, Vermont, New Jersey among them — have moved to enshrine a right to abortion, far more are trying to restrict it.
EPA to tighten tailpipe rules for the biggest polluters on the road
The Biden administration on Monday proposed strict new limits on pollution from buses, delivery vans, tractor-trailers and other heavy trucks — the first time in more than 20 years that tailpipe standards have been tightened for the biggest polluters on the road. The new draft rule from the Environmental Protection Agency would require heavy-duty trucks to reduce emissions of nitrogen dioxide by 90% by 2031. Nitrogen dioxide is linked to lung cancer, heart disease and premature death. The EPA also announced plans to slightly tighten truck emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is driving climate change.
Supreme Court will not review decision to overturn Bill Cosby’s conviction
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the bid by prosecutors in Pennsylvania to reinstate Bill Cosby’s conviction for sexual assault, a decision that ends the criminal case that had led to imprisonment for the man once known as America’s Dad. In an order issued Monday, the court said, without elaborating, that it had declined to hear the appeal filed by prosecutors in November. The Supreme Court’s decision leaves in place a ruling issued by an appellate court in Pennsylvania last year that had overturned Cosby’s 2018 conviction on due process grounds, allowing Cosby, 84, to walk free after serving nearly three years of a three- to 10-year prison sentence.
‘20th hijacker’ is returned to Saudi Arabia
The Biden administration on Monday repatriated to Saudi Arabia for mental health care a prisoner who had been tortured so badly by U.S. interrogators that he was ruled ineligible for trial as the suspected would-be 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks. The prisoner, Mohammed al-Qahtani, in his 40s, is the second to be transferred from the wartime prison under the administration. A government panel recommended recently that al-Qahtani, who had spent 20 years at Guantánamo Bay, be released after a Navy doctor advised that he was too impaired to pose a future threat.
Pandemic’s official global toll surpasses 6 million
Although many global coronavirus trends are rapidly improving as countries emerge from surges driven by the highly transmissible omicron variant, the grimmest metric hit a tragic milestone Monday. The number of known COVID-19 deaths around the world surpassed 6 million, according to data from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Public health experts agree that 6 million is a vast undercount and that the true devastation will never be precisely known. Surges are still intensifying in Hong Kong, South Korea and New Zealand, but new death counts are dropping in many places as omicron recedes.
US gasoline prices rise again on talk of banning Russian oil
Gasoline prices are pushing even farther above $4 a gallon, the highest price that American motorists have faced since July 2008, as calls grow to ban imports of Russian oil. Prices at the pump were rising long before Russia invaded Ukraine and have spiraled faster since the start of the war. The U.S. national average for a gallon of gasoline has soared 45 cents a gallon in the past week and topped $4.06 on Monday, according to auto club AAA.
1 dead, 2 wounded in shooting outside Iowa high school
One person was killed and two others were critically wounded Monday after gunfire that appeared to come from a passing vehicle struck them outside an Iowa school, authorities said. Des Moines police said in a news release that potential suspects have been detained in the shooting on the grounds of East High School, near Des Moines’ downtown, about a half mile, from the Capitol. No charges were immediately filed. Sgt. Paul Parizek told KCCI-TV that calls started pouring in around 2:50 p.m., shortly before classes were scheduled to dismiss for the day.
By wire sources