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Missouri AG Wants Lawsuit to Overturn Abortion Ban Dismissed | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

June 14, 2023

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click to enlarge Reuben Hemmer Scenes from a pro-abortion rally not long after the Supreme Court made the Dobbs decision.

Molly Housh Gordon is a Unitarian-Universalist minister from Columbia, Missouri. Gordon also has an autoimmune disease that can make pregnancy a life-threatening condition.That’s one reason Gordon joined other religious leaders in a lawsuit challenging Missouri’s near-total abortion ban, arguing the lawmakers behind it are openly using the law to impose their religious views on others who don’t share them — in violation of the Missouri Constitution.“The truth is, I deserve to have autonomy over my body and my health,” Gordon said late Tuesday afternoon. “And the constitution of this state guarantees that.”Gordon spoke at the end of a two-houring hearing in a St. Louis courtroom before state court Judge Jason Sengheiser, who heard arguments on a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The motion was filed by the Missouri attorney general’s office.Maria Lanahan, the state deputy solicitor general, argued that Gordon does not have standing to bring the lawsuit because Gordon isn’t pregnant, and therefore “is not ready and able to have an abortion right now.”Lanahan also denied that the abortion ban was being used by one group to impose its religious views over those who disagree with it.“I don’t really see an official religion here,” she said.And even if the preamble to the law banning abortion contains religious language, “It has no practical effect on anything,” Lanahan said. The law begins with the words, “in recognition that Almighty God is the author of life.”Missouri’s abortion ban went into effect a year ago, soon after the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Dobbs decision, overturned Roe v. Wade, leaving it up to individual states to decide on access to abortion services.The law behind the abortion ban stipulates women who receive abortions cannot be prosecuted. But it makes it a felony punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison to perform or induce abortions, while medical professionals who do so also could lose their licenses. The Missouri lawsuit was filed in St. Louis in late January on behalf of 13 Christian, Jewish and Unitarian Universalist leaders. It seeks a permanent injunction to bar the state from enforcing the ban, plus a declaration that the law violates the state constitution.The lawsuit claims the lawmakers behind the abortion ban openly “invoked their personal religious beliefs as the reason for the law, enacting in the statute the religious views that ‘Almighty God is the author of life’ and that ‘the life of an individual human being begins at conception.’”Two national non-profit groups are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit: Americans United, a D.C.-based group that advocates for religious freedom, and the National Women’s Law Center.Christen Hammock Jones, a law center attorney, argued Missouri’s abortion ban requires the expenditure of taxpayer dollars to print up educational literature and to hire new employees.This amounts to the establishment of religion that violates the state constitution and “requires taxpayer dollars be spent in service of that violation,” Jones said. The abortion ban also favors one group’s religious views over everyone else’s, Jones said, thereby “forcing all Missouri citizens to act accordingly.”Both parties are waiting on a ruling from the judge whether the case can continue.Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters.Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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