From the Wire

O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) -- The effort to free Lamar Johnson, who has spent 26 years behind bars for a murder he says he didn’t commit, hit another roadblock Tuesday when the Missouri Supreme Court refused to grant a new trial.

GALT, Mo. (AP) -- A pilot of a single-engine plane that went down in northern Missouri last month ignored warnings about bad weather before the crash, killing him and his passenger, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

WARSAW, Mo. (AP) -- The bodies of a man and his two young sons who were reported missing last week have been found in rural west-central Missouri.

LEBANON, Mo. (AP) -- The family of a Lebanon police officer who died of COVID-19 has been denied workers' compensation, city officials said.

LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) -- A Kansas City police officer who shot and killed a Black man last year will not be charged in the death, the Jackson County prosecutor announced.

St. Louis voters will narrow the field of candidates in the mayoral race to two on Tuesday, using for the first time a new balloting procedure in which candidates from both parties compete in the same primary.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Homicide detectives in Kansas City are investigating after police found two people dead inside a burning car in a northeastern residential neighborhood.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- An attorney for the family of a 5-year-old girl critically injured in a crash involving former Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach Britt Reid says the girl suffered a devastating brain injury that has left her unable to speak or walk.

Kansas City Star. February 26, 2021.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- Missourians wouldn't have to repay millions of dollars in federal unemployment benefit overpayments under legislation advanced in the GOP-led state House on Monday.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Meatpacking workers across the country have started receiving coronavirus vaccines and thousands more will have a chance to get their shots this week, offering some peace of mind in an industry that was ravaged by COVID-19 a year ago.

MISSION, Kan. (AP) -- With the U.S. vaccination drive picking up speed and a third formula on the way, states eager to reopen for business are easing coronavirus restrictions despite warnings from health experts that the outbreak is far from over and that moving too quickly could prolong the misery.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Rita Fentress was worried she might get lost as she traveled down the unfamiliar forested, one-lane road in rural Tennessee in search of a coronavirus vaccine. Then the trees cleared and the Hickman County Agricultural Pavilion appeared.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) -- A father who hasn't been seen since leaving his southwest Missouri home with his two young sons last week was charged Monday with two counts of parental kidnapping.

O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) -- Missouri vaccinators are expected to receive the first 50,000 doses of the newly-approved Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine by Wednesday, and the state’s health director said the shots can start as soon as the doses arrive.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The next mayor of St. Louis will face the same overwhelming challenge that has haunted the current mayor and many of her predecessors: Violent crime is rampant and efforts to address it have failed.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- The economy in nine Midwest and Plains states continues to improve to levels seen before the start of the coronavirus pandemic last year, according to a new monthly survey of business leaders, but concerns about rising inflation and bottlenecks in the supply chain are tempering economic optimism.

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) -- A 21-year-old St. Louis County man is accused of 28 sexual abuse charges.

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) -- A southern Illinois construction company has agreed to pay back $400,000 to settle a federal complaint accusing it of fraudulently accepting $8 million worth of contracts reserved for disadvantaged small businesses, federal prosecutors say.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Police in suburban St. Louis are searching for a suspect in the shooting of a young girl as she walked along a North St. Louis County street.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Myanmar’s U.N. ambassador, who strongly opposed the military coup in his country, insists he remains the permanent representative to the United Nations, but the foreign ministry has informed the U.N. that the ambassador has been terminated and his deputy is now in charge.

TORONTO (AP) -- The health minister of Canada’s most populous province said Tuesday Ontario seniors won’t receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine since there’s limited data on its effectiveness in older populations.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- Policing reforms are making for strange bedfellows in New Mexico as the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and the conservative-backed nonprofit group Americans for Prosperity lobby for a bill to eliminate police immunity from lawsuits on civil rights violations.

TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese coast guard personnel were searching Wednesday for five crewmembers missing from a Chinese fishing boat that capsized near disputed waters.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer faced growing criticism Tuesday after the disclosure of two additional employment-separation deals for former top officials, a day after her administration acknowledged that a key leader in the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic was paid $155,000 following his sudden resignation.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Texas is lifting its mask mandate, Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday, making it the largest state to no longer require one of the most effective ways to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Former President Donald Trump endorsed U.S. Sen. Tim Scott's 2022 reelection bid Tuesday, continuing to make clear his intent to remain a dominant force in Republican Party politics.

Texas on Tuesday became the biggest state to lift its mask rule, joining a rapidly growing movement by governors and other leaders across the U.S. to loosen COVID-19 restrictions despite pleas from health officials not to let their guard down yet.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A giraffe has died at the Los Angeles Zoo after undergoing a procedure to deliver her stillborn calf, the zoo announced Tuesday.

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden is directing states to prioritize vaccinating all teachers during the month of March, and announced that the federal government will help in the effort through its partnership with retail pharmacies.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The United States demanded Tuesday that the status of tens of thousands of civilians detained in Syria during the country’s 10-year conflict be made public, and that the bodies of those who died be returned to their loved ones.

BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese leaders are shifting focus from the coronavirus back to long-term goals of making China a technology leader at this year's highest-profile political event, the meeting of its ceremonial legislature, amid tension with Washington and Europe over trade, Hong Kong and human rights.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Health experts in China say their country is lagging in its coronavirus vaccination rollout because it has the disease largely under control, but plans to inoculate 40% of its population by June.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- San Francisco will begin reopening more parts of its economy starting Wednesday, including indoor dining, movie theaters and gyms, an upbeat Mayor London Breed announced as California gave seven counties the go-ahead thanks to declining rates of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Rio Tinto chairman Simon Thompson said Wednesday he was accountable for the mining giant destroying sacred Indigenous sites in Australia to access iron ore and he will not seek reelection as a board director next year.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- A coronavirus variant that was first detected in Brazil has emerged in Oregon, the first known case of the new variant on the contiguous U.S. West Coast, medical authorities said Tuesday.

HOLTVILLE, Calif. (AP) -- An SUV packed with 25 people pulled in front of an oncoming tractor-trailer on a two-lane highway cutting through farmland near the U.S-Mexico border early Tuesday, killing 13 and leaving bodies strewn across the roadway. Most of the dead were Mexicans, a Mexican official said.

The Biden administration sanctioned seven mid-level and senior Russian officials on Tuesday, along with more than a dozen government entities, over a nearly fatal nerve-agent attack on opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his subsequent jailing.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- South Carolina senators Tuesday added a firing squad to the electric chair as alternatives if the state can't execute condemned inmates by way of lethal injection.

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- Guatemala’s Congress began reshaping the country’s highest court Tuesday, selecting a new magistrate and an alternate in decisions that could have grave consequences for the battle against corruption and impunity.