Nation briefs 1/18/16

Missouri, 12 states sue over coal rule

AUSTIN, Texas -- Thirteen states, including Missouri, have asked a federal court to block final rules from President Barack Obama's administration designed to reduce coal mining's effect on streams. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton petitioned a Washington-based appeals court for an injunction Tuesday. Paxton said the "Stream Protection Rule" imposes "mandatory, one-size-fits-all" regulations that violate states' rights. Joining Texas are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. Last month, North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem filed a lawsuit challenging the rule there. The U.S. Interior Department argues the rule will protect 6,000 miles of streams by preventing coal-mining debris from being dumped into nearby waters.

Bill would let women sue abortion doctors

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Iowa lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow a woman who gets an abortion to sue the doctor who performed the procedure if she experiences emotional distress later. If approved, it would be the first law of its kind in the U.S. The proposal, endorsed Tuesday by a GOP-led three-member panel of lawmakers, would permit the woman to file a lawsuit at any point in her life, something that goes against statute-of-limitation rules. It also could make the state vulnerable to costly court challenges. The bill goes next to committee. It's unclear how much GOP support the idea has in the Iowa Legislature, though the state's incoming Republican governor did not dismiss it.

Children taken in 1985 are found

SCITUATE, R.I. -- Two sisters who disappeared from Rhode Island with their mother in 1985 have been located in the Houston area, and their mother was charged with snatching them, police said Tuesday. An anonymous tip two days before Christmas led police to Kimberly and Kelly Yates and their 69-year-old mother, Elaine, said Rhode Island State Police Lt. Col. Joseph Philbin. Elaine Yates, living in Houston under the name Liana Waldberg, was arrested Monday and faces arraignment today in Rhode Island. Kelly was 10 months old and her sister was 3 years old when they disappeared. Kelly, now 32, and Kimberly, now 35, were not living with their mother but are in the Houston area and are in good health, Philbin said.

Man convicted in '71: State hid evidence

BATON ROUGE, La. -- A man serving a life sentence for the rape of a nurse in 1971 claims authorities concealed evidence the crime was committed by another man linked to two similar attacks. In a court filing Tuesday, Innocence Project New Orleans attorneys asked the Louisiana Supreme Court to review Wilbert Jones' 45-year-old case and order a new trial. A jury convicted Jones of raping the woman abducted from a Baton Rouge hospital's parking lot Oct. 2, 1971. Jones' lawyers said they uncovered evidence another man who fit the nurse's description of the attacker was suspected of kidnapping and raping two other women under similar circumstances in the early 1970s.

-- From wire reports