News

St. Louis City police officers have entered into a first-ever collective bargaining agreement with the city.

Jeff Roorda is a former state representative and current business manager for the police union.  He says the agreement removes the main barrier the department had against local control.

“We’ve resisted city control for years and that was because we needed to have a place to resolve our differences and in the past that’s been the state legislature," Roorda said. “Now, we have a union contract and arbitration where we can resolve those differences.”

Less than a dozen people remain unaccounted for after the tornado that hit Joplin last week.

Missouri Department of Public Safety Deputy Director Andrea Spillars said Tuesday that 10 people remain missing. Spillars says two new names were added to the missing list Monday, but four people were removed once officials learned they were alive.

It's not known how many people in all died in the May 22 storm.

The Democrat-controlled Illinois Senate has approved new congressional districts that try to erase Republican election gains.

The 34-25 vote Tuesday sends the map to Gov. Pat Quinn.

Updated 5:07 p.m. to reflect that the cleanup work begins Wednesday.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon says the federal government has agreed to pay a greater-than-usual share of the cleanup costs from a deadly tornado that struck Joplin.

He says the federal government will cover 90 percent of the expedited debris removal from areas that received extensive damage.

Missouri Congressman Todd Akin has been living at one address in St. Louis County but voting from another.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday that Akin has been voting from the address of his family homestead in Town and County, even though he moved a few years ago to a home in Wildwood.

Both addresses are within Akin's congressional district.