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A St. Louis jury has awarded $38.5 million to 16 residents of Herculaneum who alleged negligence by the former owners of a lead smelter in the eastern Missouri town.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the verdict on Thursday was only for compensatory damages. The trial that began three months ago continues Friday with a hearing about punitive damages against Texas-based Fluor Corp., Virginia-based A.T. Massey Coal and Doe Run Investment Holding Co.

A coroner in southwestern Illinois says the heat wave gripping the region is blamed in two deaths.

St. Clair County Coroner Rick Stone tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that both men were found dead Wednesday night.

The body of 72-year-old Willie Gill of East St. Louis was found in a ditch near a home where he occasionally stayed. Stone described Gill as a transient and said his body temperature was 106.5 degrees.

Updated 5:26 p.m. with further detail and comment from lawmakers

Updated 2:24 p.m. with statement from office of Gov. Nixon on special session

A statement issued today from Scott Holste, a spokesperson for Mo. Gov. Jay Nixon, announces that the governor will call the Missouri legislature into special session.

The date of the special session has not been determined.

Thank you for joining us for this event earlier this morning.

NPR held special coverage of President Obama's news conference this morning regarding the deficit-reduction talks.

For more on how the press conference played out, see live-blogged coverage from NPR's "The Two-Way."

Thank you for joining us this morning for NPR's special live coverage of this event.

From NPR's "The Two-Way":

"Saying he is prepared 'to take significant heat' from members of his own party in order to achieve meaningful debt and deficit reduction, President Obama this morning again pushed for a big, long-term budget deal with Republicans.

And he heaped praise on House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) for his efforts to strike such a grand bargain, even though the Republican leader has said that he probably can't get such a plan approved by members of his party. The president said that both he and Boehner need to convince skeptics in their parties' ranks of the need for action.