Top eight today

Top eight stories for today including talks began in Europe to ease tensions between the West and Russia as the republics of the former Soviet Union become a tinderbox; California Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled his budget priorities for the 2022 fiscal year; Businesses all but assured that the Supreme Court would issue guidelines on the new federal vaccine-or-test mandate got only crickets, and more.

National

Can kratom kill?

The medical examiner for the state of Connecticut says kratom killed a 21-year-old, but the kratom industry claims that is impossible. Who’s right?

James Reilly. (Courtesy family of James Reilly)

Supreme Court leaves country in limbo over federal vaccine mandates

Businesses all but assured that the Supreme Court would issue guidelines on the new federal vaccine-or-test mandate set to take effect Monday got only crickets, creating national confusion about policy that prompted the justices to hold a special session last week.

A health care worker holds a vial of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, on Oct. 5, 2021. (Lynne Sladky/AP)

Elite universities accused of conspiring to exclude low-income students

A federal class action filed in Chicago late Sunday night accuses 16 of the nation's elite private higher education institutions of scheming to limit their financial aid expenditures by purposefully favoring wealthy students in their admissions processes.

Prospective students tour Georgetown University's campus in Washington in 2013. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Survivors of Iran hostage crisis clamor to hold Chase Bank liable

A handful of Americans held captive by Iran fought to revive a lawsuit against Chase Bank on Monday, telling the Second Circuit that the financial institution not only prolonged the 1979 crisis but concealed its involvement for decades.

Iranian students climb up U.S. embassy gates in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979. (Creative commons image via Courthouse News)

High court grapples with Medicaid costs for teen in yearslong coma

Cautious over how a ruling could create a broad new precedent across the nation, the Supreme Court was tough on both sides Monday as it heard arguments in a Medicaid reimbursement case involving a Florida girl who has been in a coma since 2008.

A bus driver sporting a face mask to prevent transmission of the novel coronavirus collects children going to school on Sept. 17, 2020, in Eastchester, New York. (Barbara Leonard/Courthouse News Service)

Regional

Newsom rolls out massive $286 billion budget proposal for state swimming in cash

As Covid-19 surges across the Golden State, Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled his budget priorities for the 2022 fiscal year on Monday. Among his high hopes: to curb the pandemic through increased testing and tackle another emergency threatening California — climate change.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled his proposed $286 billion 2022-23 fiscal year budget.

Wisconsin judge denies bid to block election review subpoenas

A Wisconsin circuit court judge on Monday rejected an attempt from state election officials to block subpoenas for closed-door interviews with a retired state supreme court justice spearheading a controversial review of the 2020 election on behalf of Republicans who control the state legislature.

The Wisconsin State Capitol building in Madison. (Photo via Vijay Kumar Koulampet/Wikipedia Commons)

International

Kazakhstan death toll rises to 164, US-Russia talks start in Geneva

American and Russian diplomats on Monday began a week of high-stakes talks to defuse tensions between NATO and Moscow and avert a major war in Europe.

A bus, which was burned during clashes, is seen on a street in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Jan. 9, 2022. (Vladimir Tretyakov/NUR.KZ via AP)

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