Mississippi River

Missouri’s health department director on Tuesday said he tracked the menstrual cycles of Planned Parenthood patients as part of an effort to identify what the agency says were “failed abortions” at a St. Louis clinic. Department of Health and Senior Services Director Randall Williams made the revelation during the second day of an administrative hearing to determine whether Missouri’s only...

At a routine ultrasound when she was five months pregnant, Hevan Lunsford began to panic when the technician took longer than normal, then told her she would need to see a specialist. Lunsford, a nurse in Alabama, knew it was serious and begged for an appointment the next day. That’s when the doctor gave her and her husband the heart-wrenching...

Hurricane Dorian isn’t the first hurricane expected to aim at South Florida over Labor Day. Some of the state’s biggest storms have hit Florida around this time, causing destruction and changing the way the area looks today. The holiday falls in the middle of peak hurricane season.

After devastating flooding this year, Iowa put $15 million into a special fund to help local governments recover and guard against future floods. Missouri allotted more money to fight rising waters, including $2 million to help buy a moveable floodwall for a historic Mississippi River town that’s faced flooding in all but one of the past 20 years. In Arkansas,...

Scientists are back from measuring the Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” where there’s too little oxygen to sustain marine life in a large underwater area starting at the sea floor.

Tropical Depression Barry dumped rain as it slowly swept inland through Gulf Coast states Sunday, sparing New Orleans from a direct hit but stoking fears elsewhere of flooding, tornadoes, and prolonged power outages. Though the system was downgraded to a tropical depression Sunday afternoon and its winds were steadily weakening since it made landfall Saturday in Louisiana, Barry’s rain bands...

Hurricane Barry is inching closer to land and already causing flooding and power outages across Louisiana.

Barry rolled into the Louisiana coast Saturday, flooding highways, forcing people to scramble to rooftops and dumping heavy rain that officials had feared could test the levees and pumps that were bolstered after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005. After briefly becoming a Category 1 hurricane, the system weakened to a tropical storm as it made landfall near Intracoastal...

Tropical Storm Barry could affect the environment of the Gulf coast and Lower Mississippi Valley in numerous ways, from accelerating runoff of farmland nutrients to toppling trees and damaging wildlife habitat and fisheries, scientists say. But the extent of the damage — and whether it will be at least partially offset by benefits such as disruption of the notorious Gulf...

Homeowners sandbagged their doors and tourists trying to get out of town jammed the airport Friday as Tropical Storm Barry began rolling in, threatening an epic drenching that could test how well New Orleans has strengthened its flood protections in the 14 years since Hurricane Katrina. With the storm expected to blow ashore early Saturday near Morgan City as the...

Homeowners sandbagged their doors and tourists trying to get out of town jammed the airport Friday as Tropical Storm Barry began rolling in, threatening an epic drenching that could test how well New Orleans has strengthened its flood protections in the 14 years since Hurricane Katrina. With the storm expected to blow ashore early Saturday near Morgan City as the...

Thousands of Louisianans broke out sandbags or fled to higher ground Thursday as Tropical Storm Barry threatened to turn into the first hurricane of the season and blow ashore with torrential rains that could pose a severe test of New Orleans’ improved post-Katrina flood defenses . National Guard troops and rescue crews in high-water vehicles took up positions around the...

Tropical Storm Barry is already flooding parts of New Orleans and is expected to intensify as it moves over land this weekend.

The tortoise, identified as “Gopherus Genus”, was detained and – after a heartfelt conversation between the two – was released by Fontenot with a warning.

The tortoise, identified as “Gopherus Genus”, was detained and – after a heartfelt conversation between the two – was released by Fontenot with a warning.

Patient safety takes priority over access to abortion, Missouri’s health department director said Wednesday after a court hearing on an effort by the state’s only abortion clinic to keep operating. Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Randall Williams spoke to reporters after a court hearing on Planned Parenthood’s request for a preliminary injunction that would retain its license...

A St. Louis judge ruled Tuesday that testimony from non-staff doctors at Missouri’s only abortion clinic will not be necessary for a hearing that will determine if the clinic can remain open. Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer agreed to throw out subpoenas for four doctors who worked briefly at the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis during their training. Stelzer’s ruling...

A St. Louis judge ruled Tuesday that testimony from non-staff doctors at Missouri’s only abortion clinic will not be necessary for a hearing that will determine if the clinic can remain open. Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer agreed to throw out subpoenas for four doctors who worked briefly at the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis during their training. Stelzer’s ruling...

Americans along the Arkansas River are facing a slow-motion disaster as flooding inundates and displaces communities, causing millions in damage and mirroring havoc experienced in the Midwest, NBC News reports. Fourteen people have died because of the historic floods that stretch from Arkansas and Oklahoma to Iowa and the Dakotas. The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers have burst through levees, destroyed...

An outbreak of nasty storms spawned tornadoes that razed homes, flattened trees, tossed cars across a dealership lot and injured several people in Missouri’s capital city and killed at least three others elsewhere in the state. The National Weather Service confirmed that a large and destructive twister moved over Jefferson City shortly before midnight Wednesday. The tornado cut a path...