Condemned inmate requests panel to review clemency

ST. LOUIS (AP) – A Missouri death row inmate with a July scheduled execution is asking Gov. Jay Nixon to appoint an independent panel to review his clemency request. Fifty-four-year-old John Middleton is scheduled to die July 16 at the state prison in Bonne Terre. The one-time methamphetamine dealer was convicted in the 1995 drug-related…

IL GOP wants more time for redistricting signatures

Top Illinois Republicans are requesting that the State Board of Elections grant an extension to a group gathering signatures to take the political map-making process away from lawmakers. The group submitted more than 500,000 signatures to the Board of Elections last month. But executive director Rupert Borgsmiller says less than half of a 5 percent…

Another US drone strike hits NW Pakistan, kills 10

   ISLAMABAD (AP) — A suspected U.S. missile strike targeted a militant compound early Thursday in a northwestern tribal district in Pakistan near the Afghan border, killing at least 10 people, Pakistani intelligence officials said.    It was the second such strike since Wednesday night, when three militants died in a drone attack in the…