Mississippi's ag chief named to Senate
BROOKHAVEN, Miss. -- The governor of Mississippi appointed state Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith on Wednesday to succeed fellow Republican Thad Cochran in the U.S. Senate.
Cochran, who is 80, is stepping down April 1 because of poor health. Hyde-Smith, 58, would be the first woman to represent Mississippi in Congress. She will immediately begin campaigning for a Nov. 6 nonpartisan special election to fill the rest of Cochran's term, which expires in January 2020.
Hyde-Smith, who thanked Gov. Phil Bryant for entrusting her with the appointment to the Senate, pledged to support President Donald Trump's agenda, saying she will push for border security, support gun rights, oppose abortion, and work to rebuild the military and repeal health care changes enacted under former President Barack Obama. In 2016, she was one of many agriculture advisers to Trump's presidential campaign. She praised his administration for cutting regulations on businesses.
Bryant is also a Trump supporter and has said he believes the president will campaign for his Senate appointee in the special election.
Chris McDaniel, a tea party-backed state senator who nearly unseated Cochran in a bruising 2014 Republican primary, said last week that he is running in the special election. Democrat Mike Espy, who was President Bill Clinton's first agriculture secretary, also intends to run.
Pruitt's trip-to-Italy tab tops $120,000
WASHINGTON -- Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt spent more than $120,000 in public funds last summer for a trip to Italy that included a meeting of G-7 ministers and a private tour of the Vatican.
The known cost of Pruitt's previously reported trip grew this week after the agency disclosed a heavily censored document showing expenses for Pruitt's security detail cost more than $30,500. That's on top of nearly $90,000 spent for food, hotels, commercial airfare and a military jet used by Pruitt and nine EPA staff members.
Pruitt has defended his frequent travel, the full cost of which hasn't been publicly revealed. That includes flying first class, which he described as a security precaution.
The latest records were released after a lawsuit filed by the Environmental Integrity Project, an advocacy group.
Pruitt is the first EPA administrator to require a full-time security detail that guards him day and night, the total cost of which has not been disclosed. He has also taken other security precautions, such as a $43,000 soundproof "privacy booth" to prevent eavesdropping on his phone calls.
Petitioned, Iowa library to sort by topic
ORANGE CITY, Iowa -- A northwest Iowa library is shifting how it categorizes books after some residents pressed for segregating materials containing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender themes.
The Orange City Public Library's board decided Tuesday to experiment with grouping books by subject and subcategory rather than alphabetical order by an author's name.
The library's board president, Jared Weber, said the changes may start with a trial run on a few subjects over the summer and expand to the rest of the library if patrons like the new system.
The move comes a month after some community members circulated a petition calling on the library to label and separate materials involving gay and transgender topics.
The petition, which received more than 340 signatures, also asked the library to seek public input before acquiring new materials on such topics. The library board will vote next month on revising the library's policy to require an additional check on acquisitions.
Utah OKs pharmacy-direct birth control
SALT LAKE CITY -- Women in Utah will soon be able to get birth control directly from a pharmacist rather than having to visit a doctor each time they want to obtain or renew a prescription.
On Tuesday, Republican Gov. Gary Herbert signed a measure into law allowing those 18 and older to get pills, the patch and some other contraceptive devices, putting Utah in line with a handful of other states that have passed similar laws, including California, Colorado and Oregon.
"I think five years ago, it wouldn't have passed, but I think the world and Utah is changing," Republican state Sen. Todd Weiler, who sponsored the measure, said Wednesday. "People are more accepting of the fact that these things make sense and they actually save the state money."
An estimated 60 percent of residents are members of the Mormon church, which generally opposes abortion but treats birth control as a private matter between a husband and wife.
The new law, which unanimously passed the Legislature, takes effect May 8.
A Section on 03/22/2018