Kan. agrees to pause in enforcing new law on medication abortions

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas officials have agreed not to enforce a new restriction on medication abortions for at least five weeks before a state court judge decides whether to put it on hold until he decides a lawsuit challenging it and other existing rules. Providers and their attorneys announced the agreement Tuesday. For now, providers won’t have to tell patients that they can stop a medication abortion using a regimen that providers and major medical groups consider unproven and potentially dangerous. The new rule was set to take effect July 1.

4 dead after fire at New York City e-bike shop spreads to apartments

NEW YORK (AP) — A fire at a New York City e-bike shop quickly spread to upper-floor apartments and killed four people early Tuesday in the latest deadly blaze linked to exploding lithium ion batteries. The fire, reported shortly after midnight, happened at a shop that was cited last summer for safety violations related to the storage and charging of batteries, officials said. A pile of burned bikes, scooters and other debris lay on the sidewalk outside the shop, HQ E-Bike Repair, which was on the ground floor of a six-story building in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood.

7-year-old fatally shoots 5-year-old child in eastern Kentucky

MCKEE, Ky. (AP) — A 7-year-old child fatally shot a 5-year-old child inside a home in eastern Kentucky, police said. An initial investigation found that the shooting reported Monday evening at the home in McKee was accidental, Kentucky State Police said in a statement. Life-saving measures were attempted, but the child was pronounced dead at the scene by the Jackson County coroner, police said. An investigation continues, said police, who did not identify those involved.

Supreme Court turns away veterans who seek disability benefits over accident

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal on behalf of some U.S. veterans who want disability benefits because they were exposed to radiation while responding to a Cold War-era hydrogen bomb accident in Spain. The justices not did comment in turning away an appeal from Victor Skaar, an Air Force veteran in his mid-80s. Skaar, of Nixa, Missouri, filed class-action claims seeking benefits for him and others who say they became ill from exposure to radiation during the recovery and cleanup of the undetonated bombs at the accident site in Palomares, a village in southern Spain, in 1966. A federal appeals court rejected the class-action claims. The Supreme Court’s action leaves that ruling in place.

Texas power grid asks customers to cut electricity use during heat wave

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas’ power grid operator asked residents Tuesday to voluntarily cut back on electricity due to anticipated record demand on the system as a heat wave kept parts of the state and southern U.S. in triple-digit temperatures. In neighboring Oklahoma, more than 100,000 customers were eagerly awaiting the restoration of power and air conditioning following weekend storms that downed trees and snapped hundreds of utility poles. Officials say at least one person in Oklahoma has died because of the prolonged outages, which could last into the weekend for some residents.