CHICAGO (Reuters) – Tornadoes could form across a wide area of the southern Plains and into the U.S. southeast again on Tuesday, including metropolitan Dallas-Fort Worth, the most populous urban area in the threatened area, a government meteorologist said.

“There could be a few more tornadoes again, particularly in northern and central Texas,” said Brynn Kerr, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

CHICAGO, May 21 (Reuters) – Tornadoes could form across a
wide area of the southern Plains and into the U.S. southeast
again on Tuesday, including metropolitan Dallas-Fort Worth, the
most populous urban area in the threatened area, a government
meteorologist said.

“There could be a few more tornadoes again, particularly in
northern and central Texas,” said Brynn Kerr, meteorologist at
the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in
Norman, Oklahoma.

By Greg McCune

(Reuters) – Federal investigators on Saturday searched for the cause of a rush-hour train crash in Connecticut that injured dozens of people commuting home from New York City, three of them critically.

More than 60 people were hospitalized Friday night after an eastbound commuter train derailed and collided with a westbound passenger train near the Connecticut suburb of Fairfield.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Chicago Teachers Union sued the nation’s third-largest school district on Wednesday, saying a plan to close 54 schools this year discriminates against African-American children and those with disabilities.

Two lawsuits filed in federal District Court on behalf of parents of Chicago students ask a federal court to stop all school closings scheduled to go into effect before the next school year in September.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A wide area of the central and southeast U.S. faces the unusual threat of tornadoes in January over the next 12 to 18 hours as an approaching cold front clashes with unusually warm air, a meteorologist said on Tuesday.

The first tornado warning of the approaching storm was issued on Tuesday for western Missouri, said meteorologist Bill Bunting at the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The failure of President Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois to pass new restrictions on guns could prove instructive for Obama’s own fledging campaign to enact stricter national gun laws.

Within days after a gunman killed 20 first-graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, some Illinois state legislators sought to capitalize on the national outcry about gun violence to launch a new broadside on the availability of guns.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The failure of President Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois to pass new restrictions on guns could prove instructive for Obama’s own fledging campaign to enact stricter national gun laws.

Within days after a gunman killed 20 first-graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, some Illinois state legislators sought to capitalize on the national outcry about gun violence to launch a new broadside on the availability of guns.

CHICAGO, Dec 31 (Reuters) – Many Americans seem to be in a
sour mood as 2013 begins, after Hurricane Sandy ravaged parts of
the East Coast, a gunman massacred 20 school children in
Connecticut and a long, contentious election campaign was
followed by failure to resolve the “fiscal cliff” issue by
year-end.

Americans have not been very optimistic since the Great
Recession of 2008-2009, but the gloom had begun to lift this
year until the blast of bad news as 2012 ended, IPSOS pollster
Cliff Young said on Monday. IPSOS polling showed that some angst
set in as the year ended.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The governing body for U.S. college sports warned on Tuesday it will require coaches to take more responsibility for following rules, and punish violators more swiftly, under reforms unveiled in the aftermath of Penn State University’s sex abuse scandal.

In July, the National Collegiate Athletic Association skirted its own enforcement policies to impose harsh penalties on Penn State, including a $60 million fine and a four-year ban on football post-season play.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – At least 70 percent of major college football and men’s basketball athletes obtain a college degree, NCAA figures show for the first time, although traditional football powerhouse Oklahoma and basketball powers Connecticut and Indiana lag in academic performance.

The rates, for athletes who entered college in 2005 and took a maximum six years to graduate, are included in the NCAA’s annual report on the graduation rates of student athletes released on Thursday.