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Morning headlines: Thursday, August 25, 2011

A dispute over salaries for Ill. regional superintendents is headed back to court.
Flickr/yonaminous
A dispute over salaries for Ill. regional superintendents is headed back to court.

Dispute over Ill. regional superintendent salaries heads to court

The superintendents have sued the state in an effort to restore salaries that were cut by Ill. Gov. Pat Quinn. The latest hearing is scheduled for this afternoon in Springfield.

Quinn used his veto powers to halt paychecks for 44 regional superintendents and their assistants. He says they're unneeded bureaucrats and the state shouldn't have to pay them. The superintendents argue they are elected officials whose salaries must be paid under state law. They say they've been working for nearly two months without pay because of Quinn. Regional superintendents perform a variety of duties, from inspecting school buildings to running GED programs.

Mo. regulators studying revisions to rule allowing gamblers get themselves banned from casinos

Yesterday, the Missouri Gaming Commission voted to move forward with proposed changes in the 15-year-old self-exclusion program. The revised rule would let people remove themselves from the exclusion list after five years. They could choose later to go back on the list, but doing so would mean a lifetime ban from casinos. The revisions have been proposed as rule changes, so it would take months before the policy could take effect.

The commission will take public comments on the proposal from Oct. 3 to Nov. 1.

Dogs rescued from southeast Mo. hoarder

About 90 dogs have been rescued from what the Humane Society of Missouri is calling a hoarder in southeast Missouri. The Humane Society's Animal Cruelty Task Force and officers from the Ripley County Sheriff's Department removed the dogs Wednesday from a property near Doniphan.

The dogs are mostly mixed breeds ranging in age from week-old puppies to elderly dogs. The Humane Society says many of the dogs were very thin with skin infections, eye injuries, parasites. Several dog carcasses and remains were reportedly scattered around the property.

The animals were brought to the Humane Society headquarters in St. Louis. A disposition hearing is Sept. 7 in Doniphan. The sheriff's department says no arrests were made.