When St. Louis Police crashed an SUV into LGBTQ hotspot Bar:PM last December, it horrified many locals — but especially the leather group that has long considered the bar its home base: Rudis. The leather scene is believed to have grown in part out of World War II biker culture. Rudis President Nathan Shepard says leather clubs historically offered a safe place for men to wear leather, and they remain a way for the community to gather.
An evangelist loudly preaching on the campus of St. Louis Community College-Meramec last week made hateful claims about Muslims — but it's the response by a campus police officer that has now triggered an investigation by the college. In a livestream later captured for posterity on YouTube, the street preacher, reportedly with a group called Kingdom Reconcilers, shouted that students should prepare for hell's "darkness and fire." "Many of you on this campus think your way is OK," the preacher lectured.
The three St. Charles County men accused in state court late last year of keeping a 20-year-old Indian man in slave-like conditions at a home in Defiance, Missouri, now face federal charges for those crimes. The wife of the alleged ringleader of the plot has also been indicted along with her husband as part of a scheme to defraud the federal government. Nitya Sattaru, who had not previously been charged with a crime, was arrested yesterday by federal authorities.
Today concluded the 2023-2024 legislative session of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen — but that doesn’t mean they’re going on break. The 2024-2025 session begins tomorrow, and Aldermanic President Megan Green says the focus will be on protecting workers’ rights. While much of the media coverage during the session focused on bills to bring red light cameras and oversight of police surveillance tools to St. Louis — and yes, both found final approval at today’s meeting — Green says the session’s true focus was tenants' rights.
An armed man surrendered peacefully after a two-hour standoff with police this morning in a parking garage next to St. Charles City Hall. The situation that played out in the parking garage was widely reported to have been a hostage situation. St. Charles County sheriff's deputies were the first to report to the scene a little before 10 a.m.
St. Louis has a new 9,500-square-foot immersive gaming experience in McKinley Heights — what the owners describe as a "mystical library brought to life." Adventures of Intrigue (2400 South Jefferson Avenue; McKinley Heights) held its grand opening Friday, April 12, and is now open to the public. The gaming space transports guests into magical realms where clues, puzzles and surprises await for them at every turn.
Depending on how a court case shakes out, anyone hoping to run as a Republican in one Missouri county may first need to submit to vetting by members of a far-right church known for its ties to the white identity movement and domestic terrorism. Vernon County, in the southwestern part of the state bordering Kansas, is one of a handful of Missouri counties whose Republican party has instituted the process of candidate vetting, wherein individuals who want to appear on the ballot as Republicans need to first complete a morals survey and have their criminal and financial records scrutinized by county committees. In Vernon County, that potentially means some pretty unsavory characters doing the scrutinizing.
It may seem like every beer advertisement in history exalts the alluring, even sensual, appeal of a thick and creamy layer of foam sloshing over a mug of beer. But for generations, from corner bars to college keggers, foam has been under-appreciated, maligned even. Some view a foamy head as a rip-off, occupying valuable real estate that could be better filled with more beer.
Religion can be a touchy topic to talk about among friends, much less a suitable theme for a musical comedy. And, yet, that’s exactly what Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone have done with the The Book of Mormon, a musical that’s less condemnation and more irreverent skewering with an uptempo beat. The popular musical returns to the Fabulous Fox Theatre in a slightly updated version that remains surprisingly warm and accepting at heart.
Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is arguably the most well-known play written in English, and time has not diminished its popularity or acclaim. The moody tragedy, written in 1603 and set in Denmark, gets a captivating retelling by St. Louis Shakespeare. Director Patrick Siler and an engaging cast focus on the text, drawing audiences into the story and holding us spellbound from the first ghostly apparition to the last bloody death.
A St. Louis father has been charged after his son accidentally brought a gun to school earlier today. Police say that Tony Fisher's son noticed there was a gun in his backpack as he rode the bus to Hanna Woods Elementary in Manchester Friday morning. The student arrived at class and notified the teacher of the presence of the loaded weapon, a Glock 23 .40 caliber pistol with one chambered round and a dozen others in the magazine.
While handing Planned Parenthood a small privacy win to protect patient medical records, a St. Louis judge has allowed Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s investigation into its gender-affirming care services to proceed. Last year, Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri sued Bailey over his demand that they turn over patient documents disclosing private information on minors to whom the clinic provided gender-affirming care for transgender and gender expansive youth. Yesterday, St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer denied Bailey’s Civil Investigative Demand for these patient documents, but has allowed his investigation into the clinic’s care to continue.
Reflecting the division in the country whose internecine conflict it vividly depicts, Alex Garland’s Civil War splits unevenly in two, alternating brutally effective and disturbing sequences of violence with caesuras of conversation and uneasy respite. The former, with their amped-up urgency and ratcheting suspense, display an impressive filmmaking mastery, but the latter strive for a level of sociocultural insight that they regrettably never quite reach. Garland deliberately withholds the backstory that would explain how a near-future U.S. descends into warring factions, and he provides only the barest hint of what’s transpiring in most of the country.
An Overland man is currently in the St. Louis County jail accused of stealing more than $1,500 worth of vibrators from the Hustler Hollywood store in Berkeley. Police say that Christopher Booth, 34, entered the store one Wednesday evening last month and took eight high-end vibrators from the shelves and shoved them in a white trash bag before fleeing. Booth allegedly stole vibrators made by Swedish sex toy company LELO that retail for a little less than $200 each.
Back in the day, I could smash some Rice Krispies Treats. I'm not talking about the prepackaged ones you purchase from the store, either. I'm referring to the real thing, the decadent, buttery, oh-so-marshmallowy variety that only comes from a home oven, with a generous amount of that most important ingredient, Love, baked into the mix.
The infamous "Murder Shell" gas station in downtown St. Louis is set to close this summer, in part thanks to a little-used state law that attorneys say could be a road map to remedying other nuisances in an expedited manner — and citizens taking action rather than waiting for city leaders. For decades, the gas station on Tucker Boulevard near Washington Avenue in Downtown West has been a haven for violent crime and open-air drug dealing. According to court filings made in one of the lawsuits against it, the police have received more than 6,000 calls to the Shell since 1990, and the service station has been the site of at least 21 shootings.
In a “first-ever” opportunity, St. Louis SC is teaming up with YETI to offer a fancy $80 cup you can refill all season. The spectacular money grab features a white, insulated “infinitely reusable” YETI straw mug with St. Louis SC customization. St. Louis SC promoted the partnership on its social media accounts as a way to reduce waste inside Citypark.
More pedestrians were killed in St. Louis County in 2023 than any previous year, even as the number of pedestrian deaths in the City of St. Louis dropped to its lowest level in five years. That's according to the 2023 Crash Report released yesterday by Trailnet, the local nonprofit that advocates for pedestrians and cyclists. The report offers an annual look at how the region is affected by traffic violence.
I loved it before I even went. Based on the menu, I knew Stew's Food & Liquor (1862 South 10th Street) was going to be special. I don't mean that the food on the online menu tipped me off (even though it did).
On the surface, Samuel D. Hunter’s The Whale can be interpreted as an indictment of excess and selfishness. Dive in a little deeper, however, and you will find a poignant examination of love, death, loss and despair that’s deeply personal and affecting. In St. Louis Actors’ Studio’s finely wrought production, director Annamaria Pileggi and a talented cast mine those depths, finding connection in loneliness and compassion in sorrow.
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