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Morris "Chris" Brown II and Janay Mosley will be allowed to remain as Democratic candidates in two separate state representative race in north St. Louis County

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) led 15 of their Democratic colleagues in the Senate in introducing the Women Add Resourcefulness and Resilience to Improve Operational Readiness (WARRIOR) Act, which would reinforce the principle that the U.S. military has always relied upon: standards must be based on the demands of the job, not gender. This legislation is critical for maintaining rigorous, gender-neutral

Editor’s note: If you or someone you know needs help, call or text 988, the U.S. suicide and crisis lifeline, or access online chat at 988lifeline.org. For months, Marie’s 11-year-old daughter wasn’t acting like herself. The fifth grader was often fatigued, sleeping more. She wasn’t eating enough, and spent more time alone. “She wasn’t really […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) joined U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and 11 colleagues sitting on the Congressional Armed Services Committees in opening a new investigation into reports that the Department of Defense (DoD) failed to provide adequate medical care to servicemembers injured in a March drone strike on a U.S. military post at Port Shuaiba in Kuwait. In a new letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the lawmakers asked him to provide

Rod Stewart headlined a special charity event Thursday night in Southhampton, New York.The rocker performed for more 200 guests at the home of philanthropists Bob and Lauren Day Roberts, with…

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GRANITE CITY – A local man charged with stealing over $18,000 from a disabled victim is out on pretrial release from custody. Troy S. Kimbel, 24, of Granite City, was charged in Madison County court on July 23, 2026 with one count each of financial exploitation of an elderly person or person with a disability, theft of property by deception (both Class 2 felonies) and wire fraud (a Class 3 felony). From May 24 to Dec. 16, 2025, Kimbel allegedly knowingly obtained $18,258.38 by means of

COLLINSVILLE - Community members have a fun opportunity to help kids in the foster care system experience a great Christmas. On Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026, Dream Home Charities will host their annual Glo Bingo night at Collinsville Fireman’s Hall. This bingo promises a fun time with raffles, a silent auction, cash prizes and more. All proceeds go to Dream Home Charities and their initiative to provide gifts and necessities for foster families during the holiday season. “People alway

On July 31, one of the most consequential events in modern world history took place in 1914, when the Russian Empire ordered a full military mobilization at the edge of Europe’s growing crisis. The move came after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and a chain of ultimatums and alliances that had already pushed the continent toward war. Mobilization did not itself start the fighting, but it sharply raised the stakes. Germany treated it as a direct threat, and within days the

CHICAGO — A bipartisan group of state lawmakers is calling for an overhaul of the nation’s childcare system, which they say is failing children, parents and providers.  The group of 13 Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who have spent the last year studying childcare access and affordability problems, offered an array of policy recommendations during the […]

Two waves of rain and storms will be making their way through the FOX 2 viewing area Friday.

Police were called just after 4:30 p.m. to the 3700 block of Juniata Street where they found two men who had been shot, police said.

Homicide Detectives are investigating a shooting that left one man dead and another man injured on July 30, 2026 in the Tower Grove South neighborhood.

The post Homicide Investigating Tower Grove South Shooting appeared first on St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

After investigators ruled 31-year-old high school counselor and coach Kelsey Harris’ death a suicide in 2021, her mother, Kellee, said she was not convinced the inquiry had answered the most important questions. About a week before Kelsey died, police had arrested her boyfriend on a strangulation charge after Kelsey reported he attacked her, according to […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Washington, D.C., July 31, 2026 — In a direct blow to public oversight, the Department of Defense is pushing a proposal to exempt “controlled unclassified information” from the Freedom of Information Act. If successful, the change would allow the agency to unilaterally hide millions of files from taxpayers, service members, and open-records laws — potentially forever.

That’s why a broad coalition of transparency organizations, press freedom advocates, and watchdog groups today sent a joint letter to lawmakers urging Congress to reject the Pentagon’s secrecy grab.

The following statement can be attributed to Lauren Harper, FPF’s Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy:

“The Pentagon is already too secretive, and the last thing it needs is a rubber stamp to hide unclassified records under the guise of national security. This is especially true at a time when the military is conducting potentially unlawful lethal strikes, trying to muddy the number of U.S. casualties of military operations overseas, and attacking the press, whistleblowers, and the public’s right to know.

“The dangers of this are hard to overstate, given the rampant abuse of controlled unclassified information markings across the department. This antidemocratic proposal is also entirely unnecessary, since FOIA already contains robust exemptions to shield both properly classified material and sensitive unclassified data.

“We don’t need the Pentagon hiding more information from FOIA. We need it to actually respond to public records requests, we need it to stop harassing journalists for doing their job, and we need it to be transparent and accountable to the public, service members, and their families.”

Please contact us if you would like further comment, and read the letters below.

• House Oversight
• House Armed Services

• Senate Judiciary
• Senate Armed Services

Dear Friend of Press Freedom:

Investigative journalist Catherine Herridge has, by our count, paid at least $8,800 in fines for refusing to reveal a confidential source. In the meantime, the Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence even though his former prosecutorial office issued politically motivated subpoenas targeting New York Times reporters and their relatives for embarrassing the president, and then he apparently lied to Congress about it. Read on for more.

As DNI, Jay Clayton is a threat to press freedom

Earlier this week we wrote about the false and misleading congressional testimony by then-prosecutor Jay Clayton — President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence — that his team had followed Justice Department guidelines in issuing subpoenas targeting New York Times reporters who wrote about Trump’s unsafe Qatari vanity plane.

But the Senate confirmed Clayton anyway, meaning that America’s intelligence apparatus will be led by someone willing to issue harassing subpoenas targeting journalists and their relatives in violation of both internal policies and applicable law, and then try to cover up obvious abuses.

Our executive director, Trevor Timm, said that with Clayton now confirmed, “it’s more important than ever for Congress to pass a federal shield law like the PRESS Act to protect journalists from these kinds of legal abuses and prevent episodes like this from ever happening again.”

• Read Timm’s statement on Clayton’s confirmation

Attacks on radical outlets endanger all journalism

The House Ways and Means Committee last week subpoenaed BreakThrough News, a left-wing outlet with deep ties to the Party for Socialism and Liberation that is highly critical of the United States and Israel, along with two other nonprofits with similar ideologies, The People’s Forum and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Earlier this month, border agents seized phones from Max Blumenthal of the similarly controversial outlet The Grayzone.

There is no question that BreakThrough News and The Grayzone are both well outside the American mainstream, and both have been accused of carrying water for U.S. adversaries. But as Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern wrote for The Intercept, that makes it more important to protect their First Amendment rights, not less.

• Read more about these alarming intimidation efforts

Carr stops pretending license renewals aren’t about speech

When Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr first ordered an early review of licenses held by ABC affiliates, he said it was because of diversity, equity, and inclusion concerns. That the order came right after Trump feigned outrage over a joke by ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel was just a coincidence, he said.

Carr was obviously full of it, and now he’s no longer pretending. After Trump complained about ABC not airing his recent speech about the 2020 election, Carr indicated that ABC’s constitutionally protected decision would factor into the license review.

• Read the opposition letter we filed with the FCC

How a Trump national security memo threatens journalists, sources

The national security presidential memorandum known as NSPM-7 has been widely criticized by civil liberties groups for authorizing the government to investigate individuals and organizations using vague and overbroad labels like “anti-fascism” and “domestic terrorism.” But relatively little attention has been paid to the way the policy could be used against news outlets, journalists, and their confidential sources.

Earlier this month, we held a panel discussion about how NSPM-7 silences free speech and how it could be used to target freedom of the press, featuring Chip Gibbons of Defending Rights & Dissent, Faiza Patel of the Brennan Center, and investigative journalist Daniel Boguslaw.

• Watch the conversation here

What we’re reading Protester targeted by DOJ over phone-wiping ‘duress’ passcode FPF Digital Security Digest

Federal prosecutors are going after an Atlanta-based protester, allegedly in connection with the use of a “duress” passcode that wiped his phone during a border search. Read about border security risks and what you can do about them.

Judge weighs lawsuit over Asheville Blade reporter arrests Asheville Citizen Times

Officials in Asheville, North Carolina, should be held accountable for arresting reporters they don’t like for doing their jobs. It is absurd for the city to suggest that it’s illegal to cover newsworthy events happening in plain sight at a public park, let alone that punishing reporters for doing so is a sensible use of prosecutorial discretion.

Californians have a right to know about 911 calls from ICE detention centers CalMatters

The public deserves to know what’s happening inside privately run detention centers. We’re proud to support California’s SB 423, a bill that would give journalists better tools to cover immigration detention.

Pentagon, under Trump, Hegseth, draws tighter curtain around Iran war The Hill

The American public, as well as members of the military and their families, “have a fundamental right to see what the costs of the Iran war are,” FPF Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy Lauren Harper told The Hill.

Former FCC chairs and officials call agency’s early review of ABC licenses ‘an assault on free speech disguised as regulatory process’ Deadline

Carr’s censorship continues to draw bipartisan condemnation, with FCC chairs from the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations among those calling out his unconstitutional antics.

Limiting foreign journalist visas could boomerang on American media The Washington Post

The Trump administration’s new rules requiring foreign journalists to reapply for visas every eight months risk “limiting global visibility into what happens here and creating problems for America’s foreign correspondents,” writes the Post’s editorial board.

Trump’s education department leaves mountain of public records requests unaddressed The 74

If the Department of Government Efficiency is “stonewalling the inspector general’s office, it’s an extremely safe bet that they’re absolutely ignoring FOIA officers who are asking for information,” Harper said.