RFT 📰

Problems started the day Phillip Clay moved into the Raphael. He didn’t have heat for nearly a week, he says, and when the heat did come on, the knob on the radiator didn’t work. He didn’t have hot water, and when that was fixed, it was too hot to use.

The best new taco in town is the product of divorce. Twelve years ago, Fernando De La Torré Velasquez owned Tower Taco on Cherokee. His then-wife was the general manager.

Austin Blankenship and Corey James want St. Louis to know one very important thing. "We have the best tasting dicks in St. Louis." Soon, folks throughout the metro area will be able to taste that assertion for themselves thanks to the husband-and-husband team's new adult waffle brand, Naughty Bits STL.

When Tanya Buechel wants to illustrate just how much her restaurant, Monte Bello Pizzeria (3662 Weber Road, 314-638-8861), means to people, she points to one of her longtime customers. The regular, an elderly gentleman, had taken his wife many years ago to Monte Bello for their first date, and the couple made it a tradition to come in every year on their anniversary to celebrate.

This reporting was supported by the International Women's Media Foundation's Reproductive Rights Reporting Fund. Wait times at abortion clinics in southern Illinois have jumped from days to weeks after the overturn of Roe v. Wade spurred red states to restrict abortion access. An influx of patients has caused wait times at the Planned Parenthood in southern Illinois to rise from four days to three weeks, according to Julie Lynn, director of communications for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri.

With five days until voters go to the polls, the two leading Democratic candidates for Senate are trading legal barbs. At the heart of the fracas is a campaign ad titled "Not Real" put out by beer heiress and nurse Trudy Busch Valentine attacking former Marine Lucas Kunce. Near the end of the ad, it states that Kunce is against gay marriage, Planned Parenthood and criminal-justice reform as it relates to marijuana possession.

When top elected officials visited the south city neighborhood of Ellendale yesterday afternoon, residents made it clear who they blamed for the severe, sewage-laden floodwaters that ruined their homes and submerged their streets. "MSD has failed us," one woman said, referring to the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District. "MSD needs to be held accountable," said another resident.

While most of St. Louis was looking for ways to beat the heat this July as temperatures crept into triple digits, muralist Jamie Bonfiglio spent her summer bathed in it. Bonfiglio could be found daily in an empty lot at the corner of College and West Florissant Avenues, deep in concentration as a basketball player with unyielding eyes and outstretched hands took shape under her brush. A colorful beach umbrella stood between her and the sun, often left unused as she moved from one section of her artwork to another.

Attorney Amy Harms spoke in detail Wednesday night about her allegation that Senator Steve Roberts (D-St. Louis) sexually assaulted her at a St. Louis bar in 2015. Harms spoke about the assault and a subsequent settlement agreement at a press conference, six days before Roberts will face U.S. Representative Cori Bush (D-St. Louis) in a primary election for Missouri’s First Congressional District. “I certainly never expected in my entire life that I would be giving a press conference,” Harms told a crowd of about a dozen people in the St. Louis Civil Courts Building.

It's a big weekend here in St. Louis. We've got dinosaurs, the World Naked Bike Ride, a music festival and a hot air balloon glow. What more could you ask for?

This week has yummy food and more classics playing at The Muny. If you're feeling celestial, however, there is a chance to look to the stars.

Coria "CC" Griggs cannot explain the pull she's long felt toward Haiti. It's a feeling she had throughout her upbringing in Louisiana, and it's what inspired her to finally hop on a plane to the island nation a few years ago. As she tells it, there is some sort of connection between her own Creole roots and Haitian culture — perhaps something generational that courses through her DNA.

Block party is a phrase that gets thrown around to describe a lot of shows, but Riverfront Times and Schlafly Beer have been hard at work building the biggest street festival Maplewood has ever seen. Presenting the first annual Pig & Whiskey, a family-friendly celebration of beer, BBQ and bourbon with live music by national artists Tech N9ne, Story of the Year and many more. The free event begins on Friday, August 19 and runs through Sunday, August 21 at Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Avenue, Maplewood; 314-241-2337).

Each week, we bring you our picks for the best concerts of the next seven days! To submit your show for consideration, click here.

Ryan McDonald commutes every day from Granite City to Richmond Heights for work. On an average day, he says, it takes two hours each way. Normally, he wakes up at 5 a.m., takes a few buses and rides the MetroLink.

St. Louis city Mayor Tishaura Jones has endorsed Trudy Busch Valentine for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate. The mayor took to her personal Twitter account to make the announcement on late Wednesday afternoon. Busch Valentine is a wealthy beer heiress and nurse; she's previously met criticism from St. Louis organizers for ducking voters in public forums.

The Missouri primary is on Tuesday, August 2, and several races, particularly the Republican battle for the Missouri Senate seat, have drawn national attention. One reason is that candidates Eric Greitens and Eric Schmitt both released campaign ads that featured them wielding guns or blow torches. These were just another in a long line of stunts to try and get Trump's endorsement.

Two years ago, U.S. Representative Cori Bush (D-St. Louis) surprised many when she toppled 10-term incumbent Congressman William Lacy Clay Jr. and captured nearly 49 percent of the vote in the August 2020 primary for Missouri's First Congressional District. Before she won, Bush always seemed like the most unlikely candidate.

In 2019, Trish Gunby made a run at Missouri’s 99th House District as a Democrat. It was a Republican district where, three years earlier, the GOP candidate won with nearly 58 percent of the vote. Gunby wasn’t a politician at the time.

It could not be said that the three Democrats running to be Missouri's next senator suffer from a narcissism of small differences. Just look at how varied their campaigns are.