RFT 📰

Parents breathed a sigh of relief when the Food and Drug Administration issued approval for the COVID-19 vaccine for kids under five last week, and then again Saturday when the CDC’s approval came through for both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. Now, the question is where to find the vaccine for the little ones. The federal government’s website to find vaccines only lists one spot available in Jefferson City or one available in Anna, Illinois, when typing in various St. Louis area ZIP codes.

St. Louis metro area readers might want to look up from their books right now and pull out their calendars: The inaugural Missouri Book Festival is coming to Washington, Missouri, in August and will celebrate all-things reading and literacy over the course of two days. Missouri Book Festival kicks off on Friday, August 26 at 7 p.m. with a keynote address from author John Brown — who wrote Missouri Legends, a book about famous people from the Show-Me State. Then it's trivia hosted by author Bill Clevlen (who wrote 100 Things to Do In America Before You Die and is a former radio jock).[content-1] The festival proper begins Saturday, August 27, at 10 a.m.

For some Webster Groves School District parents, surveys asking students about their preferred pronouns and mental health are “intrusive” and “violate student privacy.” Webster Groves was one of seven school districts mandated by state Attorney General Eric Schmitt to hand over information on student surveys this month.

The troubled St. Louis County jail has been rocked by scandal in recent years including inmate deaths, accusations of excessive tasing and mistreatment of inmates, and leadership changes amid accusations of a toxic workplace. It seems many of those problems persist and are allegedly the fault of a “family” of St. Louis County jail administrators who stymie reform at the institution. In May, Phillip Duvall resigned from the St. Louis County Justice Services Advisory Board — the third board member to do so in 14 months — stating that “the family” was blocking the board's efforts to hold bad actors in the jail to account.

For months now Riverfront Times has been counting down the days to the first-ever Art A’Fair, our carefully curated night of local art and music taking place across several locations on Cherokee Street with Golden Record (2720 Cherokee) serving as the main stage and check-in location. The one-night festival goes down this Thursday, June 23 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.

How different it is to see The Normal Heart in pandemic times. About the early days of the AIDS crisis, The Normal Heart feels very current as characters try to understand the deadly new virus gripping the gay community. There are cockamamie theories about where AIDS came from.

St. Louis County Counselor Beth Orwick released three federal subpoenas relating to the investigation of a former jail employee Monday afternoon, nearly two weeks after charges against former county employee Anthony Weaver were made public. The U.S. Attorney's Office announced Tuesday, June 7, that it indicted Weaver, a former St. Louis County Jail change-management coordinator, for helping an unnamed businessman fraudulently apply for COVID-19 relief funds in exchange for money. Weaver faces four wire fraud charges.

Not too far into Hell of a Book the main character, an unnamed Black author of a book of the same name gets sent by his publisher to a media trainer, Jack the Media Trainer. The mood of the interaction between them is set immediately by the trainer’s “torpedo” handshake, which the author thinks might “spear me through the backbone.”

Disgraced former governor of Missouri and duct-tape enthusiast Eric Greitens released a new campaign ad for his Senate run today, in which he cocks a shotgun and vows to hunt down his political opponents before he and a paramilitary squad of some sort break into what appears to be a vacant house. If that sounds like a dystopian scene from a failing and increasingly authoritarian police state, well, it is, but you should probably keep that opinion to yourself if you don't want to be killed by the goon squads. The unhinged ad opens on what appears to be a tranquil suburban street, where Greitens, who resigned as governor in 2018 after being accused of sexually assaulting and blackmailing a woman,  strolls up to a mailbox sporting the words "THE RINO'S DEN" while holding a shotgun.

Well, it was only a matter of time. It seems as though monkeypox has now reached Missouri, with a person in Kansas City having been reported as a “probable” case by the the Kansas City Health Department and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Monkeypox is a virus in the same family of viruses as smallpox.

It just got a little harder for regulators to stop off-label use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. On June 7, Governor Mike Parson signed a bill into law that allows pharmacists to prescribe the two drugs — which some believe treat and prevent COVID-19 but are not recommended by the FDA or the National Institutes of Health — without potential licensing repercussions. The bill also prohibits pharmacists from contacting physicians or patients to dispute the effectiveness of either drug.

The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has charged two men with murder for running an illegal fireworks manufacturing operation that exploded Friday, killing four people, three of whom were teenagers. Around 1 a.m. Friday, witnesses reported hearing an explosion on the 6600 block of Parker Road, in unincorporated St. Louis County near Black Jack.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith is a serious man. St. Louis County Executive Sam Page just sent him a most unserious letter. That is not a great combination if you’re Page.

Back in 2006, before the Wokes took control, I was sitting at the bar at Buffalo Wild Wings, wrist deep in mango habanero sauce. I briefly ceased my feast to wave farewell to another regular, who walked back through the doors a minute or two later with a child’s corpse in his arms and a sheepish grin on his face. “I thought I had plenty of room to back out!” he said to proprietor Zane E. Wild, who was sitting in his customary spot against the wall.

Kratom has been used over the years to relieve pain, elevate mood, and boost motivation. However, one can never be sure about its side effects if consumed directly. Hence, it is important to choose a safe kratom product, and that can be done if you opt for a reliable vendor.

The Grove is not simply losing a place to get coffee; it is losing one of its essential community gathering places: Rise Coffee (4176 Manchester Avenue, 314-405-8171), the beloved cafe and daytime spot, is closing. Its last day of service will be June 24. Rise made the announcement on its Facebook page this morning in a post titled "A Bittersweet Goodbye."

Good Day Farm certainly knows how to attract some attention. The Arkansas-based cannabis company made a hilariously big splash when it entered the Missouri medical marijuana market back in February, marking the occasion with the creation of a sewer-lid sized gummy weighing 135 pounds and containing 116,000 milligrams of THC.

Tony Almond can't help but chuckle while recalling a conversation he had with his son one night after dinner service at his longtime Clayton restaurant, Almonds (8127 Maryland Avenue, Clayton; 314-725-1019). The younger Almond was decompressing after a busy night and was particularly vexed about a customer who came in insisting that he be seated, even though he had no reservation and the dining room was packed. To his son, the behavior seemed entitled, but in Almond's mind, it was a sign he was doing something right.

Like recent Oscar Best Picture winner CODA, also produced by Apple TV+, Cooper Raiff’s Cha Cha Real Smooth bodes to net a lot of fans — and for almost exactly the same reasons. Both follow an artsy white person’s coming of age (one about to enter college, one just graduated); both explore the joys and woes of quirky nuclear families (one composed primarily of deaf people, one with a bipolar mom or an autistic teenage daughter); both refreshingly normalize people with disabilities, mental or physical, as invaluable parts of their communities. None of these reasons (especially the third) are invalid, and both movies might be considered mainstays for a new wave of inclusivity in American pop culture.

A federal case involving two men who were cited for feeding homeless people has returned to court. On Thursday morning, three federal judges from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals listened to oral arguments in the case of Redlich v. City of St. Louis. A decision is expected in the ensuing months.