RFT 📰

Amateurs and fromagers alike can say cheese this weekend at the first annual Missouri Artisan Cheese Festival. Hosted by the McKelvey Vineyards (8901 State Highway YY, 573-459-6123), the weekend festivities will include a “cave to table dinner” on Friday, May 20, at 6:30 p.m.; a market featuring Missouri cheesemakers on Saturday, May 21, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and a laid-back grilled cheese and live music event on Sunday, May 22, from 2 to 5 p.m. The festival will include over 50 varieties of cheese from Missouri cheesemakers as well as the artisans themselves to educate diners and attendees.

Megan King-Popp and Monica Croke had been serving coffee and cafe fare to their McKinley Heights neighbors for roughly three years before the pandemic forced them to temporarily transition to a takeout- and outdoor-dining-only spot in the summer of 2020. Every morning, they'd head outside, prop open their takeout window and unfurl their patio umbrellas. Every morning, locals would stroll by and ask if they were new.

This week, a lot of festivals are kicking off on Thursday, including a country fair, a Shakespeare movie weekend and the Show Me Burlesque Festival. Once you have recovered from your weekend, next Wednesday you can check out some low-key events from Apotheosis Comics or get drunk at a Nicholas Cage movie.

This weekend has something for everyone. Drag aficionados can check out Love and Drag's Old Hollywood Glam show, while dog lovers can head to Forest Park's Cricket Field for Bark in the Park.

Robert Smith, a 52-year-old Black man, shot his roommate Todd Toston Sr. three years ago. Toston was high on drugs at the time and came at Smith with a knife.

St. Louis officials will launch a nationwide search for a new police chief now that Metropolitan Police Chief John Hayden is set to retire on June 18. An interim chief will take his place in the meantime. On Wednesday, Mayor Tishaura Jones and Director of Public Safety Dan Isom announced Lt. Col. Michael Sack will serve has Hayden’s replacement until a permanent chief can be found, though Sack is not out of the running to permanently replace Hayden.

The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office announced this afternoon that two teenagers and a 20-year-old have each been charged with 21 counts of property damage and one count of stealing a firearm — all felony charges. The charges against Kyle Buchanan, 18, Darryl Muldrow, 18, and Deandre Thomas, 20, stem from a series of car break-ins that happened on February 6 at the Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital and the National Health Care Corporation, both in Maryland Heights. According to a probable cause statement from a detective with the Maryland Heights Police Department, video surveillance footage shows two men breaking car windows on the National Health Care Corporation parking lot while a third man waits in a dark-colored Nissan Altima.

King B might be an entrepreneur, creative director, brand creator, film writer, actor — but he’s best known as a musician. Born Lawrence Neal Bolden, King B grew up in Pine Lawn in St. Louis County, an area known for its poverty and high crime.

Yesterday evening, a man in Fenton shot and killed a woman, then fired on police officers before taking his own life. According to the St. Louis County Police Department, around 5:30 p.m., officers with the City of Fenton Precinct responded to a shots-fired call near the St. Louis College of Health Careers in the 1200 block of North Highway Drive. Upon arrival, officers were shot at by a man fleeing the scene in a white Chevy Impala.

Barbara Hall had already had the year from hell when her 26-year-old son Timmy Dees went missing in February. Dees had grown up in southeast Missouri, not far from Fredericktown, a city of 4,000, about 90 minutes south of St. Louis.

Maybe you've heard that cultivating cannabis is bad for the environment. Perhaps you've seen headlines saying that growing an ounce of indoor cannabis emits the equivalent amount of carbon as burning a full tank of gas.

This past weekend was a violent one. Out of several shootings (we counted 11), one incident downtown Sunday night caused no injuries, though a video captured by radio personality Derk Brown shows striking footage of bystanders running from gunfire. Many appear young.

When it comes to Missouri’s medical marijuana market, everything is coming up green. Bad weed pun? Maybe, but it accurately references the profits the industry is pulling in.

Madison Matthews was in desperate need of relief. Between 2016 and 2021, the 12-year-old East Lansing girl had been hospitalized dozens of times with unspeakably intense pain from sickle cell anemia. Her appetite was diminishing, and the only way to maintain healthy nutrient levels was supplements.

Let’s say you’re smoking marijuana — perhaps for the first time. What do you do if you just aren’t liking it? Maybe it’s that you tried it and you didn’t get high.

A routine traffic stop on Highway 55 in Perry County turned into a seizure of almost 20 pounds of methamphetamine recently flown in from California. Yesterday in federal court in the Eastern District of Missouri, Stacie Bohannon, 20, and Cassandra Brooks, 27, were charged with possession with intent to distribute meth. The charges stem from an arrest last Thursday.

There are so many different health supplements for guys on the market right now. It can be difficult to determine which one is right for you. When trying to pick out the best male enhancement pills to give you the extra boost you need, it can be easy to get bogged down with minor details or information about a product that really isn’t all that important at the end of the day.

The owners of popular Vietnamese restaurant Pho Grand announced yesterday on their Facebook page that they will be closing next month after 33 years. Owners My and Tami Trinh say its time to retire. "With so many of you, we have shared laughter and tears, newfound love and heartbreak, celebration and loss.

Tiara Curry always knew she was meant to be an entrepreneur. She has a degree in fashion merchandise and tried running an online boutique, but it didn’t click. One day, Curry was packing up her Florissant home to move to St. Charles when she found old papers for a then-abandoned idea, The Wine Cafe (703 S Main Street, St. Charles; 636-410-8002, thewinecafe.biz).

The City of St. Louis has seen two particularly violent weekends in a row. This weekend saw five homicides and eight wounded due to gun violence. On Saturday afternoon, a 16-year-old girl was shot and killed on Minnesota Avenue in south city.