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Horrific video of the downtown collision that took the life of a Chicago mother and daughter appears to have been leaked to the public via someone with access to a St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department computer.  The video, which is only about three seconds long, shows Laticha “Lety” Bracero, 42, and Alyssa Cordova, 21, on the crosswalk at North 18th and Olive streets as a speeding vehicle careens through a red light and rams into the mother and daughter.

Thursday was an historic night in St. Louis, as jazz giants Wynton and Branford Marsalis, playing together for the first time in many years, performed to a capacity audience at the Chase Park Plaza. The previous evening, the Marsalis brothers played to a more intimate crowd at the Harold & Dorothy Steward Center for Jazz, home of Jazz St. Louis, in Grand Center. The two-night event, Swing for Tomorrow’s Stars, was a fundraising gala benefiting Jazz St. Louis and its educational programs. 

The 22-year-old whose apparent reckless driving killed a mother and daughter leaving a Drake concert in downtown St. Louis two weeks ago is allowed to remain free on bond, even as new details emerged about Monte Henderson's alleged recklessness just prior to the fatal crash. At a bond hearing this morning, however, Judge Catherine Anne Dierker did tighten the terms of Henderson’s freedom as he awaits trial, placing him on house arrest. Prosecutors said that Henderson had ignored a series of red lights before striking 42-year-old Laticha Bracero and daughter Alyssa Cordova, 21 at North 18th and Olive streets in a horrifying incident captured on video.

Journalist Colin Murphy has a legacy so monumental, he even has two monuments in the cemetery. We’ll get to that story in a moment.

The Great Cyclone of 1896 killed at least 255 people after tearing through a broad swath of Lafayette Square, Compton Heights and Mill Creek Valley. More than a century later, it's still the third deadliest tornado in U.S. history. But the risk of tornadoes isn't just in the past, as the twister that hit St. Louis Lambert International Airport in 2011 should have made clear.

A new bill introduced at the St. Louis Board of Aldermen would give police the power to boot the cars of drivers they deem “reckless.” Ward 8 Alderwoman Cara Spencer says the move is necessary to prevent more pedestrian deaths in the city. Spencer introduced Board Bill 221 Friday, February 23, at the aldermanic meeting where it was referred to the Public Infrastructure and Utilities Committee. The legislation states that the pedestrian fatality rate in the city is three times that of the national average.

A ray of St. Louis sunlight catches Smino’s rainbow tye-dye jacket as he sits in the window of St. Louis SC’s SoMa house. Today, he’s complemented the rainbow with carrot-colored cargo parachute pants, oversized school-bus-yellow sneakers and sunglasses, and a purple crewneck. He’s covered his twists with a purple beanie with braids that swing as he laughs.

A bizarre kidnapping case that allegedly occurred this past weekend in south St. Louis got a lot stranger this afternoon at a bond hearing for one of the defendants. Over the weekend, police were called to Minnesota Avenue in the Patch neighborhood after a woman was found bound by ropes and bleeding from the head. She later told police she had been confined against her will in a room at the nearby Mount of Olives Ministry church.

Newly released surveillance footage shows the horrific crash that killed a mother and daughter leaving a Drake concert in St. Louis on February 13. Laticha “Lety” Bracero, 42, and Alyssa Cordova, 21, traveled to the concert from Chicago and were struck and killed by a driver in downtown St. Louis.  The video, which was published today on X (previously known as Twitter) as well as the Daily Mail, shows a driver police have identified as Monte Henderson, 22, running a red light at excessive speed, T-boning another vehicle, and ramming into the mother and daughter as they were walking on the crosswalk at North 18th and Olive streets.

“Wyoning” doesn’t appear on many maps of the United States, but it did make a brief appearance in Tower Grove South this past weekend. The misspelled sign was installed at what is supposed to be the intersection of Wyoming Street and Morgan Ford Road. The sign is smaller and more curved than typical city street signs, indicating this one may have been sourced from a different subcontractor than most — perhaps a company that saves money by not using spell check. 

Evolution Festival is coming back to Forest Park this September 28 to 29, and it's bringing a host of big names. The Killers and Beck will headline the two-day festival, joined by Blondie, Jane's Addiction, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Killer Mike and more. Other performers include Todd Rundgren, Pete Yorn, Elle King and Son Volt.

Police were called to the Patch neighborhood in south St. Louis over the weekend after a woman was found bound by ropes and bleeding from the head. She later told police she had been confined against her will at a church in the city.  Three men have been charged with felony kidnapping and assult related to the incident.

When I first learned that a traveling magic show that caters specifically to consumers of marijuana was coming to town, my immediate reaction was one of outrage. Smokus Pocus, as the act is so dubbed, features the talents of one Ben Zabin, a globe-trotting entertainer in his mid-twenties who grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. Zabin got into boy wizardry when he was gifted a magic set for Hanukkah at the tender age of 4, and proved so adept at his craft that he was performing publicly by age 10 and being regularly paid for it by the time he reached high school, as detailed in a 2016 profile by the Greenwich Free-Press.

Writing a book has always been a goal for Kristen Elizabeth Harris, a.k.a. K Money the Poet. And now she's done just that. The St. Louis native recently released her first book Y’all Not Ready for that Conversation — a collection of poems ranging from awareness poems, battle poems to love poems and custom pieces. 

Richard and Sheila Johnson are living in their third motel since frozen pipes broke at the Heritage House Apartments nearly six weeks ago, forcing the building’s condemnation and evacuation of nearly 200 tenants. The Johnsons have been instructed that their free hotel stay ends and they must find new housing by Thursday, February 29. But so far, because of a tight housing market and little money of their own, it’s been no dice for the married couple, who haven’t worked in years because of their disabilities.

Royce Hotchkiss is an urbanist with a passion for St. Louis and a mission: To walk across the city and prove naysayers wrong about how “dangerous” it is.  On February 20 Hotchkiss set out from his Metro East home with a tube of chapstick, his water bottle and a route.

The attempted pivot of a longtime Central West End restaurant has ended in defeat — for now. Chef-owner John Perkins announced by email today that Sunday Best (4101 Laclede Avenue) has closed, effective immediately. "Friends, sunday best at 4101 laclede is no more," he wrote.

A bill meant to streamline the city’s liquor license application process has been sent back to committee for further review.  Board Bill 60CS, sponsored by Aldermanic President Megan Green, 4th Ward Alderman Bret Narayan and 6th Ward Alderwoman Daniela Velazquez was being heard for perfection Friday. The bill would eliminate the need for restaurant owners to gather signatures from those living nearby, a change the industry has called for, but it was met with heated discussion and opposition as Narayan began introducing nearly 20 amendments to the bill.

Late-night Loop-dwellers and hungry night owls of all shape and size have much to celebrate this week, as beloved purveyor of after-hours breakfast sandwiches Up Late has finally opened its Delmar location. The new eatery opened for business this week at 6197 Delmar Boulevard in the space that housed Chicken Out's Loop location before its closure in October. As with the original Up Late, the Loop spot slings its wares from a takeout window on the side of its building at night, and will serve as a Strange Donuts outpost on weekends during the day.

As Colin Murphy battled cancer, he co-authored the following obituary with his longtime friend Colin Lovett. Murphy, a St. Louis-based LGBT journalist, wrote for the Vital Voice before co-founding #Boom Magazine with Lovett. You can read also Lovett’s Q&A remembrance of his work with Murphy here.