RFT 📰

In some cities, the good things are obvious. When I lived in Los Angeles, it was a cliche to talk about being able to ski and surf in the same day — but yeah, you could do that, and both the ocean and the mountains were visible from most high-rises. In Phoenix, the same could be said for the desert vistas, the sunsets, the high-end resorts.

Three members of an international group of swindlers who allegedly scammed an elderly Missourian out of more than $120,000 were arrested after being set up in a police sting that went down in a Target parking lot on Monday. The police probable cause statement says that Ankurkumar Patel, 42, of Wisconsin, and two other men met with the elderly victim on Monday in the parking lot of the store in O'Fallon, Missouri, intending to pick up another $144,000 from the trunk of his car.

After eighteen years in Maryland Heights, Firebrand Recording (11708 Lackland Industrial Drive, Maryland Heights; firebrandrecording.com) is moving to Brentwood, and that means that you can score some great deals. Frequently voted the Best Recording Studio in St. Louis, Firebrand is streamlining its stash of professional equipment in advance of the move. Music and audio nerds will race to this sale to get great deals on high-end microphones, amplifiers, instruments and other essential studio gear including cables and racks.

There are people who will go to the ends of the Earth for a dog, any dog. These people don’t always care so much about human folk — the pups take priority. Then there are those who get mad at news stories about dogs and want everyone to prioritize human suffering.

One week ago, Eclipse (6177 Delmar Boulevard) was closed for business during peak dinner hours — a surprising thing for a hotel restaurant. But general manager Jake Westcott says it wasn't a sign of trouble ahead; instead, he says, the restaurant inside the Moonrise Hotel is coming out of a period of transition and into a new era. Westcott says the hotel recently parted ways with chef Donald "DC" Cross, who was brought in to reopen the Delmar Loop mainstay in 2021.

Dear St. Louis Driver, You imbecile.

Acclaimed singer-songwriter Elvis Costello announced North American tour dates this morning, and St. Louis made the cut. Costello will be playing the Factory January 26. The St. Louis stop is part of the 69-year-old's 7-0-7 tour.

This Saturday, when supporters of Missouri's largest LGBTQ advocacy organization meet for their annual gala in St. Louis' Cortex building, they won't be drinking Budweiser.  In fact, for the first PROMO Missouri gala in recent memory, they'll be drinking products from rival Molson Coors. Lacie Jett, director of development for PROMO Missouri, confirmed the switch to the RFT yesterday. She said it came at PROMO's behest.

Steve Pona says he didn’t understand the impact of short-term rentals until one opened right next door.  What he describes as a “hook-up joint” and “party hall” opened next to his home in St. Louis’ Southwest Garden neighborhood and became a magnet for crime.

St. Louis Alderman Rasheen Aldridge told a crowd of about 35 people at a protest in front of the City Justice Center today that the city's corrections commissioner "needs to go." The Board of Aldermen Public Safety Committee, for which Aldridge is vice chair, had previously issued a tough statement about how the jail is being run, but today's statement by Aldridge was notable for its forthrightness.

You know those super serious UFO-investigation conventions where believers pore over new footage of “unexplained anomalous phenomena” like it’s the Zapruder film? The Route 66 UFO Festival isn’t one of them. Instead, it’s the fun version of that, where everybody just celebrates the idea of friendly aliens and retro UFOs and has a good time.

A former school nurse at St. John Vianney High today admitted she performed oral sex on a student in April. Erin Foerstel, 42, pled guilty to statutory sodomy and sexual contact with a student who was younger than 17.

The St. Louis Public Schools Board of Education is freezing its agreement for the College Kids Savings Account program while it gathers information from the city Treasurer’s Office. The school board informally agreed during its meeting September 12 to take this step in large part because of a River City Journalism Fund investigation published in the RFT and St. Louis Public Radio on June 7.

We all know St. Louis roads are bad, but who knew you could make a whole TikTok channel about it? A few years ago, Oakville native Tony Bame moved back to St. Louis after living in Los Angeles and started making social media content about the potholes he hit and the aftermath of ridiculous accidents he saw.