RFT 📰

A 22-year-old from Illinois who last year was accused of murdering his infant son was found not guilty on Thursday in a Perry County court after a three-day trial. The murder charges against Logan Hutchings and Sophia Kelly made national news (and the RFT, too) when they were filed by prosecutors last April. The couple's three-month-old infant had died in a St. Louis hospital in June 2022, two days after being brought there with a skull fracture and multiple rib fractures.

On Monday, April 8, St. Louis will experience what some are calling to be the astronomical event of the decade — the Great American Eclipse. From 1:55 to 2:04 p.m., the moon will block out nearly 99 percent of the sun in St. Louis, giving the city a true eclipse experience. And if you’re looking for the ultimate viewing location, what better spot than the middle of the Mississippi River?

Early last month, a video of a teen brutally beating 16-year-old Kaylee Gain and pounding her head against the pavement went viral, prompting nationwide outrage fueled by conservative social media accounts.  The video, shot near Hazelwood East High School, where Gain and her assailant are both students, appears to have been first widely circulated by the right-wing social media presence “Libs of TikTok” which is famous for its conspiracy theories and rage bait.  Now Gain’s assailant faces a hearing in juvenile court, police have referred eight others for possible charges in connection with the fight and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has launched an investigation into the school district.

In news that all St. Louisans who care about the physical well-being of their vehicles and bodies desperately wish was just an April Fool's joke, the Loop Trolley has lurched to life again today to begin operator training for the 2024 season as a weary metro braces for impact. While we can all agree that training the poor fools doomed to pilot St. Louis' most whimsical parked-car-bashing machine is an excellent idea — something obviously needs to be done, after all — it's just a point of fact that this period of Trolley Driver's Ed will be among the most dangerous of them all for those unlucky enough to find themselves in the Loop in the coming weeks. "Training" does not equal "trained," it must be noted, and that's an important distinction when one is staring down an unstoppable force of destruction hurtling toward them at speeds approaching 18 miles per hour.

The weather forecast is in for St. Louis tonight — and it's looking a little scary. The National Weather Service says yesterday's idyllic (if a little warm!) Easter Sunday is likely to be followed by much different evening tonight, and it's no April Fool's joke.

"If you want to truly know a neighborhood, you have to walk down the alley. That's where you see the truth. That's where it really happens," says Gary Newcomer, St. Louis' foremost expert on the topic of its alleys.

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse is a studio-blockbuster franchise that’s been going on for a decade — and yet I have to continually remind myself that it exists. Seriously, does anyone you know talk about the Godzilla reboot that kicked this thing off 10 years ago, or the King Kong revamp Kong: Skull Island that dropped a few years later? These films are supposed to be behemoth updates of the adventurous, old-school thrill rides of yore, but they have a tendency to evaporate from your memory once you’re done with the cinematic carnage.

The chess world is still feeling the vibrations of the buzziest chess story of 2022, which went down in St. Louis and featured one prodigy of the game being accused of cheating via vibrating anal beads in his rectum.  The sex toy-centric chess controversy started here when grandmaster Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup in a coy manner that many interpreted as an accusation of cheating against the person he lost to, then-19-year-old Hans Niemann.  One thing led to another, Elon Musk escalated the matter via a tweet, and in a classic example of the arc of all things bending toward the weirdest and least plausible explanation, the anal beads rumors inserted themselves into the discourse.

Wait, what was their band called again?" — Hazmat The members of the all-female St. Louis-based band Hazmat are angry. They're mad at men.

A TikTok sensation who went viral with his recording of “I Hear a Symphony” will now be playing with one — the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. The GRAMMY-nominated singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Cody Fry is actually making his debut in symphony orchestras across the U.S., including our own in a performance scheduled for June. The Nashville-based talent owes much of his success to his viral TikTok videos, which he began posting in 2021. 

Too often, the ability to change a situation captures our imagination and takes over rational thought before we’ve had the time to consider whether that change is for the best. Or if that change is something we actually want. Such is the case in Molly Sweeney by Irish playwright Brian Friel.

Last Friday evening, scores of artists, academics and community members filed inside the intimate, narrow halls of Webster University’s Hunt Gallery for the unveiling of an art show centered on St. Louis’ tumultuous racial history. Ferguson and Beyond: Artistic Responses to a Decade of Social Upheaval, open now through April 26, is at once a glimpse back in time and a mirror of the present moment. As we approach the 10th anniversary of the Ferguson Uprising, the exhibition urges viewers to contemplate the fatal shooting of Michael Brown Jr. by police officer Darren Wilson and the outpouring of protests and social activism that ensued as a result, both locally and around the world.

Earlier this week, eight additional juveniles were referred to St. Louis County Family Court for possible charges related to the brutal assault of Kaylee Gain, a beating captured in a viral video that shocked the conscience of the region and beyond.  The assault on Gain occurred after school on Friday, March 8. Video of the incident shows Gain and another teenage girl appearing to square off against each other in a residential street near their high school.

The team behind Union Loafers Cafe and Bread Bakery and Bagel Union will open a “little provisions store” selling bagels, cream cheese, a variety of salads and other products at 2232 Thurman Avenue in Shaw in early April. The as-yet-unnamed market will initially open on Saturdays and Sundays, with the weekend of April 6 set as the tentative launch date. The roughly 1,500-square-foot former gas station at the intersection of Thurman and Cleveland avenues has served as Loafers’ commissary kitchen for the past three years, and the majority of the space will still be kitchen space.

What could possibly be wrong with this — a sunny little corner shop in Dogtown selling sweet things on a Friday afternoon? Nothing at all, except that it was mid-February on my visit and the door was wide open. The customers were in Tevas.

If you’ve been anxiously awaiting the revival of Niche Food Group’s Porano, tentatively slated to open this summer at 13323 Manchester Road in Des Peres, you can get a taste of what’s in store for the fast-casual Italian restaurant at three upcoming pop-up events. First, they’ll have a selection of Porano salads at Hello Juice & Smoothie’s Kirkwood location at 10463 Manchester Road, Suite F, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 6. Next, you can try some of the pasta dishes at the Creve Coeur location of Nudo House at 11423 Olive Boulevard from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Having spent my formative years as a teenage stoner hiding my highly illegal habit, it's a breath of (admittedly weed-flavored) fresh air to be able to now write about my experiences legally. And so it was in a celebratory fashion that I set out to one of my favorite local dispensaries, NatureMed in south county, to see what goodies they had in store for me for my first cannabis review for the RFT. (Fun fact: This dispensary offers daily specials and deals, including a 20 percent discount on edibles, every Thursday.)

An Illinois man who earlier this month made threats against the judge and jury in the high-profile case involving Janae Edmondson will be staying in jail at least a little longer, as a judge denied his attempt to be released while he waits for trial. Daniel Riley was found guilty of assault after his car pinned Edmondson, a visiting volleyball player, and led to both her legs being amputated. Erick Buntyn of Madison, Illinois, was in attendance at Riley's assault trial in St. Louis and, shortly after the jury rendered a guilty verdict, Buntyn allegedly went out into the hall and said, "Fuck the judge and the jury.

Who does Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey really represent? That's one of the questions raised by an attorney for the Hazelwood School District in a scathing fact-check correcting the AG’s recent bid for attention. Bailey announced last week that he is opening up an investigation into the St. Louis County school district's diversity, equity and inclusion practices following a viral video that captured the brutal beating of 16-year-old Kaylee Gain by another student. 

Stop us if you’ve heard this one: An anti-abortion activist and a transphobe walk into an election — and immediately fit right in with the slate of other Republican candidates vying to be Missouri’s next Secretary of State.  OK fine, we’ll admit it’s not the funniest of jokes, but it is an accurate summation of the state of things now that the Republican field is set for this state office. Tuesday’s 5 p.m. candidate filing deadline saw even more conservative wingnuts jumping into an already crowded race, as embattled House Speaker Dean Plocher, anti-abortion crusader Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a St. Charles judge whose active YouTube page has tens of followers, and a (kind of?)