RFT 📰

The day Dawntanya Smith became an internet sensation started as a normal day. Then came the Kirkwood Karen.

A Missouri state senator who rose to political prominence after defying pandemic-era lockdowns at his restaurant is being sued by a former employee for allegedly violating Missouri’s minimum wage law. Ben Brown (R-Washington) was elected to the Missouri Senate in 2022.

MONDAY, AUGUST 28. It’s glorious weather in St. Louis at long last.

In the wake of the two riots at St. Louis’ City Justice Center in 2021, the Circuit Attorney's Office appointed a former federal prosecutor to investigate the causes of the disturbances. That investigation yielded a 37-page report.

People who don’t live in the Midwest might assume that Missourians know exactly what to do when confronted by an untamed animal. We’re thought of as corn-fed farm folk, but the fact is that most of us can’t even keep our houseplants alive, much less produce a thriving crop.

Alexandra Kay is making big moves in the country music scene. After appearing on the Netflix show Westside, the Waterloo, Illinois, native's cover of "Jolene" notched more than 3.9 million views. She toured last year with Tim McGraw and also made her Grand Ole Opry debut.

The newest business to open on Cherokee isn't really a gallery and isn't really a shop — it's both. And it's also one of the best consignment deals artists could ever imagine. Virtuoso Collective (2616 Cherokee Street) sells the work of artists living in and around Cherokee Street, and it takes a broad definition of what that work might be.

Just as millions of Americans headed to the lake for Labor Day weekend, we woke up in a world without Jimmy Buffett in it. Buffett, the patron saint of leathery lime-fingered lake people everywhere, would have probably broken into that famous grin at the timing of it.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists’ 1973 manifesto, which officially established the group as an organization after its initial gathering in Chicago in 1972. The CBTU’s St. Louis chapter commemorated the benchmark with a gala event on Saturday, September 2, with newly elected Communications Workers of America (CWA) International President Claude Cummings, Jr., as the night’s keynote speaker.

An argument over a 4-wheeler turned into a melee earlier this week in St. Charles County. The man who started it is now facing multiple assault charges. 

When John Perkins looked at the books for his beloved southern restaurant, Juniper, he discovered a staggering statistic. Eighty percent of diners ordered fried chicken.

The roots of St. Louis’ newest to-be musical festival began in an unlikely place: a dismissal. In March, KDHX removed DJ Tom “Papa” Ray from its airwaves. The firing of the longtime volunteer from the independent radio station shocked a good portion of its listeners.

If this was 20 years ago, Bottoms would kill on the gay & lesbian film festival circuit.  As someone who has written about LGBTQ film fests in the past, I found this uber-zany, proudly queer, teen burlesque just the kind of fun, frivolous nonsense programmers would look for to balance out the slew of well-meaning dramas and documentaries that would nevertheless bum everyone — gay, straight, whatever — the fuck out.

The chair of St. Louis’ jail oversight board was forcibly removed from the City Justice Center last night after the leaders of the facility refused to share any information about the most recent death there. Janis Mensah says that when board members first heard of the detainee's death, the second in two weeks, they went to the jail to try to learn more.

A second inmate has died in as many weeks at the St. Louis city jail downtown. Department of Public Safety spokesman Monte Chambers confirms that around 1 a.m. Thursday a detainee began having "a medical emergency" in the infirmary of the City Justice Center.

A man who's harassed a shockingly large number of women in the St. Louis area has been sentenced to seven years in prison. Robert Merkle, 54, pleaded guilty today to Harassment 1st Degree in St. Louis County Circuit Court. While that's only a Class E felony, Merkle is a Prior and Persistent Offender.

Stevie Limmer LaChance has never known a world without the Original Crusoe's (3152 Osceola Street), the old-school south St. Louis bar and grill her father first opened in 1979. Her parents met there, and — like many kids of restaurant owners — she and her brother then grew up there. About 10 years ago, as her father, Steve Limmer, dealt with Parkinson's, LaChance took over the business, and she and her husband Elliot have kept it going through the COVID-19 pandemic and what have been some very tough years in the restaurant business.

When Luka Cai moved to St. Louis in 2016, the Tivoli Theater was a special place.  Cai came here from Singapore, a “queer-phobic” environment where they say they felt pressured to be straight and cisgender.

A Bel-Ridge woman is now facing charges of assault and property damage after allegedly striking her boyfriend with her car. According to a probable cause statement from the Normandy Police Department, 25-year-old Mikayla Young was at her boyfriend's house when the two had a verbal altercation.

Fister w/ Snort Dagger, Van Buren 8 p.m. Friday, September 1.