The Gateway

A market run by kids for kids is paving the way for young entrepreneurs to bring their small businesses to customers in the Metro East and St. Louis.

As large-scale data center proposals pop up around St. Louis, one of the biggest concerns among residents is noise. St. Louis University Professor Kasey Fowler-Finn studies sound and especially low frequency noise like what comes from data centers. She sat down with St. Louis Public Radio’s Kate Grumke to talk about why these projects are so loud.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen was a popular mid-century Catholic leader and televangelist from outside of Peoria. The Vatican has now certified a miracle in Sheen’s name – and his Beatification Ceremony is happening in St. Louis tomorrow. Why thousands are making the pilgrimage to The Dome for the event, and the influence Fulton Sheen’s had on modern Catholics.

Some Midwest states have little to no regulations of Flock Safety cameras or other automated license plate readers. As surveillance companies face bipartisan backlash, that is likely to change during the next legislative session.

As a Black teen joining the punk rock scene in a predominantly white Maryland suburb, G’Ra Asim was sometimes an outsider among the outsiders. His parents moved east from St. Louis when he was 9. Asim is now a creative writing professor at Washington University, and plays guitar in two bands. In a new book of essays, he charts his path through 21st-century romance and pop culture.

Route 66 turns 100 this year. One of the prominent features on the mother road that made car travel from Chicago to California possible was the small motels people would stop at along the way. Most of them are long gone, but one of them has been rescued, and is back open. St. Louis Public Radio’s Jonathan Ahl takes us to the Shamrock Court Motel in Sullivan.

Since the St. Louis band Foxing went on hiatus, Conor Murphy has focused on Smidley, and they have new album with new inspiration.

There's a headstone in the central Illinois town of El Paso for the first Black man to cast a ballot in the state, but historians aren't sure if that's where David Strother is actually buried.

Since Missouri streamlined enrollment in its full-time virtual learning program for K-through-12 students following the COVID-19 pandemic, enrollment has quadrupled. Growth in demand for online education comes at a time when more teachers appear frustrated with being in a classroom.

One of the world’s great migrations has begun. The eastern monarch butterfly is flying south, through the central U.S., to overwinter in Mexico. A decade ago, a federal task force laid out a plan to help monarchs along their journey by returning roadsides to native habitat, including Interstate 35 that goes through part of Missouri. Harvest Public Media’s Rachel Cramer explores what happened to the “Monarch Highway.”

The Black Rep is celebrating 50 years. Founder and producing director Ron Himes says each season he’s just surviving, but the theater’s mission to expose communities to Black stories will be its continued legacy. St. Louis Public Radio’s Andrea Henderson takes us behind the scenes of one of the largest African American professional theater companies in the country.

St. Louis Development Corporation CEO Stephen Westbrooks says for downtown St. Louis to feel like a neighborhood, it needs nearly double its current population. He says new incentives can get it there.

Missouri's congressional map is in turmoil following contradictory orders from a U.S. Supreme Court justice and a federal judge in St. Louis.

For most people, Walt Disney's name evokes cartoons, castles and the sprawling theme parks in California and Florida. But for a group of students from Western Michigan University, understanding Disney's imagination meant starting somewhere much smaller: a town of roughly 2,000 people in north-central Missouri.

The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that a new Congressional Map that would have made it more difficult for Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver to be re-elected is subject to a vote. That means that a Donald Trump-backed effort to oust the Kansas City Democrat may have failed. STLPR’s Jonathan Ahl talks with St. Louis Public Radio’s political correspondent Jason Rosenbaum about the decision’s impact.

Of the more than one million animal-related car accidents across the country each year, more than 3,000 of them happen in Missouri. As Trevor Grandin reports, a recent study by the Missouri Department of Transportation aims to stem the problem with wildlife-friendly infrastructure.

There are nine data centers operating in Missouri today, with another 52 in the works. Illinois already has more than 90. The growth of these facilities is pitting voters against big tech – often with elected leaders caught in the middle.

The Trump administration has eliminated thousands of federal jobs for experts who help farmers with conservation efforts. It's having a negative impact on farmers and their land.

The Trump administration has eliminated thousands of federal jobs for experts who help farmers with conservation efforts. It's having a negative impact on farmers and their land.

A gnarly looking corn infection that Midwestern farmers dread is also a culinary delicacy in Mexico. Now, more chefs are introducing it to St. Louisans. St. Louis Public Radio’s Kate Grumke dove into the local world of corn smut to understand this emerging menu trend.