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4 fiber broadband myths — and the truths the St. Louis community should know

1 year 10 months ago
Fiber broadband is spreading across the country like a rapidly expanding network of tree roots, passing under more communities every day. Fiber providers reached 7.9 million additional homes in the U.S. in 2022 — the highest annual deployment ever, according to the Fiber Broadband Association’s most recent survey of providers. There are now 68 million fiber broadband passings in the U.S., 13% more than a year ago and 27% more than two years prior. The association expects even higher levels…
Jim Molis

Former owners of Nature's Bakery are investing in St. Louis-area food entrepreneurs

1 year 10 months ago
The Serving Our Communities Foundation on Tuesday launched the Food City project to help create a more inclusive, sustainable food ecosystem in the St. Louis area, according to a news release. The project serves budding food entrepreneurs, farmers, food policy and direct service organizers, educational institutions, social enterprises and nonprofit initiatives. Serving Our Communities is a foundation and social enterprise launched by the Marson family. In 2020, the Marson family sold their company,…
Jennifer Somers

Privacy lawsuit against Post-Dispatch owner will proceed, judge rules

1 year 10 months ago
A federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit alleging an Iowa newspaper publisher violated customers’ privacy rights through information sharing with Facebook. The Iowa-based newspaper chain Lee Enterprises (Nasdaq: LEE), owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, is facing a potential class-action lawsuit alleging it has shared readers’ personal information, including the videos they watch on Lee websites, with Facebook in violation of federal law. Lee had sought to have the case dismissed,…
Clark Kauffman

One-third of Missouri’s rural hospitals at risk of closure, new data shows

1 year 10 months ago
One-third of Missouri’s rural hospitals are at risk of closing, according to a report using newly-updated federal data. A July report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, a national policy group, found that 19 of Missouri’s 57 rural hospitals are at risk of shuttering because of “serious financial problems.” Many of those hospitals at risk of closure could sustain themselves financially for six to seven years, according to the report. Eight rural hospitals, however,…
Clara Bates

St. Charles County Council tables massive subdivision development off Highway DD

1 year 10 months ago
On Monday evening, the St. Charles County Council made the decision to table a massive project. It's a proposed subdivision off Highway DD that's caused some conflict. The developer KM Investment Group IV proposed a plan to build a subdivision, called Tall Tree, in unincorporated St. Charles County, initially proposing 556 houses on a 356-acre site. KM later reduced its proposal to 452 homes across 298 acres. The homes closest together will be near Frontier Middle School and get farther apart…
Justina Coronel

Archdiocese of St. Louis pauses 'All Things New' decrees for 7 parishes

1 year 10 months ago
The Archdiocese of St. Louis announced Monday that it would be suspending the mergers of several parishes that are appealing their closures to the Vatican. The "All Things New" restructuring plan goes into effect Tuesday, Aug. 1 and consolidates 178 parishes into 134. The plan includes merging 35 parishes into neighboring parishes and merging 15 parishes to create five new parishes. It will also reassign 158 priests. Those mergers are now being suspended for several parishes that are appealing…
Kelsi Anderson and Mercedes Mackay

How to navigate the ownership of employee inventions

1 year 10 months ago
As a business owner, it may seem counterintuitive that when your employees create inventions related to your business, in addition to not automatically owning them, you might not even have the right to use them. This is because in the U.S., the general rule is that inventions are owned by their creator. This concept is embodied in patent law where, absent a written agreement to the contrary, the inventor of a patent is the owner. The simple solution to this issue is to have employees sign employment…
Tracey Truitt

Furthering biotechnology education: STLCC, Danforth Center develop high school program

1 year 10 months ago
St. Louis Community College and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center have developed a program that paves the way for high school students to enter the biotechnology field. EMBARK is a dual credit/dual enrollment program that enables high school students to earn a life science lab assistant certificate by high school graduation. Students who graduate from the program are prepared for work in bioscience laboratories and are well positioned to continue studies to complete bioscience and biotechnology…
St. Louis Community College

St. Louis corporate gifting startup amplifies Black-owned businesses

1 year 10 months ago
Danielle Deavens was frustrated. It was the holiday season of 2016, and, having made a pact with herself to buy gifts exclusively from Black-owned businesses, she found herself at an impasse. Though she knew there had to be companies selling a variety of products somewhere in the marketplace, she could not find them, despite her best efforts. Surely, there was a better way, she thought, as she lamented the situation to her partner, Doug Spencer. “It was just a really clunky and disjointed experience,”…
Cheryl Baehr

Missouri’s Back to School tax holiday pauses all local taxes for the first time

1 year 11 months ago
Since 2003, Missouri has set aside a weekend at the beginning of August when families won’t pay state tax on new clothes and school supplies as they prepare for the start of the school year. For just as long, every city, county and special district that imposes its own sales tax has had the authority to opt out of the Back to School tax holiday. With local sales taxes often matching or exceeding the state charge, the impact of the discount was limited. This year, for the first time, there will…
Rudi Keller

St. Louis police commander alleges he was passed over for promotion to police chief because he is white

1 year 11 months ago
A former front-runner to become St. Louis’ next police chief has sued the city alleging he was passed over for the promotion because he is white. St. Louis Lt. Col. Michael Sack and former Lt. Col. Lawrence O’Toole were the only remaining finalists for the job after Mayor Tishaura Jones conducted a national search to replace John Hayden in 2021. The four external candidates failed to show up for the written portion of the selection process, leaving the two internal commanders standing. Jones…
Christine Byers