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The Saint Louis Chess Club is proud to host the second leg of our Classic Series, 2022 Summer Chess Classic, from June 1-11. The Classic

The post 2022 Summer Chess Classic appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

The move is targeted for mid-2023.

Music, food, games, informational resources, and artistic activities will be offered at the 2nd Annual Maplewood Juneteenth Festival to be held on Saturday, June 18th from 1-4pm at the Yale Green Space located off Manchester Road. Music from Marty D. Spikener’s On Call Band will be the featured entertainment. Stories read by Maplewood Mayor, Nikylan […]

A group of suspects carjacked a man at gunpoint and forced him to undress Wednesday morning in St. Louis.

Gov. Mike Parson plans to sign legislation requiring electrical transmission line developers to pay farmers more for easements on their land, his office announced Wednesday. Parson will be in Sedalia Saturday for a Missouri Cattlemen’s Association steak fry and plans to sign the legislation, requiring that landowners be paid 150% of fair market value for […]

The post Missouri governor to sign compromise legislation after efforts to stymie Grain Belt Express appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Demeria Thomas pleaded guilty in federal court to deprivation of rights under color of law and was sentenced to four years in prison Wednesday.

by Meribah Knight, Nashville Public Radio, and Ken Armstrong, ProPublica

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Nashville Public Radio. Sign up for Dispatches _to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

A juvenile detention center in Rutherford County, Tennessee, that for years illegally jailed children will now be overseen by a five-member board rather than the county’s juvenile court judge, a change designed to bring greater accountability to a long-troubled system.

At a meeting earlier this year, the county’s mayor said he thought the shift could bring “more oversight or transparency.” The board members will be appointed by Rutherford County commissioners.

In October, ProPublica published a detailed account, in partnership with Nashville Public Radio, about Rutherford County’s juvenile justice system. The story chronicled how the county had illegally arrested and jailed children for years, all under the watch of longtime juvenile court judge Donna Scott Davenport. Last June the county settled a class-action lawsuit, eventually agreeing to pay more than $5 million to hundreds of people who have been arrested or jailed as children. And Davenport has since announced her retirement.

Within Tennessee, Rutherford County stood out for years in terms of the percentage of kids it locked up in cases referred to juvenile court. In 2014, for example, the county jailed children in 48% of those cases. The statewide average was 5%.

Many children in Rutherford County were placed in solitary confinement under conditions a federal judge called inhumane.

After ProPublica and Nashville Public Radio wrote about Rutherford County’s juvenile justice system, state lawmakers called the system a “nightmare” and “unchecked barbarism.” The state’s governor called for a judicial review. Eleven members of Congress signed a letter asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the county’s juvenile justice system.

In January, Davenport announced she would not be seeking reelection and would retire at the end of her term this summer. Two candidates are currently running to replace her. Davenport previously declined a request to be interviewed. She did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment for this story.

As director of the detention center since 2001, Lynn Duke has reported to Davenport, who appointed her to the job. (Duke did not immediately respond to a request for comment. She has previously declined to be interviewed.) The new board will oversee Duke as well as all the detention center’s policies, procedures and budget.

County officials said they want applicants with experience in law enforcement, building maintenance and the state’s child welfare system.

However, an investigation by Nashville Public Radio and ProPublica found inadequate systems of oversight starting with the county and going all the way up to the state and its Department of Children’s Services.

Duke appears monthly before county commissioners, who have rarely asked questions about policies. They sometimes liken the jail to a business, with one even joking that it’s like a hotel. At one meeting a commissioner said it would be “cool” if, instead of being a cost center, the jail could be a “profit center.”

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, which licenses juvenile jails, inspected Rutherford County’s jail every year. Not once did it flag an illegal policy under which the jail was incarcerating children.

Before publishing our story last fall, we requested an interview with the department’s longtime director of licensing. But the department refused to make him available.

Reconstruction of the eroded trail in Chesterfield's Eberwein Park is expected to take about four months.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed has resigned his post five days after federal charges were announced against him and two others for allegedly …

Cousins Jodie Finney and Alicia Christopher each have a parent dealing with dementia. After bonding over their shared experiences, they formed a new nonprofit to help families dealing with the same issues — and provide practical support.

STLPR Justice Correspondent Rachel Lippmann breaks down the news of Lewis Reed’s resignation as President of the Board of Aldermen. He’s the third St. Louis official facing federal bribery charges to resign in recent weeks. At a press conference this morning, Mayor Tishaura Jones said she expects more indictments to come.

Content Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions related to gun violence.  WASHINGTON — A fourth grader who survived the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting where 19 students and two teachers were murdered told lawmakers Wednesday that she is afraid to go back to school. “I don’t want it to happen again,” 11-year-old Miah Cerrillo said in […]

The post Fourth grade survivor of Uvalde shooting tells Congress: ‘I don’t want it to happen again’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Marc Tragesser, 55, former chief in Marble Hill, was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty in January to a misdemeanor charge of deprivation of rights.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Dick Durbin (D-IL), U.S. Senate Majority Whip and Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, met today with representatives from March For Our Lives , a youth-led movement against gun violence that began after a 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida. During the meeting, Durbin discussed the ongoing Senate negotiations on gun legislation and reiterated his support for “common-sense gun violence prevention solutions like closing gaps in the gun background check system,” according to a press release from Durbin’s office. Earlier this week, Durbin held a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the growing threat of domestic terrorism, which featured testimony from Garnell Whitfield, Jr., whose mother Ruth was murdered in the recent mass shooting in Buffalo, New York. The full text of his testimony can be read here . Durbin mentioned the testimony from victims of both the Buffalo and Uvalde shootings during his meeting with March For Our

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A shoplifting suspect struck a patrol car Wednesday afternoon in Manchester, leading to two arrests.

A Missouri woman named Tonia Haddix was ordered by a St. Louis judge to relinquish celebrity chimp Tonka to an animal sanctuary. She claimed he was dead — but last week, her lies unraveled. PETA attorney Jared Goodman explains how the case was cracked in the nick of time, and the fate that could now await Haddix.

Finding people near you with shared interests, and talking to them, has a very long history in human culture. We’re social animals. We need to find other people close to us to work together with, play games with, and build relationships and families with. Modern online social networks are built on top of those basic […]

Motorists in Jefferson, St. Louis and St. Charles counties, as well the city of St. Louis, will still need emissions tests.

Federal corruption charges have hit St. Louis city and county officials, and three aldermen have resigned. Mayor Tishaura Jones says those are just the ‘tip of the iceberg.’