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The man who stabbed the officer is in surgery for a gunshot wound.

Def Leppard has debuted a music video for "Kick," the recently released first single from the band's forthcoming 12th studio album, Diamond Star Halos, which is due out May 27. The…

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ALTON - A COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic is scheduled for noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 26, at Webster Temple COGIC at 1100 Highland and Webster streets in Alton. The vaccine clinic is sponsored by Webster Temple COGIC, Pastor Sancho Williams, and Alderwoman Rosetta Brown. COVID-19 Booster shots and also all of the first three shots are available at the clinic, Brown said. The clinic is in partnership with the State of Illinois Department of Public Health. Brown added voter registration opportunities will also be available. “My community is of the utmost importance to me and I want to make sure we can make things like the vaccines and voter registration available,” she said. “COVID-19 is still real and there are many who aren’t yet vaccinated, so this is a good opportunity for them. The primary election is June 28 and we want people to be registered.”

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Can investors be drawn to St. Louis ventures?

“Not every child can be like, able to do something with their dad,” said Kelly.

Between a new all-time NBA Hoops high score record, a limbo competition, S’mores Night and more, there’s been a lot of activity at the Riverbender.com Community Center the past couple of weeks. Bishop Stotler scored 126 points in one minute playing NBA Hoops last Friday night at the community center, shattering his previous record of 110 points in one minute. By beating his own personal best, Stotler continues to hold the community center’s all-time high score record in NBA Hoops. In addition to NBA Hoops history being made, last Friday night also saw Birdie Elliott win the “Low Low Limbo” competition. She went home with a $35 Walmart gift card donated by Lucinda Lowe. Kids also got the chance to roast their own marshmallows and make their own s’mores on “S’mores Night” during the prior week’s Friday Night Open Play on March 11. The Riverbender.com Community Center is a recreational space for primarily grade-school-age

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Back in 1985, as the U.S. and the Soviet Union were in the grip of the Cold War, and the nuclear threat was looming, Sting recorded the song "Russians," in…

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Next up in the Kim Gardner saga is her own disciplinary process, where one of the potential outcomes could be the loss of her law license. A legal expert explains what that result could mean for her ability to remain in office.

Very serious laughably ridiculous buffoon stunt journalists, Project Veritas, had its account banned from Twitter a year ago, a couple months before its founder James O’Keefe also had his own account banned as well. O’Keefe vowed to sue CNN and Twitter over the bans, and these plans seem to be going about as well as […]

The Complete 2022 CompTIA Cyber Security and PenTest Super Bundle has 6 courses to help you prepare for the CompTIA Security, PenTest, CySA, and CASP exams. You’ll learn how to implement security across network, cloud, mobile, & hybrid environments, how to plan and scope penetration tests, how to test devices in a variety of environments, and […]

A teenage boy and another person were victims of a shooting at about 8:30 a.m. Friday.

GODFREY – Multiple area agencies have teamed up to coordinate and conduct a large-scale HazMat mass casualty exercise for first responders Friday, March 25, on the Lewis and Clark Community College Godfrey Campus. The scene at L&C was highly active on Friday morning with an abundance of first-responder personnel on hand. L&C has held disaster exercises on campus before, but not at this scale, and not involving students, who will be volunteering and learning from the simulation. The drill runs from 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Friday, primarily in the area around the Hatheway Cultural Center. At least a half a dozen first response and other local mutual aid companies from across the region will be participating and that includes Lewis and Clark Community College’s Incident Management Team, Nursing Program, and Campus Safety Department, along with the Godfrey Fire Protection District, Madison County Emergency Management Agency, Alton Memorial Hospital EMS, AVEC, and

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EAST ALTON – Helmkamp Construction continues to grow with the addition of Stuarrt Bailey to their project management team. Bailey joins Helmkamp with a background in estimating and project management in industrial work and will be mainly focused on serving Helmkamp’s clients in industrial markets. Stuarrt Bailey graduated in 2016 from the Construction Management program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Since, he has worked on construction projects at both Berco Industrial and Ameren Transmission. When asked why he decided to join Helmkamp Construction, he said “Helmkamp has a great culture. The benefits are amazing and that says a lot to me about the leadership.” Helmkamp President and Owner, Rob Johnes, said “I am pleased to announce Stuarrt as the most recent addition to our team. He comes to us with industrial experience that will allow him to jump into and excel on industrial projects. The industrial market is a specialty that Helmkamp

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The 14-year-old victim was identified as Tyre Sampson.

Republicans, however, contend there is enough relief money to cover the entire unemployment fund debt if Democrats were only willing to forgo pet projects in their districts.

by Lisa Song

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After learning from a ProPublica analysis that his Missouri city is a hot spot of toxic air pollution, Verona Mayor Joseph Heck demanded that government officials look into the local cancer rate.

Three months later, the state health department confirmed his fears: The rate of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the Verona zip code is more than twice as high as that of the surrounding county and state, officials told him. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer that begins in the lymphatic system, can be caused by exposure to ethylene oxide, a potent carcinogen released by the BCP Ingredients plant in Verona. ProPublica’s unique analysis of air pollution data from the Environmental Protection Agency found the facility’s ethylene oxide emissions substantially increased local cancer risk; in some areas, the estimated industrial cancer risk was 27 times what the EPA considers acceptable.

This month, state regulators sent Heck a letter about the “statistically significantly higher” Non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer rate for the 65769 zip code, saying that a committee of health and environmental experts had opened an inquiry. The department asked Heck to distribute a health survey to local cancer patients, which could prompt additional study.

Heck said he was encouraged by the cancer inquiry and the surveys. “If we get these filled out and it does show a high number, maybe this will prompt the EPA to take the next step, or there could be funding available for more health studies,” he said.

Pamela Dorton, a former schoolteacher who volunteers for Verona’s city government, was also heartened. “This is kind of the first light we’ve seen as far as anyone who’s willing to listen,” she said. “I welcome any kind of investigation, any kind of realization that there may be health issues.”

Pamela Dorton hopes a state investigation can shed light on the health impacts of carcinogens in Verona. (Kathleen Flynn, special to ProPublica)

Following ProPublica’s investigation last fall and a segment on Verona’s cancer risk by TV station KY3, the EPA held a community meeting where residents including Heck called for regulators to protect them. The following day, Heck asked the state health department to investigate broader health effects in Verona. “While cancer is of the highest concern, we understand that there may be other ailments that are triggered or caused by exposure” to ethylene oxide, he wrote to officials.

A spokesperson for BCP Ingredients said in an email this week that the company would not comment on the health survey. “We would like to bring your attention to the language that is listed on the form that states, ‘Confirmation of a cancer excess in a community does not necessarily mean that there is any single, external cause or hazard that can be identified,’” the spokesperson wrote. The statement said the facility “is in full compliance with both federal and state regulations” and has “strict protocols in place to ensure that we’re safely manufacturing, storing and transporting ethylene oxide which is used to sterilize medical and surgical equipment for life-saving surgeries and medical procedures.”

The BCP Ingredients facility in Verona is a known emitter of ethylene oxide. (Kathleen Flynn, special to ProPublica)

Verona is also the site of an old toxic waste site that contains dioxin, a contaminant that’s linked to Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other cancers.

Lisa Cox, a state health department spokesperson, said the agency would focus on responses involving Non-Hodgkin lymphoma for its study.

Cox provided data showing 17 counts of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosed between 1999 and 2018 in the zip code of roughly 2,900 people. That’s more than twice the rate expected based on diagnoses from the rest of the county and state, the data showed. (Verona itself has a population of 620.)

“This type of study is an opportunity to provide useful community-level health information,” Cox wrote. It is “unlikely” to “provide a link to a common identifiable risk factor and cannot provide information about individual health causes or concerns."

Heck said the surveys are available at Verona City Hall. He publicized the survey on Verona’s Facebook page and asked a local newspaper to write about it. Heck urged current and former residents of the 65769 zip code, BCP Ingredients employees and the families of those who’ve died from cancer to fill one out. The survey asks people to explain the type of cancer they have, when they were diagnosed and where they lived at the time of diagnosis. Each respondent should mail their completed survey to the state health department to maintain medical privacy.

Verona, Missouri and the estimated excess lifetime cancer risk due to emissions from BCP Ingredients. (Graphic by Lucas Waldron and Al Shaw/ProPublica)

Since December, Verona has also repeatedly requested air monitoring from the EPA to track ethylene oxide emissions. Heck said the initial conversations were so promising that the city decided not to apply for an EPA air monitoring grant, since it believed the agency would provide monitoring services. But on March 3, the regional EPA office told Heck that it “does not have the equipment to deploy immediately to conduct ethylene oxide monitoring.”

“We recognize the concerns in Verona,” said EPA Region 7 spokesperson Ben Washburn in an email to ProPublica. “On January 27, EPA Region 7 committed to evaluating what an air monitoring campaign in Verona would look like. Region 7 staff have been working since the December 2021 public meeting to seek access to the air quality monitors necessary for such a study, as we do not house such equipment in our regional office in Kansas City.”

Heck expressed “disgust” in a reply to the EPA. “I do not understand how you say that you don’t have air monitoring systems or the technology, because we have paperwork that shows that in other cities, EPA does have this equipment and technology,” he wrote. “There is no trust, respect, or even hope that you and the agency will ever be honest and keep to your word.”

Cops and obscenities don’t mix. Don’t get me wrong. Cops love swear words. They’re a huge part of law enforcement’s arsenal when attempting to achieve “control” of a “scene.” This act usually involves contradictory shouted instructions peppered by F-bombs delivered as frequently and quickly as possible. Swearing at people is completely acceptable. But swearing at […]

GODFREY - Pride, Inc.'s 8th annual Local Celebrity Roast will be held next Thursday, March 31 at The Commons at Lewis & Clark Community College located at 5800 Godfrey Road. This year's Roast Master is State Farm Insurance Agent and long-time Pride, Inc. Board Member Karen Wilson. This year's Roastee is Zeke Jabusch, president of North Alton/Godfrey Business Council and entrepreneur. This event is a time when supporters of Pride, Inc., friends, family, colleagues and local business owners get together for some good-natured ribbing at the expense of a local business leader. Pride, Inc. Executive Director Pat Stewart shares that there are still tables to fill for the upcoming roast. "Pride's Celebrity Roast of Zeke Jabusch will be a great time, and there are still many tables available," Stewart said. "All event proceeds will go toward beautification projects in the Riverbend area. Individuals can purchase a ticket to the roast for $60. A table of 8 costs $450. Ticket prices include

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The movement has launched dozens of candidates for nonpartisan school board seats that just a year ago were unopposed.

The beloved Wydown Boulevard restaurant will reopen in June with a fresh menu and revamped space.