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Private equity firms own nearly 3 million apartment units, about 13% of the total apartments across the country, according to a new analysis from watchdog group Private Equity Stakeholder Project.  And most have been fairly recent purchases. The companies acquired more than 1.7 million of those, or 57%, since 2018, and about 45% of them […]

Celebrate the strength of the human spirit and rediscover the ways we are all connected! Meditative paintings and poetry by St. Louis artist Angela L. Chostner invite viewers to journey […]

The post Common Ground- Visions of Unity, Purpose & Joy appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

The U.S. attorney also issued a remarkable apology to the court, saying he found out about the problems in the grand jury last month; he dropped the felony conspiracy charge.

The upcoming special exhibition at the Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum explores the myriad ways that different cultures represent plants and gardens through literary media, such as herbals, novels, poems, […]

The post The Literary Garden: The Cultivation of Plants and Gardens in Narratives appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Strowger 11 Digit Dial Phone (circa 1907) Kellogg Model 925 Monophone (circa 1930s) Stromberg Carlson Model 1191 Fatboy 8 Button Intercom (circa 1930s) Western Electric 302 Multi-Line Rotary Phone (circa […]

The post Cradle and Candlestick Telephone Exhibit appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

The geometric and glowing art of HYBYCOZO is coming to St. Louis this spring and summer, on display for daytime visitors of the Missouri Botanical Garden and during special illuminated […]

The post Patterns in Nature: The Art of HYBYCOZO appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

The National Museum of Transportation is proud to announce a special exhibition celebrating the 100th anniversary of historic Route 66. Titled “Roads, River, Rooms, and Reels,” the exhibit will open […]

The post Roads, Rivers, Rooms and Reels: 100 Years of Route 66 appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Growth is one of the few things people almost never leave unmarked. A toddler’s first step gets applause. A teenager’s graduation brings speeches and photos. A company that hits a major goal throws a party. Even a person who quietly sticks to a new habit may reward themselves with a special meal or a day off. We do not just grow. We notice it, name it, and celebrate it. That instinct says something important about human life. Growth can be slow, uneven, and hard to see while it i

On May 22, one of the most consequential events in modern world history is the 1960 earthquake in Chile, the strongest ever instrumentally recorded. Known as the Great Chilean Earthquake, it measured 9.5 in magnitude and struck near Valdivia, causing widespread destruction across southern Chile. Entire communities were damaged or swept away, thousands of people were killed or injured, and the disaster triggered tsunamis that crossed the Pacific and caused deaths as far away as Hawaii, Japan,

Back in 1964, Paul McCartney played The Ed Sullivan Show with The Beatles. And on Thursday night, he returned to the same venue to turn out the lights on The…

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Two men have been charged in connection to a burglary of power tools worth tens of thousands of dollars in south St. Louis nearly two months ago.

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. - A man has been charged after stealing more than $18,000 in equipment from a parking lot at Schnucks in Vinita Park. The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office charged Steven Baker, age not provided, with stealing $750 or more. According to the Overland Police Department, the theft occurred on Oct. [...]

A wide-ranging education package backed by Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe collapsed in the final days of the legislative session after negotiations over school accountability became a fight over which communities should be opened to charter schools. The breakdown killed legislation that would have shaped Kehoe’s push for an A-F grading system for public schools, one […]

The High Low Gallery presents a new exhibition, Night Comfort, featuring works by St. Louis artist Jeremy Rabus, opening Friday, March 27 and running through Sunday, June 14. Night Comfort explores nostalgia through […]

The post Night Comfort appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Dear Friend of Press Freedom:

ABC seems to have found its spine, but whether attorney and judicial watchdogs will follow suit when lawless lawyers harm the free press remains an open question. Meanwhile, a major government transparency win temporarily ensures that presidential records can’t be destroyed or locked away. Here’s more on what we’ve been working on to protect press freedom.

Complaint: Judge angled for federal gig while hearing Trump’s Pulitzer suit

A new complaint filed by Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) with a judicial ethics commission argues that Jeffrey Kuntz, chief judge of a Florida appeals court, violated his ethical duties by ruling in President Donald Trump’s favor in a defamation lawsuit while simultaneously seeking a nomination from Trump to the federal judiciary.

Kuntz failed to recuse himself from Trump’s frivolous defamation lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize Board or disclose his conflict of interest to the parties. Two weeks after he ruled for Trump, the White House Counsel’s Office interviewed Kuntz for a judicial vacancy. He’s since been nominated to the federal bench.

“Trump can’t win his SLAPP suits on the merits, so he finds ways to corrupt the court system instead,” said Seth Stern, FPF’s chief of advocacy. “Attorney disciplinary commissions are notorious for inaction, often functioning more like protection rackets for lawyers and judges than regulators. That said, we hope the commission will rise to the moment and do the right thing.”

• Read the complaint

Press groups rally behind ABC as FCC targets ‘The View’

The American Broadcasting Company is (finally) living up to its name by standing up for a vital American value.

This week, a coalition of press freedom groups led by FPF joined an open letter in solidarity with ABC, which recently took a stand against the Federal Communications Commission, accusing the agency in an FCC filing of attempting to “chill critical protected speech.”

“Corporate owners only invite more bullying when they capitulate,” said FPF Deputy Director of Advocacy Adam Rose. “But history shows that fighting back is a winning formula.”

• Read the full letter here

Court orders Trump team to preserve presidential records

A federal judge has temporarily ordered the Trump administration officials to follow the Presidential Records Act and preserve text messages, including Signal messages, related to its work. The judge issued the order in response to a motion filed in a lawsuit brought by FPF, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the American Historical Association, and American Oversight.

As FPF Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy Lauren Harper said, the court’s order “takes an important step in ensuring that presidential records remain exactly what they have been for nearly 50 years: public property.” For more on the lawsuit, subscribe to FPF’s newsletter on government secrecy, The Classifieds.

• Read more

Paramount, Ellisons silent on Trump CNN threats

Our shareholder demand to Paramount earlier this month focused on CEO David Ellison trading journalistic independence for merger approval. Ellison reportedly promised Trump “sweeping” changes at CNN if he buys its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.

It made headlines, but one issue it raised deserves more attention, as FPF Executive Director Trevor Timm explained in a recent video. Last month, Trump took to Truth Social and announced a criminal investigation after CNN quoted an Iranian statement he didn’t like. Any investigation would be totally frivolous, but the president personally threatening a company you’re seeking to buy is a big deal.

But David Ellison and his centibillionaire father and financier Larry haven’t said a word — either about the threat’s materiality to the transaction or in defense of the rights of the journalists they hope to soon employ. That’s how little they care about both their shareholders and press freedom.

• Watch more

New bill seeks to curb abusive subpoenas

Administrative subpoenas allow the government to demand records from big tech and phone companies, in secret and without ever going before a judge. So it’s no surprise that the Trump administration has been caught exploiting them to target its online critics and watchdogs.

A new bipartisan bill in Congress, the Subpoena Abuse Prevention Act, would rein in those abuses. That’s good news for journalists, whose phone records have been targeted by both Democratic and Republican administrations.

“For journalists in particular, phone records can expose sensitive information about communications with confidential sources,” FPF Senior Adviser Caitlin Vogus explained. “This legislation would strengthen protections for those communications and help ensure that journalists cannot be targeted with subpoenas for doing their jobs.”

• Read more

What we're reading The Trump administration arrested this journalist. She says the censorship is ongoing The Washington Post

The government’s baseless criminal charges against Minnesota-based journalist Georgia Fort are discouraging her from speaking to sources. They should be dropped immediately, along with the cases brought against other journalists who covered the St. Paul church protest.

Trust no one in the ‘Mangionista’ debate over who is doing real journalism in NYC Hell Gate

Chris Robbins, who had to sue the New York City Police Department so Gothamist could get press passes after eight years of waiting, gets it right: “Don’t we want to keep the definition of ‘journalist’ as wide as possible? Isn’t the alternative an invitation to the government to start pulling the ladder up on who gets to be a reporter?”

PSC reverses student magazine decision after blocking publication of LGBTQ stories WEAR News

It’s good that Pensacola State College changed course, but it’s outrageous that it ever happened. Don’t colleges have professors and lawyers on hand with the minimal level of familiarity with the First Amendment needed to spot the constitutional problems here?

Democratic senators demand release of U.S. report on killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh Haaretz

It’s been more than four years since Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead in the West Bank. It’s time for the U.S. to open up its investigation into her death.

How a landlord tried to silence tenants and stop a Shelterforce story Shelterforce

A landlord threatened a tenants’ union for speaking to the press before they’d settled a case and agreed to refrain from making public statements. That’s wrong. “The public deserves to know what’s going on in their communities economically [and] socially. If people are afraid to talk to reporters, we are poorer as a society for it,” FPF’s Rose explained.

Notre Dame pro-abortion-rights professor ordered to pay $200k in fees in failed libel lawsuit against student newspaper The Volokh Conspiracy

SLAPPs, or strategic lawsuits against public participation, targeting journalists are always wrong, but it’s especially galling for a professor to try to use the legal system to silence a student newspaper. Hopefully this fee award will deter others who try to bully student journalists.

On a recent spring morning, workers spread shredded Provel cheese on deluxe pizzas that rode a conveyor belt in Dogtown Pizza’s 113,000-square-foot Jeff-Vander-Lou warehouse.