Aggregator

A large masonry church in north St. Louis caught fire Monday morning.

Donald Trump's inaugural address was surprisingly low key and consisted mostly of a laundry list of the executive orders he plans to sign later today. Some highlights: Trump declares an emergency at the southern border even though there's patently no emergency at the moment. Trump reinstates "Remain in Mexico," but can he do that without ...continue reading "The shortest possible recap of Donald Trump’s inauguration speech"

MARYVILLE - The Maryville Kiwanis Club is thriving as 2025 begins. Six new members were inducted at the club’s January 15th meeting. According to Wayne White, Membership Chair, the club members have been intentional in their invitations to prospective members and it has paid off. White said, “Our club is very active in the community and when prospective members learn about the service projects that our club provides in our community, it is easy for them to want to join.” The club has one of its service projects coming up in February. Kiwanians will staff the local laundry mat (Sudz Wash) the weekend following Valentine’s Day. “During those two days (February 15th & 16th), from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. we will conduct our annual Loads of Love project,” said Julie Clark, club president. “Kiwanians will greet those utilizing the laundry mat at the door and let them know that the club is paying for their laundry as a Valentine’s

Continue Reading

The Poseys were staying at the Eureka Holiday Inn Saint Louis West at Six Flags Friday afternoon. They never imagined their daughter would need rescuing.

At the last minute, Joe Biden: Pardoned the J6 committee members and the Capitol police officers who testified before them. Pardoned Anthony Fauci and Gen. Mark Milley. Pardoned five close family members. Commuted the remaining sentence of native American activist Leonard Peltier. Posthumously pardoned civil rights leader Marcus Garvey. On Sunday he pardoned Darryl Chambers, ...continue reading "Today is pardon day"

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump took the presidential oath of office for the second time Monday during an inauguration ceremony inside the U.S. Capitol rotunda. The swearing-in marked the culmination of a four-year journey for Trump, whom many Republicans distanced themselves from following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, but nonetheless supported during his third […]

The grocer already has partnerships with other delivery platforms DoorDash and Shipt.

An early draft of Bob Dylan’s lyrics to “Mr. Tambourine Man” sold for $508,000 at the Celebrating Bob Dylan: The Aronowitz Archive, T Bone Burnett & More auction conducted by Julien’s…

Source

SPRINGFIELD – Today, Governor JB Pritzker announced $14.7 million in federal grant funding will be used to extend the state’s Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) beyond June 30, 2025. The funding will be awarded to the existing 15 providers announced in 2024. LFPA was launched as the Illinois – Equitable Access Towards Sustainable Systems (IL-EATS) program in 2022 by the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) and the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) in a joint effort to transform the food system. Under the program, lead agencies such as food banks and non-profit organizations receive grant funds to purchase food from underserved farmers at a fair market value which is then provided at no cost to food-insecure communities. The program prioritizes ensuring culturally responsive fresh foods are available to Illinois’ most vulnerable families. “The continuation of this vital program ensures that those at bot

Continue Reading

CHICAGO - Attorney General Kwame Raoul today, as part of a coalition of 18 states, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit defending a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule establishing the first nationwide drinking water standards for certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances “PFAS” under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The federal rule expands nationwide drinking water protections to add four PFAS analytes, known as “forever” chemicals, and sets enforceable standards for six PFAS chemicals found in drinking water across the country: PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, GenX, PFNA, and PFBS. The rule sets regulations for each chemical individually, and as mixtures, recognizing appropriately that these threats cannot be addressed in isolation. Under the rule, public water systems across the United States are required to test and, if necessary, treat drinking water for these contaminants. “As the name implies, forever chemicals

Continue Reading

With Donald Trump’s inauguration today, journalists and whistleblowers can expect four more years of legal attacks, threats, smears, bullying, and other abuses we haven’t even thought of yet — all intended to stop them from reporting the news.

While no one can predict exactly what the next four years have in store, here are three press freedom issues that we’ll be following closely at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF).

Increased leaks investigations

Trump’s first term was marked by a surge in leaks investigations. Unnamed sources close to his incoming administration (ironic, isn’t it?) have told reporters to expect even more of the same during his second term.

That means whistleblowers or anyone even suspected of unauthorized leaking could face invasive investigations, such as surveillance of their movements and activities, and broad legal demands for their electronic records. Those who are caught and prosecuted may also be punished harshly, including with long prison sentences.

The Department of Justice could also issue subpoenas or other legal demands to journalists or their tech providers seeking the identities of reporters’ sources, as it did during Trump’s first term. Journalists who refuse to comply with demands to name their confidential sources could be fined or jailed — Trump has been clear that he would like to see just that.

Unfortunately, a law that would have prohibited that, the PRESS Act, failed last Congress, thanks to Democrats’ stalling and Sen. Tom Cotton’s lying. We’ll continue to press Congress to pass a federal law that would protect investigative reporting, during the Trump years and beyond, by prohibiting jailing journalists for refusing to burn their sources. Congress must also reform the Espionage Act — a law that’s been used by both Democrats and Republicans to prosecute those who leak classified information to the press — to ensure it applies only to spying, not whistleblowing.

FPF will also continue to oppose attempts to undermine secure communication tools such as end-to-end encryption, which will become increasingly important in the absence of strong legal protections for journalist-source confidentiality. Journalists and sources should familiarize themselves with best practices for digital security. Sources should brush up on methods for lessening their own risk and may want to consider using SecureDrop and a Tor Browser to share documents or information anonymously.

Criminal prosecutions of journalists

Journalists could be jailed not only for refusing to reveal their sources but also for publishing information that the Trump administration or oligarchs in its orbit don’t want to be made public.

Thanks in no small part to the Biden administration’s decision to continue Trump’s prosecution of WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange, the Trump administration will have an easier time abusing the Espionage Act to prosecute journalists who publish national defense information. Assange pleaded guilty to violating Section 793(g) of the act last June, the first time in U.S. history a publisher has been convicted under the law.

It’s a short legal leap from prosecuting Assange to prosecuting national security reporters at traditional news outlets. Assange’s guilty plea was based on conduct that journalists engage in every day: soliciting classified information from the public, encouraging a source to provide him with classified information, and publishing that information.

It’s a short legal leap from prosecuting Assange to prosecuting national security reporters at traditional news outlets.

A journalist charged under the Espionage Act for publishing newsworthy information will have a strong First Amendment defense. But we shouldn’t rely on courts to make the right call when it comes to protecting press freedom against spurious national security claims. Congress must reform the Espionage Act not only to protect whistleblowers but also ensure that it can’t be used against journalists.

Unfortunately, the Espionage Act isn’t the only threat. Federal prosecutors could use other criminal laws against journalists over the next four years. Computer hacking laws like the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, in particular, have already been abused to go after digital journalists like Florida journalist Tim Burke.

With the possibility of increased protests during the Trump administration, we may also see journalists covering protests arrested for crimes like trespassing. While the DOJ recently issued important guidance and recommendations about the First Amendment protections for journalists covering protests, there’s no guarantee it will continue to follow them under Trump.

FPF will continue to speak out against the criminal prosecution of journalists for doing their jobs and push to ensure that they receive full First Amendment protections.

Abuse of government surveillance against the press

We’re also concerned about increased government surveillance of the press over the next four years, especially through tech providers.

The government already has the power to issue legal orders requiring a tech company to turn over a journalist’s digital records, and it can do so in secret by gagging the company. DOJ guidelines limit the circumstances under which the government can issue those legal demands, but the next DOJ could simply ignore or repeal them.

If the government can’t get a legal order for tech company data, it can often buy it. No law prevents the FBI and intelligence agencies from buying location or other sensitive data about Americans from data brokers that they usually couldn’t get without a warrant. And they’re doing exactly that.

While there’s a real risk of abuse of these spying powers over the next four years, there’s also a possibility of reigning them in.

The Trump administration will also have expanded powers under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which Congress reauthorized and broadened last year to expand the types of entities that can be forced to help the U.S. spy. While some lawmakers promised a later “fix” to that part of the law, that fix has never come. Section 702 is often sold as a purely foreign surveillance law targeting terrorists and drug traffickers, but it’s also been used to spy on Americans, including journalists, without a warrant.

While there’s a real risk of abuse of these spying powers over the next four years, there’s also a possibility of reigning them in. Some of the most vocal critics of government surveillance in recent years have been Republican lawmakers aligned with Trump, who called on the last Congress to kill FISA. Speaker Mike Johnson recently ousted a pro-FISA representative, Mike Turner, from his chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee.

FISA will be up for reauthorization again during Trump’s second term. MAGA skepticism toward government surveillance may create opportunities to pass FISA reform and other bipartisan laws limiting government spying, like the Fourth Amendment is Not For Sale Act.

At the same time, some Trump appointees have been singing a different tune more recently and embracing government spying powers. Republicans may very well find that they enjoy vast spying powers when they’re the ones who control them, just like the Democrats did. In that case, FPF will be there to remind them that most Americans don’t want to live in a surveillance state.

Also read our article on Biden's three biggest press freedom failures.

WASHINGTON — Hours before his four-year term ended, President Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons early Monday to several officials and lawmakers who have been the target of incoming President-elect Donald Trump’s threats of retaliation as well as several members of his family. Biden pardoned retired Gen. Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, members and staff of […]

GODFREY - Lewis and Clark Community College’s student news publication, The Bridge, took the top awards in general excellence at this fall’s Illinois Community College Journalism Association conference. “I am incredibly proud of our team,” Editor in Chief Jeannette Carrington said. “This remarkable achievement is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and talent of each staff member. It is not only encouraging for our current efforts but also a significant boost for everyone's resumes and future careers, whether they choose to pursue journalism or any other field. These awards highlight the exceptional skills and commitment of our team, and I am confident that this recognition will open many doors for all of us.” Carrington herself won five awards, the most of any staff member. Altogether, the 2023-2024 staff netted 22 awards: News Story (Division II) - First Place: Isabelle Flener, “Beloved College HR Coordinator Leaves a Lasting

Continue Reading

CHICAGO - As the U.S. Supreme Court reviews an important case that could impact access to internet and phone service for millions of people living in rural areas in Illinois and across the country, Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined a bipartisan effort urging the court to keep in place a fund that supports those services. Congress established the Universal Service Fund (USF) in 1996 to promote the infrastructure necessary to provide nationwide communications services (including internet and phone service) to rural communities, schools, and low-income users, among other populations. The resources allocated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) through the USF help make it financially feasible for telecommunications companies to provide affordable service in those areas, including for schools, libraries and health care providers. In their amicus brief, Raoul and officials from other states argue that the USF has been critical to realizing the benefits envisioned by Congress

Continue Reading

SPRINGFIELD - Winter brings cold arctic air to Illinois and as residents turn up their thermostats to stay warm the risk of a home heating fire or Carbon Monoxide incident increases. The Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal (OSFM) encourages residents to have their furnaces checked, change furnace filters, and make sure carbon monoxide (CO) and smoke alarms are functioning properly. Unlike smoke, carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas only detectable by special devices and CO alarms. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), heating equipment is one of the leading causes of home fire deaths. U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated average of 40,997 fires involving heating equipment per year from 2018-2022, accounting for 12% of all reported home fires during this time, and these fires resulted in annual losses of 470 civilian deaths. Space heaters were the type of heating equipment responsible for the largest shares of losses in home heating

Continue Reading

When it comes to press freedom, last week was a fitting close to President Joe Biden’s term. On Wednesday, he emphasized the importance of the free press in his farewell address. On Thursday, two journalists who demanded answers about the Israel-Gaza war were removed — one forcibly — from his secretary of state’s news conference. On Friday, the Supreme Court upheld the TikTok ban he supported despite knowing full well the “data privacy” concerns lawmakers cited were a pretext for censorship.

With “friends” of press freedom like Biden, who needs enemies? The president who loved to proclaim that “journalism is not a crime” ignored warnings from press freedom advocates and handed his proudly anti-press successor a road map to criminalize it.

Here are the three themes that will define Biden’s press freedom legacy.

Anti-press prosecutions

Biden received warning after warning about the dangers of prosecuting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under the Espionage Act for actions investigative journalists take every day — talking to sources, obtaining secret documents, and publishing them. Nevertheless, he persisted — extracting a guilty plea from Assange in exchange for his freedom, normalizing prosecutions of routine newsgathering.

Biden officials might have taken issue with Assange’s methods or believed he wasn’t a “journalist,” but it doesn’t matter — there is nothing in the Espionage Act that would restrict Trump from employing identical legal theories against any publisher of government secrets he dislikes, including conventional journalists.

And then there’s the prosecution of Florida journalist Tim Burke under computer crime laws. That did Trump a huge favor because the Espionage Act only applies to government secrets. But, as Biden knows, Trump also has oligarchs to protect!

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, under the interpretation of Biden’s Department of Justice, will help him do so by criminalizing journalists’ use of the internet to find secrets the powerful don’t want published — even if the powerful accidentally post them on publicly available websites.

Not only that, the government, according to Biden’s prosecutors, can label reporting materials like notes and stories in progress as contraband and permanently seize them, stopping journalists’ stories in their tracks.

Only Biden knows if he finally regrets arming Trump with this impressive anti-press arsenal, but that won’t help Trump’s victims.

Sacrificing the Constitution for ‘national security’

Justice Hugo Black famously wrote in the Pentagon Papers case that “the word ‘security’ is a broad, vague generality whose contours should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law embodied in the First Amendment.” Black’s probably rolling over in his grave.

It is undisputed that the purported national security concerns underlying the TikTok ban are entirely hypothetical. There is no evidence China is using TikTok to spy on Americans. And why would it, when, absent a comprehensive data privacy law, the information it could conceivably get from TikTok is widely available from plenty of other sources? But there is evidence that lawmakers’ real motivation for the ban was to stop young people from using TikTok to criticize the Israel-Gaza war.

President Joe Biden greets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump in 2022. Later that year Biden’s administration declared Salman immune from liability for his suspected role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Bandar Aljaloud/Saudi Royal Palace via AP Photo

And yet, the Supreme Court, at the Biden administration’s urging, authorized censorship of not just one newspaper but a whole platform that millions of Americans, including journalists, use to communicate. Biden seemed surprised his political stunt actually becoming law, promising that the ban won’t go into effect immediately. And Trump, who once supported the ban, now opposes it.

That means it’s entirely possible that, at the end of the day, all that will come out of this is a Supreme Court ruling weakening free speech protections just in time for Trump’s return. That and an opportunity for Trump to position himself as restoring the First Amendment rights of America’s youth. Well done, Joe.

Incidentally, the Supreme Court’s TikTok opinion cited China’s law requiring companies from there (like TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance) to cooperate with Chinese surveillance. But it didn’t mention that the U.S. passed a law last year, with Biden’s full support, letting our own government force companies to secretly spy for it.

Biden again ignored repeated warnings that the law could easily be abused by Trump and whoever comes after him to spy on journalists.

For someone so critical of Chinese surveillance and censorship, Biden sure likes copying directly from their playbook.

Turning a blind eye to Gaza

We don’t mean to put journalists on a pedestal. Every civilian death in the Israel-Gaza war is tragic, and press freedom violations are far from the only wrongs by its ally that the Biden administration ignored.

That said, the world relies on journalists for credible information about the war, and Israel has killed a record number of reporters, many of them in seemingly targeted attacks. It has refused to allow international outlets to enter Gaza and retaliated against those that are already there. Journalists report death threats followed by bombs.

The U.S. would surely be quick to condemn the same conduct by an adversary. But in Israel’s case, Biden officials expressed “concern” and spewed other meaningless rhetoric while doing absolutely nothing to hold Israel accountable for its use of U.S. weapons and funds to attack the press. It’s no wonder that journalists, frustrated with all the doublespeak, breach decorum at news conferences.

Yes, Biden’s done some good things for the press. His DOJ passed guidelines that limited subpoenas and surveillance of journalists. Trump will likely repeal those — an outcome Biden could’ve prevented by advocating for the PRESS Act, the bipartisan bill to protect journalist-source confidentiality that he never vocally supported. The Biden DOJ also warned against arresting journalists at protests, including after they’re dispersed.

Biden’s administration helped free journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva from Russia, where they were held on sham charges. There were other highlights, like restrictions on spyware (which Trump may also reverse).

But those accomplishments pale in comparison to his failures. He has not only damaged the press at home, he’s undermined U.S. standing to oppose attacks on the press abroad.

We know things will likely get worse under Trump, but it’ll take a lot to make us miss Biden and his empty platitudes.

Also read our article on three threats to press freedom we’re watching during Trump’s second term.