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The former police chief of the Velda City Police Department, who also served as the city's administrator, is accused of stealing hundreds of thousands in city funds through a series of fraudulent transactions.

Radley Balko’s post on Substack details an ordeal, however brief, Texas appellate lawyer Clayton Jackson suffered through recently. A longer one possibly awaits, thanks to his employer firing him shortly after he went public with his recounting of this unwanted interaction. Balko’s opening paragraph explains why the Trump Administration has hit law firms and universities […]

JERSEYVILLE – An agreement for the next phase of Hollow Avenue improvements in Jerseyville is on hold for now as the City Council awaits more information. Council members on Tuesday tabled a professional engineering services agreement with Bartlett & West Inc. for the third stage (termed the “construction stage”) of the Hollow Avenue Roadway Improvement Phase 2 Project. Improvements during this stage will span from West Hickory Street to Waggoner Avenue. Mayor Kevin Stork said the item was tabled because “some of the information didn’t come in on time,” scheduling it for reconsideration at the council’s next meeting on Tuesday, May 13, 2025. While the agreement itself has been tabled, Public Works Director Bob Manns said bids were recently opened for the project, which is estimated to total $2.3 million. He named Baxmeyer Construction as the current lowest bidder with a bid of about $2 million, putting them in the lead so far to secure the

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ALTON — Alton Police Officer Luke Atkinson graduated from the Southwestern Illinois College Police Academy on Tuesday, marking a significant step in his law enforcement career. The Alton Police Department announced his accomplishment and welcomed him as he starts the Field Training Program under the guidance of a Field Training Officer. Lieutenant Michael O’Neill, who leads the department’s Support Services Division, represented the department at the graduation ceremony. The Alton Police Department expressed pride in Officer Atkinson’s achievement and looks forward to his service in the community. Officer Atkinson’s progression through the academy and into field training reflects the department’s ongoing commitment to developing skilled officers to serve Alton residents.

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SPONSORED – Dalmation Cleaning and Restoration is a locally owned and family-operated business offering a full range of services: carpet, air duct, tile, chimney, dryer vent, and upholstery cleaning, as well as 24/7 emergency flood and fire restoration. Get $135 carpet cleaning and $50 off air duct cleaning when you call 314-423-0101 or visit dalmationcleaningservices.com [...]

GRANITE CITY - Granite City High School hosted a First Responders Career Fair recently, in the Annex Gym, featuring representatives from 17 different agencies. The event provided students with an opportunity to explore various career paths in emergency services and learn about the daily responsibilities of first responders. Participating agencies included local, state, and federal organizations such as the Granite City Police Department, Madison County Sheriff's Office, and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s St. Louis Division. Federal law enforcement was represented by the United States Marshals Service from both Southern Illinois and Eastern Missouri. Other participants included the Madison County Coroner’s Office, Madison County Sheriff's Office 911 Office, and several fire departments including Granite City Firefighters Local 253, Mitchell Fire Rescue, and Long Lake Volunteer Fire Department. In addition to emergency response teams, the fair featured the United State

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The center had 15 residents displaced from the fire who are now in nearby treatment centers receiving help.

Silver Dollar City again beat SeaWorld, Dollywood, Magic Kingdom and more for the title of "Best Theme Park."

Richardson thanked former Mayor Tishaura Jones, whom Cara Spencer defeated in an April 8 election, saying Jones had displayed "great" and "bold leadership..."

Van Morrison has released another track off his upcoming album, Remembering Now.The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has shared the new single, “Cutting Corners,” the second track released from the…

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Following less than two hours of testimony Wednesday, the Senate Children and Families Committee voted to pass the proposed constitutional amendment and moving it closer to full Senate debate.

by Cassandra Jaramillo and Lizzie Presser

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

The Texas Senate has unanimously passed legislation that aims to prevent maternal deaths under the state’s strict abortion ban.

Written in response to a ProPublica investigation last year, Senate Bill 31, called The Life of the Mother Act, represents a remarkable turn among the Republican lawmakers who were the original supporters of the ban. For the first time in four years, they acknowledged that women were being denied care because of confusion about the law and took action to clarify its terms.

“We don’t want to have any reason for hesitation,” said Republican state Sen. Bryan Hughes, who authored the state’s original abortion ban and sponsored this reform with bipartisan input and support. Just last fall, he had said the law he wrote was “plenty clear.”

The bill stops short of removing what doctors say are the ban’s biggest impediments to care, including its major criminal penalties, and doesn’t expand abortion access to cases of fetal anomalies, rape or incest. Sen. Carol Alvarado, the Democratic lawmaker who co-authored the bill, said that its limits were a “real hard pill to swallow” but that it could still make a difference. “I believe this bill will save lives,” she said.

ProPublica’s reporting showed how doctors in states that ban abortion have waited to intervene in cases where women ultimately died of high-risk complications.

To address that problem, Senate Bill 31 states that a life-threatening medical emergency doesn’t need to be “imminent.” It also says doctors can terminate ectopic pregnancies, which occur when the fertilized egg implants outside of the uterine cavity. It would allow for a pregnant patient to receive cancer treatment, Hughes said, even if doing so threatened the viability of a fetus.

The bill also clarifies that medical staff or hospital officials can discuss termination with patients without violating a provision of the law that criminalizes “aiding and abetting” an abortion. It had been unclear to doctors whether simply discussing the option could lead to steep criminal penalties; patients have reported not being able to get straight answers from their providers about their prognosis and options for treatment.

It remains to be seen how the bill, if made law, would be interpreted by doctors and hospitals, and whether risk-averse institutions would still delay care during pregnancy complications.

Many reproductive rights advocates are skeptical given that the bill does not explicitly address many high-risk pregnancy complications. The most common one in the second trimester, previable premature rupture of membranes, or PPROM, occurs when someone’s water breaks early. In these cases, the chance of the fetus surviving is low, but delaying a pregnancy termination leaves the patient at risk of infection, which can lead to sepsis, a potentially deadly condition. Since the state banned abortion, lawyers at many hospitals across Texas have advised physicians not to empty the uterus until they can document signs of infection — an indication of a life-threatening emergency.

The death of Josseli Barnica, which ProPublica reported last year, reveals the dangers of forcing miscarrying patients to wait for care. Diagnosed with an “inevitable” miscarriage at 17 weeks, she showed symptoms similar to PPROM without an official diagnosis — her water had not yet broken. While stable, she was made to wait 40 hours until the fetal heartbeat ended before doctors induced delivery. She later died of sepsis, which medical experts say she likely developed because of the wait.

In addition to documenting cases in which women died of sepsis, ProPublica has shown how rates of the potentially deadly complication spiked by more than 50% statewide in second-trimester pregnancy-loss hospitalizations after Texas banned abortion.

Officials with the Texas Medical Association, the Texas Hospital Association and major anti-abortion groups — Texas Right to Life, Texas Alliance for Life and the American Association of Pro-Life OB-GYNs — told ProPublica they believed that this bill would now allow doctors to offer a termination at the point of a PPROM diagnosis, before infection set in.

Dr. Zeke Silva, chair of the Texas Medical Association’s Council on Legislation, included PPROM on a list of potentially life-threatening conditions he believed may fall under the bill’s clarified exception. The list, which is not exhaustive, includes preeclampsia, renal failure, liver failure, cardiac disease, pulmonary hypertension and neurological conditions. He added that decisions to intervene because a medical condition could be life-threatening “are, by definition, subjective, based on multiple clinical considerations” and must be based on “sound medical judgment.”

However, ProPublica spoke with six legal experts who said they were unsure whether hospitals, wary of litigation or penalties, would interpret the bill to mean that doctors can offer a termination to patients with PPROM.

Some PPROM patients can remain pregnant for weeks and not develop infections, while others can contract an infection and deteriorate very quickly, noted Molly Duane, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “I could see some doctors saying this means, ‘I have more leeway to intervene in all PPROM cases,’ and others saying, ‘I still don’t know, so I’ll wait until signs of infection.’”

The largest association of OB-GYNs, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said in an emailed statement that it did not support the bill: “This bill would keep Texas’ abortion ban in place and we strongly oppose the abortion ban and will continue to do so.”

Yesterday, the Texas Senate also passed Bill 2880, which would authorize civil lawsuits against anyone in or outside of Texas who distributes or provides abortion medication to someone in the state. It is expected to face pushback in the state House.

The Life of the Mother Act now goes to the House, where it must be voted out of committee before it heads to the House floor. Both chambers would need to agree on a final version before the governor could sign it into law.

The animals can clog power plants and drinking water intakes, decimate native freshwater mussels and disrupt aquatic ecosystems, MDC said.

COLLINSVILLE - Officers from the Caseyville Police Department took part in the Collinsville High School criminal justice jamboree, held recently at the school in Collinsville. The event, organized by the high school staff, aimed to engage students with hands-on experiences related to criminal justice. Sgt. Hoguet and K-9 Bama provided a demonstration for attendees, showcasing the capabilities of the department’s K-9 unit. Officers Reel, Detective Tamburello, and Lt. Pirtle also contributed to the event’s success. The collaboration between the Caseyville Police Department and Collinsville Community Unit School District #10 reflects ongoing efforts to educate students about law enforcement and public safety careers.

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ST. LOUIS - As daily air quality forecasting makes its return for the 2025 season, the American Lung Association’s latest “State of the Air” report finds that even after decades of successful efforts to reduce sources of air pollution, 46% of Americans – 156.1 million individuals – are living in places that received failing grades for unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution. This is nearly 25 million more people breathing unhealthy air compared to the years covered in last year’s report (2020-2022), and more than in any other “State of the Air” report in the last 10 years. The data reinforces the need to protect our local communities from the continued risks to public health resulting from a combination of factors, including extreme heat, drought, wildfire smoke and more. Looking back at the “State of the Air” data from almost 30 years ago, when the average number of high ozone days in the St. Louis region approached

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GLEN CARBON - The Village of Glen Carbon is continuing a municipal electricity aggregation program with Homefield Energy. This program was previously approved by referendum by the voters in each of the 27 participating communities. The Village’s primary goal is to protect residents from the continued rise in electric supply rates and spikes in the energy market. Residents and businesses are able to opt-out of the program if desired. The new rate for the Village of Glen Carbon is $0.1207 per kWh and will be a fully fixed rate from June 2025 through May 2026. The current Homefield Energy rate is $.09054. Ameren’s rates are scheduled to change June 1, 2025, so Good Energy is recommending that residents wait until Ameren announces their PTC (price to compare) rate prior to making any decisions on opting out. More information is forthcoming to eligible residents via mail beginning this May. If the account holder desires to continue participating in the program, they

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Kneecapping the consumer financial protection agency would do much to enable fraud, and next to nothing to reduce federal expenditures.