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A woman was severely attacked and a man suffered bites while trying to protect their dogs, police said.

Colleen Lischwe leaves behind her husband and their 3-year-old daughter. Her loss is being felt far beyond St. Louis.

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President Joe Biden was repeatedly warned that prosecuting WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange under the Espionage Act posed an existential threat to investigative reporting by criminalizing routine journalistic conduct that the First Amendment has long protected.

He ignored those warnings, perhaps believing his administration would remain in the White House and have some say over how prosecutors exercise their new powers. That was a serious mistake. Now, a coalition of press freedom and civil liberties organizations are urging him to use his pardon power to lessen the damage to press freedom caused by Assange’s 2024 conviction pursuant to a plea deal.

As Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Director of Advocacy Seth Stern explained:

“Julian Assange’s case normalized the criminalization of work national security journalists do every day — talking to sources, obtaining documents from them, and publishing those documents. It gives future authoritarians at home and abroad the perfect ‘whataboutism’ to deflect from their own repressive actions, including imprisoning journalists on bogus espionage charges. A pardon won’t undo the harm the case has done to the free press or the chilling effect on journalists who now know their work can land them behind bars at the whim of the Department of Justice. But it will help reduce the damage. If Biden wants to be remembered as the friend of press freedom he claims to be, he needs to put the future of the First Amendment above his personal feelings about Assange and issue this pardon before he leaves office.”

Rebecca Vincent, director of Campaigns for Reporters Without Borders (RSF) added:

“We remain hugely relieved that Julian Assange is now free and in recovery following his 14-year plight, but the terms of the plea deal leave the door open to future threats to journalism. No one should ever again face such treatment for publishing information in the public interest. In these final days of his administration, we urge President Biden to set the record straight and ensure his legacy is one of protecting press freedom by pardoning Assange. The message must be made loud and clear that the U.S. government means what it says when it comes to press freedom, and that the Espionage Act will never again be misused to target a publisher, journalist, or journalistic source.”

Chip Gibbons, policy director at Defending Rights & Dissent, said:

“The U.S. government’s pursuit of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange remains one of the most abusive attacks on press freedom in recent memory. Everything from illegal covert actions to criminal prosecutions were deployed to prevent WikiLeaks from publishing, destroy its founder, and send a chilling message to silence independent media broadly. While we are grateful this shameful saga has ended, the plea deal obtained by the government states that a journalist receiving information from a source and publishing it constitutes a criminal conspiracy under the Espionage Act. There may be no legal precedent, but right now the Department of Justice has received the message it can get away prosecuting pure journalism under the Espionage Act. No journalist is safe. President Biden must stand for press freedom and grant Mr. Assange a full, unconditional pardon.”

You can read the coalition’s letter here or below.

Please contact us if you would like further comment.

This article has been updated to reflect that Amnesty International joined the letter.

St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green on Thursday told Mayor Tishaura Jones to declare an emergency and hire contractors to clear ice from the city's side streets, before colder temperatures set in Saturday.

Two Super Scoopers took a pit stop at Spirit of St. Louis Airport Wednesday night.

Moment Factory’s immersive night walk, Light Cycles, will make its North American debut in St. Louis on Nov. 21. The riveting experience takes visitors on a 45-minute journey through a […]

The post Light Cycles appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

A St. Peters, Missouri, man who served as Webster University’s IT director appeared in federal court on Thursday and was sentenced for defrauding both his employer and an IT equipment seller in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme.

When Joe Biden became president he directed immigration officials to focus their arrest and removal efforts on criminals, national security threats, and recent border crossers. Here's the guidance DHS issued a few weeks after inauguration: This didn't restrict the removal of illegal immigrants, which was far higher under Biden than Trump: That's from David Bier, ...continue reading "Here’s a comprehensive look at Biden and the border"

Friends of Colleen Lischwe established a GoFundMe page to honor her legacy and help her family with expenses. She was killed Wednesday morning in a crash on Interstate 44 near Vandeventer Avenue in St. Louis.

Sting and Ringo Starr are among the musicians paying tribute to director David Lynch, whose death was announced Thursday.Sting shared a photo on Instagram of him and Lynch on the…

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John Jenkins fought back tears as he stood out on his sister's and brother-in-law's front porch. 

The local company has received a more than $1.5 million grant from New York-based Michael J. Fox Foundation to research the connections between several neurodegenerative conditions.

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Independent journalist Sam Husseini was dragged out of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s final news conference today after interrupting Blinken’s remarks with questions about the Israel-Gaza war. Another journalist, Max Blumenthal of The Grayzone, was also escorted out.

Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, commented:

“Days before the inauguration of an anti-press president, the Biden administration handed Trump a gift by normalizing punishing journalists for asking questions officials don’t like. Quibbling about whether these journalists breached decorum misses the point. Decorum is a slippery slope that Trump is sure to rely on to retaliate against journalists for so-called ‘nasty’ questions. Plus, ignoring decorum is understandable under the circumstances — Biden officials have been ducking hard questions about their support for the Israel-Gaza war for over a year. Do they expect journalists just to accept their gibberish answers and thank them?”

Please contact us if you would like further comment.

Having already gotten the docuseries treatment, the history of Lollapalooza is now being told through a different medium.A new book called Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock's Wildest Festival is due…

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MARYVILLE - Two Madison County cases involving unlawful firearms include a Springfield woman accused of defacing a firearm and a Venice man charged with possessing a “ghost gun." Stephanie R. Glugla, 31, of Springfield, Ill., was charged with defacing identification marks on a firearm (a Class 3 felony) and possession of a controlled substance (a Class 4 felony). On Nov. 2, 2024, Glugla allegedly possessed an 80 Percent Arms Model GST-9 on which the “serial number had been removed,” according to court documents. She also reportedly had less than 15 grams of cocaine in her possession. The Maryville Police Department presented the case against Glugla, who was granted pretrial release from custody. In a separate case, Ricky A. Clayton Jr., 37, of Venice, was charged with possession/use of a firearm/weapon by a felon (a Class 3 felony) and resisting a peace officer (a Class A misdemeanor). On April 21, 2024, Clayton reportedly possessed a Polymer 80 9mm “ghost

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A federal grand jury in Puerto Rico indicted a St. Peters, Missouri, woman on Thursday for starting a fire that destroyed a bar in Cabo Rojo earlier this month.

Dozens of homes in Cahokia Heights, Illinois, are getting new surveillance systems to help deter crime in their neighborhood, as police say technology plays a crucial role in keeping neighborhoods safe.

Jonathan Stepp, a spokesperson for Waste Management of Missouri, said the weather and ice-covered roads have caused "unavoidable delays."

A St. Louis County man was convicted on Thursday in the murder-for-hire of a New Jersey man in 2022 while in St. Louis.