Aggregator

The two new partners will help guide the firm and identify new opportunities in addition to developing and maintaining client relationships.

The Missouri Botanical Garden has launched a new initiative to digitize the organization's extensive herbarium collection after receiving a $14.4 million grant from an anonymous source.

It is the second firm in recent weeks to say it is moving employees from Downtown West to downtown

EDWARDSVILLE – Scott Credit Union (SCU) is proud to announce the promotion of Jeff Roderick to Chief Information Officer (CIO), effective January 1, 2025. Roderick, who most recently served as Vice President of Information Technology, brings more than 28 years of experience in information technology, including 25 years in leadership, to this critical role. During his tenure at SCU, Jeff Roderick successfully led initiatives that have significantly enhanced the credit union’s technological capabilities. His leadership in the data warehouse rollout, digital banking enhancements, and the development of SCU’s Artificial Intelligence strategy has strengthened the credit union’s commitment to delivering innovative, member-focused solutions. “Jeff’s forward-thinking approach and dedication to excellence make him an outstanding choice for CIO,” said Frank Padak, President and CEO of Scott Credit Union. “He has consistently demonstrated his

Continue Reading

GODFREY - The Godfrey Village Board has taken swift action to ban the sale or possession of kratom within the village after a CBD and kratom business owner expressed interest in opening a Godfrey location. Craig Katz of CBD Kratom spoke during the Public Comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting. He asked trustees for a chance to prepare a presentation on kratom to help them make an "informed decision," noting most kratom users are seeking pain relief or to manage addictions to opioids. “What I’d ask, humbly, is instead of voting on an ordinance tonight, if you will give us an opportunity to present evidence to you - some scientific evidence - and to bring in some physical witnesses that can explain what kratom has done for them and what it’s done throughout the community,” Katz said. CBD Kratom currently operates a location at 2801 Homer Adams Parkway in Alton. Katz claimed the company is “the largest privately owned cannabis/hemp company

Continue Reading

The United States Postal Service will suspend regular mail delivery on Thursday, Jan. 9 as part of a national day of mourning to honor former President Jimmy Carter.

Here's another picture of a horse. It's from the same place as my Thanksgiving horse, but it's a different horse. It was very sociable, this horse.

EDWARDSVILLE - The James and Sherrie Brown family hosted a Sausage and Pancake Breakfast with Santa at The Knights of Columbus Hall in Edwardsville in December that was a big hit. The Brown family exhibited they are true Difference Makers in their community with both this effort and one at Thanksgiving. James Brown said: "Our family business has been blessed this past year and we felt in our hearts the need to give back to this community. For Thanksgiving, we provided everything needed for 12 families in need to have a Thanksgiving meal for their family. "That was such a success, we decided to invite any families having a hard time to bring their children up, have a hot breakfast, and get pictures with Santa." There was also story time with Mrs. Claus, a kids' craft-making area and the North Pole Theater played The Polar Express. The Brown family set a solid example for other businesses and individuals to follow during the holiday time in 2025. If you have a Difference Makers idea

Continue Reading

That's where the U.S. gets most of its offshore oil.

It’s often said that no good deed goes unpunished. One man experienced that axiom last month when he was held up at gunpoint and robbed while trying to help a coworker get around town.

ST. LOUIS - The City of St. Louis has two additional warming centers today. Gamble Recreation Center 2907 Gamble St, St. Louis, MO 63106 Open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Carondelet Park YMCA 930 Holly Hills Ave., St. Louis, MO 63111 Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The low temperature on Wednesday night, Jan. 8, 2025, is predicted to be 5 degrees, so the centers may be necessary for a lot of individuals.

Continue Reading

ALTON - The Hayner Public Library District is more than just a library, says Executive Director Mary Cordes. It’s like a community center. Cordes explained that the library offers programs almost every day of the month, and they have a busy schedule ahead for 2025. She hopes the library continues to be a resource for community members to meet new people, engage with programs and services, and learn. “We just keep offering more programs, and people keep signing up and participating in them,” she said. “In addition to all the books that we check out and the movies that we check out and the items that we stream and download and all that, there’s also that component of programming and being a community center and service group that we have found people really want and we’re happy to adapt and give to people. We’re always trying something new, and we’ve got some exciting things coming up for the year.” With all the winter snow

Continue Reading

(The Center Square) – Twenty Republican state attorneys general are expressing support for President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

Gene Simmons has added a handful of new dates to his U.S. tour with his Gene Simmons Band.In addition to his previously announced shows, which start in April in California…

Source

Today on TAP: My adopted city is in flames, and we’re collectively to blame.

In the American Time Use Survey, there are three big categories of time spent with non-family members (other than work): civic/religious activities, volunteering, and socializing.  Here's what that looks like over the past 20 years: Time spent with others is fairly flat until 2010. Since then it's been declining rapidly, helped along by a big ...continue reading "Raw data: Time spent with others"

by Doug Bock Clark

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.

The Republican-controlled Supreme Court of North Carolina threw the election of one of its members into disarray on Tuesday as it temporarily blocked the certification of the Democrat incumbent’s narrow victory. The move gives the court time to consider a challenge by her Republican opponent, state appeals court Judge Jefferson Griffin, who has cited debunked legal theories in his previous failed attempts to block Justice Allison Riggs’ reelection.

Griffin has sought for his claims to be decided by the Supreme Court he hopes to join, which is led by his mentor. On Monday, a federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump remanded Griffin’s challenge to the state Supreme Court. The state election board is now requesting a federal appeals court to return the case to federal court.

Riggs won reelection by 734 votes — a minuscule margin of victory that was confirmed by two recounts. She will remain on the court while the election results are being contested, though she has recused herself from this matter.

Griffin is asking the Supreme Court to throw out roughly 60,000 ballots — an unprecedented request based on a theory that has been dismissed by both the state election board and a federal judge.

Griffin did not respond to a request for comment. He previously declined to answer questions from ProPublica, saying that commenting on pending litigation would be a violation of the state’s judicial code of conduct.

“This is hugely dangerous for democracy in North Carolina,” said Ann Webb, the policy director for Common Cause North Carolina, a voting advocacy organization. If the state Supreme Court sides with Griffin and overturns Riggs’ win, it would open the possibility for future candidates to “challenge the rules that were in place for elections and get votes retroactively discarded. If there’s a never-ending process of challenging election rules and results after the fact, our entire system could come to a standstill.”

This case is even more exceptional, Webb said, because “so far, Judge Griffin has not produced evidence of a single instance of voter fraud or illegal voting. He’s just vaguely raised the specter that there’s not been enough verification of voter identities and is using that to try to overturn an election.”

Griffin is arguing that voters in North Carolina’s elections database who are missing driver’s license or Social Security information should have their ballots discounted. That theory was originated and championed by far-right activists working with a conservative organization that was secretly preparing to contest election results if Trump had lost the 2024 election, ProPublica has reported. The organization, the Election Integrity Network, is led by a lawyer who helped Trump try to overturn the 2020 election.

State election officials and a federal judge have rejected this theory multiple times, finding that there are many legitimate reasons for that information to be missing, including voters registering before state paperwork was updated about a year ago to require those details. “There is virtually no chance of voter fraud resulting from a voter not providing her driver’s license or social security number on her voter registration,” attorneys for the state election board wrote in legal filings.

Neither Griffin nor the right-wing activists have proven a single case of voter fraud among the 60,000 ballots.

In a July 2024 call of the North Carolina chapter of the Election Integrity Network, a right-wing activist argued that a candidate who lost a close election could use the theory to contest an outcome they did not agree with, according to a recording obtained by ProPublica. When the chapter’s leader voiced concern about the theory’s legality, calling it “voter suppression” and “100%” certain to fail in the courts, another activist said, “I guess we’re gonna find that out.” That activist’s data analyses and arguments then became the foundation for an attempt by the Republican National Committee to disqualify hundreds of thousands of voters before the election and Griffin’s attempt to overturn the election, ProPublica found.

ProPublica reported in December that Griffin has described Chief Justice Paul Newby as a “good friend and mentor,” and that Griffin wrote, when announcing his candidacy for the Supreme Court: “We are a team that knows how to win — the same team that helped elect Chief Justice Paul Newby and three other members of the current Republican majority.”

Newby and other justices did not respond to a detailed list of questions regarding the December story.

Not all the Republican justices concurred with blocking the certification of Riggs’ victory. “Permitting post-election litigation that seeks to rewrite our state’s election rules — and, as a result, remove the right to vote in an election from people who already lawfully voted under the existing rules — invites incredible mischief,” Republican Justice Richard Dietz wrote in a dissent, emphasizing that Griffin’s challenge to the 60,000 ballots was “almost certainly meritless.” He was joined by Democratic Justice Anita Earls, breaking ranks with the four other Republican members of the court.

Permitting Griffin’s litigation to proceed, Dietz stated, “will lead to doubts about the finality of vote counts following an election, encourage novel legal challenges that greatly delay certification of the results, and fuel an already troubling decline in public faith in our elections.”

O’FALLON, Ill. — Time matters – especially when you or a loved one is waiting for the results of a lung cancer biopsy. HSHS St. Elizabeth’s Hospital is now offering the latest leading-edge technology for lung cancer biopsies with the Ion® endoluminal system. The new robotic-assisted procedure can reduce or even eliminate the need for more-invasive lung cancer biopsies or even surgery to determine a cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment. The result: A faster diagnosis and treatment plan, which can lead to a better survival rate for patients. According to the American Cancer Society, 44% of lung cancer cases are not caught until a late stage when the five-year survival rate is only 8%. If the cancer is caught in an early stage, the survival rate jumps to 63%. “We are excited to equip our pulmonologists with leading edge robotic technology as they care for their patients. This investment in the latest lung screening and therapeutic technology defines

Continue Reading