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Authorities said the explosion Friday morning followed a report of a gas leak.

The state auditor will release the findings of his review of the St. Louis prosecutor's office on Tuesday.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has signed an executive order in preparation of a highly anticipated winter storm this weekend.

The dismissal came the same day a new prosecuting attorney, Melissa Price Smith, was sworn in.

by Sharon Lerner

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A long-awaited report from the Environmental Protection Agency has found that formaldehyde presents an unreasonable risk to human health. But the report, released Thursday, downplayed the threat the chemical poses to people living near industrial plants that release large quantities of the carcinogen into the air.

The health risk assessment was published weeks after a ProPublica investigation found that formaldehyde, one of the most widely used chemicals in commerce, causes more cases of cancer than any other chemical in the air and triggers asthma, miscarriages and fertility problems.

Our analysis of the EPA’s own data showed that in every census block in the U.S., the risk of getting cancer from a lifetime of exposure to formaldehyde in outdoor air is higher than the goal the agency has set for air pollutants. The risk is even greater indoors, where formaldehyde leaks from furniture and other products long after they enter our homes.

In its report, the EPA evaluated 63 situations in which consumers and workers encounter formaldehyde and found that 58 of them contribute to the chemical’s unreasonable risk to health — a designation that requires the agency to mitigate it. Among the products that can emit dangerous levels of formaldehyde in these scenarios, according to the report, are automotive-care products like car waxes, along with crafting supplies, ink and toner, photographic supplies and fabrics, building materials, textiles and leather goods.

While a note accompanying the EPA’s report stated that workers have the greatest exposure to the chemical, the agency’s risk assessment adopted weaker standards for protecting workers from formaldehyde than had been proposed in a previous draft. The move was decried by some environmentalists, including one who said it would affect hundreds of thousands of people whose jobs require them to come into contact with the chemical.

By law, the EPA should now begin the next stage of regulation: drafting restrictions to mitigate the risks it identified. But even before the agency released the report, House Republicans urged the administration to invalidate it. And a chemical industry group immediately attacked the report as flawed, accusing the EPA of “pursuing unaccountable lame duck actions that threaten the U.S. economy and key sectors that support health, safety and national security.”

How — and whether — to rein in the risks of formaldehyde promises to be one of the first tests of the EPA under a second Trump administration. The relatively inexpensive chemical is ubiquitous, used for everything from preserving dead bodies to making plastics and semiconductors. On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly said he supports clean air. But he has also vowed to roll back regulations he views as anti-business — and industry has rallied around formaldehyde for decades.

When Trump first assumed office in 2017, the agency was preparing to publish a report on the toxicity of the chemical. But one of his EPA appointees, who was given a high-ranking role in the agency’s Office of Research and Development, was a chemical engineer who had worked to fend off the regulation of formaldehyde as an employee of Koch Industries, whose subsidiary made formaldehyde and many products that emit it. The report was not released until August 2024, long after Trump’s appointee left the agency.

According to ProPublica’s analysis of the EPA’s 2020 AirToxScreen data, some 320 million people live in areas of the U.S. where the lifetime cancer risk from outdoor exposure to formaldehyde is 10 times higher than the agency’s ideal. ProPublica released a lookup tool that allows anyone in the country to understand their outdoor risk from formaldehyde.

Still, the EPA decided in its finalized assessment that those health risks are not unreasonable, echoing a draft the agency released in March. Back then, to determine whether formaldehyde posed an unreasonable risk of harm, the EPA compared levels in outdoor air to the highest concentrations measured by monitors in a six-year period. The ProPublica investigation found that the measurement the draft report used as a reference point was a fluke and had not met the quality control standards of the local air monitoring body that registered it.

That explanation was absent from the final version released this week. Instead, it offered several new rationales, including that some formaldehyde degrades in the air and that levels vary over people’s lifetimes, but it came to the same conclusion as the draft had: that formaldehyde in outdoor air isn’t a threat that needs to be addressed.

That decision leaves people living near industrial plants — known as fence line areas — with little hope of protection, according to Katherine O’Brien, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, who has closely followed the EPA’s efforts to regulate formaldehyde.

“Despite calculating very high cancer risks for people in their homes and also fence line community residents, EPA has completely written off those risks, and set the stage for no regulation to address those risks,” said O’Brien. “That’s deeply disappointing and very hard to comprehend.”

Compared to the draft published in March, which was heavily criticized by industry, the final version contained weaker standards for protecting workers. The acceptable levels of workplace formaldehyde exposure set in the final version of the assessment were significantly higher than the levels in the earlier draft of the report.

Maria Doa, senior director of chemicals policy at the Environmental Defense Fund, expressed alarm over the decision. “This is a less protective standard that would leave workers at risk,” said Doa, a chemist who worked at the EPA for 30 years. She noted that the report’s figures show an estimated 450,000 workers could be left vulnerable to the effects of formaldehyde as a result.

The EPA press office did not immediately respond to questions about its determination for outdoor air or the change it made to the value set to protect workers.

It’s unclear what parts, if any, of the new report will be allowed to stand.

Last month, Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, urged the incoming administration to make revisiting the Biden EPA’s work on formaldehyde “a top priority for 2025.” In a letter to Lee Zeldin, Trump’s pick to run the agency, Sessions derided this week’s report as “based upon unscientific data that was utilized by unaccountable officials at the EPA to tie the hands of the new Administration and hamper economic growth.” (The letter was first reported by InsideEPA.)

Sessions, who is a co-chair of the new Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency caucus and a staunch ally of Trump, recommended scrapping the EPA’s assessments of formaldehyde and reversing course on “broader Biden policies” on chemicals.

Paul Krugman responds today to Donald Trump's latest idiocy on tariffs, complaining that "almost all attempts to refute Trump’s claims that he can replace income taxes with tariffs aim too high." True enough! But then he says: I’m a great admirer of Clausing and Obstfeld’s work on the amount of revenue we could possibly collect ...continue reading "Why can’t tariffs replace the income tax?"

EDWARDSVILLE - Senior forward Kaylea Lacey, who's been a major part of the Alton high girls basketball team for multiple seasons, is still a key to the Redbirds as they seek to go to the IHSA Class 4A state finals in March in Bloomington-Normal. Lacey played a guiding role in the Redbirds' finish last year at 32-3, losing in the super-sectional game to Aurora Waubonsie Valley and Alton is off to a blazing 13-1 start under head coach Deserea Howard in the 2024-2025 campaign. The Redbirds proved to many observers so far this season that Alton is still a very good girls' team even without all-everything point guard Kiyoko Proctor, who has now returned to the lineup after a knee injury forced her out of action for the first part of the season. Proctor was still on the sidelines in her captain role encouraging and helping all the girls around her. Lacey is an Auto Butler Female Athlete of the Month for the Redbirds for her efforts with Alton this year. "We're definitely building chemistry,

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Whether your kiddo needs adaptive play equipment or just a place where the lights and noise are toned down, there are fun options for everyone.

ST. LOUIS - The City of St. Louis is preparing for its first major winter storm of the season as the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a Winter Storm Watch for the City of St. Louis beginning Saturday, January 4 at 6:00 p.m. City agencies join NWS in urging residents to take precautions and preventive measures to protect themselves and their families during extreme conditions. The City of St. Louis will see heavy mixed precipitation, including a potential total of sleet and snow between five and 10 inches and ice accumulations between two and three-tenths of an inch. Forecasted temperatures will then drop to highs in the teens and 20s and lows in the single digits for the next several days. Residents and visitors should stay informed to make any necessary adjustments to travel plans and follow local media, the City’s website , and City Emergency Management (CEMA) social media alerts for information, resources and updates. Residents should also sign up for the City’s

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For the past few years, I’ve used Cronometer as a nutrition app. It’s pretty good for tracking food, exercise, and much more. I appreciate that it has very detailed nutritional data, and even when it doesn’t, I’m able to upload nutritional labels with just a quick photograph on my phone. It’s a nice app. So […]

O’FALLON — HSHS St. Elizabeth’s Hospital proudly welcomed Sevin Le’andre Rucker as the first baby born at the hospital in 2025. He arrived at 4:42 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, weighing 5 pounds, 14.5 ounces and was 19 inches long. Sevin’s proud parents are Deshaun Crockett and Quinton Rucker of Collinsville. In celebration of being the first baby born in 2025 at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Sevin and his family were presented with a basket of gifts from the Women and Infants Center including baby blankets, bibs, pacifier holder, socks for mom and sweet treats. For others expecting in 2025, St. Elizabeth’s offers a wide range of services for mothers and infants, including tours, prenatal classes, and recently expanded available services by launching an Obstetric Emergency Department (OB ED) for pregnant patients facing pregnancy concerns or a pregnancy or postpartum-related medical emergency, along with adding an OB/Gyn Hospitalist program.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – With a record 62 elected Black officials, including historic firsts of two women senators and two representatives from Alabama, the Congressional Black Caucus held a swearing-in ceremony Friday morning before members took the oath of office for the 119th U.S. Congress. Democrats Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware […]

The Gateway City offers myriad kid-friendly attractions. But where to start? Try these essential St. Louis experiences.

In an extraordinary turn, a judge Friday set President-elect Donald Trump's sentencing in his hush money case for Jan. 10 — little over a week before he's due to return to the White House — but promised not to jail him.

ALTON — The 12th Night of Christmas Bonfire in Middletown has been rescheduled to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, at Haskell Park, moving up from its original date of Jan. 6 due to an unfavorable weather forecast. Molly Bailey, a coordinator of the event, noted that the decision to change the date was made in light of the expected snow and ice storm Sunday and Monday. "It didn’t sound good," Bailey said, referring to the weather forecast for the two days. "Instead of canceling, we decided to bump it up two days to try to beat the incoming weather." The bonfire, organized by Middletown Neighbors, is set to feature carols, cookies, wassail, and the traditional bonfire, which will be lit by the Alton Fire Department around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday. The event will last approximately one hour and is open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to bring live tree donations for the bonfire, which can be placed at the park on the 12th and Henry side in Alton. Volunteers are also

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Local union leaders say their focus is now on a previously announced proposal by U.S. Steel to sell two idled blast furnaces in Granite City to another steelmaker, a deal they say would lead to a significant loss of union jobs.

It happened minutes before 3 p.m. at the Target near the Hampton Village Shopping Center.