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According to the World Bank, the most expensive country in the world is Bermuda. The cheapest is Afghanistan. I was a little surprised that Taiwan was so low, and that Russia was as low as India.

Disclosure: I’m on the board of Bluesky, so feel free to take as many grains of salt as you want in reading it, though all of it applies equally to other decentralized social media ecosystems. The internet was supposed to liberate us. Instead, it’s left us feeling helpless, waiting for billionaires, governments, and tech giants to save […]

A 16-year-old boy was struck in the leg by a stray bullet in north St. Louis after two groups of people began firing gunshots at each other, and is now in stable condition at the hospital.

When no signs of a fire were visible from the street, firefighters used thermal imaging to locate the remnants of a fire inside a home on Apple Avenue.

COTTAGE HILLS — The Cottage Hills Fire Department responded to a fire in a shed located in the backyard of a residence on Deanna Avenue on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. Firefighters arrived at the scene in the 1200 block shortly after the call was placed to 911. Upon arrival, crews found the shed on fire. A box alarm was activated, prompting additional assistance from neighboring fire departments, including Rosewood Heights, Meadowbrook, and Fosterburg. The Alton Fire Department also sent an ambulance to the scene, along with Alton Memorial for fire standby. No injuries were reported as a result of the fire. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation, and officials have not yet determined what led to the incident.

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The 21-page report from Doug Burris, who oversaw improvement at the St. Louis County jail after a series of inmate deaths, lists 35 recommendations in total.

ST. LOUIS — The Delmar Loop Ice Carnival, a beloved winter event in St. Louis, took place on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025, drawing a crowd eager to experience a day filled with art, entertainment, and community spirit. The carnival ran from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. along Delmar Boulevard on Saturday, featuring over 55 ice sculptures, live ice carving demonstrations, and various activities for all ages. Samantha Smugala, Executive Director of the East Loop Community Improvement District, noted that this year marked the 18th anniversary of the Ice Carnival. "It is a festival unlike any in St. Louis," she said. "We are here to celebrate ice, not on the roads, but as an art form." She highlighted the impressive display of sculptures representing local businesses, as well as a large ice selfie color wall that attracted many attendees. In addition to the ice sculptures, the carnival offered a range of entertainment, including fire dancers, music, and kids' games throughout the day. One

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This time last year, the Missouri Senate was barely functioning. Members of the Freedom Caucus, a renegade group of GOP senators who’ve been at war with party leadership for years, used procedural hijinks to grind the chamber to a halt almost daily.  In retaliation, Senate leaders stripped committee assignments from Freedom Caucus members — and even mused publicly about expelling a caucus leader from the chamber.  The legislative session limped to a close four months later with fewer…

District 3 is investigating a shooting that happened around 12:30 a.m. on January 27 in the 2800 block of Gravois.

The post Man Shot in Benton Park West appeared first on St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

Doug Burris, a nationally recognized expert in corrections, will serve as the commissioner of corrections on a provisional basis.

Sunday, Jan. 26, would have been guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s 70th birthday, and his family and bandmates marked the occasion on social media.The late rocker’s son, Mammoth WVH frontman Wolfgang Van…

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Make your dream of meeting a Budweiser Clydesdale a reality at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis. On the Clydesdale VIP Experience, you’ll visit the original Clydesdale Paddock as well […]

The post Clydesdale VIP Experience appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Take an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis. On the Beermaster Tour, you’ll receive an all-access look at how the King of Beers is brewed, visiting […]

The post Beermaster Tour appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

The most popular tour at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis gives guests a closer look at the picturesque campus and the on-site brewing methods. Packed with history, the Day […]

The post Day Fresh Tour appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Here's how the Jingle event in O'Fallon went so wrong. "This is a whole different level of scandal."

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.

A Republican judge has spent more than two months trying to overturn his narrow defeat for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat by arguing that around 60,000 ballots should be tossed out. But many residents have only recently learned that their votes are in danger of not being counted and say they have done nothing wrong.

ProPublica has heard from dozens of voters who expressed astonishment and anger at state appeals court Judge Jefferson Griffin’s ongoing attempts to cancel their ballots. The claim at the heart of Griffin’s challenge: No ballot should be counted for a voter whose registration is missing a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.

The state election board and a Donald Trump-appointed federal judge have dismissed Griffin’s argument that the missing information should invalidate votes. What’s more, state election officials have made clear that there are many legitimate reasons for driver’s license or Social Security information to be missing. And it’s not as if voters can cast ballots without confirming who they are. North Carolina law requires that people verify their identity at the polls — in most cases by showing a driver’s license.

Elizabeth MacDonald, who registered as an unaffiliated voter and lives in an area of Western North Carolina ravaged by Hurricane Helene, made sure to cast a ballot, even though she was still consumed by both the devastation of the storm and the demands of caring for her infant. “The prospect of losing my vote for arbitrary and political reasons is especially painful given the personal and communal trauma we’ve endured over the past several months,” MacDonald wrote in a letter to Griffin, which she shared with ProPublica.

“We’re extremely upset,” said Frank Jarvis, whose wife’s registration was challenged and who lives on the state’s eastern coast. “We’re traditional conservatives and Republicans — but it leaves a terrible taste in my mouth, no matter what side it is doing this. I don’t need that kind of person representing me on the Supreme Court.”

Multiple data analyses show that the voters whose ballots were targeted by Griffin are disproportionately Black, Democratic and young. Griffin’s lawyers have written in a legal brief that if a court grants their requests to nullify the ballots, Griffin will likely be able to overturn his 734-vote loss to Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs. The majority-Republican Supreme Court has issued an order blocking certification of Riggs’ win until Griffin’s challenge can be heard in a lower court.

Voters gathered in New Bern, North Carolina, in mid-January to learn about Judge Jefferson Griffin’s ballot challenge. (Rachel Jessen for ProPublica)

Griffin responded to a list of detailed questions from ProPublica by writing, “I can’t comment on pending litigation. It would be a violation of our Judicial Code of Conduct for me to do so.”

Below are the stories of four of the dozens of voters ProPublica heard from, whose experiences reflect various reasons that driver’s license and Social Security information could be missing from their registration. One has a health condition that prevents him from driving and therefore doesn’t have a license. Another is among the voters who claim that their registration application was filled out correctly and that a clerical error is likely to blame. A newcomer to the state is among the many who didn’t yet have a North Carolina driver’s license when they registered to vote. And, at the other end of the spectrum, a longtime North Carolina voter is one of millions who registered before the information was marked as required on a state voter registration form.

“Today It’s North Carolina, and Tomorrow It’s Another State”

In mid-January, dozens of mostly Black voters gathered in a historical church in New Bern, North Carolina, to learn why a white judge was trying to throw out their votes. The congregation of St. Peters AME Zion Church was established during the Civil War for newly emancipated African Americans, and since then it has remained a central stage for the state’s political struggles. One of the organizers of the gathering was Vicki Sykes, a 58-year-old poll worker, who had been surprised one evening in early January to receive a call from a voting rights advocate informing her that her ballot was among those Griffin was attempting to disqualify.

Vicki Sykes helped organize an event for voters whose ballots were challenged. (Rachel Jessen for ProPublica)

“The audacity of challenging me was shocking,” Sykes said. “I know the rules.”

Sykes said she brought her driver’s license with her when she registered to vote in 2024 after moving to another North Carolina county and gave it to an election worker — and now suspects an administrative error could have been to blame for her driver’s license number not being entered on her form. Concerned that many people weren’t aware that their votes were in danger of being nullified, Sykes and her sister-in-law, a pastor, arranged the gathering, putting out the word through Facebook messages, calls, voting rights groups and flyers.

“I want people to know today it’s North Carolina, and tomorrow it’s another state,” said Sykes. “It could be a blueprint for what’s to come. So we’re going to fight like hell for that not to happen.”

“It Felt Like Griffin Was Trying to Cast Me Aside”

Connor Addison has epilepsy, a condition that makes it dangerous for him to drive if seizure were to strike while he was behind the wheel. But Addison never expected his medical condition would affect his ability to vote.

He said that around 2022, when he turned 18, he registered in Wake County using his Social Security number. He voted in the 2022 and 2024 elections without problems using a state-approved ID card.

Connor Addison didn’t provide a driver’s license when he registered to vote because he doesn’t have one. (Rachel Jessen for ProPublica)

Then, a few weeks ago, his mother told him his registration had been challenged by Griffin, after she heard about the challenges and searched a copy of them available online. “I was almost in disbelief. I’d had to take special actions already to make sure I could vote,” Addison said. “It felt like Griffin was trying to cast me aside.”

Since then, Addison has been speaking out about the challenges, especially in online communities, where he spends much of his time, as his health limits his ability to move about in the physical world. “I want people to understand that what is happening shouldn’t be happening,” said Addison.

“Make Sure Your Vote Counts”

One afternoon last week, Sofia Dib-Gomez, an 18-year-old college freshman, set up a table in Duke University’s main dining hall with a sign declaring, “Make Sure Your Vote Counts.” Then she began asking passersby hurrying to class if they knew whether their ballot was being challenged in the 2024 election. The first student who stopped by was shocked to find that his was.

Sofia Dib-Gomez talks with other Duke University students about Griffin’s challenges to voters. (Rachel Jessen for ProPublica)

Dib-Gomez is a member of the Student Voting Rights Lab at Duke and North Carolina Central University, a group that combed the list of Griffin’s challenges to identify around 750 students from Duke whose ballots were targeted and around 4,300 more from other colleges. Research by the group suggests that Griffin’s challenges disproportionately affect young voters. According to the research, people between the ages of 18 and 25 were 3.4 times more likely to be challenged than those over 65.

While assisting with the research, Dib-Gomez was surprised to discover that she was among the challenged voters. When she moved from New York to North Carolina last year, she registered to vote by providing her Social Security number, since she lacked a state driver’s license.

“This was the first election I was able to vote in, so I was very frustrated when I found out,” said Dib-Gomez, who provided her passport to prove her identity when voting. “Students shouldn’t have to feel that this is their fault or they did something wrong. This is targeting them in an attempt to overturn an election.”

“He Might Really Actually Get Away With This”

Mindy Beller and her husband, Scott Evans, in their home (Juan Diego Reyes for ProPublica)

When Mindy Beller was growing up, her mother would take her to the polls and talk to her about how important voting was. In November, Beller took her own daughter to vote for the first time. Afterward, they went out to eat at an Indian restaurant to celebrate. “I said, ‘Thanks for voting,’ and she said, ‘Thanks for raising me to be a voter,” Beller recalled.

Not long after, a voting rights group contacted Beller to let her know that her vote was being challenged by Griffin. It’s been more than two decades since Beller, who is 62, registered to vote. Until about a year ago, the state’s voter registration form did not require people to include their drivers license or Social Security information, instead coding it as optional, before updating it after a complaint to the state election board pointed out that the form should require the information. Beller felt especially frustrated with Griffin’s challenge, as she lives outside Asheville, North Carolina, portions of which were wiped away by Hurricane Helene, and felt that neither she nor other impacted voters needed the additional stress of the challenges after striving to vote in the storm’s aftermath.

“I keep thinking it can’t be real,” said Beller. “But as it gets closer, he might really actually get away with this.”

Rachel Jessen contributed reporting.

Correction

Jan. 30, 2025: This story originally misspelled a voter’s surname on a subsequent reference. She is Elizabeth MacDonald, not McDonald.

On January 20, 2025, just after 2PM, District 6 officers responded to a call for an accident with a person struck. When officers arrived, they located a 39-year-old female who was killed and a two-year-old boy in critical condition. The driver of the vehicle remained at the scene. The child was rushed to the hospital and Accident Reconstruction investigators were called to investigate.

The post UPDATE: Mother Dies, 2-Year-Old Critically Injured After Being Hit by Car on West Florissant appeared first on St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.