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The banana ball team, the Savannah Bananas, announced Wednesday morning that their scheduled games for this weekend in St. Louis have been postponed.

Police found the man with a gunshot wound to the torso lying on the sidewalk along North Newstead Avenue.

District 5 is investigating a shooting that left two 23-year-old men injured on April 1, 2025 in the 5300 block of Pershing.

The post Two Shot in Skinker-Debaliviere appeared first on St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

Homicide Detectives are investigating a shooting that left a 28-year-old man dead on March 27, 2025 in the 5600 block of Pamplin Avenue.

The post UPDATE: Man Shot, Killed in Walnut Park West appeared first on St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

Homicide Detectives are investigation after an unidentified male was found shot and died at a hospital on March 31, 2025.

The post UPDATE: Man Found Shot in Greater Ville appeared first on St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

by Jesse Coburn

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

Three federal lawmakers are calling on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to stop any initiatives involving cryptocurrency and the blockchain, saying the scantly regulated technologies should be kept far away from the agency’s work overseeing the nation’s housing sector.

In a letter to HUD Secretary Scott Turner on Wednesday, Reps. Maxine Waters, Stephen Lynch and Emanuel Cleaver sharply criticized the agency for considering such experiments, given cryptocurrency’s volatility and vulnerability to fraud. The Democratic representatives, all members of the House Financial Services Committee, warned of repeating “the same mistakes of the past,” noting that the 2008 financial crisis was triggered in part by the proliferation of risky financial assets in the housing market.

“The federal government cannot allow under-regulated financial products to infiltrate critical housing programs, especially when they have already proven to be dangerous, speculative, and harmful to working families,” the lawmakers wrote.

The letter is a response to reporting by ProPublica that the housing agency recently discussed taking steps toward using cryptocurrency. The article described meetings in February in which officials discussed incorporating the blockchain — and possibly a type of cryptocurrency known as stablecoin — into the agency’s work. The discussion at one meeting centered on a pilot project involving one HUD grant, but a HUD finance official in attendance indicated the idea could be applied much more expansively across the agency.

“We are looking at this for the entire enterprise,” he said in that meeting, a recording of which was obtained by ProPublica. “We just wanted to start in CPD,” he added, referring to HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development. The office administers billions of dollars in grants to support low- and moderate-income people, including funding for affordable housing, homeless shelters and disaster recovery, raising the prospect that these forms of aid might one day be paid in an unstable currency.

Asked for comment on the letter, HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett referred ProPublica to a prior comment by Turner, in which he said, “There’s no merit to it.” Lovett previously told ProPublica: “The department has no plans for blockchain or stablecoin. Education is not implementation.”

It’s unclear how a crypto project would work. But HUD officials alluded to the possible use of stablecoins, which are pegged to the U.S. dollar or another asset. That is supposed to protect stablecoins from the wild swings in value common among bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, although such fluctuations have happened with stablecoins in the past.

The HUD proposal raised alarm among some officials, with one comparing the idea in internal discussions to paying grant recipients in “Monopoly money.” At best, one HUD staffer told ProPublica previously, the idea was a waste of time and resources; at worst it was a threat to the stability of the housing sector.

“It’s just introducing another unregulated security into the housing market as though 2008, 2009 didn’t happen,” the staffer said, referring to the subprime mortgage crisis. “I don’t see any way this will help anything. I see a lot of ways this could hurt.”

The HUD official pushing the idea internally was Irving Dennis, the agency’s new principal deputy chief financial officer, a staffer said at one of the meetings. Dennis denied to ProPublica that HUD was considering any such experiment. He published a book in 2021 in which he wrote that HUD should use the blockchain.

The blockchain is a digital ledger most commonly used to record cryptocurrency transactions. Boosters of the technology depict it as a way to cut middlemen such as banks out of financial transactions and to make those transactions more transparent and secure. One such evangelist is Robert Judson, an executive at the consulting firm EY, who is listed in a document obtained by ProPublica as an attendee of one of the HUD meetings. Judson has written glowingly about the potential of blockchain to prevent aid money from being misused. (Dennis was previously a partner at EY.)

Judson and EY did not respond to requests for comment for this article, but Judson previously confirmed to ProPublica that EY had discussed the matter with agency officials.

In their letter, the three representatives requested extensive information from HUD about its consideration of crypto and the blockchain, including whether the agency had assessed the risks of using the technology. The House Financial Services Committee is scheduled to consider a bill Wednesday that would regulate stablecoins.

Did you know that holding onto grudges can be as harmful to your health as smoking? According to research published in the "Journal of Behavioral Medicine," chronic resentment can lead to increased stress levels, which in turn can contribute to heart disease and other health issues. This startling statistic highlights the powerful impact that forgiveness—or the lack thereof—can have not just on our emotional well-being, but also on our physical health. Forgiveness is not just a noble act; it is a crucial skill that can mend damaged relationships and restore inner peace. Understanding Forgiveness Forgiveness is often misunderstood. Many people equate it with excusing bad behavior or dismissing the pain caused by others. However, true forgiveness involves acknowledging the hurt and choosing to release the negative emotions associated with it. It is a conscious decision to let go of the desire for retribution, which can lead to deeper connections and a healthier emotional

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April 2nd has been a significant date throughout history, marked by a variety of impactful events across the globe. Today, we take a journey through time to highlight some of the most notable occurrences on this day, from groundbreaking treaties to cultural milestones. One of the most momentous events in modern history took place on April 2, 1945, when the United States launched Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa during World War II. This operation marked the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater, involving over 180,000 American troops. The battle lasted until June 22, 1945, and was one of the bloodiest of the entire war, with significant casualties on both sides. The strategic importance of Okinawa was immense, serving as a staging area for a potential invasion of the Japanese mainland. The fierce fighting during this campaign ultimately contributed to Japan's surrender later that year and highlighted the brutal nature of the conflict. Fast forward to April 2,

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Conference Technologies Inc., a St. Louis-based tech firm, has acquired an audiovisual integration and events business in Arkansas.

Last October, Trump sued CBS claiming (falsely) that a 60 Minutes interview of Kamala Harris had been “deceitfully edited” to her benefit (they simply shortened some of her answers for brevity, as news outlets often do). As Mike explored in a post at the time, the lawsuit was utterly baseless, and tramples the First Amendment, editorial discretion, and […]

Superintendent Millicent Borishade said last month that the audit would “absolutely” be submitted by March 31, which is the federal deadline for government agencies.

The Missouri House gave first-round approval to a package of spending bills Tuesday, setting the stage for negotiations with the Senate over Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe’s budget request.

More than 1 million people seeking care such as contraception or testing for sexually transmitted diseases and cancer could be affected by the Trump administration withholding more than $27 million in Title X funding to Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide, according to estimates from the Guttmacher Institute. Planned Parenthood state affiliates said they were notified that the funding they receive under the Title X family-planning program would be temporarily frozen, Politico first reported Monday…

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker broke the record for longest floor speech in the history of the Senate on Tuesday, surpassing the 24-hour and 18-minute record set in 1957 when South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond attempted to prevent passage of the Civil Rights Act. Booker, a Democrat who began his remarks Monday at 7 p.m. saying he […]