stLouISTJosh Hawley tries, again, to get Missouri named in radiation compensation bill
Hawley said he will fight to block plans by U.S. House to speed up passage of smaller version of bill that does not include Missouri, other states.
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Ex-St. Louis alderman starts lobbying after release from federal prison
Biden urged to ensure immigrants’ temporary legal status before Trump mass deportations
WASHINGTON — Jose Cabrera took off work from his landscaping job to join three Latino Democratic senators for a Wednesday press conference urging the Biden administration to renew protected statuses, like his, before the return of President-elect Donald Trump to the White House. Cabrera, of Montgomery County, Maryland, has lived in the U.S. for more than […]
Judge denies LA Rams' push for arbitration in Earth City practice facility dispute
State lawmaker revives push to merge city of St. Louis, St. Louis County
"What are we doing sitting around talking about problems we've had longer than I've been alive?" the Democrat said.
Def Leppard to headline inaugural Boardwalk Rock festival in Ocean City, Maryland
Def Leppard is set to headline the inaugural Boardwalk Rock festival, taking place May 17-18 in Ocean City, Maryland.Also headlining the fest are Mötley Crüe, Nickelback and Shinedown.The festival will feature three stages on…
Durbin Pays Tribute To Senators Brown, Tester, Casey, And Romney For Their Service In The U.S. Senate
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today paid tribute to four additional Senators who will be leaving the United States Senate at the end of the 118th Congress—U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jon Tester (D-MT), Bob Casey (D-PA), and Mitt Romney (R-UT). On Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Durbin said: “Sherrod Brown spent 50 years in public office… including the last 18 years in the Senate. He is the kind of person that comes to the Senate ready to fight for people who don’t have lawyers and lobbyists to speak for them… Sherrod spent his life working for an economy and a government that cares about the working class and invests in towns, factories, health care, and the potential of working families. He fought for fair trade deals and opposed trade agreements that he thought shortchanged American workers—even when his opposition put him at odds with the president of his own party. He
Attorney General Raoul Secures Win In Challenge To Albertsons, Kroger Merger
CHICAGO - Attorney General Kwame Raoul today announced the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon granted a preliminary injunction in Raoul’s lawsuit challenging the proposed merger between Albertsons and Kroger. The ruling halts the merger of the largest supermarket chains in the country, including two of the Chicago area’s major grocery chains, Jewel-Osco and Mariano’s, pending an administrative trial before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). “Today’s ruling is a victory for consumers in Illinois and across the country,” Raoul said. “Reduced competition would lead to higher grocery prices for families at a time when too many can least afford it. I will continue to advocate for consumers to have increased choices that allow them to make decisions that best meet their needs.” Raoul, along with the FTC and a bipartisan coalition of eight other attorneys general, filed a lawsuit in February challenging the proposed supermarket
Lawsuit claims defective Sleep Number bed led to Metro East mother's death
A lawsuit filed Tuesday in St. Louis County claims that a defective Sleep Number bed caused injuries that ultimately led to the death of a Metro East mother.
Deep Dive: From Priorities to Progress (Greene's breakdown of the Rams Settlement money)
Application for City of St. Louis' one-time rent assistance program open through Dec. 16
Restaurant Boycott
St. Louis officials share spending plans for Rams settlement money
St. Louis officials discussed how they propose to spend money from the Rams settlement to help people, development and infrastructure around the city.
Nelly, St. Lunatics, Chingy going on world tour, omits St. Louis
ST. LOUIS - Nelly, Chingy, and members of the St. Lunatics are set to embark on the 'Where the Party At' World Tour in 2025. Although the tour features more than 50 tour dates across several countries, local residents are surprised the St. Louis natives won't be stopping in their hometown. The St. Louis natives [...]
'Technical issue' sparks widespread Facebook, Meta problems
Meta said Wednesday afternoon that the problems were sparked by "a technical issue."
Popular window on Blueberry Hill tells its story through a new book
Godfrey woman says Sleep Number bed killed her mother, sues companies in St. Louis County
The woman who died was between the raised Sleep Number Bed and the wall of her bedroom when the bed "lowered without warning," the suit says.
St. Louis County PD hope new docuseries will help with recruiting, community relationships
US should declassify what it knows about deadly Colombian Supreme Court attack
Colombian President Gustavo Petro is asking President Joe Biden to declassify U.S. records on one of Colombia’s most infamous human rights cases — its army’s 1985 siege of the Colombian Supreme Court.
Biden should agree to start the declassification process immediately. The U.S. has the unique ability to perform declassification diplomacy because of the quality of its archives, and it should engage in it regularly and proactively.
There is no danger in releasing these 40-year-old records, and they would help bring closure to families still searching for answers about what happened to their loved ones.
‘A volcanic disaster’
On Nov. 6, 1985, members of Colombia’s M-19 guerrilla group occupied the country’s Supreme Court building in Bogotá. (Petro was a member of M-19 at the time, but was detained before the assault.)
The CIA called M-19’s operation a “publicity-generating” stunt, but then-Colombian President Belisario Betancur was concerned that showing leniency would anger military leaders, and ordered a ferocious, disproportionate response.
The Colombian army launched a 27-hour siege of the building that killed 11 justices and over 100 civilians. Eleven people working in the building still remain unaccounted for, and are believed to have been tortured and killed by Colombian army intelligence for being collaborators. The CIA deemed the military’s handling of the event a “volcanic disaster.”
To date, accountability and answers about what happened to those disappeared by the military have proved scarce.
Colombia, whose records are not nearly as complete as those of the United States, has repeatedly asked for help finding answers. The Colombian truth commission wrote a letter to Biden in 2021 stating “Colombian archives are far from complete,” and “the extraordinary care taken by U.S. federal agencies to preserve and organize their own archives” would help the commission — and victims’ families — understand what happened.
Biden didn’t respond to that request.
He should make up for the oversight and help Petro now.
The president should direct the National Security Council to initiate a special declassification project immediately to ensure that the CIA, State Department, and Defense Intelligence Agency expeditiously release their records on the case.
FOIA requesters help fill the void
Some important U.S. documents on Colombia and the Palace of Justice have been declassified. This is largely thanks to the indefatigable efforts of researchers at the National Security Archive, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., where I served for years as public policy director. They’ve been filing FOIA requests on Colombia for decades.
The archive’s FOIA requests have won the release of information showing that the U.S. sent a six-person explosives team to Bogotá during the Palace of Justice crisis, considered sending the Colombians “12 asbestos suits” to help carry out their assault, and provided important political context for the military’s response.
These documents and their insights are important. And if you want to know more about declassified U.S. documents on Colombian civil unrest, there’s no better place to visit than the National Security Archive.
But the efforts by individual researchers can’t replicate the power of the president telling agencies to release their records, especially about what happened to the fate of the disappeared.
Countries turn to U.S. for records on human rights abuses
This isn’t the first time another country has asked the U.S. for help uncovering evidence of past atrocities.
The U.S. has already provided governments across Latin America with declassified records, and this kind of declassification diplomacy has demonstrable impacts.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton overrode objections from the CIA and ordered the declassification of U.S. records on human rights abuses committed by the Pinochet regime in Chile. The project successfully released more than 23,000 records from the State Department, CIA, FBI, and more, which were used in criminal trials in Santiago.
In 2002, the U.S. began supporting Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission by providing the Peruvian Congress with declassified documents. Some of these declassified records, which were also obtained by National Security Archive researchers in response to FOIA requests, were used to help successfully convict former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori of human rights abuses.
Special declassification projects have also been carried out for records on El Salvador and Guatemala.
But the largest effort is the Argentina declassification project. It was initiated by President Barack Obama and completed by President Donald Trump, and successfully released over 47,000 pages of records from the CIA, FBI, State Department, National Security Council, and more on human rights atrocities committed by the Argentine military dictatorship.
Declassification diplomacy is one of the United States’ most distinctive foreign policy tools, and it must be deployed as often as possible.
Biden should follow in the footsteps of Presidents Clinton, Obama, and Trump, and promise to release what the U.S. knows about the Palace of Justice tragedy.
