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The couple had lived in tents at the intersection of Chippewa Street and Spring Avenue for at least three years, said one nearby resident.

The St. Louis region received a range of unflattering grades — including one F — in annual “report cards” for local air quality from the American Lung Association.

From Construction Dive:  Following months of preparation, a joint venture of St. Louis-based Paric and Southfield, Michigan-based Barton Malow started work on a $1.8 billion development at the St. Louis Lambert International Airport on behalf of aerospace giant Boeing, according to local media reports. The project is divided into two phases. The first includes an […]

From ENR:  Now 10 years old, Construction Safety Week has evolved. What at first was a national industry stand-down to emphasize safety compliance has grown into a coordinated week of training across the country and advocacy of a cause that reflects changing ideas about the role of workers to shape how construction tasks are done […]

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  Nearly 20 cities in the Normandy schools area are working to create a special sales tax district that would divvy up money for road and sidewalk repairs in neighborhoods that make up a large chunk of north St. Louis County. Backers of the plan, which would ask voters in 18 small […]

From The Guardian:  Wooden planks with nails covered the site where Antonio, a construction day laborer in Houston, Texas, was helping clear fencing last December. The contractor that hired him provided no protection, he said – so when he slipped, and a nail struck him just above the ankle, it became “really swollen”. Antonio was […]

House Speaker Dean Plocher said he cannot discuss complaints that he obstructed an ethics probe against him.

St. Louis’ 21c Museum Hotel was named one of the “41 Best New Hotels in North America and Europe 2024” by Esquire last month.  21c Museum Hotel (1528 Locust Street) opened last year in Downtown West in the city’s old YMCA building. While nodding to the building’s past by keeping the gym’s flooring, a renovated iteration of the YMCA's lap pool (now the Locust Street Athletic and Swim Club), keeping the wood paneling and more, the hotel offers luxurious rooms, art galleries, a top-notch bar and incredible, immersive art throughout. 

A water main break forced four Mehlville School District schools to close early Thursday morning.

While many Missouri residents can secure financing and a down payment to purchase a vehicle, the burden of paying the accompanying sales tax can lead to a temporary license tag expiring.

Students at Oakville High School, Oakville Middle School, Point Elementary School and Wohlwend Elementary School were dismissed early Thursday.

Legislation seeking to make it harder to change Missouri’s constitution through the initiative petition process was approved by the Missouri House on Thursday, sending it back to the Senate for a possible showdown between Republicans and Democrats over “ballot candy.”  The bill was initially approved earlier this year after Democrats ended their 21-hour filibuster in […]

The post Missouri House sends initiative petition bill back to Senate with ‘ballot candy’ reinstated appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Say goodbye to the signs that once flourished along Missouri highways, announcing that civic groups or grieving family members were cleaning up the nearby litter: The Missouri Department of Transportation has scrapped its Adopt-a-Highway program. The state agency's decision follows its suspension of the 37-year-old program last May — which came about after family members adopted a section of I-44 in the memory of a man convicted of killing a Kirkwood police officer. Missouri's Adopt-a-Highway survived a legal battle that allowed the Ku Klux Klan to adopt a portion of highway, but it apparently couldn't survive adoption by the family of Kevin Johnson.

The Hoffman Family of Companies has made an offer to purchase Oberweis Dairy and all of its assets after a bankruptcy filing earlier this month.

The measure now moves to the Senate for further debate.

A St. Louis man is accused of exposing himself outside a business near a busy south city intersection.

Charges have finally been dropped against Atmore News journalist Don Fletcher and publisher Sherry Digmon, who were unlawfully arrested for reporting on an investigation of a school board's handling of COVID funds. Escambia County Sheriff's Office

Almost six months ago, the arrests of Alabama reporter Don Fletcher and newspaper publisher Sherry Digmon made national headlines. Last week, charges that Fletcher and Digmon broke the law by reporting on a grand jury subpoena were finally dismissed.

That’s good news. But answers and accountability are still needed. The case against Fletcher and Digmon — which rivaled the raid of the Marion County Record for the most egregious U.S. press freedom violation of 2023 — was frivolous from the start.

The grand jury secrecy law they were charged under was plainly inapplicable to journalists, as opposed to grand jurors and others with direct access to grand jury proceedings. Anyone who read the text — let alone an experienced attorney like Escambia County District Attorney Stephen Billy — could have figured that out.

And Billy certainly should have known that the First Amendment does not permit arresting journalists for reporting the news. Nor does it permit what happened next: the imposition of a prior restraint prohibiting Digmon and Fletcher from doing their jobs as a condition of being bailed out of their illegal imprisonment.

Just like in Marion, local journalists have spent the months after the incident shedding light on what led authorities to target the press. And just like the former police chief and mayor in Marion, it sure looks like Billy had a personal grudge that led him to abuse his authority.

When Billy recused himself from the case in February, he cited “both a legal and a personal conflict.” He didn’t specify the nature of the conflict, but Billy was a vocal supporter of a former superintendent of the local school district who Digmon, in her capacity as a member of the school board, voted against retaining.

It’s unclear why Billy was so interested in the superintendent’s employment but let’s assume he legitimately believed she was the best qualified person for the job. It’s fine for him to advocate for her in his capacity as a citizen, but it’s another thing altogether to use his perch as district attorney to micromanage the board’s affairs under the threat of prosecution.

He gave a speech before the vote on the superintendent’s retention implying that letting her go would violate board members’ oaths of office, because he thought retaining her was in the district’s best interests. The threat was hardly veiled when he reportedly commented at the meeting that “I don’t control much, but I do control the grand jury of Escambia County.” If it wasn’t clear what he meant then, it certainly is now.

The dangers are obvious when officials try to mandate that others share their opinions by claiming anyone who disagrees must be a malicious actor. That’s authoritarian stuff. So is how, after the vote, deputy sheriffs reportedly obtained search warrants and seized the cellphones of all four board members who voted against retention.

Billy even used the criminal justice system to seek Digmon’s impeachment for, in his opinion, ignoring “all the positive things” he superintendent had done and “refusing to publish articles which promoted the school system and the superintendent, which were written by a contract writer of the school system.” The impeachment charge has also reportedly been dismissed.

It would be bad enough if Billy had filed these charges in good faith. That level of ignorance of the Constitution is inexcusable for any elected official, especially a prosecutor. But the evidence makes a strong showing that he wasted taxpayer money, and made a mockery of the First Amendment, to settle personal scores.

Fletcher, finally free of the illegal prior restraint that barred him from commenting on the case, isn’t letting Billy’s antics get in his way. “It will take a lot more than this to keep me from trying to dig up stories, especially when I think the people of this county are getting taken for a ride," he said. He added that Billy “needs to be out of that office because he's shown that he will abuse his power," calling the allegations Billy brought to the grand jury a combination of “misinformation,” “half-truth,” and “just lies.”

He’s right. The case shows Billy is both unqualified and unfit to hold his position as a district attorney — or any public office, for that matter. The dismissal of the charges against Digmon and Fletcher shouldn’t be the end of this story. Real accountability is needed.

Artists including Graham Nash, Yes and Duran Duran have signed an open letter supporting the proposed Fans First Act, which aims to "combat predatory resellers and the use of illegal bots"…

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NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein ’s 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren’t part of the case. Weinstein, 72, will remain imprisoned because he was [...]