Aggregator

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Representatives Nikki Budzinski (D-IL-13) and Mike Carey (R-OH-15) introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation to renew the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) – a federal program that helped low-income households afford access to high-speed internet. The Affordable Connectivity Program, established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, ran out of funding in May – ending assistance for over 23 million American households. Bipartisan companion legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), J.D. Vance (R-OH), Peter Welch (D-VT), Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV). For nearly three years, the Affordable Connectivity Program helped families afford the high-speed internet services they need to work remotely, complete online coursework, attend telehealth appointments and more. The Secure and Affordable Broadband Extension Act would restore the program and provide eligible households

Continue Reading

BELLEVILLE - Caritas Family Solutions is celebrating the 77th anniversary of its founding as an Illinois nonprofit human services agency on July 31. The agency serves more than 6,300 people, is the largest provider of foster care in the southern Illinois region and touches the lives of 1,700 foster children annually. The day, known as Caritas Day, is dedicated to raising awareness about the lives they touch through its programs and services. The nonprofit also has other service lines which include pregnancy care for women experiencing homelessness, adoption, counseling, community family stabilization for families experiencing homelessness and independent living for adults with disabilities. “Every year as we celebrate Caritas Day, our staff takes a moment to reflect on all of the lives our agency has touched,” said Caritas Family Solutions CEO Gary Huelsmann. “We are so proud of the growth and milestones we’ve achieved within the past year, like moving

Continue Reading

ALTON - Get ready for a day of fun, community, and giving! On Saturday, August 3, from 9 am to 11 am, Beyond Basketball is teaming up with YWCA and the Alton Community Boxing Club for an exciting Back-to-School Giveaway at the YWCA GYM, located at 304 E. Third St., Alton. This event promises to be a fantastic morning for the whole family, with free backpacks and supplies perfect for youth in grades K-12. But that's not all! We're also firing up the grill for a delicious barbecue, featuring free hotdogs, hamburgers, chips, and drinks for all attendees. Meet representatives from Beyond Basketball, YWCA, and the Alton Community Boxing Club, who will be on hand to share information about various fall youth programs. This is a perfect opportunity to learn about the amazing activities and support available to your children this coming school year. Since 2022, Beyond Basketball has been dedicated to enriching the lives of youth aged 11-17 through competitive basketball and other engaging

Continue Reading

Black leaders in St. Louis say politics and racism are keeping a wrongly convicted man behind bars. At a press conference in STL Tuesday, leaders of the Missouri NAACP and other organizations say politics and racism are behind the state attorney general’s effort to keep a wrongly convicted man locked up, more than a week…

The post STL NAACP appeared first on The Big 550 KTRS.

A political action committee that for two years has mostly existed to bankroll Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s trips to the Super Bowl has begun spending money to bolster his preferred candidates in next week’s GOP primaries. And while his PAC spends money, Parson is also wading into the primaries through his taxpayer-funded office — drawing […]

Apparently, Congress only “listens to the children” when they agree with what the kids are saying. As soon as some kids oppose something like KOSA, their views no longer count. It’s no surprise given the way things were going, but the Senate today overwhelmingly passed KOSA by a 91 to 3 vote. The three no […]

Former President Donald Trump has said in a radio interview that Vice President Kamala Harris “doesn’t like Jewish people” and appeared to agree with a host who called her Jewish husband, Doug Emhoff, “a crappy Jew.” Trump spoke Tuesday on radio station WABC. The Republican’s campaign earlier announced that he will travel to Atlanta on…

The post The Latest: Project 2025’s director steps down and Trump says Harris ‘doesn’t like Jewish people’ appeared first on The Big 550 KTRS.

WASHINGTON — Legislation aimed at protecting children online sailed through the U.S. Senate Tuesday, marking what could be the first update since the late 1990s for companies who interact with minors on the internet. Senators approved the package of two bills in a 91-3 vote, a rare bipartisan landslide in the tightly divided body, despite loud […]

ALTON – In preparation for the annual Duck Pluckers Ball, Alton Memorial Health Services Foundation is hosting an online raffle that will open Monday, Aug. 5. The event website where raffle tickets may be purchased starting Aug. 5 is www.virtualauction.bid/duckpluckers The featured item is a 2024 CF Moto Camo C600 four-wheeler from Midwest Motor Sports in Hartford. There will only be 500 chances available for that raffle. Cost is $50 per ticket. Other online raffle items will include: Booze Boat: An inflatable boat filled with a variety of liquor donated by area bars and restaurants. Freezer of Beef: Donated by B&M livestock and AMHSF, the freezer is 5 cubic feet for a quarter beef. Bourbon collection: A collection of hard-to-find bottles of bourbon donated by Colman’s Country Campers and Barry and Gaye Julian. Tickets for these three raffles are $20 each. You must be 21 years or older to win and present a valid state-issued ID to collect your winnings.

Continue Reading

ALTON - The Summer Reading Program might be over, but the Hayner Public Library District still has lots of great activities and events planned for the community to enjoy. Mary Cordes, Hayner’s executive director, noted that the Summer Reading Program went well and the kids and teenagers who participated had fun. She said the kids read almost 5,000 books and the teens read 150 books during the six-week program. “I am so proud,” Cordes said. “I’m really proud of our teens and kids this summer…I’m proud of the staff. For six weeks, there was something every single day for six weeks for the kids to do. That’s a lot of work, so huge, huge, huge props to because they were amazing this summer.” Cordes pointed out that the Summer Reading Program allows kids to stay engaged and practice their reading skills. This ensures that they don’t lose any of these skills in between school years. The Summer Reading Program is als

Continue Reading

The classic tragicomedy will be staged across Missouri and Illinois from July 30–August 25.

Fleetwood Mac’s Mick Fleetwood and Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Billy Cox are among the performers set to take part in the first Maui Music & Food Experience, happening Sept. 5-7. Other artists performing…

Source

A 16-year-old was found injured with a gunshot wound to her leg around midnight Tuesday in the LaSalle neighborhood.

Gustova Henton, 47, of St. Louis county died in the hospital Monday after he was shot in the stomach near Thelka Avenue and Kingshighway Boulevard.

The University of Missouri will eliminate its division focused on diversity, social equity and inclusion on the Columbia campus, completing the dismantling of administrative structures put in place after protests in 2015 brought national attention to issues of racial equality. The move coincides with the departure of division Vice Chancellor Maurice Gipson. It is designed to appease Republicans who are showing hostility towards efforts designed to attract and retain students from historically…

by Dr. John Gaal Editor’s Note: Each week, Dr. John Gaal, director of worker wellness for the Missouri Works Initiative, a non-profit workforce formed by the Missouri AFL-CIO, collects and comments on news and trends in workforce wellness and life balance. Construction Forum carries the Worker Wellness & Well-Being Blog as a regular feature. The […]

The Los Angeles Times recently reported that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigated a journalist for receiving stolen property based on her reporting on government records.

Associated Press/Jae C. Hong

Back in January, we warned about the dangers of authorities characterizing journalists’ source material as “stolen goods” in an attempt to circumvent the First Amendment and prosecute journalists for receiving information from their sources.

But our lead example then was the investigation of Project Veritas for obtaining Ashley Biden’s diary from a thief — not exactly a sympathetic set of facts. Recently, though, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department secretly investigated reporter Maya Lau between 2017 and 2021 for obtaining a list of “problem deputies” from a source.

The basis for the investigation? That Lau “knowingly received stolen property.” Sounds familiar. Authorities in LA ultimately did not indict Lau, probably because the Supreme Court has already ruled, most recently in the seminal 2001 case Bartnicki v. Vopper, that journalists are entitled to receive and publish illegally obtained documents and recordings from sources, as long as they don’t participate in the theft themselves.

The stolen property exception makes no sense. A journalist’s right to obtain and publish stolen documents is meaningless if they can’t 'possess' them.

The sheriff's department apologized for its actions, and said it no longer investigates journalists for publishing government records (they should tell their counterparts in LA’s city government, who just tried, unsuccessfully, to sue a journalist for possessing records that the city gave him).

But they might have reached a different decision if there were appellate cases recognizing a “stolen property” exception to the Bartnicki rule. And last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit came dangerously close to doing so in the aforementioned Project Veritas case, where the controversial outlet is accused of possessing stolen property, including Biden’s diary, and transporting it across state lines.

The stolen property exception makes no sense. A journalist’s right to obtain and publish stolen documents is meaningless if they can’t “possess” them.

It’s not the first time the government has come up with nonsensical ways to circumvent Bartnicki — prior examples range from prosecutors charging WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with violating the Espionage Act by obtaining and publishing leaked government documents to indicting digital journalist Tim Burke for computer fraud for finding news online.

But at least the reach of those legal theories is limited to national defense reporting and digital journalism, respectively. The “stolen property” theory could criminalize any use of unlawfully obtained documents, essentially nullifying Bartnicki.

Nonetheless, the appellate court rejected the argument that Bartnicki barred the investigation of Project Veritas because “a magistrate judge issued search warrants after finding probable cause that the Petitioners’ electronic devices contained evidence of federal crimes including conspiracy to transport stolen property across state lines and possess stolen goods.”

This circular reasoning – that if a judge approved a warrant, that settles questions as to its constitutional propriety – is disingenuous and dangerous. Low-level judges rubber stamp warrant applications all the time, often without considering their constitutional implications.

Perhaps that's why the 2nd Circuit designated its order as non-precedential: it knew its reasoning was unsound and problematic if adopted by other courts. But even non-precedential orders can be persuasive to lower courts, or give them cover to endorse similar nonsense when convenient.

Of course, the award-winning journalists who published the Pentagon Papers and the Snowden leaks, and countless other journalists whose reporting has relied on information their sources obtained illegally, also “possessed” the documents they published.

Unless courts are cautious and specific when they carve out a particular set of unique facts from well-established press freedom protections, zealous lawyers are sure to quote their words out of context in support of bogus legal theories.

It’s possible the Project Veritas case is different. There are allegations that, after receiving the diary, Project Veritas requested that its source provide more of Biden’s property to help it confirm the authenticity of the diary. If the investigation is focused solely on that – whether Project Veritas instructed its source to steal non-expressive, non-newsworthy materials – then it’s another case (and a far less concerning one) entirely.

But the 2nd Circuit’s opinion, like previous rulings in the case, does not say that, and appears to lump in the diary with any other stolen materials at issue in the case.

That can’t have been the 2nd Circuit’s intention. It knows it is bound by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bartnicki, and it can’t create an exception that swallows the rule whole.

But unless courts are cautious, clear and specific when they carve out a particular set of unique facts from well-established press freedom protections, zealous lawyers are sure to quote their words out of context in support of bogus legal theories.

And that’s likely what the LA County Sheriff's Department would have done if it had the 2nd Circuit’s ruling when it sought to convince prosecutors to pursue charges against Lau.

This article was updated to correct the spelling of Maya Lau's last name in the last paragraph.