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Some slender swans swimming serenely south on the silken Seine.

Metallica's Kirk Hammett has teamed up with Epiphone to recreate his signature "Greeny" guitar. "Greeny" is a 1959 Les Paul Standard and is named after its original owner, late Fleetwood…

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The freestanding, adjoining buildings, which date to 1897, are across the street from SLU and near Chaifetz Arena. Preservationist groups see potential for redevelopment of the structures.

ALTON - Community members teamed up at LaMay’s Catering to give out 150 hot side dishes, 200 turkeys and 500 meals for their annual Thanksgiving Blessing Giveaway. The giveaway is a partnership between Shenekia Stovall and Jason and Kayla Harrison, owners of LaMay’s. On Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023, Stovall, Jason, Kayla and many volunteers from Deliverance Temple came together to pass out hot food and deliver meals to houses around Alton. “Times are hard for everyone right now,” Stovall said. “And just to be able to be a blessing and to serve, that’s who I am. That’s just why it’s important to me. From a church perspective, we need to be in the community, not only worshiping but serving and making sure we are meeting the needs of our neighbors. To do this with Jason and the church, it’s an honor.” While the giveaway is about helping others, the mission is personal to Stovall. When she lost her son, Monte, eight years ago

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The St. Louis Cardinals have finalized deals to add starting pitchers Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson.

Lawmakers recently reconvened in the New Jersey State House, pictured here, for a lame-duck session. Hobbling the Open Public Records Act may be on the legislative agenda. New Jersey State House by Peter Miller is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Journalists in New Jersey have long used the state’s public records law to shed light on everything from misspent taxpayer money and petty acts of political retribution to deadly uses of force by police. But a new plan to hobble New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act, or OPRA, threatens access to the public records that make this reporting possible.

Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey, meeting during the legislature’s lame duck session, reportedly are considering using the guise of “reforming” OPRA in order to gut it. While the proposed legislation isn’t public (never a good sign), it’s believed that the reforms will include measures that:

• Add exemptions to OPRA that allow additional records to be withheld from public disclosure. OPRA already has 27 exemptions.
• Prevent records requesters from directly challenging denial of access in Superior Court. Instead, requesters will first have to appeal denials to the Government Records Council, which — according to the state’s own report — fails to quickly resolve records disputes.
• Eliminate the requirement that a public agency that wrongfully denies access to a public record pay a requester’s legal fees if they have to hire a lawyer to win access to the records. This “fee-shifting” requirement encourages attorneys to take on legitimate OPRA cases and enforce the law, because they’re likely to be paid.

These changes will decrease transparency in New Jersey and undermine the public’s right to know — and journalists’ ability to expose — what their government officials are up to.

That’s why Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) joined more than 60 other organizations — led by the New Jersey Working Families Party, the ACLU of New Jersey, and League of Women Voters of New Jersey — in a letter urging the New Jersey legislature to stop its efforts to push through OPRA changes during the lame-duck session.

It’s disappointing but perhaps not surprising that lawmakers are trying to ram through changes to OPRA. Public records laws often reveal authorities’ politically unpopular decisions, embarrassing conduct, or even criminal wrongdoing. Of course, elected officials know it would be unpopular to criticize public records laws for being a thorn in their sides, so they rely on other reasons to justify trying to eviscerate them.

In New Jersey, some lawmakers have argued that commercial requesters are abusing OPRA to gather information at an unfairly high cost to taxpayers. Yet they haven’t offered specifics about just how much these allegedly “abusive” requests are costing. Given the state’s history of making ridiculous accusations about overly burdensome requests, it’s more than fair to ask lawmakers to justify their claims with some evidence.

It’s also not clear how the potential changes to OPRA that lawmakers are said to be considering would stop abusive requests from commercial entities or save the government money, other than by making it harder for all requesters to access records. Even if commercial requesters are costing the state money, that’s no reason to limit access and transparency for everyone. Lawmakers should also consider the money saved when journalists use public records to expose government waste, fraud, and abuse.

In addition, there are better solutions to burdensome commercial requests, like posting frequently requested records publicly online, improving technology used to maintain and search for records, or even charging commercial requesters (which should not include the press).

OPRA reforms that actually benefit the public wouldn’t have to be rushed through, behind the scenes, in a lame-duck session. If lawmakers are truly interested in improving the law, not weakening it, they should work openly and cooperatively with journalists, public interest groups, and members of the public to enact real reform in the next regular session. Otherwise, only secrecy is served.

The high-traffic shopping center site, which is about 1.2 miles east of the I-270 interchange, is along a major hotspot for bank and credit union branches in the St. Louis region

Just remember: they're all crooks. All of them: Changpeng Zhao, founder of the world’s largest crypto exchange, agreed to plead guilty to federal money laundering charges and step down as chief executive of Binance, which will pay a $4.3 billion fine, according to court documents. ....Court papers filed by the government say that Binance chose ...continue reading "Yet another crypto exchange goes down"

The move would seem to suggest that the Battlehawks will remain intact as its league, the XFL, pursues a merger with the rival United States Football League.

After a brief rebound in February, sales of existing homes just keep going lower and lower: In January 2021, existing homes sold at an annualized rate of 6.6 million. They've fallen 42% since then, due largely to higher interest rates. Unless you can pay cash, selling your home and moving to a new one means ...continue reading "Existing home sales continue to drop"

Today on TAP: Americans’ economic views are at odds with Americans’ economic behavior. So, whence those views?

Disability rights advocates say they're pleased with promises from the region's transit agency, after months of debate over service woes.

A few weeks back we wrote about a report that the EU Commission, in its push for dangerous client-side scanning mandates, had started buying highly targeted ads to try to influence people to support the policy. The ads, first revealed by Wired, were incredibly misleading. But, also, as we noted, appeared to violate EU’s privacy […]

ALTON - Vicky Schlueter shared some of her images from the Alton Tree Lighting Ceremony this past Friday night, Nov. 17, 2023, in Alton, which showcased the magical night. The tree lighting served as a kickoff for Christmas in the Alton region and was attended by hundreds of people, who enjoyed the lighting event. The Alton-Godfrey Rotary Club and Alton Main Street were the main sponsors of the annual tree lighting. "The event is wonderful," Alton Mayor David Goins said. He said each year the Alton Tree Lighting brings the community together. Mayor Goins performed the honor of turning on the tree lights at the end of the ceremony. A multitude of children and families were present when he flipped the switch. The Salvation Army also used the event as a kickoff for its annual bell-ringing campaign in Alton. Residents are urged to give at the kettles this weekend when shopping around the Alton area. This shopping weekend is always one of the most important for the bell-ringing

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Total factor productivity is, roughly, productivity gains due to technological advances. We didn't get much of it in 2022: The entertainment industry apparently adopted new technology with tremendous enthusiasm. The mining industry didn't.

GRAFTON - After over 40 years in business, the beloved Fin Inn Restaurant is for sale. Located at 1500 W. Main Street in Grafton, the property will be sold as-is in an online auction next month. Bidding starts on Friday, Dec. 15, 2023, and ends on Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023. Real estate agent Tommy Ruyle says the property has potential to be anything the buyer wants it to be, with lots of history and a prime spot on the Great River Road. “This an iconic restaurant, but also, it has frontage on the Great River Road there in Grafton, and that’s hard to come by,” Ruyle said. “It doesn’t come up very often in Grafton that you’ve got access to the Great River Road. So there’s all kinds of potential projects that somebody may have in mind to bring — if it’s not the Fin Inn again — some other attraction that the public and the tourist industry in that area are going to enjoy.” Ruyle, who owns Countryside Land & Auction,

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They are among the most endangered big cat species globally.

According to the St. Louis Area Foodbank, donations are down by 16% while the need is up by 11%.