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Under an order filed on Oct. 26, the city will develop and submit a plan to the EPA to address the radium contamination.

An increasing number of high school students are exploring the work and benefits of paid apprenticeships in the construction industry’s skilled crafts or trades, according to Southern Illinois Builders Association Chief Executive Officer Donna Richter. Students Learn About Construction Crafts Journeyman Scott Ricketts, right, Director of Market Development for Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 268 in […]

“Food Lion - Clarksville, VA” by Virginia Retail is licensed under CC BY 2.0 DEED.

If you’ve gone to journalism school in the last quarter century you’ve likely heard of the Food Lion case. A federal appellate court found that journalists who got jobs at Food Lion grocery stores to investigate food safety violations breached a duty of loyalty by misleading Food Lion and trespassed by entering employee areas they accessed under false pretenses.

Often presented to young journalists as a cautionary tale, the landmark case significantly slowed the once relatively common practice of “undercover” journalism. Lawyers who thought that the subjects of news reports could not recover damages in court as long as the facts reported were true, now saw a new risk: punitive damages based on newsgathering methods, as opposed to the content of the reporting.

As a result, hidden-camera and other surreptitious investigations were largely abandoned by many mainstream outlets and are now often associated with fringe (and often disreputable) platforms.

Appellate court says never mind

But this year, the Fourth Circuit — the same appellate court that decided Food Lion — all but overruled itself. The change of mind came in a case in which the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, and others challenged a North Carolina “ag-gag” law against undercover investigations at agricultural facilities.

The appellate court agreed that the law could not be weaponized against constitutionally protected newsgathering. Freedom of the Press Foundation joined a brief by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press supporting PETA’s position.

The government argued that the ag-gag law was passed to codify the Fourth Circuit’s decision in the Food Lion case. But the appellate court said that’s irrelevant because, in hindsight, Food Lion was wrong. As the North Carolina Supreme Court had already recognized, the journalists acting as food-counter clerks did not breach a duty of loyalty to the grocery chain and, therefore, could not have trespassed, because Food Lion let them in.

And this month, the Supreme Court declined to review the case. That leaves Food Lion seriously weakened if not dead altogether.

Food Lion’s significance was always overstated. While a jury verdict awarding Food Lion over $5.5 million in damages made headlines, the judge cut the damages to $315,000 and then the appellate court cut the total to a whopping $2.

One of the reasons lawmakers in North Carolina wanted to codify the case was so future Food Lions could recover real money. If Food Lion began as a $2 case, few would have given it much thought. But by the time the appellate court cut the damages (and by the time the North Carolina Supreme Court said that the Fourth Circuit got it wrong), the harm was already done by the publicity around the initial verdict.

There’s no telling how many stories the public missed out on as a result of the changes to journalism — both legal and cultural — brought about by Food Lion. We’re a long way from the days when a news outlet might go as far as to open a fake tavern so they could report firsthand on city officials’ shakedown attempts.

Don’t rush to put your hidden cameras back on

To be clear, we’re not suggesting that journalists everywhere start submitting false job applications and wearing hidden cameras. Please, talk to a lawyer before you do anything like that.

The PETA case clarified that the ABC journalists didn’t owe Food Lion a duty of loyalty when working as food-counter clerks, but the court might have viewed the issue differently if, for example, they’d falsely applied for a more senior role. There have been other cases decided and laws passed since Food Lion that may affect journalists’ rights in different jurisdictions. State laws on recording conversations without consent can also vary widely.

Unfortunately, cases involving unsympathetic outlets, which have taken the lead on undercover investigations since Food Lion, tend to yield bad outcomes. Last year, a federal jury in Washington, D.C. found Project Veritas liable after its operatives used fake names and backstories to obtain internships with Democratic consulting firms.

And the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held last year that the First Amendment did not protect anti-abortion activists who gained access to Planned Parenthood personnel by posing as exhibitors from a fake company. The Supreme Court also declined to review that decision, which relied on a questionable attempt to distinguish damages allegedly caused by the activists’ deceptive conduct itself from those caused by their subsequent publications.

And there may be ethical issues with surreptitious newsgathering even when it’s legal. The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics advises journalists to “Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information unless traditional, open methods will not yield information vital to the public (emphasis added).”

But do consider if there’s a place for stealth journalism

But we do think it’s worth noting that journalists have been limiting their reporting techniques for decades based, at least in part, on an incorrect ruling that has essentially been rescinded.

And the PETA case isn’t the only recent crack in the supposed black-and-white rule that journalists can be punished under “generally applicable” laws. The Department of Justice recently admitted that protest dispersal orders need to accommodate journalists so they can report on the aftermath of a dispersal. The NYPD similarly agreed in a settlement to stop dispersing journalists covering protests.

Perhaps this is indicative of a broader acceptance that, especially with petty offenses like trespass, the public good of enforcing generally applicable laws needs to be weighed against the public harm of silencing journalists.

These days, everyone from political campaigns to sports leagues to government agencies is sealing off people and spaces to which the press used to have access, and the press’s response has often been limited to complaining in editorials. Perhaps it’s time for the press to — carefully and in close consultation with legal counsel — think creatively about ways to get in through the back door when newsmakers won’t let them in the front.

The list of things law enforcement officers consider reasonably suspicious could fill a decent-sized book. Pretty much anything anyone does or says when being accosted by an officer is usually deemed to be indicative of illegal activity. It’s not just cops. It’s the courts, too. A list of things considered to be “reasonably suspicious” enough […]

Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft wrote ballot titles for six proposals to restore abortion rights that were “replete with politically partisan language,” a Missouri appeals court unanimously ruled Tuesday. In an expedited decision issued a day after hearing arguments, a three-judge panel of the Western District Court of Appeals upheld, with only minor revisions, the revised ballot titles written by Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem. In a decision by a separate panel, the court upheld the…

A Missouri appeals court ruled Tuesday against Republican-written summaries of abortion-rights ballot measures that described several proposed amendments as allowing “dangerous and unregulated abortions until live birth.”

Waste Connections of Missouri recently held a grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on their new Sustainability Campus in the City of Maryland Heights. The community building is focused on educating students and the public about waste management. Rendering for the Waste Connections Sustainability Campus in partnership with the City of Maryland Heights. The 4,000 […]

Salt can contaminate aquifers, corrode pipes, and accelerate snowmelt.

This is Maplewood's third homicide since 2010.

It was unknown as of Tuesday afternoon what led up to the incident.

ALTON - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rivers Project Office, will be celebrating 20 years since the opening of its National Great Rivers Museum. The celebration will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, November 4, and will include informational tables and children’s activities at more than 20 stations, as well as several food trucks. Previous media announcements have outlined the many activities occurring as part of this event, from the volunteer recognition at 9:30 a.m. to the official commemoration of the Museum at 12:00 p.m., to a river recreation public Q&A panel at 1:30 p.m., but more is yet being added to this family-friendly day for the community. “We’re going to have a towboat, open for public tours, all day,” said Allison Rhanor, Natural Resources Specialist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Director of the National Great Rivers Museum. “It had been our hope all along, but with harvest season underway, compounded by low water conditions

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EDWARDSVILLE – Amid an earlier-than-typical cold weather snap, the Edwardsville Fire Department would like to remind residents to pay attention to weather advisories, avoid safety risks and to take steps to remain warm as the temperatures drop. The following tips can help residents to stay safe when wintry weather is in the forecast: Avoid using ovens and stoves as alternate heating sources; these are potentially dangerous sources of carbon monoxide and fire. If you are using a portable heater, plug it directly into a wall outlet — do not use extension cords or power strips as they can easily start fires. Keep portable heaters away from other items and never set anything on top of a portable heater. Wear appropriate clothing when going outside. Add layers to increase warmth, and be sure to protect your face, ears and hands. Be aware of your vehicle’s fuel level; don’t risk running out of gas. Keep winter supplies such as spare blankets, gloves and hats i

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Net profit for the quarter rose to $1.47 billion, up from $1.43 billion in the year-ago frame. Revenue rose to $15.57 billion from $15.09 billion, resulting from higher prices and so-called premiumization – emphasizing high-end versions of products – and other revenue management efforts.

"This violence involving our kids has to stop. This is a start and I'm excited about it," Devon Alexander said.

A St. Louis man who helped at least 20 people file fraudulent pandemic loan applications that reaped $666,656 will spend several years behind bars.

Police on Tuesday identified the teenager found shot dead in the city's Mark Twain neighborhood.

St. Louis drivers routinely blast through intersections. Is the problem the drivers or is it the infrastructure? We talk about speed humps and other measures being proposed to calm traffic with panelists: St. Louis Community Mobility Committee Co-Chair Liz Kramer; CBB Principal and Transportation Engineer Shawn Leight; and St. Louis Complete Streets Program Manager Scott Ogilvie.