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FOX 2 obtained exclusive documents about the East St. Louis community pool delay.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is asking for the public's help with locating a suspect accused of fatally shooting another man's dog.

O’FALLON – An ordinance to keep a 1% sales tax on groceries in place to offset over $1 million in potential revenue loss is set for a final vote from the O’Fallon City Council. The ordinance received a first reading at this week’s City Council meeting and is set for a second reading and vote for final approval at their next meeting on Monday, July 21, 2025. The need for such an ordinance stems from the Illinois General Assembly’s vote in 2024 to repeal the state grocery tax effective Jan. 1, 2026. Since 100% of the proceeds from the state grocery tax went directly to local municipalities, O’Fallon joins a growing list of communities faced with either replacing the state grocery tax with a local version or finding another way to make up for the significant revenue loss. “If the grocery tax is not retained, the General Fund would experience a loss of approximately $1.2 million per year,” according to the City Council meeting documents

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Officials are considering asking voters to eliminate a provision in the city charter that clashes with a voter-approved change to city election law.

Officials from the office of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced Wednesday that letters have been sent to major companies with Artificial Intelligence bots due to what he claims has been a "new wave of censorship targeted at our president."

Dear Friend of Press Freedom,

It’s the 107th day that Rümeysa Öztürk is facing deportation by the United States government for writing an op-ed it didn’t like, and the 27th day that Mario Guevara has spent behind bars for covering a protest. Read on for news on more recent affronts by the government on the free press.

LA journalists reflect on protest attacks

Journalists covering recent demonstrations in California have been assaulted, detained, shot with crowd-control munitions, and had their equipment searched — simply for doing their jobs.

Independent journalists from Los Angeles talk to FPF about the attacks from law enforcement they endured while covering recent demonstrations.

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Independent reporters are especially vulnerable. We hosted an online discussion with some of them — Ben Camacho, Sean Beckner-Carmitchel and Tina-Desiree Berg — to hear their firsthand accounts of their efforts to uphold the public’s right to know. We were also joined by Adam Rose, press rights chair at the Los Angeles Press Club, which, along with others, has sued law enforcement agencies for violating freedom of the press at the recent protests. Since our discussion, the judge in one of those lawsuits has ordered the Los Angeles Police Department to stop violating the First Amendment rights of journalists covering protests.

Listen to the conversation here.

New Jersey prosecutors ignore Constitution

Prosecutors are pursuing blatantly unconstitutional criminal charges against two Red Bank, New Jersey, journalists for declining to remove a police blotter entry about an arrest from a news website after the arrest was expunged, as FPF’s U.S. Press Freedom Tracker first reported.

They’re alleged to have engaged in disorderly conduct by revealing the existence of an arrest, knowing that the arrest record has been expunged or sealed, in violation of New Jersey Revised Statutes Section 2C:52-30.

We said in a press release that “prosecuting journalists for declining to censor themselves is alarming and blatantly unconstitutional … Any prosecutors who would even think to bring such charges either don’t know the first thing about the Constitution they’re sworn to uphold, or don’t care.” Read more here.

The rise and fall of FOIA Gras

Tom Hayden never intended to become a journalist. But in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hayden decided to look into how his local school district in Evanston, Illinois, was making decisions about when to send kids back to school.

That led to his Substack newsletter, FOIA Gras. As the name implies, it focused on Freedom of Information Act-based reporting. He broke important stories about local schools and more, and FOIA Gras became an invaluable resource for Evanstonians.

But earlier this year, he decided to shut it down after growing tired of the personal toll of being an unpaid citizen journalist covering politically charged news. Read more here.

Secrecy surrounds ICE’s for-profit detention network

President Donald Trump’s signature budget legislation allocates Immigration and Customs Enforcement a staggering $45 billion to expand immigrant detention efforts. Much of this money will go towards tripling ICE’s for-profit detention facility network.

Even though these private facilities hold human beings in federal custody under federal law, they are not subject to FOIA, the federal transparency law. This must change. Read more here.

Speaking of secret police…

Louisiana is the latest state to ignore the First Amendment to restrict journalists and others from recording police up close. Countless important news stories have come from footage of police abuses — which is exactly why we keep seeing laws like these.

We joined a legal brief led by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and National Press Photographers Association. If you’re able, NPPA is definitely an organization you should support. They do an incredible job protecting the rights of photojournalists and all journalists, but they’re in financial trouble and need your help. Read the brief here.

What we’re reading

SPJ urges caution on anti-doxing laws, warns of threat to press freedom (Society of Professional Journalists). Anti-doxing laws, if not drafted carefully, could become tools to punish journalism. Read the letter we signed urging the Uniform Law Commission to pause potential legislation.

‘I am being persecuted’ | Atlanta journalist held in ICE custody releases letter (WALB News). “I am being persecuted for having carried out my journalistic work ... I need to get out in order to continue with my life, return to my work, and support my family,” wrote imprisoned journalist Mario Guevara.

Immigration officials used shadowy pro-Israel group to target student activists (The New York Times). Students exercising their First Amendment rights shouldn’t concern the government. And officials should base decisions on real intelligence, not “research” by amateur internet trolls.

Trump officials want to prosecute over the ICEBlock app. Lawyers say that’s unconstitutional (Wired). “ICE and the Trump administration are under the misimpression that law enforcement in the United States is entitled to operate in secret,” we told Wired.

I chaired the FCC. The ‘60 Minutes’ settlement shows Trump has weaponized the agency (The Guardian). “What was once an independent, policy-based agency is now using its leverage to further the Maga message,” writes former Federal Communications Commission Chair Tom Wheeler.

Gabbard’s team has sought spy agency data to enforce Trump’s agenda (The Washington Post). This retaliation could chill FOIA releases across the government. We are filing FOIA requests to learn how Gabbard’s agency is trying to stifle lawful disclosures.

Wishing for a world where corporate motives didn’t clash with the sacred trust of journalism (Poynter). “The ethics of the professional and the business can bump into each other. When they do, it is imperative that the ethics of the profession take precedence.”

The 50th anniversary of Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 self-titled album is being celebrated with two new upgraded audio releases. Rhino is set to release the album on Blu-ray Audio and High Fidelity…

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ALTON - Felyncia Matlock has launched a fundraiser to support the family of 17-year-old Shabrya L. Hudson, who died in a tragic shooting incident on the early morning of July 4, 2025. The fundraiser, hosted on GoFundMe , aims to assist the grieving family with financial burdens during this difficult time. Shabrya was described by Matlock and her family as, "Our loving, and beautiful 17-year-old babygirl, was taken from us far too soon. Her loss has left her family devastated, heartbroken, and overwhelmed by grief. She was a sweet, joyful spirit who loved music and spending time with her family. A young life full of promise, taken far too soon." Matlock said the fundraiser was created in response to numerous inquiries from people wanting to help. "Donations will be used to ease immediate expenses, allowing the family to focus on healing without additional financial stress," she said. "The campaign emphasizes that any contribution, regardless of size, will be deeply appreciated."

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Clyde J. Thibodeaux, 67, has been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault on minors, spanning a period of 50 years.

There is an epidemic of magical thinking. An unwillingness to confront reality. Because reality is scary. This affliction cuts across all ideological lines, manifesting in different forms but serving the same function: allowing us to avoid the difficult truths about what it will actually take to preserve human dignity, meaning, and freedom in the face […]

On the latest episode of the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air, STLPR's Sarah Fentem joins host Jason Rosenbaum to talk about the potential impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill on the state's Medicaid program. Fentem spoke with Sen. Josh Hawley earlier this week about why he ended up voting for the massive budgetary package – even though it includes provisions that hurt states' abilities to retain Medicaid enrollees. Rosenbaum also talked with state Reps. Colin Wellenkamp and Marty Joe Murray about the House Future Caucus.

CHICAGO/TROY, IL. – Today, Governor JB Pritzker joined the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) to announce seven grant awards totaling more than $13 million for 46 new all-electric school buses. Triad Community Unit School District 2 was named in the grants and will receive $767,325 as part of the program, the governor's office said. The full list of those receiving grants is below. The funding will allow school districts and student transportation companies to retire older diesel-powered buses and provide e the necessary charging infrastructure for the new electric buses, helping improve air quality to students and the surrounding communities. "Electric school buses are major win for our children, our schools, and our communities," said Governor JB Pritzker . "I'm proud that the investment from the State of Illinois is helping put these vehicles on the road, get our kids an education, and keep our air clean." The grants are funded by Illinois’

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The city's climate goals include cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2035.

WEST ALTON, MO – Annually, the US Army Corps of Engineers selects a single partner to bestow the national Excellence in Partnership (EIP) Award. The EIP Award recognizes exceptional contributions by a partner supporting the recreation and environmental stewardship programs within the Corps of Engineers. At the Audubon Center at Riverlands annual “Ahhh-dubon” event on July 3rd, the award was presented to the Mississippi River Water Trail Association (MRWTA) by the St. Louis District USACE Commander, COL Pannier. The MRWTA is a St. Louis based group made up entirely of volunteers who are passionate about developing safe recreation opportunities on the Mississippi River. Since forming in 2005, MRWTA has contributed over 20,000 volunteer hours by providing skills training and public paddling events, promoting water safety, picking up trash, and bringing together people and organizations who want to recreate on big rivers and their backwater sloughs. The trail itself

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At least a quarter of hospitals in seven states closed their obstetric services between 2010 and 2022, according to a new study in the journal Health Affairs. And in six states, more than 60% of hospitals lacked obstetrics by 2022. Using data from the American Hospital Association and federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, […]

The bill now goes to Mayor Cara Spencer for her signature.

EDWARDSVILLE — Edwardsville High School science teacher Sara Chapman has received the ACS-Hach High School Chemistry Grant from the American Chemical Society, the Edwardsville School District 7 announced this week. The competitive grant, which provides up to $1,500 to high school chemistry educators in the U.S. and its territories, will fund the purchase of two safety shields for the high school’s chemistry department. These shields are designed to enhance laboratory safety and improve the hands-on learning experience for students. “Thank you for your continued commitment to student safety and science education at EHS,” the district said in a statement recognizing Chapman’s achievement. The grant highlights the district’s ongoing focus on maintaining safe and effective environments for science instruction.

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