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Cardinals' minor league slugger Moisés Gómez DFA'd, must pass waivers to remain with franchise

From St. Louis Business Journal:  A vacant commercial building once targeted for demolition that has been called “one of the last developable buildings downtown,” could receive city incentives to be converted to an adult day care. The first two floors of the five-story red brick building at 1105 Olive St. would be turned into an […]

From Utility Dive:  Two winters ago, a deadly storm crippled Texas. The ice storm hammered the electric grid, leaving hundreds of thousands of citizens without power, freezing in the cold. In their final report, the Texas Department of Health and Human Services put the death toll at 246. About two-thirds of the deaths were due […]

It is no secret that Senator Lindsey Graham hates Section 230. It’s also no secret that he has no clue how the internet or Section 230 actually work. He’s pushed bills to repeal 230 directly, and he’s pushed bills to repeal 230 indirectly. He does not like Section 230 in a house, or with a […]

Hiring in December was up and quits were down. Hiring outnumbered total separations by 256,000: This is positive news since the general trend has been downward for the past two years.

The Illinois State Board of Elections is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans.

A St. Louis man was sentenced Monday for his role in a 2019 murder when he was still a juvenile.

EDWARDSVILLE - A man from Collinsville is facing multiple felony charges after allegedly committing home repair fraud and theft of more than $500 from the same Edwardsville homeowner over the course of nearly a month. Jeffrey C. Koehler, 35, of Collinsville, was charged with one count of home repair fraud and one count of theft over $500 in a case presented by the Edwardsville Police Department. Recently filed Madison County court documents indicate these offenses were committed from about Nov. 7, 2023 to Dec. 1, 2023. Koehler allegedly entered into a written agreement with an Edwardsville homeowner to perform $4,085 worth of home repair work, including “drywall repair, door frame repair, and replacement, repair, and staining of a deck,” according to court documents, which add that he “promised a performance which the defendant did not intend to perform or knew would not be performed.” Koehler was additionally charged with theft over $500 after allegedly

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The music of prog rockers Emerson, Lake & Powell is being celebrated with a new CD set.  Emerson, Lake & Powell: The Complete Collection, dropping April 12, is a three-CD set featuring a…

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GODFREY – Lewis and Clark Community College will celebrate a leap-year Black History Month this February with a full slate of programming, most of which is free and open to the public. The month will kick off with a Soul Food Luncheon for L&C Students on Feb. 6, giving Trailblazers a taste of traditional soul food favorites. “I am very excited about our programming to celebrate Black History Month,” said Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusive Excellence Mya Lawrence. “These events, curated by Student Activities Coordinator Jared Hennings, highlight our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, our community's cultural differences, and provides educational opportunities for our students and team members." The college opens many of these experiences to the larger community as well. On Feb. 8, the public is invited to join L&C students and team members for a presentation and performance of “The Blues” by Big George Brock beginning at 10:4

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CHICAGO - Governor JB Pritzker today announced that a Chicago-area water innovation hub, Current, has been selected to receive a $160 million innovation grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Regional Innovation Engine program for their Great Lakes ReNEW initiative. ReNEW, which was backed by six Great Lakes States, is also supported by Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Chicago, and over fifty other partner organizations and focuses on sustainable water innovation solutions. “The Great Lakes are a vital natural resource for the health, wealth, and security of our entire nation,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “That’s why I’m thrilled that Current was selected to receive this federal award that will help transform our Great Lakes region. Thanks to investments like these, our top-tier workforce, and our industrial resources, we’re leading the clean water and energy revolution.” Current, a water innovation nonprofit,

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One Missouri lawmaker has introduced a new bill known as the "Taylor Swift Act," which intends to offer legal safeguards against AI deepfake violations.

by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News

This story details allegations of violence against Indigenous women.

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Anchorage Daily News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

The police department in Kotzebue, Alaska, says it will not reopen its investigation into a woman’s death on the property of a former Northwest Arctic Borough mayor. The case had been the subject of an Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica investigation into the 2018 death of Jennifer Kirk and the death of another woman, who was found strangled on the same property two years later.

Kirk, 25, died May 23, 2018, at a home owned by then-Mayor Clement Richards Sr. According to police reports, the Alaska medical examiner’s office initially told a city police investigator that “signs of strangulation” had been found on Kirk’s body. The man who said he found her body — Anthony Richards, one of the mayor’s sons — had previously been charged with strangling Kirk and pleaded guilty to assaulting her, though he said he was not involved in her death.

Police eventually closed the case as a suicide. In an open letter to Kotzebue residents last week, police Chief Roger Rouse said neither the city nor state have plans to reopen the investigation. Rouse wrote that the Alaska Bureau of Investigation reviewed the case and told Kirk’s family that “nothing in the investigation as it stands would change the sad conclusions of the incident.”

The city posted the letter on Facebook. A spokesperson for the state Department of Public Safety said in an email that two state investigators reviewed the Kotzebue police investigation into Kirk’s death and found no leads that needed to be followed up on and no “suspicious elements” in the case.

But some of the Kotzebue police department’s new statements about the Kirk investigation contradict previous information provided by the police chief and city officials.

Rouse said in an email last fall, in response to the newsrooms asking when the Kotzebue police had closed the investigation into Kirk’s death, that the city investigator closed the case on May 24, 2018, a day after Kirk died. He also said that the case was closed before the department received the final autopsy report.

But in the new letter to the community, the chief of police wrote: “The Kotzebue Police Department investigator spent at least sixteen days interviewing witnesses, collecting evidence, and following up leads before closing the case.”

Asked about this contradiction, a spokesperson for the police department wrote that the investigation report was created, not closed, the day after Kirk’s death. “Following the creation of the report on May 24, there were roughly 16 additional days over the course of the next two months that involved KPD interviewing witnesses, connecting with the coroner and conducting other follow-up for the case,” the spokesperson wrote.

Another point of confusion is whether Kirk’s arms were long enough to reach the trigger of the gun that police say she used to kill herself.

According to the police report, the length from the tip of the rifle barrel to the tip of the trigger was 27 1/8 inches, slightly longer than the length of Kirk’s arm, which the investigator measured to be 26 3/16 inches. Robert Shem, a retired firearms expert for the state crime laboratory, told the Daily News and ProPublica that such measurements can be useful in determining whether a death is indeed a suicide, but in this case, more information would be needed.

“Before I would write it off as a suicide myself,” Shem said, “I would probably try to locate somebody of the same size and build and use that rifle, or one similar to it, with the same length barrel and configuration, demonstrate that it’s completely unloaded and see if the person can lean over and potentially get their thumb in position to pull the trigger.”

In the city’s letter to the community last week, Rouse wrote: “Some have expressed concern whether it would have been physically possible for Jennifer to fire the rifle. Measurements taken of both Jennifer’s body and of the firearm show that it was.”

He did not answer a follow-up question asking how the department had drawn that conclusion.

In the open letter to the community, the police chief wrote there was “no evidence that anyone other than Jennifer fired the gun that ended her life.” He did not say what steps police took to obtain any such evidence.

In a Nov. 16 letter asking police to reopen the case, Kirk’s family said they assumed police had tested Anthony Richards for gunshot residue as part of the death investigation. The city wrote in a Dec. 12 email to the newsrooms that police did not test Richards’ body or clothes.

Kirk’s sister, Lucy Boyd, said the police department failed to properly communicate with her family during the initial death investigation, failed to interview certain witnesses and has declined to provide police audio and video records from the closed investigation.

“It definitely took us by surprise again and it almost was like adding insult to injury,” Boyd said of the department’s letter last week to the community.

The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons unit of the Alaska State Troopers is investigating the death of Susanna “Sue Sue” Norton, who was found beaten and strangled on Clement Richards Sr.’s property in 2020. The Kotzebue Police Department referred the investigation to the state.

In that case, the medical examiner determined Norton’s death to be a homicide caused by “asphyxiation due to obstruction of airways and compression of neck.” The autopsy also found that Norton had suffered “multiple blunt force injuries of head, neck and extremities.”

Amos Richards, another of the former mayor’s sons, had previously pleaded guilty to assaulting Norton. The sons and former mayor have not responded to multiple phone calls, in-person visits and certified letters asking for information about the deaths on the property. Since the investigation into Norton’s death remains open, police have not released their report on it.

Rouse has said that Norton’s death is the only unsolved homicide in Kotzebue. Some residents, including the current mayor, said they aren’t so sure that’s true. For example, multiple families said questions remain about the 2016 death of Bessie Ralston, who died from a gunshot wound to the chest. The police chief said in a Nov. 20, 2023, email to the newsrooms that the police department had asked the stateMissing and Murdered Indigenous Persons unit to review the Ralston case. According to the city spokesperson, the state declined to take the case.

Austin McDaniel, spokesperson for the state Department of Public Safety, said in an email that the police department never formally referred the case to state investigators. When the Kotzebue police were subsequently asked about the Department of Public Safety’s statement, the city spokesperson replied that the state agency was correct, meaning that contrary to the city’s earlier statement, the police department had not referred the Ralston case for review. The spokesperson did not explain why the chief incorrectly said that the case had been referred.

On This Day, January 30, 1969 … The Beatles gave their final public performance on Apple Records' rooftop in London. The band, who was joined by guest keyboardist Billy Preston, did nine…

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Thousands of books will be available for sale at the J Used Book Sale. Stock up on your reading material. Proceeds from the sale benefit the Cultural Arts Department. Book […]

The post The J’s Winter Used Book Sale appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

This exhibit is the faculty showcase alongside the juried undergraduate photography exhibit — a celebration of our creative community. Illustrating the current work and creative research of our faculty and […]

The post 2024 Faculty & Undergrad Visual Arts Exhibit appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Rosati-Kain Academy presents a collection of high school student artwork. Opening Reception: January 13, 5-8 pm  

The post The Rosati-Kain Academy Art Collection at the St. Louis Artists’ Guild appeared first on Explore St. Louis.