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A man and a woman met up behind the school to smoke marijuana, and the man fired shots after she denied his sexual advances.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who served in the Reserve Forces for 23 years and is a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), secured several important provisions to support our state in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that passed Congress this week. Some of the Illinois priorities Duckworth secured include supporting school districts near military bases by helping alleviate state and local tax base funding shortfalls and charting a sustainable future for C-40 aircraft—which are flown by the 932nd Airlift Wing at Scott Air Force Base. “The brave men and women in uniform who serve our nation at home and abroad deserve to know that our country fully supports them as they and their families sacrifice to defend our country and our Constitution,” Duckworth said. “While I do not support every provision in this bipartisan compromise, I’m proud of the many

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pressed for further investigation into systemic failures at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to ensure proper oversight of its medical care contractor, Loyal Source. Durbin is continuing his investigation in a series of three letters to CBP, Loyal Source, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The letters follow a report by a CBP employee whistleblower alleging years of deficient medical care at CBP facilities and CBP’s failure to ensure proper oversight, as well as the death of Anadith Danay Reyes Álvarez, an 8-year-old girl with sickle cell and congenital heart disease who died in CBP custody in Harlingen, Texas. In his request to CBP, Durbin requests answers to reported systemic issues with the agency’s oversight of medical services provided to migrants in custody. He writes: “As you know, Anadith Danay Reyes Álvarez, an

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CHICAGO - Attorney General Kwame Raoul today led a coalition of 19 attorneys general filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10 th Circuit supporting the state of Colorado’s prohibition on the sale of guns to individuals under the age of 21. “Under our nation’s Constitution, individual states have the ability to enact restrictions that protect the public from gun violence,” Raoul said. “Colorado’s prohibition on the sale of guns to individuals under the age of 21 is a commonsense restriction that enhances public safety by seeking to ensure responsible gun ownership.” Raoul and the coalition explain the Second Amendment allows governments to enact sensible and varied regulations to protect the public, including age-based restrictions on the purchase, possession or use of firearms. Although regulations vary based on each state’s needs, virtually every state has imposed some form of age-based regulations on firearms,

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), along with U.S. Senators Angus King (I-ME) and Tina Smith (D-MN), today led ten of their colleagues in sending a letter to the Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Shalanda Young, urging the agency leaders to include strong funding for the Open Textbooks Pilot (Pilot) in the Biden Administration’s Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) budget request. The Pilot, based on Durbin’s Affordable College Textbook Act , is a competitive grant program to support the creation and expansion of open college textbooks – textbooks that are freely available under an open license, allowing professors, students, researchers, and others to freely access the materials. The grant program aims to significantly reduce the cost of higher education for students. The Senators began their letter by emphasizing the importance of open textbooks and how they lower financial barriers

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Tom Grellner, who was born in Maplewood in 1948, where he lived for the remainder of his life, passed away on December 2. According to his obituary in Legacy.com, “Tom worked for the City of Maplewood for much of his life, taking pride in the role of improving parks, pools, and recreation areas, as he […]

Standing on the side of the road, cars speeding by with drivers craning their necks to get a good look at the writing on the back of my jacket — “Chain Gang” — I pick up another liquor bottle and drop it into the day’s third bag of trash. Rusty Wheat is beside me, telling me about letters to the Madison County Board that he wrote most recently. Rusty is a one-man “chain gang” who picks up trash along Illinois Route 143 and Kendall Hill every week. When he emailed me asking if I wanted to join him one day, I was game. You can only complain so much before you decide to do something about the issues that upset you. How many times had I tutted at the amount of trash along the side of the road? Rusty knows firsthand how good it feels to actually act, and he was offering me a chance to join him. Of course, I said yes. We start at the top of Kendall Hill. A sign that Rusty had hand-painted was already placed on the side of the road, warning

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Despite his threats to make the vote painful, Hawley’s procedural moves did little to delay the bipartisan passage of the bill, which had the support of more than 87 senators.

Hush-a-Phone, Scissor Phones, One of the First Rotary Dial Phones – these are some of the telephones you’ll see at the Jefferson Barracks Telephone Museum. Housed in a restored 1896 […]

The post Candlestick Telephone Exhibit appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Comedian Micheal Yo returns to Westport Social for a couple of shows this weekend.

After skyrocketing in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and then tempering almost as dramatically a year later, health care spending in the U.S rose just over 4% in 2022, hitting $4.5 trillion, the federal government announced Wednesday. The annual growth in the nation’s health care spending appears to be returning to pre-pandemic trends, […]

The post Spending on health care in US rises to $4.5 trillion in 2022; a return to pre-pandemic growth rates appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri’s highest court this week heard arguments over the constitutionality of a two-year-old state law terminating parental rights following a conviction for certain crimes against children.  The case, heard Wednesday by the state Supreme Court, involves a Jefferson County father whose parental rights were terminated after he pled guilty to child molestation and sexual misconduct […]

The post Missouri Supreme Court weighs whether crimes against children should sever parental rights appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Among the front-page stories, which noted few planned layoffs and that the merger would create the largest aerospace company, was this piece detailing the history of the local company:

Raj Tut started his business with just one mobile home. Now his company, Storyboard Living, has a $100 million multifamily portfolio with plans to grow.

Once the attackers got into the home, a woman and her 8-year-old son were forced at gunpoint to lay face down on the floor of the boy's bedroom.

By day, Clements Lock & Security is Gravois Park’s locksmith stop, but on Thursday nights after 4 p.m. it transforms into Clements Bar (2626 Cherokee Street). The rustic key and lock shop makes for a quirky watering hole for those who want a unique night on the town. And the story of how it came to be is just as idiosyncratic — part necessity, part creativity and part history.

The U.S. saw 25 billion-dollar weather disasters this year — more than ever before. Next year could be worse.