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De Soto Awards Asphalt Overlays, House Demolition
From Leader Publications: De Soto residents can expect to see road work begin around the city this month. The De Soto City Council voted 4-0 Aug. 18 to hire Spencer Contracting Co. of Arnold to complete the asphalt overlay work, which will cost an estimated $300,000, city officials said. “Every year around this time we […]
The post De Soto Awards Asphalt Overlays, House Demolition appeared first on Construction Forum.
It’s rapture day
Gavin Springer Named Commended Student in National Merit Program
Dept. of Agriculture looking for help in stopping the spread of an invasive species in Illinois
Video of employee being attacked at T-Mobile Center concert goes viral
Trump Decides to Own the Shutdown
Donald ‘OPSEC’ Trump Posts DM To AG Pam Bondi To Public Account; Demands More Politically Motivated Prosecutions
84 Lumber, LP Building Solutions partner for National Hispanic Heritage Month
From LBM Journal: 84 Lumber and LP Building Solutions, a leading manufacturer of high-performance building products, have announced a special partnership with David Parraguirre, known as The Mexican Carpenter on social media, in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Together, the companies are spotlighting the importance of inclusion, representation, and opportunities in skilled trades, and […]
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FREE Ska Festival October 4th @ 4hands downtown
St. Louis-area man sentenced in $1.2M stolen mail check scheme
Searching for the killer: Did a video of money lead to an ambush?
Little Lager 2 Coming to Cherokee St.
California journalists make secret police records public
A searchable public database known as the Police Records Access Project has made public for the first time more than 1.5 million pages of previously secret records about the use of force and misconduct by California police officers.
The California Reporting Project, a collaboration between news outlets, universities, and civil society organizations, began collecting and organizing the documents after the passage of SB 1421, a landmark law that made them public records. The law was expanded in 2021 to give the public even greater access.
Now, however, the California legislature is beginning to reverse course. This month, it passed AB 1178, a new bill that would make it harder for the public to access police misconduct records. The bill is awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature or veto.
We spoke to journalist Lisa Pickoff-White, who is the director of research at the California Reporting Project, about what the CRP has accomplished so far and what AB 1178 could mean for transparency and accountability.
What are some of the most impactful stories journalists in the CRP have published using these records?
The project had impact from the beginning. A district attorney dropped charges against a woman who was wrongly arrested for allegedly misusing 911, after an investigation into one of the first cases released under SB 1421.
Reporters documented where departments failed to investigate police killings, found a homicide detective whose dishonesty upended criminal cases, and uncovered a pattern of excessive force at a state prison. We identified 22 people who died after officers held them face down, including two people who died after a state law banning the practice.
The governor is expected to sign a law barring agencies from using secret deals to conceal misconduct, prompted by an investigation exposing how 163 departments signed “clean-record agreements.”
What were some of the biggest challenges in collecting, reviewing, and standardizing these records and launching the database?
Obtaining records continues to be a major challenge. Just days before SB 1421 took effect, Inglewood destroyed records, for instance. In August, we sued San Joaquin County over the cost of autopsy reports related to deaths caused by law enforcement officers. We’ve made more than 3,500 record requests and maintain relationships with hundreds of agencies.
Once we have the records, assembling them is a challenge. There’s no standard police report, and we receive a great variety of files, from PDFs to surveillance video. We built tools to extract information, which researchers use to match files into a case. Then we reextract information from each case, some of which is published, and then also used to help us identify places where we need more records.
Now that the database is public, what should journalists know about using it? How has the public responded to the database since it launched?
So far, people have searched our archive more than 1 million times. We’ve heard from people who have lost loved ones to police violence that this database makes it easier to access records.
Expanding the search can help. Multiple agencies may have records about the same incident. If an officer shoots and kills someone, the police, the district attorney, and the medical examiner or coroner may hold records. A review board may have files. The state attorney general could investigate. Sometimes, agencies also investigate cases for each other; a local sheriff may investigate a shooting for a police department.
Officers can also appeal disciplinary charges. If you’re looking at a misconduct case, it might also be worth searching local administrative agencies or the state personnel board.
A new bill awaiting the signature or veto of Gov. Newsom, AB 1178, could lead to more redactions when officers claim their duties require anonymity. What would it mean for transparency and accountability if misconduct records become harder for the press and the public to obtain?
Without AB 1178, agencies can already redact the names of undercover officers. Our records show that agencies across the state continue to improperly redact the names of officers. Meanwhile, the bill’s authors have yet to cite any harm that’s come from releasing the names of officers involved in use-of-force and misconduct incidents.
Our reporting, and other investigations, revealed that agencies can and do hire officers who previously violated policies. These officers are more likely to receive complaints again. For instance, Derek Chauvin had 18 prior complaints in the Minneapolis Police Department, two of which led to discipline, before killing George Floyd.
What lessons can journalists and advocates in other states learn from CRP’s work?
There is a vast amount of work to do and collaboration is the key to doing it. More than 100 reporters have worked on the project for the last seven years, and we needed people with a wide range of expertise to make requests, build tools, and report.
That mix of skills allowed us to build tools to spot the gaps between what cases agencies disclose and incidents listed in other data sources about shootings and sustained complaints. We’ve gained thousands of cases through this kind of check. Having a group of people with request aptitude, coding ability, and domain knowledge allowed us to identify what we needed and the incremental steps to take to get it.
For those who go to the laundromat. How much do you normally spend per month?
From FEMA: In-person FEMA Assistance Available Through Sept. 25 at Disaster Recovery Centers
Budget, Finance and Audit Committee: September 24, 2025
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Noncitizen journalists face risk from ICE — here’s what newsrooms can do
Atlanta-based journalist Mario Guevara has been detained for nearly 100 days and is facing imminent deportation from the United States. His crime? Doing his job.
Guevara was detained first by local police and then by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in what experts say was retaliation for his reporting on immigration raids and subsequent protests.
Guevara’s case is a disturbing example of how ICE can target non-American journalists, with or without legal status. Recently, Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) hosted a panel discussion featuring immigration lawyers, civil rights advocates, and journalists to talk about what to do when a journalist is detained by ICE — and what must happen before that day ever comes.
Here’s what we learned.
Why are journalists being detained?
Non-American journalists in the United States—especially those covering immigration or working in vulnerable roles like freelancers or independent journalists—are at serious risk as a result of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant and anti-press policies.
President Donald Trump’s campaign to retaliate against journalists who contradict the government’s preferred narrative, plus his administration’s promise to ramp up deportations, has created a “perfect storm for those, like immigrant reporters, who are on the front lines,” said Nora Benavidez of Free Press.
“This administration has made it very clear that it considers the public and press documenting immigration enforcement to be a threat,” explained American Civil Liberties Union’s Scarlet Kim, who is part of Guevara’s legal team.
What can be done? Advanced preparation is key.
The experts we spoke to agreed: Newsrooms can’t wait until a journalist is detained to act. Here are key steps newsrooms and reporters can take before it happens.
1. Create an action plan before you need it.
Journalist and Investigative Reporters and Editors board member Alejandra Cancino has been working with fellow reporters to create a checklist to help newsrooms prepare for the potential detention of one of their reporters by ICE.
The checklist includes steps like gathering key information ahead of time, such as about medical needs, emergency contacts, and immigration attorney contacts (more on that below).
Cancino also encouraged newsrooms to talk with non-American reporters about their concerns and how to mitigate them. “We obviously don’t want any reporter to be taken away from their beat,” she explained, but creative risk-mitigation measures can work, such as having a journalist facing heightened risks report from the newsroom based on information being provided from others in the field.
2. Get local immigration counsel — now.
Journalists at risk need an experienced immigration lawyer in place before they’re detained, experts said.
Newsrooms should consider keeping local immigration counsel on retainer. “Getting a roster of vetted attorneys together is the first important step,” explained Marium Uddin, legal director of the Muslim Legal Fund of America and a former immigration judge.
News outlets should also consider having non-American journalists they work with sign a retainer agreement with an immigration attorney in advance, paid for by the newsroom, so that representation of the journalist could be immediate if they were detained, Uddin said.
To build their rosters of immigration attorneys, newsroom lawyers should seek referrals from those in their networks who may already have strong reputations and experience with the local immigration courts. They can also seek referrals by contacting organizations like the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Immigration Advocates Network, and local legal aid offices.
Unfortunately, asylum cases can be expensive to litigate. In Texas, where Uddin is based, they can cost $10,000 to $20,000. While some immigration attorneys may offer free or low-cost services, newsrooms should budget for the cost of legal defense of non-American journalists detained by immigration authorities. Protecting journalists “is the cost of doing business,” said Cancino.
3. Act immediately to locate the detained journalist.
If a journalist is detained, one of the first steps will be to locate them, a process that can be made difficult by an opaque detention system and strategic shuffling of people around detention facilities.
Newsrooms should first determine if a detained journalist is in local custody, said Samantha Hamilton of the Atlanta Community Press Collective and Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, since people who are arrested are often taken first to the county jail before being transferred to ICE.
If they have been transferred to ICE, Hamilton recommended searching for them with the online ICE detainee locator, using the person’s alien registration number and country of birth. If you don’t have that information, you can also search using their last name and country of origin. Hamilton recommended using all variations of the name, especially if the person has multiple names or uses a nickname.
Once a newsroom locates the journalist, it will want to figure out how to contact them. Each facility can have different communication rules, explained Uddin, which can often be found on the facility’s official website or ICE’s general detention center directory. Legal visits may require special steps, like completing a legal notice of representation.
4. Consider all the legal options.
In addition to challenging the journalist’s detention and deportation in immigration court, a legal petition known as habeas corpus may present another way to challenge the detention in court if a journalist is detained in retaliation for their reporting, said ACLU attorney Kim. A habeas petition asks a federal judge for an order that a person in custody be brought before the court to determine if their detention is valid.
A successful habeas petition can free someone from immigration detention. However, it cannot resolve their immigration status or stop deportation proceedings altogether. Those legal issues must be addressed separately in immigration court.
Habeas is especially important in cases where immigration detention is being used to punish people for their speech or journalism. The ACLU has brought habeas petitions in Guevara’s case and also to challenge the detention of students by immigration officials based on their political speech.
One of the biggest challenges in bringing a habeas petition is timing. Kim warned that strategic transfers of detainees between ICE facilities without warning can make legal action harder, because petitions must usually be filed in the jurisdiction where the detainee is being held. That’s why it’s so important to have legal counsel lined up and to file a habeas petition as soon as possible, ideally before any transfer occurs.
The bigger picture
A recent court ruling in California reminded the public that “a camera and a notepad are not threats to the public,” said Uddin. Unfortunately, however, government retaliation against non-American journalists remains a real threat.
So it’s not enough for newsrooms and journalists to prepare. People outside the media industry need to see how detentions of non-American journalists and other attacks on the press impact us all and speak up against them, explained Benavidez. “Because if it is one of those other people today,” she said, “it could be one of us tomorrow.”
PHOTO: Woman Injured During Robbery in Dutchtown, Suspect Wanted
District 1 is investigating a robbery that left a woman injured on September 11 in Dutchtown.
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