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Letter To The Editor: As a resident of Madison County, I disagreed with the recent decision by the Madison County Board to declare a "Day of Remembrance" for Charlie Kirk. I understand that the party in power has the votes to pass any resolution they chose. I also know that the current administration has been open to dialogue about diversity, and I commend them for that. The problems is that Charlie routinely framed diversity initiatives as threats to his way of life and dismissed systemic racism myths. His statement about black pilots being qualified are insulting to say the least. I strongly encourage everyone to research the Tuskegee Airmen if they are at least a bit curious about the history of black pilots in America. I admit I must make a concerted effort to become better informed because I didn't know Charlie existed until he was assassinated. Because of the publicity surrounding his death, I decided to learn more about him. Since then, I've watched several of his interviews.

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The victim in the initial road rage incident was shot in the hand and taken to a hospital.

Round up your family and friends and head to Eureka for its annual, shall we say, party. Eureka Days features carnival rides, a parade, a beer garden, a firework show […]

The post Eureka Days appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Dear Friend of Press Freedom,

After over 100 days in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, Mario Guevara was deported today. Read on for more about this and other press freedom abuses, and take a minute to tell your lawmakers to stand up for journalists victimized by ICE.

ICE is on a violent rampage against the press

Federal immigration officers reportedly promised a “shitshow” last weekend in response to criticism from the mayor of Broadview, Illinois, who didn’t appreciate her city being invaded. They delivered, and journalists were well represented among their victims.

One journalist, Steve Held, was arrested. Others, including Held’s reporting partner at Unraveled Press, Raven Geary, were shot in the face with pepper ball rounds. According to lawyers on the scene, the protests the reporters were covering were peaceful and uneventful until ICE officers decided to unleash chaos.

A few days later at an immigration court in New York City, where ICE agents have been trying to intimidate journalists for months, agents assaulted at least three journalists, one of whom couldn’t get up and had to be hospitalized. You can read what we told Chicago’s The Triibe about the Broadview attacks and New York’s amNY about the New York ones.

More importantly, you can tell your lawmakers to speak out against ICE’s abuses using our new, easy-to-use action center. Take action here.

Journalist Mario Guevara deported to El Salvador

After months of hard-fought battles in both the court of law and the court of public opinion, the Trump administration deported journalist Mario Guevara today. This case wasn’t about immigration paperwork — Guevara had a work permit, and the administration argued in court that Guevara’s reporting on protests posed a national security risk.

“The only thing that journalists like Guevara threaten is the government’s chokehold on information it doesn’t want the public to know. That’s why he’s being deported and why federal agents are assaulting and arresting journalists around the country,” FPF’s Seth Stern said after Guevara’s family announced his deportation.

Read the statement here.

Guilty of journalism in Kentucky

Student journalist Lucas Griffith was convicted of one count of failure to disperse and fined $50 plus court costs after a jury trial on Thursday.

That’s unconstitutional — even the U.S. Department of Justice recognizes journalists’ right to cover how law enforcement disperses protesters.

But it also shows what a giant waste of taxpayer funds it is to prosecute journalists for doing their jobs. Before the trial, we led a coalition letter from press freedom advocates and journalism professors objecting to the charges. Read it here.

FPF and 404 Media sue DHS

FPF and 404 Media filed a lawsuit against multiple parts of the U.S. government, including the Department of Homeland Security, demanding they hand over a copy of an agreement that shares the personal data of nearly 80 million Medicaid patients with ICE.

It’s just one of several recent lawsuits we’ve filed under the Freedom of Information Act. We also surpassed 200 FOIAs filed in 2025 this week. Subscribe to The Classifieds newsletter for more on our FOIA work.

Read more from 404 Media.

FCC censorship moves from prime time to prison

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr has taken a lot of heat for his “mafioso”-style extortion of ABC over Jimmy Kimmel’s show. But his latest censorship effort is even more dangerous. It could strip those inside America’s most secretive institutions — its prisons — of a tool that has proved extremely effective in exposing abuses.

We partnered with The Intercept to publish incarcerated journalist and FPF columnist Jeremy Busby’s response to the FCC’s efforts to allow prisons to “jam” cell phones. Busby used a contraband phone to expose and force reform of horrific conditions in Texas prisons during the pandemic. Read his article here.

Photography is not a hate crime

The arrest of Alexa Wilkinson on hate crime charges for photographing vandalism at The New York Times building has prompted hair splitting about whether they’re a journalist. It’s giving us flashbacks to the pointless obsession over whether Julian Assange was a journalist, and not whether his prosecution endangered press freedom.

Stern explains that regardless of how we categorize Wilkinson’s work, the charges set dangerous precedents that threaten the constitutional protections journalists depend on to do their jobs. Read more here.

FPF welcomes Adam Rose to bolster local advocacy

FPF is excited to welcome Adam Rose as the new deputy director of our advocacy team. Adam will primarily focus on protecting press freedom at the local level, where we have seen a sharp increase in arrests and assaults of journalists all around the country — many of which have not made national headlines.

Adam comes to FPF after serving as the chief operating officer of Starling Lab for Data Integrity and as the press rights chair of the Los Angeles Press Club, where he has been a tireless advocate for the press freedom rights of journalists in the LA area. He successfully lobbied for a California law that prohibits police from arresting or intentionally interfering with journalists as they cover protests. Most recently, as a plaintiff in multiple press freedom-related lawsuits, his efforts have resulted in landmark federal court orders against both the Department of Homeland Security and Los Angeles Police Department for violating the rights of the press. Read more here.

What we're reading DC Circuit rejects Fox News reporter effort to duck subpoena over anonymous source Courthouse News

“This decision does real damage to bedrock principles of press freedom, and we urge the Court of Appeals to re-hear this case with a full panel of judges,” FPF’s Trevor Timm said.

Can the US government ban apps that track ICE agents? BBC

“That somebody might use the app to break the law doesn’t mean the app can be banned,” Stern told BBC. After the interview, news broke that the administration successfully pressured Apple to pull the app.

Reporter’s suit over access to Utah Capitol dismissed U.S. Press Freedom Tracker

This dismissal is nonsense. FPF’s Caitlin Vogus explained why in the Salt Lake Tribune earlier this year.

Israel illegally boards humanitarian flotilla heading to Gaza Drop Site

A U.S. journalist was on board. The U.S. Department of State should be all over this and it should be headline news. Neither is likely, because the government considers critics of Israel terrorists and the media often shuns reporters who oppose slaughtering their Palestinian colleagues.

WASHINGTON — An agreement to reopen the federal government was nowhere in sight Friday after U.S. Senate Democrats and Republicans failed Friday, for the fourth time, to move on a deal and House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he won’t bring his members back until the middle of the month. Two Senate votes to advance funding […]

ALTON - A local author looks forward to selling his books at the upcoming Holiday Fears Market. From 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025, community members can stop by Old Bakery Beer Co. to visit with a variety of vendors, including author Daniel Margeson. As the author of two books, Margeson looks forward to selling copies of his books and giving writing advice to those who stop by his booth. His wife’s company, Paper and Pine, will also be present with a t-shirt press. “This is our first one together,” Margeson shared. “We’ve done separately before, but this will be our first one together.” Margeson is the author of “The Life of Death,” which tells the story of the Grim Reaper, and “The Monsters We Make,” a cautionary tale about artificial intelligence. Based in the Riverbend region, Margeson loves attending vendor fairs like the Holiday Fears Market and engaging with readers one-on-one.

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WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials on Friday defended the decision to cancel federal projects in regions of the country that have voted for Democrats, saying the move isn’t political but an effort to reduce the size and scope of government during the shutdown. Republican leaders in Congress also backed the White House’s decision to punish […]

Friday’s jobs report is missing in action because of the federal shutdown, but economists are finding other ways of measuring apparent job losses concentrated in Midwestern states and oil country. Unemployment could continue to rise, especially for Black people, who have borne the brunt of recent job losses. Friday’s jobs report for September was missing […]

A Lincoln County woman accused in the death of her infant daughter is out of jail after her bond was reduced to $5,000.

In August, the City of St. Louis officially ended alley recycling, saying it was due to rising costs and inefficiency. While alley recycling has ended for now, the city has accepted a proposal to establish a Recycling Task Force, which will bring together experts and residents to research and recommend practical ways to strengthen the recycling system.

The nine-week strike at Boeing’s St. Louis-area defense plants is not settled because the company isn’t dealing fairly with the workers, Missouri Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Vermont Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said Wednesday. Hawley and Sanders grilled Boeing’s labor attorney, Scott Mayer, about the strike during a confirmation hearing on Wednesday.   Mayer, […]

The arrest of Alexa Wilkinson on felony hate crime charges for photographing vandalism at the New York Times building has prompted hairsplitting about whether they’re a journalist. The New York Times explained that Wilkinson’s “lawyers described them as a journalist, but did not name any publications for which Mx. Wilkinson works.”

Wilkinson certainly has a track record as a journalist. Whether the content they were charged for is journalism or PR is, I suppose, up for debate. But should we even bother debating it? Regardless of how we categorize Wilkinson’s work, the charges set dangerous precedents that threaten the constitutional protections journalists depend on to do their jobs.

As we all learned — or should have learned — from the Julian Assange prosecution, obsessing over whether a particular defendant meets someone’s arbitrary definition of journalist is a waste of time. What that case left us with at the end of the day is a Trump administration armed with a bipartisan consensus that routine journalistic acts, like talking to sources, obtaining government secrets, and publishing them, can be prosecuted as a felony under the Espionage Act. Those who change their tune when the next defendant is someone they like better than Assange will be easily discredited by their hypocrisy.

The same dangers apply when Wilkinson’s photography is treated as a hate crime. Wilkinson’s case stems from a July protest in which activists doused the Times headquarters in red paint and spray-painted “NYT lies, Gaza dies” on its windows. In addition to charging the vandals, New York prosecutors charged Wilkinson, who photographed the scene, with aggravated harassment as a hate crime.

New York authorities should be combating these cynical attempts to use antisemitism to justify authoritarianism. Instead, they’re fueling the trend.

But there was no hate crime. Vandalizing a building to protest perceived pro-Israel bias in news coverage is a political statement, not an antisemitic one. The vandalism may well be illegal, and we condemn it, as news outlets large and small are under increased threat in this charged political environment. We even documented the vandalism itself in our U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

But labeling actions that criticize a newspaper’s editorial decisions as a hate crime conflates political views with bigotry. Many journalists object to Israel’s slaughter of their peers in Gaza — and the U.S. media’s relative silence about it — for reasons having nothing to do with anyone’s religion. And many Jews themselves oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza and object to coverage they view as excusing or normalizing Israel’s conduct.

I’m one of those Jews, and I think what’s antisemitic is to assume that we monolithically share the politics of Benjamin Netanyahu and his ilk, who I consider the worst thing to happen to Judaism since the 1940s. As the saying goes, one day everyone will have been against this. When that time comes, efforts to conflate anti-Israel or anti-genocide views with antisemitism will leave Jews holding the bag for Israel’s reprehensible actions, America’s role in supporting them, and whatever blowback follows. That’s when the real antisemitism will start.

New York authorities should be combating these cynical attempts to use antisemitism to justify authoritarianism. Instead, they’re fueling the trend. Wilkinson’s case, in a blue state, legitimizes the Trump administration’s un-American actions, like its efforts to deport Mahmoud Khalil over his criticisms of Israel and Rümeysa Öztürk for co-writing an op-ed arguing for boycotts of Israeli products. The administration baselessly argues that their constitutionally protected speech constitutes support for Hamas and threatens national security. And several Republican attorneys general have floated the idea that reporting critical of Israel could be punished as support for terrorism. Wilkinson’s case only gives cover to those advancing these absurd arguments.

Israel showed us exactly where equating speech with violence leads. Last month, Israel killed 31 journalists in airstrikes on newspaper offices in Yemen — the deadliest single attack on the press in 16 years, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Israel has justified the strikes by characterizing the targeted outlets as publishing “terrorist” propaganda.

Should we debate whether those massacred in Yemen (or Gaza) followed the Associated Press Stylebook or strictly adhered to journalistic codes of ethics? Or should we just acknowledge that militaries shouldn’t blow people to bits over what they say and write, regardless of whether it’s bad journalism or even propaganda?

Should we debate whether those massacred in Yemen (or Gaza)...adhered to journalistic codes of ethics? Or should we just acknowledge that militaries shouldn’t blow people to bits over what they write?

Even setting aside the hate crime charge, Wilkinson’s case has broader implications for the press that don’t hinge on whether they’re a card-carrying journalist. The complaint against Wilkinson reportedly emphasizes not just the photographs they took but also social media posts criticizing Times staff and alleged foreknowledge of the vandalism. This suggests prosecutors view Wilkinson as complicit in alleged crimes because of proximity or sympathy to those who committed them and awareness of their plans.

But objectivity is not a precondition for constitutional protection. It’s a relatively recently developed journalistic norm — with its share of critics — that would have been seen as ridiculous when the First Amendment was written.

As for embedding and foreknowledge, journalists routinely embed with groups whose members commit illegal acts. For example, the Israeli army, which, according to the United Nations, is committing genocide. Domestically, police reporters ride along with officers who may use excessive force. Investigative journalists cultivate sources involved in criminal activity. If foreknowledge of illegal acts or presence when they occur makes one legally complicit, journalism as we know it becomes impossible.

And for those concerned about journalistic ethics and objectivity, what impact do you think it’ll have if reporters are allowed to embed with government-approved lawbreakers, like soldiers and police, but not dissidents? Will that result in “fair and balanced” coverage?

Your opinion about Wilkinson’s work won’t change the trajectory of our democracy. But prosecutors in America’s biggest city validating the Trump administration’s criminalization of dissent very well might. Every journalist — and everyone who depends on journalism to hold power to account — should be alarmed.

FOX 2 Sports Director Martin Kilcyone spoke with each of Chaim Bloom, Bill DeWitt Jr. and Bill DeWitt III one-on-one conversations about the future of the St. Louis Cardinals, following Tuesday's end-of-season news conference.

 

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MARION - The Southern Illinois Miners baseball team, based in Marion, Illinois, was the stuff of legends. Now, owner John Simmons and manager Mike Pinto have come together to immortalize the Miners legacy in a new book. “Always A Miner: The Journey of Creating Joy, Entertainment, and Legacy Through Professional Baseball” tells the story of the independent professional baseball team from 2007 through 2021. Pinto and Simmons are proud of the team they created and eager to share more about the behind-the-scenes of professional baseball and the history of Southern Illinois. “It's just a good story about baseball and Southern Illinois and the Miners,” Simmons said. The decision to develop a professional baseball team in Southern Illinois was not linear. Simmons previously owned the Savannah Sand Gnats, based in Georgia. He wanted to continue working with affiliated baseball, but he was looking for something “more convenient” that would benefit

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The Hatch Act of 1939 is a beautiful piece of legislation. It disallows all kinds of things, like bribing voters with jobs to vote a certain way, as well as limiting any campaign activity by federal workers. Another thing it does is to prohibit partisan political activity in the course of a staff member’s federal […]

Walter F. Scott III, 58, was spotted in surveillance video driving a red truck seen leaving the scene of the shooting of 45-year-old Eddie Raytel Smith on Sept. 18.

Thursday marked the eighth anniversary of Tom Petty’s death, and his Heartbreakers bandmates Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench and Stan Lynch paid tribute to him with posts on Instagram.Campbell posted a video that he captioned, “My…

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