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Reactions to Wentzville superintendent’s $1 million buyout were mixed on Thursday, including at least one board member expressing frustration with the amount.

A bill winding its way through the legislature seeks to ease backlogs in child abuse and neglect investigations by allowing Missouri’s social services agency to outsource some work involving child abuse and neglect investigations to private contractors. Sponsored by Republican state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman of Arnold, the bill was voted out of committee unanimously […]

The post Missouri bill would let private contractors assist in child abuse investigations appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri's first year of (legal) recreational marijuana sales brought record-breaking profits and criminal justice reforms to the state. The state said yes to Amendment 3 legalizing adult recreational use in November 2022, with 53 percent of voters approving. Sales began in December of that year.

ST. LOUIS -- Along with the release of Taylor Swift's brand-new album, "The Tortured Poets Department," came a surprise second album with fifteen additional songs. Excitement is reaching new heights in downtown St. Louis. This weekend, fans can experience Swift's latest hits on the St. Louis Wheel at Union Station. The 200-foot-tall Ferris wheel offers [...]

EUREKA, Mo. -- Eureka is under a boil water advisory today due to a loss of water pressure. Residents in the affected area should boil their water. This includes any water used for drinking or cooking, which needs to be boiled for three minutes. The advisory is expected to last until Saturday night. Water boil [...]

The Missouri House gave initial approval this week to a bill that could protect pesticide manufacturers from some cancer lawsuits. The debate on the House floor wasn’t split along party lines however, as several Republicans cautioned against the risk of cancers caused by pesticides. Legislation sponsored by Rep. Dane Diehl, a Republican from Butler, would […]

The post Missouri House gives initial OK to bill protecting pesticide-makers appeared first on Missouri Independent.

SLM dining editor George Mahe on the items that he finds objectionable

Homegrown event Open Highway Music Festival is taking 2024 off to focus on other ventures. The news comes on the heels of another popular local festival calling it quits.

ST. LOUIS -- Severe storms on Thursday evening caused significant damage across the St. Louis region. A suspected tornado in Prairietown, Illinois destroyed a farm that had been there for nearly a century. The storm also left behind damaged tree limbs and downed power lines in the area. Fortunately, no injuries were reported, as no [...]

ST. LOUIS -- A SUV crashed into a north St. Louis home early Friday morning, killing the driver and alarming residents. The incident occurred in the Walnut Park East neighborhood at Theodore and Plover off Riverview. The crash damaged a home's fence and window and impacted a gas line, although the SUV did not enter [...]

Mother’s Day is right around the corner, and Walmart has a variety of fantastic Mother’s Day gifts to make any mom smile this year.

ST. LOUIS -- Rain and storms are long gone. Now, a north wind is bringing in much cooler air for Friday and the weekend. Breezy Friday, especially in the morning. Partly cloudy skies, highs is the low 60s. Wake up temperatures Saturday will be in the low to mid 40s. Partly cloudy Saturday with clearer [...]

The new safety feature means riders using Uber will be verified on the app and have a blue checkmark badge added to their profile for drivers to see.

Ralph Clayton's first turn of dirt on April 19, 1878, began construction of a St. Louis County Courthouse in the future city that would bear his name

Ferguson Police Chief Troy Doyle says one of his first goals as head of the department was to convince officers that the federal consent decree they’re under is a good thing. He is also focused on recruitment of officers and improving community relations.

The victim in hospice care was unable to move on her own or call the police during the ordeal.

by Vianna Davila and Lexi Churchill, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, and Davis Winkie, Military Times

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans, and with Military Times, an independent news organization reporting on issues important to the U.S. military. Sign up for newsletters from The Texas Tribune and Military Times.

The U.S. Army, the country’s largest military branch, will no longer allow military commanders to decide on their own whether soldiers accused of certain serious crimes can leave the service rather than go on trial.

The decision comes one year after ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and Military Times published an investigation exposing how hundreds of soldiers charged with violent crimes were administratively discharged instead of facing a court martial.

Under the new rule, which goes into effect Saturday, military commanders will no longer have the sole authority to grant a soldier’s request for what is known as a discharge in lieu of court martial, or Chapter 10, in certain cases. Instead, the newly created Office of Special Trial Counsel, a group of military attorneys who specialize in handling cases involving violent crimes, must also approve the decision. Without the attorneys’ approval, charges against a soldier can’t be dismissed.

The Office of Special Trial Counsel will have the final say, the Army told the news organizations.

The new rule will apply only to cases that fall under the purview of the Office of Special Trial Counsel, including sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, kidnapping and murder. In 2021, Congress authorized creation of the new legal office — one for each military branch except the U.S. Coast Guard — in response to yearslong pressure to change how the military responds to violent crimes, specifically sexual assault, and reduce commanders’ control over that process. As of December, attorneys with this special office, and not commanders, now decide whether to prosecute cases related to those serious offenses.

Army officials told the news organizations that the change in discharge authority was made in response to the creation of the Office of Special Trial Counsel.

As far back as 1978, a federal watchdog agency called for the U.S. Department of Defense to end its policy of allowing service members accused of crimes to leave the military to avoid going to court. Armed forces leaders continued the practice anyway.

Last year, ProPublica, the Tribune and Military Times found that more than half of the 900 soldiers who were allowed to leave the Army in the previous decade rather than go to trial had been accused of violent crimes, including sexual assault and domestic violence, according to an analysis of roughly 8,000 Army courts-martial cases that reached arraignment. These soldiers had to acknowledge that they committed an offense that could be punishable under military law but did not have to admit guilt to a specific crime or face any other consequences that can come with a conviction, like registering as a sex offender.

The Army did not dispute the news organizations’ findings that the discharges in lieu of trial, also known as separations, were increasingly being used for violent crimes. An Army official said separations are a good alternative if commanders believe wrongdoing occurred but don’t have the evidence for a conviction, or if a victim prefers not to pursue a case.

Military law experts contacted by the news organizations called the Army’s change a step in the right direction.

“It’s good to see the Army has closed the loophole,” said former Air Force chief prosecutor Col. Don Christensen, who is now in private practice.

However, the Office of Special Trial Counsel’s decisions are not absolute. If the attorneys want to drop a charge, the commander still has the option to impose a range of other administrative punishments, Army officials said.

Christensen said he believes commanders should be removed from the judicial process entirely, a shift he said that the military has continued to fight. Commanders often have little to no legal experience. The military has long maintained that commanders are an important part of its justice system.

“They just can’t break away from commanders making these decisions,” said Christensen, who’s been a vocal critic of commanders’ outsize role in the military justice system. “They’re too wedded to that process.”

The Army told the newsrooms that additional changes to DOD and Army policy would be required to remove commanders entirely and instead give the Office of Special Trial Counsel full authority over separations in lieu of trial.

The news organizations reached out to several military branches to determine how the creation of the Office of Special Trial Counsel will affect their discharge processes. The U.S. Navy has taken steps similar to the Army’s. In the U.S. Air Force, the Office of Special Trial Counsel now makes recommendations in cases involving officers, and the branch is in the process of changing the rules for enlisted members. The U.S. Marines confirmed to the news organizations that it has not yet changed its discharge system.

A decade has now passed since those anxious and cherished summer days of July 2013. During that particular Independence Day holiday, there were two young men visiting, one from Egypt, one from Israel.