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GRAFTON - Summer is over and Raging Rivers is getting spooky this October with a Haunted Trail around the water park. The Raging Rivers’ Haunted Trail is a 30–45 minute walk through “Illinois’s darkest and most haunted forest,” according to the park’s website . Located at 100 Palisades Parkway in Grafton, the trail is open every Saturday from Oct. 7–28. “The land is a cursed graveyard from the old dynamite factory that was forced to shut down because of so many accidents and deaths. Mutants and monsters are lurking in the shadows for their next victim,” the website warns. “The trail will be kid-friendlier in the early evening but as the night gets darker, the ghouls get scarier.” You can expect strobe lights, jump scares, loud noises, fog and other haunted house favorites. Raging Rivers is offering glow bands in different colors, which will indicate what "level of scaring" you want to experience. Tours depart

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The upcoming departure of Marc D. Smith was one of three announced Wednesday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

GLEN CARBON - State Senator Erica Harriss (56 th -Glen Carbon) has released the following statement following the resignation announcement of Marc Smith, Director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services: "DCFS is entrusted to protect our most vulnerable children. With the recent release of an audit showing an unacceptable increase in the mishandling of cases by this state agency, it is clear we must take action. I ask the Governor to take significant steps to overhaul the agency before further tragedies strike. We have a moral obligation to get this right."

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ST. LOUIS - Today, Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, Ald. Anne Schweitzer (1), Ald. Laura Keys (11), the St. Louis Area Agency on Aging (SLAAA), Assessor Michael Dauphin, and local senior citizens held a roundtable to discuss legislation to freeze property taxes for seniors in the City of St. Louis. This tax freeze is permissible under recently enacted state law, and St. Charles County recently enacted legislation to freeze taxes for seniors. This legislation stems from the passage of a new law ( SB 190 ) enacted by the State of Missouri earlier this year. “While the City of St. Louis invests in long left-behind neighborhoods, we can take advantage of new opportunities to help seniors stay in their homes and get some relief from rising property values,” said Mayor Tishaura O. Jones. “As we work to finalize legislative proposals, I am thankful to our senior citizens for their insight this morning and to City leaders for their work to support our seniors.” The legislation

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EDWARDSVILLE – The Illinois Department of Transportation announced today that both lanes of Illinois 143 from just east of Interstate 55 at Tosovsky Lane to U.S. 40 in Madison County will require intermittent daytime lane closures beginning, weather permitting, Tuesday, Oct. 10, through Friday, Oct. 13, and Monday, Oct. 16. The lane closures are necessary for the evaluation of pavement conditions. Drivers are urged to reduce speed, be alert for changing conditions, obey all signage, and refrain from using mobile devices while approaching and traveling through the work zone. For IDOT District 8 updates, follow us on Twitter at @IDOTDistrict8 or view area construction details on IDOT’s traveler information map on GettingAroundIllinois.com.

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JERSEY COUNTY - Jersey County Sheriff Nicholas Manns released more information today about a Friday, September 29, 2023, incident in rural Jersey County along McClusky Road. "The incident was reported at 3 p.m. on Sept. 29, 2023, and the Jersey County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO), QEM Fire Department, Jerseyville Fire Department, Jersey Community Hospital Ambulance, and Godfrey Fire Department responded to a house fire in rural Jersey County along McClusky Road," he said. "Upon arrival at the property, Jersey County Deputies found the house fully engulfed in flames. QEM and the assisting fire departments worked quickly to extinguish the fire and protect the surrounding property, fields, and crops. "The house was unoccupied at the time. Subsequent investigation, along with invaluable tips from multiple concerned citizens, revealed the fire was arson. Within an hour, JCSO Deputies identified, located, and arrested the arson suspect, identified as Rochelle K. Maltimore (age 31). Maltimore

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Joe Perry was more than impressed the first time he heard Van Halen. In fact, in an interview with Guitar World, the Aerosmith guitarist reveals how hearing Van Halen for the first time contributed to his…

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ALTON - The Alton Police Department announced today it recently received notice that it has secured over $800,000 in grant funding. The funding is from two separate grants - the Smart Policing Initiative Grant and the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant. Alton Police Chief Jarrett Ford said the grants will help assist the department in addressing a variety of goals such as violence prevention, crime mapping and crime data transparency, and equipment needs. "The Smart Policing Initiative Grant (SPI) is for $800,000," Chief Ford said. "It is a highly competitive grant with Alton PD being one of only three agencies selected nationwide for the SPI Category 3 grant. The grant is awarded to agencies that are experiencing precipitous increases in crime or in a type(s) of crime within their jurisdictions and propose to implement and test applied justice information-sharing technology designed to respond to the crime increases and improve criminal justice data exchange. "The goals

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Over 50 organizations sent a letter demanding transparency over the FBI's May raid of journalist Tim Burke's home newsroom. The government's failure to explain how it believes Burke's newsgathering broke the law threatens to chill reporting by journalists who dig for news online.

Courtesy of Tim Burke

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

An FBI raid on the home newsroom of Florida journalist Tim Burke in May prompted over 50 organizations to send a letter to the Department of Justice today demanding transparency about how the government believes Burke’s newsgathering broke the law. Burke is perhaps most well known for his 2013 reporting for Deadspin that revealed that Heisman Trophy winner Manti Te'o's girlfriend, and her supposed death, were a hoax.

The FBI raided Burke’s home after he obtained outtakes of Tucker Carlson’s interview with Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) where Ye made antisemitic and other offensive remarks. The investigation, according to court filings, involves alleged violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or CFAA, and a federal wiretapping law. The letter notes that concerns about efforts to criminalize journalism under computer crime laws are heightened by the August police raid of the Marion County Record over a reporter verifying a news tip using a government website.

The CFAA is the federal anti-hacking law that prohibits unauthorized access to a computer. But Burke says he got the outtakes from websites where Fox News uploaded unencrypted live streams to URLs anyone could access, using publicly accessible login credentials. “If that’s true, it’s highly problematic for press freedom,” said Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Advocacy Director Seth Stern. “Journalists cannot be expected to refrain from using the internet to find newsworthy content just because powerful companies would prefer to keep it private.”

The public does not know exactly why prosecutors believe Burke broke the law because the government fought successfully to keep the affidavit supporting the search warrant sealed from public view, and authorities have not issued any meaningful public comment. This lack of transparency is why FPF, Florida’s First Amendment Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union took the lead on the coalition letter.

The letter is also signed by national organizations including the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, PEN America, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Society of Professional Journalists, as well as broadcast media giants like Nexstar Media Group and Gray Media Group. Advocates from Burke’s home state, like the Florida Press Association and Florida Association of Broadcasters, also joined.

In addition to the lack of transparency, the letter takes issue with prosecutors’ arguments that Burke is not actually a journalist, in part because he did not work for an established news outlet at the time he obtained the outtakes. Burke has a long history in journalism. In addition to his reporting on the Manti Te’o hoax, Burke was also behind the widely circulated 2018 video compilation showing dozens of Sinclair Broadcasting Group anchors reciting the same script.

But even putting aside Burke’s background, the letter explains that “Courts have rightly warned against limiting the First Amendment’s press clause to established media outlets — a warning that is especially important as technological advances give rise to new forms of journalism while traditional news outlets close their doors at alarming rates.”

The organizations behind the letter raise concern — and demand answers — regarding whether the government’s apparent belief that Burke was not a journalist led it to eschew procedures for searches of journalists’ newsgathering materials required under the federal Privacy Protection Act of 1980 and the DOJ’s own policies. Those policies were revised last year to better protect journalists’ rights in light of Trump-era abuses.

“The public relies on a fair and free press as protected by the First Amendment. Law enforcement policies and laws must support journalists’ rights to investigate and report on important matters of public interest, such as corruption, misconduct, and abuse of power, without fear of retaliation or censorship,” said Jennifer Granick, surveillance and cybersecurity counsel with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “This case, as with the recent raid on the Marion County newspaper, shows that we must do more to protect our journalists from abuses of power.”

“We need to make sure that rules meant to protect the newsgathering process are being followed and American traditions safeguarding a vibrant free press are not being abandoned for judicial and prosecutorial convenience, whether by a local police department in rural Kansas or the FBI in Tampa,” said Bobby Block, executive director of the First Amendment Foundation.

“Journalists need to know where the DOJ draws the line between computer savviness and computer crime,” said FPF Deputy Advocacy Director Caitlin Vogus. “Otherwise, they’re going to refrain from digging for news online out of fear that if they do their jobs a little too well they might be investigated or prosecuted.”

“We are concerned about the lack of transparency around federal investigators' raid on the home of journalist Tim Burke. The Justice Department should unseal the affidavit in this case and provide the public with an explanation as to why they conducted the raid in the first place,” said Katherine Jacobsen, U.S. and Canada program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“It is always critical for the Society of Professional Journalists to stand up for the First Amendment rights of all journalists, whether newsroom staff employees, student journalists or freelancers. Any government agency’s attempt to infringe upon those First Amendment rights must be fought to ensure there is no chilling effect for other journalists. We stand behind Mr. Burke and his request for the immediate return of his devices from the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” said Ashanti Blaize-Hopkins, national president of the Society of Professional Journalists.

You can read the full letter here or below.

ALTON - Alton Mayor David Goins will continue to represent Illinois as the State Chair of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI) . MRCTI is an organization that brings together the towns on the Mississippi River. The mayors of these towns connect to discuss management, conservation efforts and ways to celebrate and protect the Mississippi River. “It is exciting to work with mayors on behalf of our river,” Goins said. “This coalition has really gained a strong voice in Washington D.C. because of the collaboration of mayors. We’re mayors from the upper, middle and lower Mississippi, and we comprise 102 mayors who are on the river from Minnesota all the way down to New Orleans. Each of us have our own challenges and our own ideas.” As the Illinois State Chair, Goins will represent the 18 Illinois mayors who are a part of the coalition. He took on this role when the previous Illinois State Chair mayor was not reelected. Goins was

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Brentwood-based Post Holdings Inc. has made its "first foray" into local sports sponsorship, saying Wednesday it has inked a corporate partnership deal with the the St. Louis Blues.

Narrow net interest margins remain the top external challenge for community bankers in 2023, but concerns about three related issues have risen dramatically over the past year, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors.

Look, I don’t want to suggest that maybe the 5th Circuit’s analysis on issues in the Missouri v. Biden case is not particularly well considered, but, um, it’s not at all clear that the 5th Circuit’s analysis on the Missouri v. Biden case is well considered. After all, the original ruling made a series of […]

Police are investigating the inmate-on-inmate attack that happened Sept. 25.

This is the stained glass window in the Bayeux Cathedral. We were in Bayeux to see the famous Bayeux tapestry, which is more than 200 feet long and displayed in a ver-r-r-y long case. When we were done, I hopped over to the cathedral to look around, and then barely made it back to the ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Students looking to get federal financial aid for the next school year will have to wait a little longer than usual to apply, the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development said. The department launched a website Wednesday guiding students on how they can prepare for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FASFA) to open in December. The application has historically opened up to students on Oct. 1, but has been delayed this year due to efforts to make the application…

A seller and lessor of private jets says a firm with property at Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield owes it at least $2.5 million.

Another developer has dropped plans to redevelop the Caleres office campus in Clayton.