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Gypsy Blanchard, whose story inspired an eight-episode miniseries on Hulu, has been granted early parole after she was found guilty in the 2015 murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard.

What is it with real life stories matching satirical online TV shows lately? We just had a story match one from The Office, and now we’ve got one (that’s much dumber) that is copied from a Futurama episode about how dating robots will lead to the downfall of civilization: Recently, the Hill published a truly […]

A pioneering residential electrical warranty program by the IBEW/NECA Electrical Connection is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a total of 22,936 new homes registered in the program. The +5 New Homeowners Electrical Protection Plan provides a quality installation guarantee on new homes wired by Electrical Connection contractors employing members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical […]

SSM Health, the St. Louis-based multistate health system, said Thursday it would build a replacement facility for its pediatric hospital.

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (WMBD) -- The Bloomington Police Department arrested five men for their alleged involvement in a multi-state auto theft ring last Friday. According to Bloomington Public Information Officer Bryce Janssen, the five Texas men were all charged in McLean County Circuit Court with seven counts of possession of a stolen motor vehicle worth more [...]

Tim Ezel takes on the new roller coaster "Rookie Racer" at Six Flags. It's a perfect combination, offering the appearance of a big, intense coaster while maintaining a kid-friendly appeal that young riders are sure to enjoy.

CannonDesign is thrilled to welcome Marcus Moomey, AIA, DBIA as the new St. Louis and Denver Business Practice Leader (BPL). Marcus will focus on each office’s financial success, alignment and management of resources, process delivery, and staff growth and development. With over 25 years of experience, Marcus’ diverse design and build career began as a […]

Republicans revved up their impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden today. So how's it going? Keep in mind that these are not a bunch of spear carriers for the Biden crime family. They are the Republicans' own witnesses. 2 of GOP's witnesses at impeachment inquiry hearing say there isn't enough evidence against Joe Biden Dubinsky "More ...continue reading "Republican impeachment inquiry not going well"

by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Anchorage Daily News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

An Anchorage city commissioner and her husband have been charged with fraudulently obtaining $1.6 million in COVID-19 recovery money for their charity. Charges filed in federal court in Anchorage accuse the couple of buying cryptocurrency and making personal use of money intended to help people find homes and addiction treatment.

A federal grand jury on Sept. 19 indicted Rosalina Mavaega, 41, and Esau Fualema Jr., 44, on five felony charges including major fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. The charges come after the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica first reported in May that the Anchorage Assembly gave the couple one of the city’s largest awards under the American Rescue Plan Act despite prior fraud allegations.

Mavaega was arrested Wednesday, court records show. The U.S. Attorney’s Office publicly announced the charges that afternoon.

As of Thursday morning, the city website still listed Mavaega as a member of the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission, which is tasked with investigating allegations of discrimination, as well as the city housing and homelessness committee.

Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson appointed Mavaega to the commissions in 2022. The executive director of the Equal Rights Commission said Thursday morning that Mavaega remains a commissioner. The chairperson of the homelessness commission said she remains a “member of good standing” on that commission, representing nonprofits, and attended its most recent meeting earlier this month.

Bronson spokesperson Veronica Hoxie said Thursday that the mayor asked for Mavaega’s resignation when she was being investigated in May. Mavaega declined, Hoxie said.

“The Mayor cannot unilaterally remove a member of boards and commissions per municipal code,” Hoxie wrote in an email. “However, Ms. Mavaega’s service is under official review by the Board of Ethics. The Board is addressing the issue and took initial public testimony in an executive session during its meeting on September 22. The matter is still under consideration by the Board.”

Mavaega and Fualema were in custody as of Thursday morning and could not immediately be reached for comment. When a reporter visited Mavaega’s office on May 18, an employee said she was not available but was scheduled to talk with investigators that afternoon. She did not respond to subsequent emails and phone calls seeking comment.

Fualema also did not respond to emails, phone messages or an interview request delivered to his home at the time.

First image: Rosalina Mavaega. Second image: Esau Fualema Jr. (LinkedIn)

The Anchorage Assembly in May 2021 awarded Mavaega and Fualema’s charity, House of Transformations, $1.6 million even though the state permanently barred the couple from serving as Medicaid providers in 2015.

The state Division of Senior and Disability Services gave four reasons for the ban: violating background check requirements, submitting billing claims without adequate documentation, offering a rebate for Medicaid referrals and submitting claims without supporting documentation.

As a result, Maveaga’s business can no longer bill any federal health care program, including Medicare, Medicaid and Denali KidCare, for its services. Mavaega appealed the ban in 2016, arguing the penalty was too severe and relied on hearsay evidence, but a state Superior Court judge upheld the punishment.

The charges relate to how they obtained the 2021 grant, how they used the money and alleged efforts to subsequently acquire additional grants from the city.

They are accused of lying to federal, state and city officials in order to claim they met legal requirements to receive an ARPA grant from the city. The charges say the couple directed a grant writer to submit proposals that “falsely described the operating expenses and officers and directors” of their various charities.

The charges say the couple transferred $297,250 of the grant to their personal checking account, using the money as collateral to obtain a personal loan. The loan money was used, in turn, to buy $191,000 in cryptocurrency and to pay taxes owed by one of their businesses.

An additional $402,000 in grant money was used to finance a for-profit beauty salon, according to the charges. The charges say that as part of their grant agreement, they promised to use about $500,000 to make down payment on two Anchorage properties that could be used for housing services. They did not do so, the charges say, and failed to disclose that Fualema already owned 50% of one of the properties.

House of Transformations and various limited liability companies that use the same office address and same name, or similar names, are among a constellation of nonprofits and businesses the couple created in recent years.

House of Transformations was one of the biggest recipients in the first round of ARPA grant awards from the city. It received more than city agencies such as the fire and police departments, and it received the 13th overall largest grant out of the 64 awarded.

Update, Sept. 29, 2023: This story has been updated to add additional comments from Anchorage officials.

Correction

Sept. 30, 2023: This story originally misstated the first name of Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson’s spokesperson. It is Veronica, not Victoria.

With the topping out of the AC Hotel in Clayton on Sept 26 ,2023, Midas Construction is advancing toward a spring 2024 completion having overcome several challenges. The $50 million project has emerged on an extremely tight urban site in an era marked by ongoing issues with material supply chain costs. When the 11-story, 207-room […]

From NBC News:  Ben Phillips’ childhood memories include basketball games with friends, and neighbors gathering in the summer shade at their St. Louis housing complex. He also remembers watching men in hazmat suits scurry on the roofs of high-rise buildings as a dense material poured into the air. “I remember the mist,” Phillips, now 73, […]

From Construction Dive:  Total construction starts rose 6% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.3 trillion, according to Dodge Construction Network, buoyed by pickups in the manufacturing and transportation building sectors. The two sectors’ gains help lift starts in the broader nonresidential construction category by 40% and kept the overall index in […]

ZZ Top's Billy F. Gibbons has announced dates for the 2023 edition of The Jungle Show, which he describes as the “ultimate Texas Blues event of the season.”  This year’s run will return to Antone's in…

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Stop signs have been spotted cut in half in Soulard and the Central West End. Others are wilting like unwatered flowers.

From Leader Publications:  The Jefferson County Council took the next step to replace a long-decaying bridge on Commerce Drive just south of Arnold. The council voted unanimously on Aug. 28 to authorize the County Counselor’s Office to begin eminent domain proceedings against one of the property owners near the bridge, which provides access from the […]

Artist Adam Pendleton’s preferred hues may be black and white, but the message of his artwork, now on display at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum (1 Brookings Drive, 314-935-4523, kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu), is anything but. To Divide By, which opened late last month, showcases the past five years of Pendleton’s artistic practice. In the exhibition, which encompasses all four of the Kemper’s special exhibition spaces, the internationally renowned, Brooklyn-based visual artist explores what it means for art to be abstract.

From St. Louis Business Journal:  A division of True Manufacturing Co., the St. Louis-based maker of commercial and residential refrigeration equipment, has opened its first showroom, in New York. True Residential, the company’s luxury American-made home refrigeration brand, opened its new showroom in the Architects & Designers Building at 150 E. 58th St. in New […]

From Construction Dive:  Construction association executive Julie Muller had 1-year-old twins when she was transferred from Southern California to Washington state. Around that same time, she met a journeywoman with young children at an industry event and began talking about being a working mother. “This young woman said the only way she could continue to […]