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Missouri is experimenting with allowing schools to spurn traditional, spring standardized tests in favor of more frequent testing that gives students and teachers quicker feedback.

Officers raiding the Marion County Record hoped out loud that the devices they seized were not encrypted so they could illegally search them.

Marion County Record

Last Friday’s raid of the Marion County Record has captured national and international media attention and is shining a much-needed spotlight on the erosion of press freedom in the U.S. Hopefully the raid and its tragic aftermath (the Record’s 98-year-old co-owner, in shock from the ordeal, died the next day) prompts the reversal of that troubling trend.

But until then, journalists and newsrooms need to adapt to the current reality that many U.S. law enforcement officers and judges — from Marion to Manhattan — couldn't care less about the First Amendment. And part of that adaptation means that journalists’ devices and communications must be encrypted.

If you’re not convinced, just watch the video of the raid in Marion, which shows (at around 2:44) a police officer, while seizing multiple devices, commenting, “I don’t believe that this is encrypted so I think we’re OK.”

We’re not here to blame the Record — they’re the victims in this fiasco (and for all we know, the officer was wrong and the devices actually were encrypted). Many journalists, especially at smaller, local news outlets like the Record, may not give much thought to the prospect of police ransacking their newsrooms and homes over routine efforts to verify news tips using public records. That's understandable, given that their newsgathering is protected by both federal and state law and the Constitution. Yet here we are.

Our Digital Security team responded to the raid with a guide for journalists and newsrooms on how to prepare for a Marion-like situation, including how you can encrypt your computers and cell phones now if they are not already.

“When seizing a device,” our Principal Researcher Dr. Martin Shelton wrote, “law enforcement officials hope yours is unencrypted because an encrypted device is significantly more time consuming to examine without your permission.” That means cops are far less likely to recover confidential source communications and newsgathering materials from an illegally seized device if it's encrypted.

Our team has also published numerous guides and resources for newsrooms looking to improve their digital security practices, through encryption and other means. And we welcome any journalists or publishers to contact us to arrange a digital security training session so we can help them adapt to the threats journalists now face.

More than four years ago, an Illinois man was charged with pushing his new wife off a parking garage in the shadow of Busch Stadium — an incident that ended with the woman plummeting to her death. Now attorneys for Bradley Jenkins are seeking to have video evidence taken by his wife in the moments prior to her death be ruled inadmissible if the case goes to trial.

Twice this summer, Andrew Mullins emailed state marijuana regulators to make sure they knew about a potential problem. Mullins, the president of the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association, feared that licensed Missouri cannabis companies may be tempted to add illegal marijuana products brought in from other states to their own products in order to keep their production numbers up — a process known as “inversion.” “We understand that production is still catching up with demand and wholesale…

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For a long while now, we’ve pointed out how the privacy hyperventilation over singular threats like TikTok are a huge distraction from the fact Congress is simply too corrupt to pass even a baseline privacy law for the internet era. Or regulate the massive number of dodgy data brokers that buy, sell, and trade in […]

A St. Louis all-girls charter school has announced its closure shortly before the start of the new school year. Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls, located in the city's Kingsway West neighborhood, will close at the end of the month due to low enrollment, school leaders announced in a Tuesday letter. The school's foundation owns its property, at 1901 N. Kingshighway Blvd., which was appraised by the city at $1.5 million. The letter was signed by Board Chair Hal Davies and Head of School Daphne…

Lawmakers and advocates supporting the proposal say children need an attorney to understand their constitutional rights. Some law enforcement groups oppose the plan, saying all individuals are entitled to counsel at their request.

One survey asks about the challenges residents currently face in the city; the other allows people to submit spending plans.

The St. Louis charter school opened in 2015 on North Kingshighway and has struggled to boost academics and enrollment.

As attorney general, U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt argued that counties could not impose mask orders or close businesses during a pandemic

If you ask the organizers of the Evolution Festival — the two-day music, bourbon and BBQ bash coming up on Saturday, August 26, and Sunday, August 27, in Forest Park featuring headliners Brandi Carlile, the Black Keys, the Black Crowes and Ice Cube — this thing is going to be huge, an amazing experience for attendees and a new St. Louis institution for years to come. And we have every reason to believe them, given the credentials of the event's two executive producers.

On the heels of the near-universally lauded second iteration of Grand Center's Music at the Intersection festival, organizers have a clear guiding principle moving into the event's third outing: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's an understandable position.

It is a big back-to-school day Wednesday morning for many Illinois school districts in the area. We spent the morning in the East Alton School District, where there was excitement in the air for the first day back at school.

Missouri among states where hospitals redistribute Medicaid funding.

St. Louis is home for Parayko, who owns a house in the region and is one of few active Blues players who lives year-round in St. Louis.

Twice this summer, Andrew Mullins emailed state marijuana regulators to make sure they knew about a potential problem. Mullins, the president of the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association, feared that licensed Missouri cannabis companies may be tempted to add illegal marijuana products brought in from other states to their own products in order to keep their […]

The post State faces pushback from Missouri marijuana industry over product recall appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Four members of Missouri Task Force 1 and their canines are heading to Maui Wednesday to help search for human remains. At least 106 are confirmed dead, and sadly, that number is going to rise. So a tough mission is ahead of them.