Aggregator

Bishop Richard Stika is a St. Louis native who was ordained in 1985 by Archbishop John L. May at the Cathedral Basilica

by Caroline Chen

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

The organization that governs U.S. organ transplant policies voted unanimously on Monday to require that donors be tested for a parasitic disease called Chagas.

Last week, ProPublica reported on the death of Bob Naedele, a former police detective from Connecticut who died in 2018 after receiving an infected heart; his death could have been prevented if the donor had been tested for Chagas. The policy change comes after years of recommendations from experts for screening to prevent such deaths.

The new policy, passed by board members of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, will require the groups that recover organs in the U.S. to test the blood of donors born in countries where Chagas disease is prevalent, including Mexico and 20 nations in South and Central America. To be implemented, the policy will need to be approved by the federal Office of Management and Budget.

“My family and I are elated hearing about the policy change,” said Cheryl Naedele, Bob’s wife. “Ensuring no heart recipient will ever have to suffer the ravages of Chagas has been our passion since Bob’s passing.”

Test results will not have to be provided to patients and their medical team before transplant. That means that patients potentially could find out after their transplant that they had received an infected organ — and not have a chance to weigh the risks of a worse outcome.

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network committee that drafted the proposal originally planned to require testing to be completed before a transplant. But “many commenters were concerned that the lack of availability of testing and time it takes to get test results could lead to” delays or wasted organs, spokesperson Anne Paschke said, so the committee removed the pre-transplant requirement.

Experts said that any testing requirement can still improve outcomes even if results arrive after a transplant because medical teams could begin treating an infection promptly, rather than discovering the disease after symptoms appear. Treatment for Chagas disease is available, but it’s not always successful in transplant recipients because their immune system needs to be suppressed so their body will not reject the new organ.

In Bob Naedele’s case, his diagnosis took weeks and came too late, after the parasite had invaded his nervous system and brain. He died seven months after what had initially appeared to be a successful transplant.

Wolfgang Van Halen has released a new song called "Take a Bow" with his Mammoth WVH band. The track was recorded using the original Frankenstein guitar owned by Wolf's dad,…

Source

On view at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum until July 24, The Air That Inhabits features artworks by the current MFA in Visual Arts candidates of the Sam Fox

The post The Air That Inhabits: 2023 MFA In Visual Arts Thesis Exhibition appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Ralph Yarl, the Kansas City teen shot in the head after knocking on the wrong door in April, is speaking publicly for the first time about his recovery as well as the man who shot him. In April, the 16-year-old was going to pick up his siblings in north Kansas City when he mistakenly knocked on the door of 85-year-old Andrew Lester. Lester's address was very similar to and only one block away from where Yarl's siblings were.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected North Carolina Republican legislators’ argument that state courts cannot review laws legislatures pass governing federal elections. Republican lawmakers claimed the Elections Clause in the U.S. Constitution makes legislatures the sole state authorities on federal elections law, including congressional redistricting. Critics said the high court’s endorsement of the independent state legislature […]

The post U.S. Supreme Court rejects theory that would have radically reshaped election rules appeared first on Missouri Independent.

NYPD officers respond to a protest.

Rhododendrites, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Last month, NYPD officers arrested veteran photojournalist Stephanie Keith while she attempted to document a candlelight vigil following the killing of Jordan Neely on a subway. After the arrest, Chief of Patrol John Chell claimed Keith had obstructed three arrests during the vigil. But video of Keith’s arrest instead shows Chell grabbing and pushing Keith and screaming to “lock her up” after she briefly stepped off the sidewalk to get a shot.

Police attempts to frame a career journalist like Keith as some rowdy protester looking for trouble are downright ludicrous (although the First Amendment protects rowdy protesters, too). Keith is a respected professional. She was part of The New York Times team nominated for a 2023 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage.

But it’s far from the first time that police have claimed obstruction or aggression by journalists they arrest only for video to show nothing of the sort. Why the disconnect? Well, it seems that many law enforcement officials view journalism itself as obstructive. The NYPD is no exception.

In fact, NYPD officers often go far beyond just arresting journalists. They waste taxpayer funds on petulant abuses of power — not to mention the litigation that often follows. In 2021, for example, officers assaulted photojournalist Gabe Quinones with a baton while he attempted to cover demonstrations at Washington Square Park. After he filed a complaint, officers came to his home to arrest him for grand larceny. They claimed he tried to steal the baton he was beaten with despite video of the assailant officer lashing him across the back while he ran away.

Predictably, prosecutors dropped charges. Officials don’t file these kinds of cases to win but to intimidate. They have no interest in putting their non-existent evidence before a jury.

The prior year, NYPD officers attacked another journalist, Armin Rosen of Tablet Magazine, who was covering a protest following the murder of George Floyd. The officers apparently chose to assault first and ask questions later after seeing him put something in his backpack. It turned out to be a notebook he was trying to protect from the rain. Rather than apologize, they stole his bicycle. Seriously. They left him with his bike helmet, which said “PRESS” in large letters.

According to Freedom of the Press Foundation’s U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, the beating Rosen endured was just one of 30 known arrests and assaults of journalists by the NYPD at Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020 (not to mention similar incidents a few months later at election-related demonstrations). Days before assaulting Rosen, police slammed a photojournalist’s head into the ground for no apparent reason while a crowd pleaded for them to let the “old lady” go. She said her camera strap almost choked her during the assault.

Officials back then cited the chaos of the times as their excuse. Police, they said, thought the people they senselessly attacked for exercising their First Amendment rights were not journalists but mere protesters, who they apparently (and appallingly) regard as fair game.

But the George Floyd protests are over and NYPD’s anti-press antics continue. In fact, journalists who got on the department’s bad side in 2020 claim officers are still retaliating against them.

Another common excuse is that journalists could avoid nightsticks and jail cells by displaying city-issued press credentials — as though the mayor’s office, or any government body, has the power to determine who qualifies for First Amendment rights. Requiring journalists to register with the government — what could go wrong? The reality is that many journalists intentionally avoid displaying press credentials for fear of being targeted by police.

To be clear, cops’ hostility to the press is far from just a New York problem. Officials in Oklahoma were recently caught on tape fantasizing about murdering reporters at a government meeting. The sheriff then threatened to prosecute the journalists for recording the conversation. A jury in North Carolina this month convicted two journalists for violating curfew while covering a homeless encampment sweep cops chose to conduct after hours at a public park. And the DOJ highlighted press freedom violations in its recent report on its investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department.

But New York is the media capital of the world, and likes to regard itself as more enlightened than supposed flyover states when it comes to civil liberties like press freedom. Sadly there’s about as much evidence that’s actually the case as there is of Keith’s alleged obstruction.

A coalition of press rights and civil liberties groups have demanded prosecutors drop charges against Keith. They should, and then Keith should sue (as should other journalists victimized by the NYPD). But even then, it’s the taxpayers that foot the bill, which is why officials seem content with paying tens of millions to settle police misconduct cases annually. Change will only come if New Yorkers — especially journalists — demand it, loudly and repeatedly.

Once again this term, the Supreme Court has backed away from madness: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the theory that state legislatures have almost unlimited power to decide the rules for federal elections and draw partisan congressional maps without interference from state courts. ....The “independent state legislature theory” holds that the U.S. Constitution gives ...continue reading "Supreme Court strikes down chaos in election rules"

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker announced today that the Illinois Department of Transportation has been awarded a total of $24.9 million in two grants from the Federal Transit Administration for new battery-electric paratransit vehicles and paratransit vehicle replacements. The investment will help expand and improve services, providing additional transportation options, reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing quality of life throughout the state. “Here in Illinois, we are taking bold action to reach our ambitious clean energy goals and tackle the climate crisis head on—from passing landmark climate legislation and strengthening our electric vehicle ecosystem to expanding workforce development opportunities and investing in historically underserved communities,” said Gov. Pritzker. “This $24.9 million in funding from the Federal Transit Administration advances that critical work—all while making sure Illinoisans up and down the state

Continue Reading

CHICAGO - Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a coalition of 26 attorneys general, issued a letter on Monday supporting the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) recent notice of increased consumer protections included in proposed amendments to its Negative Option Rule. Negative options are marketing methods used by companies to enroll consumers in subscriptions, continuity plans and programs, automatic renewals and other recurring actions. These plans and programs do not require consent for each attached recurring charge and, in some cases, a consumer’s silence is consent. The FTC’s proposed amendments to the existing Negative Option Rule would provide more protection to consumers, clarifying terms at enrollment, offering easy and immediate cancellation options and reminders of upcoming charges. “Deceptive billing and auto-renewal tactics employed by certain businesses are among consumers’ top complaints to my office’s Consumer Protection Division,”

Continue Reading

CHICAGO – U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today announced that Illinois will receive $1,040,420,751 in federal funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. This funding will help to deploy affordable, reliable high-speed internet infrastructure to help close the digital divide across Illinois. Today’s announcement is part of more than $42 billion announced nationwide to expand high-speed internet access—a federal push to help an estimated 8.5 million families and small businesses take advantage of modern-day connectivity. “The pandemic exacerbated the digital divide in urban and rural communities across Illinois and the entire nation. Investing in reliable, high-speed internet equips our residents and businesses with the tools needed to succeed in today’s economy while improving their overall quality of life,” said Durbin. “Today’s

Continue Reading

Who’s that kid that can travel through time? It’s you!   Follow the adventures of three friends as they travel back in time to learn from real-life inspirational heroes when

The post Xavier Riddle and The Secret Museum: The Exhibit at The Magic House appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Take an overseas adventure in this immersive exhibit that transports families to China, a country where a quickly changing modern lifestyle intersects with ancient values. Explore what life is like

The post Children’s China – The Magic House appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Yes fans hoping to see a reunion between bandmates Steve Howe and Jon Anderson probably shouldn’t hold their breath waiting for it to happen. In a new interview with Classic Rock, Howe explains why a reunion…

Source

Dozens of artists share their takes on the iconic style in "POP! Goes the Easel 2."

A hockey coach faces felony charges for child sex crimes reported in St. Louis County.

Thousands of St. Louis kids can’t read at grade level. Now Missouri is offering public educators an intensive course in the science of reading at no cost

Thousands of St. Louis kids can’t read at grade level. Now Missouri is offering public educators an intensive course in the science of reading at no cost

“A Frayed Knot is a collection of fiber sculpture constructed through hours of painstakingly contoured yarn built up into second skins over furniture, hunting decoys, lumber, and mixed media. Inspired

The post A Frayed Knot by Douglas Dale appeared first on Explore St. Louis.