Aggregator

Another iconic piece of Van Halen memorabilia is up for sale.   A mini replica of Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstrat guitar, used in the video for the hit “Hot For Teacher,” is currently up…

Source

Sen. Durbin (right) is one of the co-sponsors of the PRESS Act in the Senate, along with Sens. Lee and Wyden. Rep. Kiley (left) and Rep. Raskin will co-sponsor the PRESS Act in the House.

United States Congress

What do the leak of a CIA agent’s name, a murder in Houston, and steroids in baseball all have in common? All were news stories involving confidential sources — and all resulted in reporters being sentenced to jail for refusing to reveal their identities.

Journalists shouldn’t have to choose between protecting their confidential sources or going to prison. Thankfully, if Congress passes the newly reintroduced federal reporter’s shield law known as the PRESS Act, they won’t have to, at least in federal cases.

That’s good news for both the press and, more importantly, the public’s right to know. The PRESS Act would protect newsgathering and the free flow of information to the American people, since journalists often rely on confidential sources — who may fear being jailed, fired, or retaliated against for speaking to the press — to report vital news stories in the national interest.

As we’ve explained before, the PRESS Act is one of modern times’ most important pieces of federal legislation protecting First Amendment rights. It’s a bipartisan bill that last year saw strong support both from major media outlets and civil society organizations. Last Congress, the PRESS Act was passed unanimously by the House and came within a hair’s-breadth of becoming law before it was stopped by a nonsensical objection from a single senator.

The newly reintroduced bill has bipartisan cosponsors in the Senate (Sens. Durbin, Lee, and Wyden) and will have bipartisan cosponsors in the House (Reps. Raskin and Kiley). These members should be applauded for their work to protect journalists at a time when egregious threats to their safety and legal protections persist.

The PRESS Act would mean journalists can’t be threatened with crippling fines or jail time unless they cough up the names of confidential sources or other information about their newsgathering. It would also stop the federal government from spying on journalists through their phones, email providers, and other online services. This anti-surveillance provision is especially important in the digital age, when reporters often must use email, cloud, and messaging services, as well as social media, to communicate with sources or store their work.

The PRESS Act covers both professional and citizen journalists. It applies regardless of the perceived political leanings of a news outlet or reporter. In other words, it would shield a blogger or a Pulitzer Prize winner, a reporter for Fox News or Media Matters for America. It would stop administrations — either Democrat or Republican — from spying on journalists whose reporting angers or embarrasses them.

At the same time, the PRESS Act also has some limited exceptions that apply when necessary to prevent terrorism or imminent violence. These commonsense limits let us both protect reporters in the vast majority of cases and allow the government to compel disclosures in exceptional (and, at least so far in U.S. history, entirely hypothetical) instances where source confidentiality could somehow lead to terrorism or violence.

Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia have shield laws or equivalents recognized by courts. But without a federal shield law, journalists still risk being jailed or punished for refusing to reveal sources or their newsgathering material in federal courts, congressional inquiries, and administrative proceedings. And although guidelines issued by the Department of Justice last year limit federal subpoenas to reporters, those guidelines could be rolled back or even ignored by future presidential administrations. (For example, it’s a safe bet that a future President Trump would not be a fan.)

We can’t afford to leave reporters’ ability to protect their sources up to the whims of a future administration. We need a law that protects the journalists and confidential sources that Americans rely on to expose wrongdoing by government, private companies, and powerful individuals. The PRESS Act is the strongest shield law Congress has ever proposed. Now it’s time to pass it.

In Kansas City, KC Tenants got a bill of rights enacted and is working to make sure all tenants have the right to a lawyer when facing evictions.

St. Louis is a great place to take a walk, according to the New York Times. Earlier this week, the city made a very exclusive list when the Times featured it in its "In 7 Great Cities, 7 Great Walks." You may have heard of some of the other towns which made the cut, including Paris, Seoul, Sydney and Rio de Janeiro.

Xavier Becerra spoke at a roundtable event last year moments before news broke that Roe v. Wade had been overturned.

Tom Schmidt says the show nailed the intensity of working and owning a restaurant.

Jesse Driskill was convicted in August 2013 of two counts of first-degree murder, burglary, rape and sodomy and sentenced to death for each murder count.

SimpleRose has raised $47 million and hopes to become St. Louis’ next startup valued at $1 billion. It’s relying on "an embarrassment of opportunity" tied to its supercomputer.

Tom Peterson loves St. Louis coffee shops. They're the sort of places you can grab a scone and a large, foamy cup of vanilla-scented brew and settle in with your laptop for hours to do some work.

At least three water systems in rural parts of the state imposed conservation measures during the 2018 drought. Dry conditions mean that could happen again.

Ask the experts from the Missouri Department of Transportation, St. Louis and St. Charles counties and St. Louis City your questions about highways and roads. The live chat starts at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.

GRAFTON - Police officer Mike Angel was in the spotlight at Tuesday night's Grafton City Council meeting where he was presented a Life Saving Certificate on behalf of the Council and the citizens of Grafton by Mayor Morrow and Police Chief Eric Spanton. Grafton Police Officer Mike Angel responded to a call of a bicyclist down and needing help on the bike trail at Graham Hollow outside of Grafton on Sunday afternoon. The cyclist had struck a 2” by 6” wooden guard rail and was severely cut. Grafton Mayor Morrow said the cyclist was bleeding from a gash to the neck, with gashes in his leg and ankle. The wounds exposed the bone and nicked the arteries in two places. The mayor said Officer Angel immediately removed the cyclist’s shirt and made a tourniquet around his upper leg then he quickly removed his own shirt and made a tourniquet on his lower leg. "Officer Angel applied pressure and calmed the victim until the ground ambulance arrived," the mayor said.

Continue Reading

Surveillance images captured the suspect fleeing from the area after the assault, police say.

The government of Malaysia isn’t too concerned about free speech. It may be a tourist destination, but it’s still subservient to a ruling class that likely can thank inbreeding for its current place at the top of the heap. Because it’s still ruled by people who’ve never been elected to their positions, those with the […]

Indie-filmmaker and St. Louis native David A. Malone has known he needed to make October 11th for most of his career. Since writing the film’s first draft in late 2021, Malone has made eight iterations of the script. 

White House holds up St. Louis DREAMer on 11th anniversary of Obama's DACA program.

Election officials in Missouri are in the process of changing how they make sure voter rolls are updated for future elections amidst concerns over data sharing, clunky user faces, and overall election security.

The benefits of learning to speak a second language (or third) are immeasurable! With its intuitive, immersive training method, Rosetta Stone will have you reading, writing, and speaking new languages like a natural in no time. You’ll start by matching words with images just like when you learned your native language as a child. Then […]

I promise I'm not stalking Matt Yglesis these days, but he just happens to have written on some interesting topics lately. On Tuesday he ran an interview with Jennifer Doleac, an expert in how to reduce crime. The fascinating thing about this is that from 100,000 feet it seems like an intractable problem. Nothing works. ...continue reading "We already (sorta) know how to have less crime"