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The APA said 35 recently rescued dogs have been taken in by its Olivette location, causing a "critical situation" for the overloaded shelter.

GODFREY - Madison County Chief Deputy Sheriff Marcos D. Pulido released a statement about what transpired Wednesday, Aug. 30, at Alton High School on Thursday afternoon. This is the statement by the chief deputy: "Throughout the day on Wednesday, August 30, 2023, Alton High School staff and two School Resource Officers, who are Madison County Sheriff's Deputies, handled multiple fights involving groups of students. As the fights continued, additional law enforcement agencies were requested to assist. As Deputies were trying to intervene, Deputies were battered by some of the subjects involved. No serious injuries to anyone involved were reported. "The investigation into the fights, which includes reviewing video surveillance and obtaining statements, continues. The details of the investigation will be presented to the Madison County State's Attorney's Office at a later date. "Any school discipline will be handled by the Alton School District. "We do not condone this type of behavior

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Content by Bankrate MSA. Time is an asset that, once leveraged correctly, can amplify your returns through the power of compounding.

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  The more than $200 million expansion of the downtown convention center is on track to open in 2024, leaders said Tuesday, promising a new era of business and tourism. Crews have been building out the 23 loading docks, more than double what exists now, and 73,000 square feet of additional exhibit […]

Art to Make You Smile – a juried art event. Everyone needs something to smile about. See how local artists use their creative talents to create art works which are […]

The post Art to Make You Smile – a juried art event appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Aerosmith's hits are still popular with fans. The band’s recent Greatest Hits compilation tops the Billboard Hard Rock Albums chart this week. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers moved 19,000 equivalent album units, 10,000 of…

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A judge will decide after the preliminary hearing whether 84-year-old Andrew Lester should stand trial in the April 13 shooting of Ralph Yarl.

SPRINGFIELD - Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced the official launch of the Skip-the-Line program set to begin tomorrow to reduce lines and headaches at Illinois’ busiest Driver and Motor Vehicle Facilities (DMVs). The multi-pronged approach to improve customer service and eliminate the unpredictability of wait times at DMVs was announced in July with an official implementation date of September 1. “Offering appointments at high-volume DMV facilities, expanding hours of operation and broadening available services online makes sense and will result in improved customer experiences,” said Giannoulias. “By modernizing the office’s approach to service, the Skip-the-Line program gives customers more control over their visit. Starting tomorrow, we are here when you want us.” To announce the launch of the program, Giannoulias was joined today at a press conference in Chicago by Philippe Largent, State Director of Illinois AARP, Bob Reiter,

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CARROLLTON - Local communities in Greene and Scott and around the world are coming together on August 31, 2023, to remember all those who we have lost or suffered permanent injury due to overdose. Observed on August 31 every year, International Overdose Awareness Day (IOAD) seeks to create better understanding of overdose, reduce the stigma of substance-related deaths, and create change that reduces the harms associated with substance use. The Greene County Health Department’s Greene & Scott County Recovery Council project is recognizing this day by making a bold statement. “Residents who visit the square in Winchester this morning or the Greene County Courthouse this afternoon will be met with empty shoes, symbolizing the loss our communities have faced as a result of this crisis” said Recovery Coordinator Amanda Morrow. “It can be challenging to convey just how bad the crisis we face is and even harder for some to relate if you haven’t been directly

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Ramesh Ponnuru points to a new piece by Lyman Stone that says the decline of religion in America is mostly among the young. In fact: Most of the decline in religion is actually among children, and virtually all of it among people under age 22. This is crazy. Stone presents a whole bunch of charts ...continue reading "Everyone is getting less religious in America"

From West Newsmagazine:  Matt Pfund, of Jack Matthews Development, representing 10300 Olive, LLC, has submitted a rezoning application to the city of Creve Coeur to change the zoning of the former 96-acre Bayer West campus from RO research office to PMD planned mixed use development district referred to as Olia Village. A Phase 1 site […]

From St. Louis/Southern Illinois Labor Tribune:  Ray Reasons, president and business manager of Sheet Metal Workers Local 36, has been named the 11th general vice president of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART). Reasons took the oath of office at the 2023 SMART Leadership Conference held earlier this month […]

Marlon E. Hampton, 26, was sentenced to 13 years in the death of Staveion Durham. He was fatally shot on Oct. 12, 2020, in the North Pointe neighborhood.

A man sentenced earlier in the month in federal court for repeatedly cyberstalking, harassing, and threatening to rape multiple women in the area and elsewhere in the country appeared in St. Louis County Circuit Court on Thursday to plead guilty in a separate case.

One down, many more to go. We’ve been talking a lot by the rush of states to push for age verification laws all over the world, despite basically every expert noting that age verification technology is inherently a problem for privacy and security, and the laws mandating it are terrible. So far, it seems that […]

The crash happened shortly before 9 p.m. on Highway 63 south of Rolla.

by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski

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

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for the first time acknowledged that he should have reported selling real estate to billionaire political donor Harlan Crow in 2014, a transaction revealed by ProPublica earlier this year. Writing in his annual financial disclosure form, Thomas said that he “inadvertently failed to realize” that the deal needed to be publicly disclosed.

In the form, which was made public Thursday after he’d received an extension on the filing deadline, Thomas also disclosed receiving three private jet trips last year from Crow. ProPublica reported on two of those trips.

Thomas defended his previous practice of not disclosing private jet flights provided to him over the years.

In a statement Thursday, an attorney for Thomas, Elliot Berke, said that “after reviewing Justice Thomas’s records, I am confident there has been no willful ethics transgression, and any prior reporting errors were strictly inadvertent.”

Thomas’ expanded disclosures for 2022 follow a series of ProPublica stories that documented an array of undisclosed luxury vacations and other gifts Thomas has received over the years from a cadre of billionaires, including Crow. ProPublica revealed Texas real estate magnate Crow’s generosity toward Thomas, including yacht cruises, private jet flights, the purchase of his mother’s house in Georgia and tuition payments. Subsequently, we reported that Thomas has received at least 38 destination vacations and 26 private jet flights from multiple billionaires. Thomas’ latest filing brings the total number of jet flights he’s received even higher.

In its initial story, ProPublica reported Thomas took a trip to Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks last July and to a conservative think tank conference in Dallas last May, noting that flight records suggested he flew to and from both places on Crow’s jet. In his new form, Thomas confirmed that Crow provided the private plane travel.

In the form, Thomas said that his security detail recommended he fly private whenever possible “because of the increased security risk following the Dobbs opinion leak.” The Supreme Court did not respond to a question about whether all justices are now advised to take private jet flights for security purposes.

Thomas also disclosed one previously unknown private jet trip he received from Crow. He reported taking a private plane on the way home from a February conference in Dallas because of an “unexpected ice storm.”

In his form, Thomas wrote that he “continues to work” with judiciary staff to determine “whether he should further amend his reports from any prior years.”

The disclosure contains Thomas’ first public comments on his failure to disclose a 2014 real estate deal with Crow. As ProPublica reported this spring, Crow purchased Thomas’ mother’s house and two nearby vacant lots from Thomas and his relatives for $133,363. Thomas’ mother continues to live at the property, which Crow now owns. Crow has said he plans to someday turn the house, which was Thomas’ childhood home, into a museum.

In the form, Thomas said he took a loss on the deal because he and his wife “put between $50,000 to $75,000 into his mother’s home in capital improvements over the years.”

Thomas also defended his practice for more than two decades of not disclosing private jet trips provided by Crow and other wealthy businessmen.

Justices are required by a federal ethics law passed after Watergate to publicly disclose most gifts. Thomas’ defense centers on a carve-out in the law known as the “personal hospitality” exemption. The exemption states that gifts of “food, lodging, or entertainment received as personal hospitality” don’t have to be disclosed. The judiciary updated its guidelines earlier this year to make explicit that the exemption doesn’t apply to private jet travel.

Seven ethics law experts told ProPublica that even before the update, both the law and the judiciary’s regulations have required that gifts of transportation, such as private jet travel, be disclosed because they are not food, lodging or entertainment. Reviewing other federal judges’ financial disclosure filings, ProPublica found at least six examples of judges disclosing gifts of private jet travel in recent years prior to the update.

In the new filing, Thomas for the first time said he got advice that he did not have to disclose such flights from staff at the Judicial Conference, the policymaking arm of the federal judiciary. He said he received that advice from “Conference staff, and in conversations with court officers and colleagues early in his tenure on the Court.” In his previous statement on the matter, Thomas did not say he had consulted the ethics staff.

Prior to his most recent disclosure, Thomas had reported receiving one private jet trip from Crow in 1997, the year after the pair met.

Thomas also pointed to advice received in 2006 by a lower court federal judge, Ray Randolph, that a private jet flight to Alaska didn’t need to be disclosed.

A judiciary spokesperson declined to comment Thursday on whether it has ever been the Judicial Conference’s position that judges can accept gifts of private jet travel without disclosing them.

She also declined to confirm Thomas’ account of past advice he’d received from conference staff. “Advice sought by any filer is confidential and we do not discuss that advice publicly,” the spokesperson said.

The Supreme Court press office did not immediately respond to a request for more details on the advice Thomas said he received.

Thomas’ attorney criticized watchdog groups and Democratic members of Congress who have called for Thomas to be investigated.

“The attacks on Justice Thomas are nothing less than ridiculous and dangerous, and they set a terrible precedent for political blood sport through federal ethics filings,” Berke wrote.

Justice Samuel Alito’s filing was also released Thursday. His did not contain any new disclosures of gifts. Earlier this year, ProPublica reported that in 2008, Alito accepted a private jet flight to Alaska from a hedge fund billionaire who later had cases before the Supreme Court. Alito said that he was not required to disclose the gift, and that when the billionaire’s companies came before the court, Alito was unaware of his connection to the cases.