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ALTON - OSF Saint Anthony’s Health Center Psychological Services department, in cooperation with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) - Southwestern Illinois, will be sponsoring Family Support Groups in Alton. NAMI Family Support Group is a safe place for family members, significant others, and friends of people with mental health conditions to share feelings, coping and communication strategies. The Family Support Group will meet monthly and attendance is open to the general public. Meetings will be held on the third Thursday of every month: 7-8:30 p.m. OSF Saint Anthony’s Health Center 3 West Meeting Room 1 St. Anthony’s Way Facilitators for the Family Support group meetings are Diane and Paul Borawski who possess more than 10-plus years of lived experience in supporting families. To register or for questions please contact Kelly Jefferson at kelly.nami.swi@gmail.com or 618-798-9788. About OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony’s Health Center

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ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. - An argument led to a deadly shooting Friday morning at a St. Louis County business. The suspect is now behind bars. Prosecutors have charged Nolan-Ryan Thomas, 31, with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the investigation. Officers from the North County Precinct responded to the shooting at around 11 [...]

New research finds that "beneficial" fires can cut the risk of high intensity blazes by 64 percent.

by Jessica Miller, The Salt Lake Tribune

Update, Nov. 14, 2023: Scott Owen was charged on Nov. 13 with multiple felonies related to the allegations of two men who say he touched them inappropriately during therapy. If convicted, he faces a five-years-to-life prison term on each charge. His defense attorney did not respond to a request for comment. The Salt Lake Tribune is publishing ongoing coverage of the case.

This story details allegations of sexual assault.

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

Former Utah therapist Scott Owen was arrested Wednesday in connection with accusations that he sexually abused patients during sessions.

The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica reported in August on a range of sex abuse allegations against Owen, who had built a reputation over his 20-year career as a specialist who could help gay men who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He gave up his therapy license in 2018 after several patients complained to state licensers that he had touched them inappropriately. Some of the men who spoke to The Tribune said their bishop used church funds to pay for sessions where Owen allegedly also touched them inappropriately.

Owen, 64, was booked into the Utah County jail on suspicion of six counts of object rape and four counts of forcible sodomy. A Utah County judge has ordered that Owen remain in jail without the opportunity to post bail, finding that he could be a danger to the community and would likely flee if released.

Scott Owen (Obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica)

Owen had not been formally charged as of Friday morning. He has not responded to detailed lists of questions previously sent to him on two occasions regarding allegations that he touched his patients inappropriately. He co-founded Canyon Counseling in the late 1990s and continued to have an active role in the business until recently. The counseling center cut ties with him after sexual assault allegations became public before announcing in September that it was closing altogether.

In a probable cause statement released Wednesday, a Provo police officer wrote that the department had interviewed 12 former patients of Owen’s since August. Owen was arrested on allegations connected to two former patients, who both say Owen engaged in sexual contact with them during therapy sessions. That alleged touching included kissing, cuddling and Owen using his hand to touch their anuses. One man also alleges Owen performed oral sex on him.

Provo police allege in the statement that Owen used his position of trust as a therapist to coerce his patients into engaging in kissing, cuddling and sexual touching during therapy sessions. According to arrest records, many of the 12 former patients told officers that they began seeing Owen for treatment of “same-sex attraction.” The therapist told them their relationships with men were “broken” and that therapy could help them have “normal” relationships with men and eventually women, the men told police. From there, the patients allege, Owen would engage in touching that some say became increasingly sexual in nature.

Utah law says patients can’t consent to sexual acts with a health care professional if they believe the touching is part of a “medically or professionally appropriate diagnosis, counseling or treatment.”

Under a negotiated settlement with Utah’s licensing body, Owen was able to surrender his license without admitting to any inappropriate conduct, and the sexual nature of his patient’s allegations is not referenced in the documents he signed when he gave up his license.

Prior to the August publication of The Tribune and ProPublica article, Provo police said they had no record of anyone ever reporting Owen to law enforcement for alleged sexual misconduct.

Both state licensers and the local leaders in the LDS Church knew of inappropriate touching allegations against Owen as early as 2016, The Tribune and ProPublica reporting showed, but neither would say whether they ever reported Owen to the police. In Utah, with few exceptions, the state licensing division is not legally required to forward information to law enforcement.

The church said in response that it takes all matters of sexual misconduct seriously, and that in 2019 it confidentially annotated internal records to alert bishops that Owen’s conduct has threatened the well-being of other people or the church.

The STL is the home of the best ice cream in the nation. Celebrate Clementine’s Creamery getting the top award for their Smoky Italian Fig flavor!

It's 2023, and The Beatles are #1 on the British chart. The group has made history with their "final" song, "Now And Then," which features new contributions from Paul McCartney and Ringo…

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Check out what what workers are currently earning, as well as spending, in Missouri.

A man who spent decades as a Kirkwood dentist was on trial this week after threatening three judges who were involved in his divorce trial.

I have no special reason for posting this. It's a Google Maps picture of a small piece of Gaza City: Roughly speaking, this is about 1% of Gaza City, which itself is only about a tenth of the Gaza Strip. Multiply this by about a thousand and it's what "house-to-house" fighting looks like.

Police are now investigating whether it could be related to a body found that same day in St. Louis.

Hey, look what's happening in the auto industry: Honda Motor is giving many U.S. factory workers an 11% pay bump and making other improvements for these employees, a move that follows major gains secured by the United Auto Workers union in Detroit last month. The base wage increase is effective in January, according to a ...continue reading "The UAW won pay hikes for everyone in the auto industry"

The National Lacrosse League is using the announcement as a springboard to grow the game and, eventually, expand the league.

On July 12, 1973, a fire in the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis destroyed 80% of U.S. Army records between 1912 and 1960. It was one of the largest destructions of federal records in the history of the county. To explore the legacy of the fire, producer Danny Wicentowski goes searching for his grandfather’s records, which were burned in the fire. He also talks to firefighter Captain David Dubowski, archives specialist Eric Kilgore, and Jessie Kratz, historian of the National Archives.