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Styx is returning to Las Vegas in 2024. The rockers just announced five new shows at The Venetian Theatre inside The Venetian Resort Las Vegas. The new dates kick off January 26…

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A local eatery that got its start as a stall and food truck business at the Kirkwood and Tower Grove farmers markets in 2020 will assume operations of Beffa’s kitchen starting Oct. 11.

The judge who authorized the illegal warrant under which police raided the Marion County Record happened to be a lawyer. But she didn't have to be. Kansas and other states allow non-lawyer judges, often called magistrates or justices of the peace, to decide matters with important press freedom implications.

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Laws are only as good as the judges tasked with upholding them. And lately, journalists across the U.S. have learned that the legal protections they thought they could rely upon often exist only on paper. But what they may not realize is that, in many states, some judges deciding their constitutional rights aren’t even required to go to law school.

The August raid of the Marion County Record, purportedly to investigate whether a journalist illegally accessed driving records, is illustrative. The warrant application failed to mention the federal law -– the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, or PPA — that bans newsroom searches except in limited, inapplicable circumstances. It also ignored Kansas’ shield law and the federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act, or DPPA, expressly allowing records to be used for research.

The judge who approved the warrant anyway, Laura Viar, is now the subject of a judicial ethics complaint, while journalists investigate her background and potential conflicts. Viar was chosen by a local “nominating commission” to serve as a “magistrate” judge in November 2022 — less than a year before she issued the warrant, which was withdrawn by county attorneys within days.

Viar happens to be a lawyer — but she didn’t have to be in order to become a magistrate judge. In Kansas, anyone with a high school degree who passes an exam can take the bench and issue search warrants. Local magistrate judges — known as justices of the peace in some states — generally serve rural areas, which are often news deserts (fortunately, Marion is an exception). That means the local press is unlikely to serve as a check to stop nominations of unqualified judges. And when those judges enter unconstitutional rulings, struggling outlets may not have the means to appeal.

The Marion ordeal led lawmakers in Kansas to introduce a bill to prevent magistrates from issuing warrants. Hopefully it succeeds, but Kansas is far from the only state that empowers magistrates to trample on press freedoms.

In Arizona this April, Judge Amy Criddle issued a restraining order against journalist Camryn Sanchez at the request of a state senator. The senator, Wendy Rogers, claimed Sanchez stalked her by knocking on her door while investigating whether she lives in her district. In what should have been a glaring red flag, Rogers told the judge her goal was for the reporter to “learn their lesson and then leave the situation alone.”

Like Viar, Criddle is a lawyer, making her ridiculous restraining order all the more inexcusable. But the state leaves it up to cities to decide whether to require municipal judges like Criddle — who have the power to issue warrants, as well as restraining orders — to be lawyers.

And there’s more: Sanchez’s recourse following Criddle’s order was to appeal to another municipal judge, Howard Grodman. Fortunately, Grodman, also a lawyer, got it right and struck down the restraining order, correctly citing its obvious constitutional problems. But Arizona law makes it entirely possible that the next journalist hit with an unlawful restraining order or warrant will have to go through two unelected nonlawyers before they can get in front of a judge with some understanding of the First Amendment (not to mention obscure laws, like the PPA and DPPA, that many experienced lawyers haven’t even heard of).

Other states where any adult resident is eligible to issue warrants and restraining orders against journalists (or anyone else) include Texas and Mississippi. Still others go even further, allowing nonlawyer judges to convict and sentence defendants charged with misdemeanors. That, too, should concern journalists, especially considering the recent convictions of two reporters for violating a park curfew by recording newsworthy police conduct at night.

That said, you may have noticed that the judges discussed in this article are lawyers, even if they’re not required to be. And plenty of other legally trained judges have issued blatantly unconstitutional orders against journalists. Take, for example, the North Carolina judge who recently seized a reporter’s notes and gagged her from reporting a juvenile court hearing she lawfully attended. Law school didn’t stop that judge from ignoring the 1977 Supreme Court case that pondered the exact same scenario and sided with the journalist. Or, consider the St. Louis judge who recently barred a newspaper from publishing documents it lawfully downloaded from the court’s website, again in defiance of clear Supreme Court precedent.

Clearly, then, eliminating nonlawyer judges from the lower courts won’t solve all the judiciary’s problems. Judges don’t grapple with journalists’ rights every day, and even experienced trial judges need training on how to do so. Plenty of lawyers, after all, go their whole careers without litigating a case involving journalists.

But proposals like the one in Kansas to at least require a law degree are a good place to start and will encourage further scrutiny of judicial nominees’ qualifications to decide constitutional questions. And, hopefully, they can prompt some much-needed conversation around why judges — lawyers or not — can’t seem to get press freedom right these days.

Tommy Boyd escaped custody on Sept. 21 from Mercy Hospital South and was taken into custody later that evening.

PHOENIX – Sparklight® will open fall 2023 applications for the company’s Charitable Giving Fund , which annually awards $250,000 in grants to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, from October 1-31, 2023. Grants will be made available across communities served by Sparklight and the other Cable One family of brands (Fidelity Communications, Hargray and ValuNet Fiber) and will concentrate support in the following priority areas: Education and Digital Literacy Hunger Relief and Food Insecurity Community Development Last year the company awarded grants to nearly 60 nonprofits , including organizations serving the homeless, providing child advocacy, offering senior assistance and supplying food to those in need, to name a few. The Charitable Giving Fund is an extension of the company’s existing corporate social responsibility efforts, which include: Supporting national organizations dedicated to advancing education and diversity, including the Emma

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A St. Louis man who was shot by police on Saturday has now been charged with allegedly opening fire at the officers.

Eviction hearings are often tipped in favor of the landlord. A mediation program aims to balance the power dynamic by offering a free, non-legal route for problem solving. Cat Straubinger and Sheila Webster of the Conflict Resolution Center- St. Louis discuss how mediation works, and Isaiah Di Lorenzo, a landlord who has used the mediation service, talks about why it’s a compelling option for landlords.

The American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) said Monday its 2025, 2027 and 2028 National Championships will be played at Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights. It said it also has an option to host the event at the Centene Community Ice Center in 2026.

HARTFORD – The Lewis and Clark State Historic Site in Madison County will host a culinary historian exploring the diverse and changing history of pies in the United States on Saturday, Oct. 7. Catherine Lambrecht will present her program, “History of American Pies…and Illinois is Well Represented!” at 2 p.m. in the theater at the site. The event, which is free and open to the public, is made possible by the Illinois Humanities Road Scholar Program and the Lewis and Clark Society of America . This hour-long program will look at past recipes and food customs to show how pies have evolved over the years along with American culture. As Lambrecht describes, “Our ancestors used what they had available locally and made the most from it. You might be thinking that pies are just for dessert, but for our American ancestors, they were often considered survival food. Sometimes, they ate pie for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for months at a time.”

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A civil case that could have settled whether video games that offer cash prizes to players are illegal gambling devices won’t settle anything. At least not any time soon. On Monday, with a trial set to begin Tuesday morning, Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green dismissed the lawsuit seeking to stop the Missouri State Highway […]

The post Judge tosses Torch lawsuit seeking to block Missouri Highway Patrol gambling investigations appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A child-sex offender faces several new charges after escaping from a St. Louis County hospital last month and leading police on a massive 16-hour manhunt.

The most wonderful time of the year is just around the corner.

EDWARDSVILLE - Metro Community Church promises a “fall explosion” at their second annual Fall-a-Palooza this weekend. From noon to 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 8, families can stop by the Metro Edwardsville campus for an afternoon of bounce houses, hayrides, games, food trucks and more fall-themed fun. Lead pastor Seth Conerly explained that the event is a chance to connect with the community and enjoy the beginning of the autumn season. “We just had the mindset of, ‘Hey, let’s not try to reinvent the wheel here. Let’s just do everything fall you can think of and just it be a fall explosion,’” he said. He joked that it will be similar to Leslie Knope’s Harvest Festival in the NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” complete with “everything but Li’l Sebastian.” But in that vein, you can check out the petting zoo and enjoy kid-friendly donkey rides. Master bakers can sign up for the cookie and brownie

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ALTON – The Illinois Department of Transportation announced today that pavement repairs will require lane closures in both directions of U.S. 67 between West Third Street and Henry Street in Alton beginning, weather permitting, Tuesday, Oct. 3. One lane will remain open in each direction throughout construction. The work is expected to be completed by mid-November. Motorists may experience delays and are encouraged to use alternate routes during this closure. Drivers are urged to reduce speed, be alert for changing conditions, obey all construction signage, and refrain from using mobile devices while approaching and traveling through the work zone. For IDOT District 8 updates, follow us on Twitter at @IDOTDistrict8 or view area construction details on IDOT’s traveler information map on GettingAroundIllinois.com.

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The Missouri man who escaped from prison custody last month is now facing multiple charges related to his day on the lam.  Tommy Boyd, 45, had been serving a 30-year sentence at Potosi Correctional Facility when he was transferred to Mercy South for medical treatment.

Music fans will once again be lining up at their favorite independent record stores to snag one-of-a-kind releases on Friday, November 24, for the 2023 edition of Record Store Day…

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COLLINSVILLE - Costumes, collectibles, artwork and more filled the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville for the 46th annual Archon Science Fiction Convention last weekend. Erin McFadden, co-chair of Archon, described it as a “science fiction, fantasy, media, everything convention.” She said Archon started in 1977 as an author and literary convention and has since grown to include “something for everybody.” “We have grown since then and have been developing into this place that is perfect for everybody,” McFadden said. “If you have a fandom, if you are an author, if you like science fiction … we really have something for everybody here. “People have been coming for a very long time because they find something here that speaks to them.” Brad Roselli, founder of Top Tier Figures, brought several of his Star Trek figurines to the convention - he’s been working to expand the 190 figurines that were “already

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The Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control arrested two St. Francois County men last week as part of an investigation into the spread of child pornography.