Aggregator

ALTON - Alton Middle School went into a temporary lock-down mode today after Alton Police investigated a report of shots fired in the Rock Springs and Salu area, Alton Chief Jarrett Ford said. Chief Ford said the report came to the police earlier today. He said as a precautionary measure, they contacted Alton Middle School officials and they decided to do a temporary lock-down. "We saw no indication of shots being fired and we canvassed the entire area and also kept a close watch on it the entire afternoon," he said. "At no time did we see that students or staff at the middle school were in danger. A lockdown was just done as a precaution for those at Alton Middle School. We contacted the school and told them everything was clear, so the lockdown stopped." Chief Ford said once the lockdown ended, the students were dismissed on their normal schedules.

Continue Reading

Judas Priest was finally inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, and the band’s frontman, Rob Halford, is hoping another metal band will join them now that Iron Maiden has…

Source

The occupants were between the ages of 14 and 16.

A couple of years ago I became pretty skeptical of the panic over social media. No matter how obvious the harms of social media might seem, especially to us oldsters, the evidence just wasn't there. This became especially obvious to me in late 2021 when the media wildly misreported the leaked Instagram survey of teen ...continue reading "Yet another look at social media and teen depression"

As CITY SC prepares to take the field, here's everything you need to know about St. Louis' new home team.

A former St. Louis police officer was acquitted Friday in a rape case filed after two former colleagues said they were assaulted more than a decade ago.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

Matt Johnson

Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hosted a roundtable discussion to brainstorm on how politicians and celebrities can weaponize the courts against their critics. We responded to his stunt in an op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times.

But playing defense on newspaper pages is not enough — a legislative response is needed. Fortunately, a recent article in the Federal Communications Law Journal (PDF) proposed just that.

Authors Matthew Schafer and Jeff Kosseff explain that DeSantis is not the only one threatening established press freedoms. Supreme Court justices, including Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, have floated revisiting New York Times v. Sullivan – the seminal 1964 case requiring public figures to establish “actual malice” to sue for defamation. That means proving that defendants either knew their statements were false or recklessly disregarded the truth.

As explained in our op-ed, the actual malice rule prevents the rich and powerful from nitpicking at every hyperbolic statement and inconsequential error to punish their critics with expensive litigation. Without it, the prospect of having to prove the truth of every detail of a news story to a jury would deter already cash-strapped publishers — not to mention independent journalists who can’t afford lawyers — from challenging those in power with adversarial reporting.

Should DeSantis propose a Florida law to circumvent Sullivan (as he has considered before), it will likely end up before a Supreme Court with at least two sympathetic justices — maybe more.

Schafer and Kosseff explained in Slate that if Sullivan is overruled, defamation law would be left up to the states, similar to abortion laws without Roe v. Wade. “Some states may well be exceedingly protective of free speech/free press rights. But others might use the overruling of Sullivan to impose draconian measures meant to control political debate,” they wrote. And the state officials most interested in suppressing investigative reporting will likely be the same ones who most need to be investigated.

That’s why a legislative solution at the federal level is so crucial. Some who oppose Sullivan, like DeSantis and Donald Trump, do so for self-serving reasons — as part of ongoing crusades to stifle dissent. They’re not persuadable. But other critics have little problem with the substance of the actual malice rule. They just believe it should come from Congress and not the courts. That provides hope for bipartisan support for codification.

Like Sullivan, the legislation proposed by Schafer and Kosseff “would discourage baseless defamation actions altogether while leaving the courts open to plaintiffs with valid claims.” In addition to codifying the actual malice standard, it would make permanent the Supreme Court’s prohibition on liability for statements of opinion. That limitation is crucial to, among other things, creating adequate breathing room for heated campaign rhetoric.

As important as it is to codify current protections, recent history shows they are not enough. There has been a spike in politically-motivated defamation suits by powerful public figures, notwithstanding Sullivan, over the last few years. Billionaires with axes to grind against the press, but no viable claims of their own, have taken to funding surrogate plaintiffs to sue in their place, often without having to disclose who is pulling the strings. Politicians have even tried planting lawsuits by non-public figures so they can evade the actual malice requirement.

Schafer and Kosseff’s proposal would help prevent those abuses by imposing limitations on damages so that legitimate defamation plaintiffs can be compensated for actual harm they suffered but cannot shut down media outlets with punitive jury awards.

DeSantis and his ilk aside, there is reason for optimism that elected officials in this country still understand the need to restrict anti-press litigation. Most states now have laws against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) that allow victims of frivolous defamation cases to promptly appeal adverse rulings and recover their attorneys fees.

Those anti-SLAPP laws have passed both Democratic and Republican legislatures. Like Sullivan, they recognize that many powerful defamation plaintiffs don’t care if they win — their entire objective is to punish those who criticize the government with litigation costs.

Congress also came within inches in December of passing the bipartisan PRESS Act — which would have ended abuse of the court system to surveil journalists and compel them to burn their sources. Efforts are underway to finally make it the law this year.

Perhaps 2023 could mark the end of both government surveillance of journalists and retaliatory defamation claims by public officials. That would make it one of the most significant years for First Amendment freedoms in the nation’s history. But either would be a good start in sending a clear message that the free press is not dependent on the whims of thin-skinned politicians.

A child brought a loaded gun to Principia Lower School (13201 Clayton Road; Town and Country) today. The gun was found by a teacher at around 8:45 a.m. The teacher was “assisting a 5-year-old student into an empty classroom, then discovered the gun inside the child’s tote bag,” according to Fox2Now.

While the members of Queen have been touring with Adam Lambert since 2011, they have yet to put out any original music together, and guitarist Brian May says there’s a good reason for it. In case…

Source

ALTON - The demolition of the building that once housed the old Duncan Foundry and then Lenhardt Tool and Die businesses at 501 Piasa Street in Alton by SLT Demolition in St. Louis is showing progress each day. Much has been accomplished this week with demolition from the roof to the floor of parts of the old building. Duncan Foundry opened in Alton in 1884, historian Don Huber said. Beams and metal have been coming down each day. Bulldozers have been very active this week and metal is being actively recycled from the tear-down. Duncan Foundry became Lenhardt Tool and Die in 1983. Jack Lenhardt was the owner of the business at that time. Mac Lenhardt, the owner of Mac’s in Downtown Alton, worked at Lenhardt Tool and Die for many years from 1983 to 2003. His father owned the tool and die business until 2018 when he closed it. Mac also started Mac’s in downtown Alton on Dec. 16, 1983, and he continues to work a second job today in a Granite City machine shop. Mac said

Continue Reading

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has joined 25 other states in a lawsuit challenging new federal regulations on pistols with stabilizing braces.

The company had already been owned by a group of employee shareholders. But it's now been sold to an ESOP that will give all 100 full-time employees a share in ownership.

JERSEYVILLE - Early voting in Jersey County begins in less than a week on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023, for the consolidated election on April 4. While Jersey County Clerk Pam Warford said she expects voter turnout to be more of a gradual buildup this election, there are a few contested races in Jerseyville that should draw some attention, including the race for Mayor. “Normally, consolidated elections are not high-turnout elections, so I don’t anticipate this to be nearly as big as your typical general election - and particularly with early voting this early on, I don’t anticipate a rush to the doors,” Warford said. “But as it gets closer to election time, I’m sure it will pick up and hopefully we’ll have a decent turnout. “The City of Jerseyville has a few contested races for their commissioners and Mayor which are drawing some attention, so I’ll be curious to see how that affects our turnout,” she added. “Jersey Community

Continue Reading