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Provident Behavioral Health has added St. Louis-based mental health services nonprofit Care and Counseling to its practice, officials said Tuesday.

While farmers in Missouri scramble for quality hay to feed their livestock during an unusually dry spring, scammers are capitalizing on the desperate conditions by posing as hay sellers on social media. They collect payment, but never deliver.

Today is the summer solstice—that is, it was the summer solstice 4½ hours ago at 7:58 am Pacific time. But why get fussy about things? It's the longest day of the year, which is why I've always hated it. I don't want the days to get shorter from here on out. But here's a picture ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

More than half — 53% — do not believe or do not know that emergency contraception is legal.

The people behind The Sweet Divine (1801 South 9th Street, thesweetdivine.com) have announced that they are closing their doors for good. In a post on social media this afternoon, owners Jenna and Jason Siebert say they're retiring from the bakery life and that they couldn't find anybody to take over the boutique cupcake and sweets shop. The beloved Soulard business was famous across St. Louis and beyond, gaining even more fans when they appeared (and won!)

The exhibition is the museum's first to focus on the work of Native American artists of the 20th century.

It seems that we’ve had a rash of formerly loved internet services going down the enshittification curve. As coined (brilliantly) by Cory Doctorow, enshittification is the process by which a company gets gradually worse. As he puts it: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for […]

The Fourth of July is right around the corner. It's a holiday that's hard to celebrate without fireworks, whether you plan to shoot them off or simply enjoy a show.

Today on TAP: The defenders of tenure as protecting academic freedom would have more credibility if they had resisted the plague of adjunct appointees, who have neither job security nor decent pay.

This article originally ran on the American Journal of Transportation on June 16, 2023.  Supply & Demand Chain Executive publication has named the St. Louis Regional Freightway and Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA) as one of the winners of this year’s Top Supply Chain Projects awards. The award recognizes the organizations for the $222 million Merchants Bridge replacement […]

The post St. Louis Regional Freightway and TRRA Awarded for Merchants Bridge Project appeared first on St. Louis Regional Freightway.

The NAEP has released brand new results for its long-term reading and math tests. The long-term test is a special version of the NAEP that strives to stay the same from year to year so it produces scores that can be compared over time. Here's the main takeaway: Despite the pandemic, reading scores didn't go ...continue reading "Latest NAEP long-term test shows disastrous results during the pandemic"

Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard PC has hired its first director of growth and business development.

Riverfest, a three-day event celebrating the Fourth of July, returns to Frontier Park in St. Charles.

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…

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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.