Aggregator

The father of the two youngest children killed in Monday’s house fire in Ferguson released a statement after authorities determined the kids and their siblings were the victims of a murder-suicide.

After weeks of flirting with the idea, state Sen. Lincoln Hough of Springfield jumped into the Republican Primary for lieutenant governor on Thursday. Hough, who is serving his second term in the Missouri Senate, joins a field that includes a colleague, state Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder of Scott City, House Speaker Dean Plocher, Franklin County […]

The post Springfield Sen. Lincoln Hough joins race for Missouri lieutenant governor appeared first on Missouri Independent.

ST. LOUIS -- Lately, the sun has been putting on quite the show, and scientists at the Space Weather Prediction Center have been keeping a close eye on it. They've been watching solar flares coming from a part of the sun called Region 3590. It may disrupt some high frequency radio signals, but most people [...]

Student journalists work hard to persist in the face of increasing threats to their First Amendment rights. So the last thing they need is Congress piling on with a bill like the Kids Online Safety Act. Above, student journalists at the Cal Times in 2015. 2015-2-17-CalTimes-Newsroom-Students-1I9A8427 by Student Association is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Today is Student Press Freedom Day, the annual celebration of student journalists’ contributions to their schools and communities. Student reporters work hard to persist in the face of increasing threats to the First Amendment rights, such as school administrators censoring their reporting and shutting down entire student newspapers.

In this climate, the last thing student journalists need is Congress piling on. But that’s exactly what Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn have done with their newly revised version of the Kids Online Safety Act.

We’ve written before about how KOSA is a wolf in sheep’s clothing: It’s a censorship bill hidden behind the mantle of child protection. KOSA has been consistently opposed by LGBTQ+, human rights, and civil liberties organizations because of the threat it poses to the privacy, free expression, and safety of young people.

Last week, in response to the drumbeat of criticism that has dogged the bill for more than two years, Blumenthal and Blackburn unveiled a revised version that they claim solves the bill’s problems. It doesn’t.

Although the revised KOSA now appears to focus on “design features” of online platforms, what remains is the dangerous “duty of care” provision that requires platforms to take steps to prevent and mitigate those under the age of 17 from being exposed to “harmful” content through their design features.

As the advocacy group Fight for the Future explains, platforms will still respond to this new version of KOSA by aggressively filtering and suppressing “controversial” content.

For this reason, KOSA will still censor the news for everyone. But ironically, for a law that’s supposed to protect kids, it may harm student journalists in three ways: one, by making it harder for them to find information online for their reporting; two, by censoring their news stories online; and three, by invading the privacy of student journalists, as well as everyone else.

Stymying student journalists from gathering information on social media

First, KOSA will make it harder for high school journalists to gather information on social media for their reporting. For example, the bill explicitly names information about suicidal behavior as harmful to kids. That means online platforms are likely to respond to KOSA by blocking content that discusses suicide from users under the age of 17, so that a “design feature” such as a recommendation system doesn’t recommend that content to children.

If high school journalists want to report on the issue of teen suicide, they may struggle to find any information about it on social media, including information about suicide prevention or news reports.

The same is true for student journalists who want to report about other issues that students deal with every day: eating disorders (specifically flagged as harmful by KOSA), violence against LGBTQ+ kids (could cause anxiety, forbidden by KOSA), or even climate change (too depressing, also disallowed by the bill).

Censoring student journalists’ reporting

Second, for years, the student press has been using social media to reach audiences. But because KOSA will cause platforms to filter or even remove content that they fear the government will consider harmful to kids, high school journalists may also find their reporting censored on social media as a result of the legislation.

That means that young people may be blocked on social media from seeing the news reporting done by their classmates. For example, platforms may filter or delete student journalists’ news reports on sexual harassment or abuse of students because they relate to sexual exploitation and abuse of minors, which KOSA specifically identifies as harmful content.

Undermining privacy for all

Third, KOSA is also a privacy disaster for student journalists and everyone else. As Mike Masnick at Techdirt has explained, “[N]othing in this bill works unless websites embrace age verification.” To implement KOSA’s requirement to protect minors, online platforms will have to age-verify users. “And the only way to do that is to collect way more information on them, which puts their privacy at risk,” Masnick explains.

Age verification will require online platforms to collect more information on all users, not just young people, meaning that everyone’s privacy will suffer. But it’s particularly pernicious for a children’s “privacy” bill to require minors to turn over sensitive information to the very platforms that are accused of harming them by mining their data in the first place.

Teaching kids that it’s OK, or even required, to reveal sensitive information online also sends a dangerous message, especially to student journalists. Professional reporters must take their online privacy seriously to avoid government surveillance and harassment. We should be teaching student journalists to do the same, not legally requiring them to identify themselves to online platforms so they can be age-verified.

Lawmakers shouldn’t be asking student journalists or any young people to sacrifice their freedom of speech and privacy to “protect” them online. Let’s celebrate Student Press Freedom Day by telling Congress not to censor the student press online. Tell Congress not to pass KOSA.

Preservationists are hoping to save the artwork left behind at the Lafayette Avenue studio.

A lawsuit accusing Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler of sexual assault in the '70s has been dismissed after a judge ruled the plaintiff waited too long to file her case.The suit was…

Source

THE FABULOUS FOX THEATRE’S ANNOUNCES 2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON    The Fabulous Fox Theatre announced its electrifying 2024-2025 Broadway season that will take audiences on a journey of timeless entertainment.   The 2024-2025 Broadway Subscription willinclude the beloved, cinematic classic that’s now a smash-hit on Broadway, BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL, the untold true story […]

The post Fabulous Fox 2024-25 Season soars with bold new hits appeared first on flovalleynews.com.

Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced that a Mt. Carmel, Illinois man co-prosecuted by the Attorney General’s office was sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to the dissemination of child pornography. The case is part of Raoul’s ongoing work, in collaboration with federal law enforcement agencies and local law enforcement officials throughout Illinois, to apprehend offenders who download and trade child pornography online. Raoul’s office prosecuted Alexander Knotts, 24, who was sentenced by Wabash County Circuit Court Judge William Hudson after he pleaded guilty to three counts of dissemination of child pornography, Class X felonies, and one count of failure to register as a sex offender, a Class 2 felony. Knotts immediately began serving his 40-year sentence. “This sentence ensures a child predator is held accountable and prevented from being able to exploit more innocent children,” Raoul said. “Collaborations lik

Continue Reading

From Leader Publications:  The Festus City Council recently approved a $454,827 change order to have more water main pipe replacement work completed as part of the street improvement project already underway along West Main Street from Park Avenue to North Mill Street. Late last year the council agreed to spend $1,233,710 on the West Main […]

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  Plans to build a shelter for unhoused pregnant women in West County will move forward, ending a three-year fight by nearby residents who sought to stop the project. Our Lady’s Inn, a Catholic charity, wants to build the shelter on a 7-acre property at 13205 Big Bend Road, but nearby homeowners […]

Impetus Ag Announces New Board Member ST. LOUIS, February 22, 2024 – Impetus Agriculture, Inc. is pleased to announce the addition of Mark Deadwyler to its Board […]

The post Impetus Ag Announces New Board Member appeared first on 39 North.

From WorkRise:  Since emancipation more than a century and a half ago, the racial wealth gap in the United States has persisted across the ensuing decades for families of color. Structural inequities, reinforced by how structural racism shapes racially disparate policies and practices, continue to severely limit wealth-building mechanisms for Black and Latinx families of […]

From CNN:  The Biden administration on Tuesday announced $5.8 billion in funding that will go out to every state and territory to help fix an ailing water infrastructure that continues to put millions of Americans’ health at risk. Michael Regan, administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, and Vice President Kamala Harris will be in […]

The future of construction engineering would benefit from more women – especially minority women – being inspired to join the field and share their perspectives, according to Remy Haire, a student at Missouri University of Science and Technology. Remy Haire is a junior at Missouri S&T. Haire, a civil engineering student from East St. Louis, […]

From St. Louis Business Journal:  A new amusement ride could open at Union Station next year. Developers behind the tourist attractions at the site behind the Union Station hotel, 1820 Market St., are seeking permission from the St. Louis Preservation Board, which meets Monday, to add the new ride. The specific details and design of […]

President Joe Biden expanded his push to eliminate student loan debt Wednesday, saying during a speech the initiative is part of a campaign promise to address the “broken” system. “While a college degree is still a ticket to a better life, that ticket is too expensive,” Biden said. “And too many Americans are still saddled […]

The post Biden unveils latest round of student loan cancellation to aid 153,000 borrowers appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When Covid restrictions forced Revel Kitchen owners Simon and Angelica Lusky to close their doors to foot traffic, it quickly became an issue of survival: How would they keep their health-conscious business afloat? The solution came with a ghost kitchen pizza biz — and some rectangular tin pans.  “By using a pan, we could bake pizza in our existing, traditional ovens,” says Angelica Lusky.

From RiverFront Times:  The city’s Preservation Board will again weigh allowing a developer to demolish City Museum founder and St. Louis sculptor Bob Cassilly’s workshop. This isn’t the first time a demolition permit has been requested for the workshop at 2645 Lafayette Avenue in the city’s Gate District. In 2023 the board denied a previous […]