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East St. Louis Man Charged With First-Degree Murder

2 years 6 months ago
EAST ST. LOUIS – The Illinois State Police and the St. Clair County State's Attorney's Office announced that Wednesday, July 12, 2023, St. Clair County State’s Attorney, James Gomric, charged 42-year-old Cermen L. Toney of East St. Louis with First-Degree Murder. ISP recalled that at approximately 1:38 a.m. on Wednesday, July 5, 2023, the East St. Louis Police Department and the ISP Public Safety Enforcement Group (PSEG) responded to the 1400 block of Gaty Avenue in East St. Louis for reports of a shooting. Officers found Lonnie D. Johnson had been struck by gunfire. Johnson was transported to an area hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries. On July 10, 2023, Toney turned himself into PSEG agents. Toney is currently being held at the St. Clair County Jail on a $1,000,000, 10% to apply bond. No further information is available. All subjects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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Teenage opera ephemera

2 years 6 months ago
A review of Christophe Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, in a 1984 production by OTSL. I wrote this at age 18 for the punk rock fanzine Jet Lag, the first place to publish my music writing (or any other writing, for that matter).
René Spencer Saller

Des Peres Approves First Apartment Construction

2 years 6 months ago
From Webster-Kirkwood Times: After many months of discussions and concessions by developer Barn Owl LLC, Magnolia Ridge will start construction next March as Des Peres’ first multi-family complex. The Des Peres Board of Aldermen on Monday, June 26, unanimously approved rezoning the 6.45 acres at 13432 Manchester Road from commercial to planned development-mixed use. The […]
Tom Finan

Conservatives and school boards: We’ve seen this movie before

2 years 6 months ago
Moms for Liberty is a group of Republican women whose goal is to elect conservatives to school boards around the country. This is nothing new. Republican women did the same thing in the early '60s to fight communism in schools; again in the '80s after Anita Bryant inspired the Moral Majority to fight gays in ...continue reading "Conservatives and school boards: We’ve seen this movie before"
Kevin Drum

5th Circuit Puts A Hold On Louisiana Court’s Injunction Barring Gov’t From Talking To Companies, After District Court Refuses To

2 years 6 months ago
So we wrote about Judge Terry Doughty’s somewhat questionable ruling preventing the Biden White House from communicating with tech companies or researchers regarding certain areas of disinformation. As we noted, there were some good elements in the ruling, reminding government officials of the 1st Amendment restrictions on coercion in attempting to silence protected speech. But […]
Mike Masnick

All-Wheels Drive-In Car Show Returning Sunday

2 years 6 months ago
ALTON - The 26th annual All-Wheels Drive-In Car Show is back on for this Sunday, July 16, after being rescheduled earlier this summer due to rain. The free public event will bring hundreds of classic cars, motorcycles, and more to downtown Alton. The car show will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with vehicles lining 3rd Street between Piasa and State Streets. Registration for show cars is open from 8 a.m. to noon. The fee to display a car is $10, and dash plaques and goodie bags will be given to the first 125 participants. Trophies will be awarded in 38 classes, including Stock, Street Rod, Modified, and several more in age brackets ranging from 1900-present. Six specialty awards - including Best Paint, Best Engine, Best Interior, and more - will also be presented at 4 p.m. The fee to enter the judging is $15. Number4Combo will be performing live music from 1 to 3 p.m., followed by a Pin-Up Contest from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. The day’s festivities will also include a 50/50 drawing, vendor

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Evans Howard Place gets a memorial — in the Brentwood shopping center that replaced it

2 years 6 months ago
Before it was a shopping center, the area occupied by the Promenade at Brentwood was known as Evans Howard Place. On July 8, a new memorial was unveiled in the shopping center. Former resident Allison Reed shares her experience growing up there, and writer and researcher Beth Miller discusses the history of Evans Howard Place, and why a previous memorial was seen as an insufficient way to honor the neighborhood that had existed there for 90 years.

Local union approves contract offer from Schnucks, avoids strike

2 years 6 months ago
United Food and Commercial Workers Local Union 88 — which represents approximately 1,300 Schnuck Market Inc. workers across 68 stores in Missouri and Illinois — and the St. Louis-based grocer passed a new, three-year contract with 87% approval, the Wingsight Grocery Business first reported Tuesday.
Connor Hart

Schwegel's Market Says Sewage Construction is "Hassle"

2 years 6 months ago
ALTON - Local businesses have been working around the Illinois American Water project for a few years now. Schwegel’s Market at 901 Alby Street reflects on the difficulties they’ve faced throughout the construction. “It’s been quite a hassle,” co-owner Mike Schwegel said. “It’s been a bite.” The Illinois American Water project aims to separate the combined Alton sewer system. They are installing a new sewer system that will be safer for the community. But the project has taken its toll on small businesses like Schwegel’s Market. Road closures throughout downtown Alton have been common over the past few years due to the construction. With 9th Street closed, Schwegel’s Market has been losing customers since the beginning of the project around November 2021. “We had 15–17,000 customers a month, and last month I had 11,200,” Schwegel said. He believes that the store’s newly opened video gaming section

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Verdi’s Requiem

2 years 6 months ago
Verdi responded to the Latin text by locating its emotional core, the dramatic significance of each singer's moral confession. He offers no comforting lies, no confident speculation. Let other composers traffic in the theological; Verdi's heart is with the human: the soprano, pleading in terror for her salvation, sinful but shining, shining. The tenor, the mezzo, the bass-baritone: all kissed by the holy, implicated and yet innocent. 
René Spencer Saller