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A man has turned himself in to police Wednesday for the killing of Eddie Johnson, 30. Travon Stevenson, 28, faces murder and other charges. He is currently being held without bond.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Missouri used a second-half scoring spurt from Kobe Brown to win its first NCAA Tournament game in 13 years, beating Utah State 76-65 on Thursday. Brown hit three 3-pointers in a span of just over three minutes to fuel a 13-2 run that turned a two-point deficit into a 62-53 lead. [...]

Growing St. Louis-based developer Mia Rose Holdings (MRH) continues to expand its leadership team with the addition of Zac Deets in the new role of Director of Construction. Deets brings 18 years of construction superintendent experience and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of construction projects, including ensuring budget and schedule alignment. The firm has […]

D'Moi Hodge, Kobe Brown combine for 42 points in Tigers' 76-65 win over Utah State, clinching a second-round game against Arizona or Princeton.

Earlier this month we noted how a sleazy telecom and media giant smear campaign successfully derailed the FCC nomination of popular reformer Gigi Sohn, keeping the agency gridlocked (quite intentionally) without the voting majority to do much of anything deemed “controversial” by industry. While the GOP and telecom giants deserve the lion’s share of the […]

“Committee to Defeat the President” has filed complaint with Federal Election Commission alleging that Bush’s employment of husband violates U.S. campaign laws.

Two low-income housing projects will receive $1.2 million in grants from St. Louis’ allocation of pandemic aid money.

ALTON - David Eichen lived a life of service for nearly 30 years with the Alton Fire Department where he retired in November as a battalion chief, and he walked away with many memories of his days in uniform. Right after he retired, he said he hated to walk away and that it was very difficult, but he was ready for the next chapter of his life. David is also known for his ability to grow giant pumpkins and has been featured in multiple stories over the years with his late father, Howard. There is a photo that still circulates of a 200-pound whopper pumpkin the pair grew in 2013. He always gives away free pumpkins in his Alton neighborhood each year, again one of his many acts of service. He said since he retired, he made himself more available for his mother, who is in her 90s, and for friends. On David’s last day with the Alton Fire Department, Hit 'n Run had a serious fire in Alton, so he didn’t have any breaks before he closed his career on Nov. 21, 2022. Now, David

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Last Thursday (March 9), Clayco Network of Women (NOW) and Construction Forum Emerging Leaders hosted a Women in Construction Week event at Clayco St. Louis headquarters. Robyn Artis, leader of Clayco NOW spoke about her company and about Clayco’s culture of inclusion. Artis serves as the company’s construction and design integrator, as the key communication […]

Applications for hunting permits will be accepted beginning May 1.

Centene’s decision to use a new standard for charitable giving, which took effect last year, is expected to have a big impact on St. Louis-area organizations.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate took a broadly bipartisan vote Thursday to advance legislation that would end the 32-year-old and the 20-year-old Authorizations for Use of Military Force against Iraq. The 68-27 vote moves the measure past the chamber’s 60-vote legislative filibuster and towards a final passage vote as soon as next week. House Republican leaders, some […]

The post U.S. Senate moves toward repealing authority for military force against Iraq appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A Husch Blackwell Strategies lobbyist who previously worked for SSM Health and a Centene Corp. subsidiary has died. Jessica Pabst, of Lake Saint Louis, unexpectedly died Wednesday, HBS said. It didn't give a cause and didn't immediately have her age. "Jessica walked through life with a loving kindness that left everyone she encountered feeling more loved, appreciated, and cared for," HBS said. "She was smart in the office, relentless in the pursuit of her objectives and she leaves an unfillable…

St. Louis-based Procure by The Women’s Creative is opening its first Florida location, in Tampa's Hyde Park Village open-air mall. The shop will create opportunities for Tampa-area women-owned, product-based businesses to showcase their products in this retail space, featuring a collection of gifts, accessories, home goods and skincare primarily from Florida-based companies. Procure will collaborate with more than three dozen women-owned businesses to bring awareness to their brands and products…

WRIGHT CITY, Mo. - Firefighters are working to put out a commercial structure fire in the 15000 block of Veterans Memorial Pkwy. The Scott’s Company building has been heavily damaged by a fire. Smoke from the building can be seen over I-70, which is located nearby.

This is a silhouette of a tree in Modjeska Canyon late in the day. And, um, that's about all I have to say about it.

by Hannah Dreyfus

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.

After two months barricaded in a bedroom to defy a court order directing them to be returned to the custody of their father, who they say abused them, Utah siblings Ty and Brynlee Larson emerged after a judge delayed enforcing the custody change while a new criminal probe into the father is resolved.

“New information has come forward today regarding serious allegations of abuse,” Judge Derek Pullan said in a Monday hearing, citing the criminal probe first reported by ProPublica.

The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s office told the news organization last month that it is investigating Brent Larson, the children’s father. The probe is looking into allegations of felony child abuse, according to a spokesperson for the Herriman Police Department.

The Utah County Attorney’s office is also investigating Larson, for allegations of misdemeanor child abuse, officials said in court Monday.

“It appears that these allegations of sexual abuse and other kinds of abuse against the children at the hands of Brent have been put forward after this court’s ruling regarding temporary custody being awarded to Brent,” Pullan said.

Larson, via his attorney Ron Wilkinson, has denied the new allegations. “There have been similar false claims — repeatedly, for years,” Wilkinson wrote to ProPublica.

The judge had sided with Larson and a court-appointed therapist that the children’s mother, Jessica Zahrt, had manipulated the children to falsely believe he had abused them. The argument is based on the disputed psychological theory called “parental alienation,” in which one parent is accused of manipulating a child to turn against the other parent. It has been rejected by mainstream scientific bodies as not a legitimate mental health disorder.

If the DA’s office decides not to charge Larson, the court will consider reinstating its order to force the children into their father’s custody, the judge said.

A previous investigation into Larson stalled in February 2021, when prosecutors determined they did not have enough evidence to lead to a probable conviction.

Hours after the judge temporarily vacated his order on Monday, Ty, 15, and Brynlee, 12, told ProPublica that they had extricated themselves from the boarded-up bedroom where they had lived and Ty had livestreamed, bringing the family court case to the attention of hundreds of thousands of viewers.

“I’m still in fight or flight,” Ty said from the kitchen of his mother’s Salem home. He said he is certain his social media advocacy altered the trajectory of his case. “I need to keep growing this. It’s like, this is the thing that saved me.”

“I know this is temporary,” he said of the judge’s decision. “Like, you found a little field, but you’re not out of the woods. There’s still a fight up ahead.”

Brynlee said she planned to spend her first day of freedom with friends. She said she was heading out the door for the first time in two months, with plans to surprise her friends as they got off the school bus.

“No one knows we’re out yet!” she said, working to unknot the sleeves of her coat.

Monday’s hearing was the result of a request by the Utah County Sheriff’s Office for the judge to clarify his order authorizing police to forcibly remove the children from their mother’s home and place them in their father’s legal custody. Despite the custody change, Pullan had prohibited Larson from having unsupervised parenting time with the children or spending overnights with them, instead ordering Ty and Brynlee to be separately housed at their paternal relatives’ homes pending further court orders.

After an unsuccessful attempt to carry out the order in December — during which officers decided not to break down the bedroom door despite Larson’s request that they do so, according to police reports — the sheriff’s office said the Salem Police department was refusing further attempts to carry out the court’s orders and asked the judge for further clarification given “the delicate and potential combustible situation.”

In the Monday hearing, Pullan also reiterated that he would hold off enforcing his order to send Ty and Brylee to a so-called reunification camp. Turning Points for Families says it treats children who are victims of “parental alienation.”

“There’s also a dispute in this case about the merits of a reunification camp called Turning Points,” said Pullan, who said the children’s parents can hire experts to weigh in on the efficacy of such programs.

Following ProPublica’s coverage of the Larson siblings’ case, Utah lawmakers called for a reexamination of court-sanctioned reunification therapies for “alienated” minors.

“I find this whole thing of taking kids away from a parent to force them into reunification with an estranged parent to be very alarming,” state Sen. Todd Weiler said in an interview with ProPublica.

Weiler said he is learning more about the issue with hopes of introducing legislation to bring Utah into compliance with Kayden’s Law, which offers additional federal funds to states that require family courts to consider past evidence of abuse when making custody decisions. It was incorporated last year into the federal Violence Against Women Act, which provides federal funding to states that improve their child custody laws to better protect children. States that opt in to comply with the federal act limit the use of reunification programs and other court ordered treatments that lack sufficient scientific backing.

“We need to be more cautious throwing around terms like ‘parental alienation,’” said Weiler. “There are a host of legitimate reasons a teen might not want to visit a parent — to jump to blame the custodial parent would be a mistake.”

In an interview with ProPublica, state Sen. Mike McKell said Utah courts and lawmakers should also “take a hard look at reunification therapy.”

“Reunification camps concern me,” said McKell, who also said he plans to look at potential legislation to curtail court-ordered therapeutic practices with “no good science to justify it.”

“The coverage of this case has been very helpful,” he said of ProPublica’s reporting. “You might assume that what’s happening in these family courts is appropriate, until you dig down deep and take a careful look at what’s actually going on.”

Mariam Elba and Mollie Simon contributed research.

Correction

March 16, 2023: This story originally reported incorrectly the level of crime the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s office is investigating. The office is investigating Brent Larson for felony child abuse, not misdemeanor child abuse. The Utah County Attorney’s office is investigating Larson for allegations of misdemeanor child abuse.