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There are 109 students in the school this year, the lowest enrollment of any Catholic grade school in Jefferson County.

Did pandemic policies that reduced jail populations lead to an increase in violent crime? Two new reports say “no.” Criminologist and professor Beth Huebner and the Freedom Community Center’s Mike Milton discuss the data, and provide an update on how local courts are returning to their pre-pandemic policies — and throwing more people in jail before trial.

Grocery store shoppers feared for their lives as they watched a money truck robbery right in front of them just before 10 a.m. Friday.

First impressions can tell you a lot about a person. The first few words out of a person’s mouth can give you an idea of where somewhere has come from and where they’ve been. Comedian Tru Wag, born Brandon Wagner, is so proud to be from St. Louis that he began making skits and “accent challenges” celebrating his accent on Tik Tok and Instagram, where he has amassed a combined 208,000 followers.

The International Photography Hall of Fame said it will leave its home and museum in Grand Center, opting to locate an office in Fenton, citing changes in philanthropy and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prizes 1st Place will recieve a custom 3D printed trophy provided by SLSC Esports alongside payout. Other top placing players will receive payout as well.   Pricing All players will

The post Tourney Days: Smash & ESports (Nintendo Night) appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

SPRINGFIELD – As of 3 p.m. Friday, the Illinois State Police (ISP) is reporting local law enforcement in 19 counties, totaling 21 calls, received threats directed towards schools throughout the state. Granite City and Collinsville in Madison County were part of the fake threat calls. Responders have not located any actual threats as a result of these calls. The ISP Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center currently has no information concerning credible threats related to school safety. Law enforcement, public safety, and private sector security officials are encouraged to remain vigilant and report all suspicious behavior to local police agencies. Granite City Superintendent Stephanie Cann had this statement about the fake threat at their high school: "As communicated on Thursday, the Granite City Police Department was alerted to a possible threat at Granite City High School. Granite City Police responded, swept the complex, and found the threat to be non-credible." Collinsville

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After the pandemic started we immediately passed a $3.5 trillion rescue bill. Later we passed two more rescue bills, bringing the total to over $6 trillion. Was that responsible for the spike in inflation that began in 2021? Yes and no. It was responsible for some of the inflation, but for a very specific reason: ...continue reading "Did COVID rescue funding push up inflation? Yes, but . . ."

The Archdiocese of St. Louis is expected to close a Hillsboro school under its control due to financial challenges.

Other National League Hockey trophies will make appearances throughout the weekend.

Lionel Richie is heading over to England next month to help King Charles celebrate his coronation. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is one of several artists confirmed to perform at The Coronation…

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No one was hit, but kids were crying and families were shaken by the shooting just before 9 p.m. on an eastbound MetroLink train in St. Clair County.

So, we’re just handing out top secret security clearance to everyone, I guess. It was clear from the documents posted to Discord (before spreading everywhere), the person behind them would soon be located. The folded security briefings were obviously smuggled out of secure rooms in someone’s pocket and then photographed carelessly, in one case on […]

The Espionage Act charges against Julian Assange have nothing to do with spying and everything to do with common journalistic practices.

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The arrest of widely respected Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in Russia on bogus “espionage” charges has sent shockwaves through the journalism world.

And for good measure. Gershkovich’s disturbing imprisonment is the latest escalation in Russia’s effort to dismantle the little semblance of what’s left of press freedom in the country. Since its appalling invasion of Ukraine last year, Russia has censored television studios critical of its savage war, outlawed mentions of phrases like “occupation,” and has either arrested or forced the closure of almost all the country’s remaining independent outlets. Now, it seems it’s targeting foreign reporters as well.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has rightly declared Gershkovich “wrongfully detained.” That status carries special meaning, because, as the Journal reported, the official designation “rev[s] up the U.S. government’s efforts to win Evan Gershkovich’s release.”

It is a welcome development; the White House and State Department can and should aggressively push for Gershkovich’s freedom. The charges are clearly a sham. There’s not one iota of evidence Gershkovich was doing anything other than his job as a journalist, and Putin is cruelly using him as a geopolitical tool. (The White House called accusations he’s a spy “ridiculous.”)

But the Biden administration’s calls to free Gershkovich would have a lot more meaning if they also weren’t attempting to prosecute a publisher for “espionage” here in the United States. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is currently sitting in a UK prison facing extradition to the US, after the Trump administration indicted him in 2019 on seventeen counts of violating the Espionage Act.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not equating the work of Gerschkovich and Assange or alleging that press freedom in Russia and the U.S. is even remotely the same. What I’m saying is that many of the disturbing facts of Gershkovich’s imprisonment also apply to the facts of Assange’s case.

As in Russia, when a publisher or whistleblower is charged with “espionage” in the United States, it very much deserves to be described in scare quotes. The Justice Department hasn’t accused Assange of giving or selling information to foreign governments or anything of the sort. They’ve accused him of speaking with whistleblower Chelsea Manning in 2010 and 2011, and receiving hundreds of thousands of classified documents from her, which WikiLeaks later published for public consumption.

In other words: the same kind of thing newspapers that cover national security do all the time. Whatever you might think of Assange or his activities since 2011 is irrelevant because that’s not what he’s charged with and the precedent his prosecution would set isn’t limited to him.

If Assange is convicted under the Espionage Act for normal newsgathering activities, then reporters at the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal will be extremely vulnerable to the exact same type of charge here in the United States. Virtually every major press freedom, civil liberties, and human rights organization in the United States, as well as newspapers like the New York Times and the Guardian, has said the same thing. Shamefully, the Biden administration has ignored them. So far it’s also ignoring an April 11 letter from Rep. Rashida Tlaib and six other lawmakers calling on the administration to drop the prosecution. A DOJ spokesperson confirmed plans to proceed with the extradition just last week.

Just as it is outrageous that Russia has said it will ignore the pleas of major news outlets to release Gershkovich, the same can and should be said for the Justice Department, which is putting press freedom at dire risk in this country, with eerily similar charges to those Russia is pinning on Gershkovich.

This isn’t an exercise in hypotheticals either. Former President Donald Trump, who refers to journalists as “enemies of the people,” has rocketed to the top of 2024 Republican primary polls. Recently, he has taken to literally musing on stage at his rallies about how he could potentially throw reporters in jail. It is mind-boggling that the Biden administration may be handing him the ability to do just that on a silver platter.

Will dropping the Assange charges mean Russia will immediately release Gershkovich? Of course not. But if we all want the United States to have credibility on the world stage, and for their voice to carry weight not just with Russia but the rest of the world, it needs to practice what it preaches, and not open the door for the exact type of prosecution it is condemning Russia for.

The outpouring of support for Gershkovich has been inspiring: countless people tweeting “journalism is not a crime” and protests in his honor have been staged all over. Only time will tell if they will have an effect. Needless to say, Gershkovich is as loved in the journalism community as Assange is polarizing. But this much is true: If journalists banded together to protest the Assange prosecution in a similar fashion, we could end this dire threat to press freedom at home almost immediately.

Another prosecutor left the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office today — and wrote a blistering resignation letter on her way out. Up until today, Natalia Ogurkiewicz had been an assistant circuit attorney working in the office's Violent Crimes Unit.

The Missouri SAFE Act, HB419, would make it illegal for healthcare providers to perform gender transition surgeries and even prescribe hormone treatments.

WASHINGTON — As illicit fentanyl seizures reach record numbers, the Biden administration on Friday announced “government-wide efforts” to counter narcotics trafficking, including criminally charging members of the Sinaloa Cartel operating out of Mexico, and sanctioning Chinese producers of the chemicals used to make the synthetic drug. The Department of Justice unsealed indictments alleging fentanyl trafficking, […]

The post Mexican cartel targeted by Biden administration in multiple fentanyl indictments appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The St. Charles County Police Department will soon hold its annual unclaimed property auction.