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Metallica's 72 Seasons video saga has come to an end. Since dropping their much-anticipated new album Friday, April 14, the metal legends have premiered a new visual every day to…

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GRANITE CITY - In honor of former Granite City High School and Grigsby Intermediate School Social Worker Christy Dawson , Grigsby will be celebrating its Second Annual Christy Dawson Kindness Week on April 24-28, 2023. Dawson passed away on March 31, 2021 after a battle with cancer. To ensure Dawson's legacy of kindness lives on, Grigsby has a week planned with fun events for students and staff: Monday - Be Kind to the Environment Wear brown, green or Earth Day shirt Pick up trash, plant flowers, make a birdhouse Walk more, drive less Make a craft with recycled materials Tuesday - Be Kind to animals Wear a shirt with an animal on it or animal print Make toys to donate to a pet shelter Help care for your pet Learn and educate others how our trash affects animals Wednesday - Be Kind to Self Exercise for 15 minutes Avoid complaining List 5 things you are thankful for Learn how to meditate or do yoga today Thursday - Be Kind to Family Help with dishes

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Bost voted today to preserve opportunities for women and girls in school sports. The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act clarifies that schools receiving federal education funding would be in violation of sex discrimination laws if they allow biological males to compete in athletics designated for females. “Many parents are fed up with the far left pushing a gender identity agenda that’s out of touch with our values,” said Bost. "It is wrong to force women and girls to compete against biological males in school sports that were specifically designed for females. I have seven granddaughters, and I want to do everything I can to value them, empower them, and encourage them to achieve their dreams. For that reason, I voted to ensure that women and girls have a fair playing field in school sports.” The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which Bost cosponsored, passed the House 219-203.

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SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) announced today that the unemployment rate fell -0.1 percentage point to 4.4 percent, while nonfarm payrolls increased by +7,900 in March, based on preliminary data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and released by IDES. The February monthly change in payrolls was revised from the preliminary report, from +10,700 to +8,100 jobs. The February revised unemployment rate was 4.5 percent, unchanged from the preliminary February unemployment rate. The March payroll jobs estimate and unemployment rate reflect activity for the week including the 12th. In March, the industry sectors with the largest over-the-month gains in employment included: Professional and Business Services (+3,000), Leisure and Hospitality (+3,000), and Government (+1,600). The industry sectors with the largest monthly payroll declines included: Manufacturing (-1,400), Trade, Transportation and Utilities (-500), and Information

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CHICAGO - Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a coalition of 18 states, today called for a federal recall of Hyundai and Kia vehicles following the companies’ continued failure to take adequate steps to address the alarming rate of vehicle thefts. The letter , sent to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), encourages the NHTSA to recall unsafe Hyundai and Kia vehicles manufactured between 2011 and 2022 that have easily-bypassed ignition switches and lack engine immobilizers that make the vehicles vulnerable to theft. In a letter issued in March 2023 , Raoul and a coalition of attorneys general urged the companies to take stronger steps to address the safety concerns caused by vehicles’ vulnerability to theft. Because the companies have failed to address safety issues, Raoul and the coalition are now calling on the NHTSA to step in. The attorneys general argue that the vehicles’ systems remain out of compliance with federal standards an

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Ryan Eckert’s structural abstractions explore ideas about the state of splitting worldviews, depicted through the lens of biblical Christianity. Eckert’s works in his exhibition:“Two Worldviews” presents the clashing of ideals

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Mario Trejo’s exhibition “Idiosyncratic Tantrums” features extensive accumulations that visually explore eternity and struggle through manic mark making. Considering the concepts of time, space, and number. He creates hundreds of

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John Mellencamp is back with new music. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is set to release the new album Orpheus Descending on June 2, and just dropped its first single “Hey God.” …

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SPRINGFIELD - Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) today launched $10 million in funding for the Climate Works Pre-Apprenticeship Program and $6 million for the Energy Transition Barrier Reduction Program as part of the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA). The programs will increase training opportunities in the trades, expand the clean energy talent pipeline, and boost diversity in the clean energy trade industries by providing resources to limit barriers to participation. The programs will be run through training partners which will be selected through a competitive Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) process. “The Climate Works and Barrier Reduction programs are essential to opening the door to countless opportunities in the clean energy trades industry for communities who have historically been left out and left behind,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Economic progress in Illinois depends on our diverse workforce

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Owners Brian and Erica Kniffin sell approximately 8,000 hostas a year to buyers from across the country, making it one of the largest hosta farms in the bi-state area.

The wife of a fallen Hermann officer said her "life changed forever" in a recent letter expressing her grief, but gratitude for sustained support more than a month removed from tragedy.

A partnership of nine St. Louis-area Christian leaders, including the Archbishop of St. Louis, is launching an effort to boost affordable housing in the region.

Who’s that kid that can travel through time? It’s you!   Follow the adventures of three friends as they travel back in time to learn from real-life inspirational heroes when

The post Xavier Riddle and The Secret Museum: The Exhibit at The Magic House appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Take an overseas adventure in this immersive exhibit that transports families to China, a country where a quickly changing modern lifestyle intersects with ancient values. Explore what life is like

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by Mary Hudetz, ProPublica, and Graham Lee Brewer, NBC News

More than a dozen senators are pressing for the museums and universities that hold the most Native American remains to explain why they’ve failed for decades to return thousands of them to tribes as required by federal law.

Members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and other senators singled out for scrutiny the five institutions identified in a recent ProPublica and NBC News investigation as having the largest collections of Indigenous remains — including powerful and prestigious universities with long legacies of delaying repatriation requests.

“It’s inexcusable, it’s immoral, it’s hypocritical, and it has to stop,” said committee chair Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.

In letters sent Thursday to the University of California, Berkeley, Harvard University, the Ohio History Connection, the Illinois State Museum and Indiana University, the senators called the slow pace of repatriations of Native American remains and belongings under the 1990 federal law “unacceptable.”

“For too long, Native ancestral remains and cultural items have been unconscionably denied their journey home by institutions, desecrated by scientific study, publicly displayed as specimens, left to collect dust on a shelf, or simply thrown in a box and forgotten in a museum storeroom,” the senators wrote.

More than 30 years ago, Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, requiring federally funded museums, universities and government agencies to identify human remains they believe to be Native American and then work with tribal nations to repatriate them.

Lawmakers expected the process would be completed or nearly completed within five years, the senators said in the letter, yet “a daunting amount of work remains.”

Hundreds of institutions nationwide still hold a total of more than 100,000 ancestral remains, according to the news organizations’ analysis of federal data. None has more than UC Berkeley, with 9,000, followed by the Illinois State Museum and the Ohio History Connection.

The senators wrote that Congress “continues to receive troubling testimony” about institutions’ poor compliance with the law, including insufficient consultation with tribes, poor tracking and misidentification of items, disrespect for traditional knowledge and allegations of avoiding or slowing repatriation efforts.

In response to the news organizations’ request for comment on the senators’ letter, UC Berkeley said in a statement that it will cooperate in a “fully transparent manner” with the Senate’s requests. It apologized for the harm caused by its inaction and said repatriation is now a top priority.

“We accept responsibility and accountability for the university’s past failings and errors in so far as repatriation and tribal relations are concerned,” it added.

A spokesperson for the Ohio History Connection said it welcomed the senators’ attention to NAGPRA, adding in a statement: “This work requires many resources and time commitments — for both institutions like ours and the federally recognized Tribes — to undertake repatriation on such a large scale.”

Fred Cate, Indiana University’s vice president for research, said the school had assigned six staff members in recent years to work on NAGPRA compliance. “The whole point is to get to a consensus point with the tribes we’re working with,” which takes time, he said.

Harvard and the Illinois State Museum did not comment Thursday; Harvard has previously issued an apology for past collection practices, and the Illinois museum said it developed plans to speed compliance with NAGPRA.

In the letters, the senators asked the universities and museums to respond to a list of written questions within two months, including how they decide whether to grant or deny tribes' requests and how long they take to make decisions.

The senators cited an expert’s recent estimate that it could take 70 more years for institutions to complete the repatriation process. “This is simply unacceptable,” they wrote of the estimate by Chip Colwell, who as curator of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science oversaw its repatriation efforts.

Meanwhile, the Interior Department recently estimated the process could take 26 more years, based on institutions' progress in the past decade. Schatz said he wants it done much sooner. “It can’t take another decade or two for this to get fixed,” he said.

The Interior Department this year is reviewing proposed regulations that would push museums and universities to finish the work within three years, which some institutions have argued is not feasible.

Edward Halealoha Ayau, the chair of the NAGPRA Review Committee, said museums have too often skirted the mandate to consult with Indigenous people. Many institutions rely only on their own records and do not review evidence rooted in tribal traditions and knowledge when they decide on claims, he added.

“You can’t just sit in the corner twiddling your thumbs, saying, ‘Oh, we don’t know whose ancestors these are,’” he said.

Ayau said the senators’ letter sends a message to the hundreds of other institutions that also must comply with NAGPRA.

The senators also asked the institutions what actions the government has taken against them under the law and the steps they took in response. Penalties are rare, federal data shows. Only 20 institutions have been fined under the law — for an average of $2,955 per institution. Of the five institutions that received a letter from the Senate, only Harvard and UC Berkeley have been cited, and they were not required to pay fines.

Schatz said he hoped the letter would encourage the institutions to speed up their compliance with the law.

“If there are deans and presidents and boards of trustees who are sitting around, trying to figure out how to live their values, this is a very practical, immediate way to start,” he said.

Schatz added that he expects the institutions will respond to the senators’ questions but that if they do not, the committee has the power to subpoena them.

Logan Jaffe contributed reporting.

Roger Waters is finally releasing physical copies of his 2022 digital release The Lockdown Sessions. CD and vinyl copies of the six-song recording are due out June 2. The release features songs Waters recorded and…

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The projects were approved Thursday by a board that governs the city of St. Louis' economic development agency.