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Amy Rivera, Nationally-Recognized Advocate, Author, Speaker On Lymphedema Will Appear At OSF In Alton

2 years 6 months ago
ALTON – Amy Rivera, a nationally-recognized advocate, author, and speaker on Lymphedema and her life’s journey living with the disorder, will be the featured guest speaker during the OSF Lymphedema Education Meeting on Thursday, March 2. The meeting is scheduled to take place from 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. at the OSF Saint Anthony’s Rehabilitation Services location in Alton Square Mall (228 Alton Square Mall, Alton). Additional information about the meeting can be obtained by calling (618) 463-5171. To learn more about Ms. Rivera, please visit www.amyrivera.com . Ms. Rivera was born with Primary Lymphedema, an incurable disorder that left her immensely disfigured. Her right leg was 200% bigger than her left leg. In trying to manage her disorder, she was misdiagnosed for over 30 years, leaving her disabled and isolated. Amy thought she was the only one who was suffering in silence. But after learning the truth about her condition, she realized that the Lymphedema community

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Techdirt Podcast Episode 344: The DoNotPay Story, With Kathryn Tewson

2 years 6 months ago
If you’ve been reading Techdirt recently, you probably know all about supposed “AI Lawyer” service DoNotPay and the tireless investigation of the company undertaken by Kathryn Tewson, who has written a couple of Techdirt posts about the saga. This week, Kathryn joins us on the podcast for a long and entertaining discussion about the entire […]
Leigh Beadon

Missouri lawmakers may be in line for pay raise despite rejection of governor’s proposal

2 years 6 months ago

Lawmakers and statewide elected officials wouldn’t get a raise next month from a supplemental spending bill moving toward passage. But a provision of the state Constitution means legislators may see a pay boost on July 1. The Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill providing an 8.7% pay raise for all state employees, […]

The post Missouri lawmakers may be in line for pay raise despite rejection of governor’s proposal appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Rudi Keller

Teen in St. Louis for convention loses legs after being hit by car downtown

2 years 6 months ago
A 16-year-old is in the hospital with critical, life-altering injuries after being hit by a car Saturday night.  It happened near the Dome at America's Center in downtown St. Louis. The teenager, Janae Edmondson, is from Tennessee and was in town for a volleyball tournament. Jeff Wismer has known Edmonson and her family for years as the assistant director of the Mid TN Volleyball Club in Smyrna, Tennessee, near Nashville. He said Edmonson has been playing with the club for several years.  Wismer…
Mercedes Mackay

Guns N’ Roses Returns to St. Louis With Concert at Busch Stadium

2 years 6 months ago
Guns N’ Roses is headed back to town, and this time the band is playing Busch Stadium (700 Clark Avenue). The band announced its next world tour today, and in addition to Europe and the Middle East, St. Louis made the cut along with 19 other American cities. The band has a long and complicated history with St. Louis.
Jaime Lees

Guns N' Roses bringing summer concert to Busch Stadium

2 years 6 months ago
Legendary rock band Guns N' Roses is coming to St. Louis later this year as part of its "2023 World Tour." The five-month tour kicks off on June 5 in Israel and winds through the Middle East, Europe and North America, making a stop at Busch Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 9.  General ticket sales for all dates begin Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 10 a.m. Central Standard Time on gunsnroses.com. Fans can also buy VIP packages that may include premium tickets, VIP bar access throughout the show, invitation to…
Kelsi Anderson

Quick moving storms expected Wednesday afternoon

2 years 6 months ago
ST. LOUIS -- A weather system is expected to sweep across the St. Louis region Wednesday between 11am and 3pm. This will be a fast-moving band of rain with some thunderstorms. There is a slight chance for these storms to produce marginally strong wind gusts, mainly west of St. Louis. The storms are likely to [...]
Chris Higgins

Greene County Clerk Announces Early Voting Drop Box, Other Details

2 years 6 months ago
CARROLLTON - Greene County Clerk Melissa Carter announced there will be a drop box in the western parking lot of the Greene County Courthouse for voters which will arrive sometime this week before early voting officially begins on Thursday, Feb. 23. Early voting hours will be held Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Saturday, April from 9 a.m. to noon. For those who can’t make it during those hours, Carter said a new drop box is being installed, and that mail-in ballots can still be requested by calling (217) 942-5443. “If they would like to call in and get a vote-by-mail ballot, they can call the office. We do have a drop box which is coming this week, it will be here before Thursday,” she said. “If they don’t want to mail their ballot back and they can’t make it between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., they can drop their ballot into the drop box located in the west parking lot.” Carter said she isn’t expecting a high turnout

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Lunchtime Photo

2 years 6 months ago
I was out in the desert last night trying to squeeze in an astrophotography session while the moon was still down but before the weather turned bad. The moon played its role nicely, but the weather didn't. The weather report had said the sky would be clear except for a couple of hours around 6 ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"
Kevin Drum

Calhoun County Gets Ready for Early Voting

2 years 6 months ago
HARDIN - The Calhoun County Clerk’s Office is preparing for early voting to begin this Thursday, Feb. 23 for the April 4 consolidated election. County Clerk Amy Friedel said early voting will be available at the Calhoun County Courthouse, located at 301 S. County Road in Hardin. Early voting hours will be from Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturday, April 1 from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friedel said that based on previous voting records, she’s not expecting a particularly high turnout of early voters this election, except for a few places and races in Calhoun County. “The Village of Kampsville should have a pretty good turnout, they have a Village President and some trustees that are up for election,” she said. “Also the school boards, both Brussels and Calhoun, have multiple openings and multiple candidates, so that should have a hopefully good voter turnout for those two school districts.” Friedel said her office is

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School District Pays Legal Fees After Banning Mothers From Reading Sexually Graphic Passages at Meetings

2 years 6 months ago

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.

A group of conservative Georgia mothers on a quest to ban library books has won a key victory against a school district that sought to limit their ability to recite graphic passages from those books at school board meetings.

Forsyth County Schools agreed this month to pay $107,500 in legal fees to the group, called the Mama Bears. Like many conservatives nationwide, the Mama Bears have taken to trying to get books removed from school libraries by reading sexually explicit passages aloud at school board meetings.

The agreement to pay legal fees stems from a late January consent judgment and injunction against the school district. The Mama Bears’ July 2022 lawsuit against the district detailed how Forsyth’s school board banned one mother from attending its meetings. The woman, Alison Hair, had insisted on reading sexually explicit material aloud before the board.

“The hope is that other elected officials, people who are on school boards and thinking about running for school board, or school officials that interact with them like superintendents, see this result and are more careful when they are tempted to censor other parents in the future,” said Del Kolde, a senior attorney with the Institute for Free Speech, a D.C.-based nonprofit that opposes campaign finance restrictions and represented the Mama Bears pro bono.

The January injunction prevents the district from enforcing what a federal judge called its “respectfulness requirement,” which school board members used as grounds to prohibit the Mama Bears’ read-alouds. The policy also had prevented the public from personally addressing board members and the superintendent or from using profane, uncivil or abusive remarks.

A spokesperson for the Forsyth County School District said its leaders are considering a revision to the policy, which most notably would eliminate language that speakers must conduct themselves in “a respectful manner.” It would also eliminate a rule that speakers not address board members individually nor be loud and boisterous. The revised proposal makes clear that law enforcement may get involved should speakers make physically threatening remarks, hateful racial epithets or other comments that would result in a meeting disruption. The board is set to vote on the new policy tonight

Kolde said emails discovered in the course of the lawsuit showed how school officials worked to make it harder for parents to criticize them.

In a March 24 email, Forsyth County Superintendent Jeff Bearden wrote to the board and a district spokesperson: “We must stop the ‘playing to the audience, pep rally mentality.’ One way to do that is limiting the amount of time for public participation.” He went on to suggest cutting total public participation at each meeting to 15 minutes.

Days earlier, Jennifer Caracciolo, the district’s communications director, urged the board to “take back the purpose” of the meetings.

“We must get back to our BOE meetings being about the work of the district and not about providing a public platform,” she wrote.

In a statement, the district said the emails Kolde cited were sent 11 months ago: “A lot has happened since they were sent, including this lawsuit which was settled between both parties. As such, as a district, we have moved forward from this issue.”

Individual school board members declined to comment on the settlement itself.

Cindy Martin, a mother of four and chair of the Mama Bears, said the group, dissatisfied with the district’s refusal to remove titles from shelves, continues to challenge books at meetings. The lawsuit, she said, was a victory even for people who disagree with their cause.

“The message is, you are servants of the American people, and you cannot silence those you serve,” Martin said in an email. “The freedom to speak is essential for our constitutional republic to survive. Government officials must always respect it and uphold it, even when it's speech they don't like.”

Kevin Goldberg, an attorney and First Amendment specialist with the nonprofit free-speech advocacy group Freedom Forum, said the Mama Bears’ victory could lead to even more challenges of restrictions on what people can say at school board meetings and who can be banned from them.

“It’s going to embolden other individuals and groups to stand up to school boards,” Goldberg said. “Because now they’re seeing one organization come out of this with success.

“This is a loss for the school board and, frankly, it’s a success for free speech.”

by Nicole Carr

St. Louis Powerball player wins $100,000

2 years 6 months ago
ST. LOUIS -- A Powerball ticket sold for the February 4th drawing at the QuikTrip in the 2600 block of Chouteau near Lafayette Park is worth $100,000. The winner's handpicked combination matched four of the five white-ball numbers and the Powerball. The $50,000 prize doubled because he included the Power Play option on the ticket. [...]
Joe Millitzer