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Ascension, the St. Louis-based Catholic nonprofit health system, has inked a three-year deal with a professional league for a new event to be held in conjunction with the Ascension Charity Classic, a PGA Tour Champions tournament that launched in 2021.

Havana native Tamara Landeiro recently opened a brick-and-mortar location of her popular Cuban restaurant.

These locally made mustards have been known to convert even the condiment’s top critics.

The St. Louis chef shares three cookbooks that offer a taste of his native Bosnia.

George Thorogood and the Destroyers are known for recording memorable versions of other artists' tunes, but frontman George Thorogood has written plenty of memorable songs as well. It's those originals…

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A life in TV news wasn’t her original plan, but Samantha Jones discovered a passion for journalism and never looked back.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WMBD) -- Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker confirmed the statewide indoor mask requirement will end Monday, Feb. 28, at 12:01 a.m. The announcement came as statewide hospitalizations fell by 50% and ICU capacity increased by 24%. Illinois’ weekly COVID-19 case rate also saw a 70% decrease. Pritzker previously announced his plan to lift the [...]

President Joe Biden announced Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his nominee to replace outgoing Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer Friday.

Planning on going to the Grand Parade? Here's what you need to know!

ST. LOUIS--An Edwardsville, Illinois woman accused earlier this month of multiple charges, including criminal sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual abuse and child pornography, has been indicted by a Madison County grand jury on the charges. Danielle Fischer now faces a total of 12 charges. Police say Fischer was a permanent substitute in the Roxana School [...]

A grand jury charged Danielle Fischer, 29, with sexually abusing a third teen boy while she was his teacher last year.

There's been an unfortunate movement in the US over the last few years to try to argue that social media should be considered "common carriers." Mostly this is coming (somewhat ironically) from the Trumpian wing of grifting victims, who are trying to force websites to carry the speech of trolls and extremists claiming, (against all actual evidence) that there's an "anti-conservative bias" in content moderation on various major websites.

This leads to things like Ohio's bizarre lawsuit that just outright declares Google a "common carrier" and seems to argue that the company cannot "discriminate" in its search results, even though the entire point of search is to rank (i.e., discriminate) between different potential search results to show you which ones it thinks best answer your query.

There is even some movement among (mostly Republican) lawmakers to pass laws that declare Facebook/Google/Twitter to be "common carriers." There's some irony here, in that these very same Republicans spent years demonizing the idea of "common carriers" when the net neutrality debate was happening, and insisting that the entire concept of "common carrier" was socialism. Amusingly (if it weren't so dumb), Republican-proposed bills declaring social media sites common carriers often explicitly carve out broadband providers from the definitions, as if to prove that this is not about any actual principles, and 100% about using the law to punish companies they think don't share their ideological beliefs.

Unfortunately, beyond grandstanding politicians, even some academics are starting to suggest that social media should be treated like common carriers. Beyond the fact that this would almost certainly come back to bite conservatives down the line, there's an even better reason why it makes no sense at all to make social media websites common carriers.

They don't fit any of the underlying characteristics that made common carrier designations necessary in the first place.

While there were other precursor laws having to do with the requirement to offer service if you were "public callings" the concept of "common carriers" is literally tied up in its name: the "carrier" part is important. Common carriers have been about transporting things from point A to point B. Going back to the first use of the direct concept of a must "carry" rule, there's the 1701 case in England of Lane v. Cotton, regarding the failure to deliver mail by the postal service. The court ruled that a postal service should be considered a common carrier, and that there was a legitimate claim "[a]gainst a carrier refusing to carry goods when he has convenience, his wagon not being full."

In the US, the concept of the common carrier comes from the railroads, and the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, and then to communications services with the Communications Act of 1934, and the establishment of an important bifurcation between information services (not common carriers) and telecommunications services which were common carriers.

As you look over time, you'll notice a few important common traits in all historical common carriers:

1. Delivering something (people, cargo, data) from point A to point B
2. Offering a commoditized service (often involving a natural monopoly provider)

In some ways, point (2) is a function of point (1). The delivery from point A to point B is the key point here. Railroads, telegraphs, telephone systems are all in that simple business -- taking people, cargo, data (voice) from point A to point B -- and then having no further ongoing relationship with you.

That's just not the case for social media. Social media, from the very beginning, was about hosting content that you put up. It's not transient, it's perpetual. That, alone, makes a huge difference, especially with regards to the 1st Amendment's freedom of association. It's one thing to say you have to transmit someone's speech from here to there and then have no more to do with it, but it's something else entirely to say "you must host this person's speech forever."

Second, social media is, in no way, a commodified service. Facebook is a very different service from Twitter, as it is from YouTube, as it is from TikTok, as it is from Reddit. They're not interchangeable, nor are they natural monopolies, in which massive capital outlays are required upfront to build redundant architecture. New social networks can be set up without having to install massive infrastructure, and they can be extremely differentiated from every other social network. That's not true of traditional common carriers. Getting from New York to Boston by train is getting from New York to Boston by train.

Finally, even if you did twist yourself around, and ignore all of that, you're still ignoring that even with common carriers, they are able to refuse service to those who violate the rules (which is the reason that any social media bans a user -- for rule violations). Historically, common carriers can reject carriage for someone who does not pay, but also if the goods are deemed "dangerous" or not properly packed. In other words, even with a common carrier, they are able to deny service to someone who does not follow the terms of service.

So, social media does not meet any of the core components of a common carrier. It is hosting content perpetually, not merely transporting data from one point to another in a transient fashion. It is not a commodity service, but often highly differentiated in a world with many different competitors offering very differentiated services. It is not a natural monopoly, in which the high cost of infrastructure buildout would be inefficient for other entrants in the market. And, finally, even if, somehow, you ignored all of that, declaring a social media site a common carrier wouldn't change that they are allowed to ban or otherwise moderate users who fail to abide by the terms of service for the site.

So can we just stop talking about how social media websites should be declared common carriers? It's never made any sense at all.

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. - Three cities in St. Louis County made it on Dwellics' list of the top 100 "Best Cities to Raise a Family in the Midwest." Lafayette Township came in at number 84, Kirkwood is 96, and Clayton is 99. Lafayette Township's overall score from Dwellics was 88.56. This area is north [...]

The popular local brand sells more than 50 flavors of cheesecake and more.

EDWARDSVILLE — Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine announced today that Danielle Fischer, 29, of Edwardsville has been charged by a Madison County grand jury on six counts of criminal sexual assault, four counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, and two counts of child pornography. Fischer was charged with these acts while serving as the victims’ teacher. “It is sickening to see figures of authority abuse children,” Haine said. “Working with the Madison County Child Advocacy Center, the State’s Attorney’s Office’s Children’s Justice Division is dedicated to punishing such crimes, and doing our part to protect the children of Madison County.” The criminal sexual assault charges are Class One felonies, and carry a sentence of 4-15 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). The aggravated criminal sexual abuse charges are Class 2 felonies, and carry a sentence of probation to 3-7 years in IDOC.

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A 25-year-old St. Louis man on Thursday was sentenced to 14 years in prison for carjacking a Domino’s Pizza driver in February 2021.