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Imagine being held in jail three weeks for a crime you didn't commit.

For four months, Gov. Mike Parson tried to convince Missourians that a reporter who discovered a security flaw in a state website was a hacker who deserved criminal prosecution.  His argument crashed headlong into reality on Monday, when the 158-page investigative file produced by the Missouri State Highway Patrol and Cole County prosecutor was finally […]

The post Claim that reporter hacked state website was debunked. Parson still says he’s a criminal appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Today on TAP: Appointing a centrist whom Republicans love is the wrong sort of bipartisanship.

Joseph Elledge is convicted for killing his wife Mengqi Ji and burying her body. Tuesday he pleaded guilty to abusing the daughter they had together.

The university's decision to pursue NCAA Division I athletics comes less than a decade after it became a full-fledged Division II athletics program in 2013-14.

Six area chefs and one restaurant are semifinalists for the culinary world's top prize.

One month ago, more than 1,300 people were in area hospital beds for COVID treatment. As of Wednesday, Feb. 23, that number stands at just 346 people. Only 310 of those individuals are confirmed to be COVID positive. It’s a remarkable collapse of the omicron variant-fueled surge in the St. Louis area in such a short time.

By noon Wednesday, the last few people at the Potosi Southern Baptist Church's warming shelter had left.

A wintry mix of sleet, snow and freezing rain are likely across the region starting Wednesday afternoon.

The long wait for something great on this site is now over. 92 years after the completion of the Park Plaza tower by the Koplar...

The Cortex Innovation District will soon have a spot for tacos, fresh-made salsa and other Mexican-inspired fare courtesy of the minds behind Vicia (4260 Forest Park Avenue, 314-553-9239). Taqueria Morita, a new outdoor restaurant, will open at Vicia's new outdoor dining space this spring, bringing with it a new opportunity for the Vicia team to expand its offerings to the casual diner.…

From solar panels to LED lighting, geothermal systems to low-flow water fixtures, homeowners can choose from an array of technology when building a home.

The county's department of public health will instead have an advisory that encourages masks.

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt says he isn’t imposing any conditions on his support for the eventual winner of the Republican primary to succeed him — even if the nominee is former Gov. Eric Greitens.  Blunt was asked about the GOP primary at a press conference following his Wednesday address to the Missouri House. He used […]

The post Blunt offers unconditional support for winner of Missouri GOP Senate primary appeared first on Missouri Independent.

It all started with Hertz being less than helpful when a man was falsely accused of murder. Michigan resident Herbert Alford was arrested and convicted for a murder he didn't commit. He maintained his innocence, claiming he was at the airport in Lansing, Michigan during the time the murder occurred. And he could have proven it, too, if he had just been able to produce the receipt showing he had been renting a car at Hertz twenty minutes away from the crime scene.

It wasn't until Alford had spent five years in prison that Hertz got around to producing the receipt. Three of those years can be laid directly at Hertz's feet. The receipt was requested in 2015. Hertz handed it over in 2018. Alford sued.

That's not the only lawsuit Hertz is facing. It apparently also has a bad habit of accusing paying customers of theft, something that has resulted in drivers being accosted by armed officers and/or arrested and charged.

Nine months later, another lawsuit rolled in. A proposed class action suit -- covering more than 100 Hertz customers -- claimed the company acts carelessly and engages in supremely poor recordkeeping. The lawsuit, (then) representing 165 customers, contains details of several customers who have been pulled over, arrested, and/or jailed because Hertz's rental tracking system is buggier than its competitors'. Hertz takes pain to point out these incidents only represent a very small percentage of its renters. But that's essentially meaningless when this small error rate doesn't appear to occur at other car rental agencies.

This lawsuit is forcing Hertz to disclose exactly what this error rate is and how many renters it affects. It's a much larger number than the 165 customers the lawsuit started with last November.

In a ruling Wednesday, a federal judge in Delaware sided with the request from attorneys for 230 customers who say they were wrongly arrested.

The total still depends on whom you ask. Hertz said it reports to police 0.014% of its 25 million annual rental transactions - or 3,500 customers. Attorneys for the renters said they believe the number is closer to 8,000.

It may look like only a rounding error to Hertz, but each of these 3,500-8,000 incorrect reports represents a possible loss of liberty, if not a possible loss of life. Law enforcement officers treat auto thieves as dangerous criminals. Being falsely accused by a rental company's software doesn't alter the threat matrix until long after the guns have been drawn.

Sometimes the problem has a human component. If a rental agent does not see a vehicle they thought was returned, they may file a report. And when humans aren't involved, it's Hertz's computer system doing the dirty work.

Other times, [the attorney representing Hertz customers, France Malofiy] said, the confusion is caused by a customer swapping cars during their rental period or extending the time frame. If the credit or debit card charge fails to process correctly, he said Hertz's system generates a theft report.

Malofiy said the company does not update its police reports if a payment ultimately processes - leaving customers to flounder in the criminal justice system. In 2020, a spokesperson for Hertz told the Philadelphia Inquirer that a stolen-vehicle report "was valid when it was made" and that it was "up to law enforcement to decide what to do with the case."

And there's another data point to add to Hertz's perhaps inadvertent but very fucking real infliction of misery on thousands of renters every year. A man who has spent over $15,000 with Hertz since 2020 is currently sitting in jail thanks to yet another bogus Hertz theft alert.

All of this is at odds with Hertz's repeated claim it only issues stolen vehicle notices to law enforcement following "extensive investigations." If it did actually engage in thorough investigations of every generated theft report, it would not be currently facing a lawsuit from hundreds of drivers who've been arrested and jailed over bogus theft allegations. And the problem it claims isn't really a problem wouldn't still be getting people locked up for crimes they didn't commit.

Ask the experts from the Missouri Department of Transportation, St. Louis and St. Charles counties and St. Louis City your questions about highways and roads. The live chat starts at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.

Former Missouri U.S. Senator John Danforth has commissioned a poll showing a right-center candidate could win in November's general election.

St. Louis County’s mask mandate will come to an end on Monday, February 28. Citing a decrease in case numbers and advice from local health officials that we’ve seen the worst of the pandemic, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said in a press conference on Wednesday morning he feels cautiously optimistic about ending the public health order.…

A St. Louis pub chain seeks to bar a Chicago ghost kitchen concept from using names associated with "Three Kings."