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A security guard at a St. Charles retirement community was shot after he went to check a light that had been turned off in a cafeteria, charges say.

St. Louis technology brokerage Clarus Communications has expanded its footprint through a merger with Roseville, California-based Datatel Solutions

ALTON – The Illinois Department of Transportation has announced lane restrictions will be encountered on U.S. 67/Clark Bridge over the Mississippi River in Alton for emergency bridge deck patching. The patching will begin at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 12, 2023. IDOT said all lanes will re-open by 3 p.m. Thursday, April 13, 2023. IDOT District 8 Operations forces will make the needed improvements. " Motorists can expect delays and should allow extra time for trips through this area," IDOT said in a statement. "To avoid the work area, when feasible, the use of alternate routes should be considered. Drivers are urged to pay close attention to changed conditions and signs in the work zones, obey the posted speed limits, refrain from using mobile devices and be alert for workers and equipment.” For IDOT District 8 updates, follow them on Twitter at @IDOTDistrict8 or view area construction details on IDOT’s traveler information map on GettingAroundIllinois.com

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Mallory Swanson said in an Instagram post that she underwent a successful surgery Tuesday morning.

St. Charles County Circuit Judge Rebeca Navarro-McKelvey sentenced Shawn Kavanagh, 32, to four consecutive life sentences Tuesday, prompting sobs from a courtroom full of family and friends from both sides.

ALTON – Alton Pride is excited to announce the winner of its first scholarship – Maddox Karnes of Edwardsville High School. The 2023 Alton Pride Scholarship packet was released on social media and sent to 12 regional school districts to be dispersed to their high school students in September 2022. Students applying needed to be a senior in high school, have a minimum GPA of 2.50 on a 4.0 scale, and a member of or an ally for the LGBTQIA+ community. Each applicant had to submit a 300-word essay describing how they contribute to the benefit of the LGBTQIA+ community and had to complete a minimum of 4 hours of volunteer work with Alton Pride or a non-profit community organization. Applications were due, post marked, by January 31, 2023. Each application was reviewed to ensure they met the requirements for the scholarship and then the essays were issued to a committee for anonymous review. The committee then chose the winning essay without knowing any other information about

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by Tom Finan, Executive Director, Construction Forum “Intentionality, intentionality, intentionality.” That was the reply that Vivian Martain, civil rights compliance officer for Millstone Weber, gave when asked for three words describing what it takes to be a truly inclusive contractor. She was part of an afternoon panel at MODOT’s annual Civil Rights Compliance and DBE […]

Construction at the Benton Park Tiny House slowed down at the end of 2022. Other than hosting a couple workshops and having their trailer stolen, things have been quiet on the 7,000 square foot lot. Now that St. Louis has shaken off the last of its winter frost, Rikki Watts and Dwayne Tiggs are ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work.

The Housing Resource Fair will offer workshops, presentations and consultations for those interested in buying a home.

For the third consecutive year, S. M. Wilson & Co. has been recognized by the Women’s Foundation of Greater St. Louis (WFSTL) as a top place for women to work in the annual Women in the Workplace: Employment Scorecard. Honorees of the sixth annual award program were selected based on data submitted about structural efforts […]

FPF’s own safety guide for covering protests includes information about keeping legal contact information on your person.

Journalists covering protests often write phone numbers for their attorneys or legal helplines on their arms. Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) advises them to do so in our own guide. Other press freedom organizations provide similar advice.

It’s not because journalists intend to commit crimes — it’s because police have an unfortunate habit of arresting journalists for doing their jobs, and saved contacts aren’t much use if police seize your phone. Yet prosecutors in Atlanta, in pursuing charges against “Cop City” protesters accused of domestic terrorism, have argued that having a jail support phone number written on one’s body is evidence of criminal intent.

FPF joined a coalition of over 40 organizations, led by the National Lawyers Guild, to respond to these alarming prosecution arguments that ignore not only the First Amendment but the Sixth Amendment right to legal counsel. As the NLG explains, “[p]eople write these numbers on their arms in preparation for demonstrations precisely because they know they may be unjustly detained, and because they know that police use mass arrest as a form of crowd control that is calculated to disrupt protected speech.”

In other words, the only illegality reflected by the practice is not by journalists and protesters but by police officers who wrongfully arrest them.

If prosecutors succeed in criminalizing jail support numbers for protesters it’s just a matter of time before the same arguments are made against journalists. U.S. Press Freedom Tracker data shows that, for several years, the vast majority of journalist arrests have occurred during demonstrations. Seizures of cellphones are a legitimate concern for reporters. And we’ve already seen police detain and intimidate journalists while covering the Cop City protests specifically.

FPF Principal Researcher Dr. Martin Shelton, who co-authored the above-mentioned guide for journalists covering demonstrations, explained:

“Both for journalists covering protests and protesters themselves, these events can be unpredictable. Everyone in attendance is at risk of having their devices broken or seized, and that's why we can't rely on a smartphone contact list to maintain access to critical support. Going into a protest, writing a phone number on your body is not much different than committing that number to memory.”

Anyone who values the First Amendment should be alarmed by the suggestion that writing down legal support numbers evidences criminality — especially in the midst of a prosecution of protesters for “domestic terrorism” based on guilt by association.

Law enforcement should not be allowed to reward its own bad behavior by inferring criminality from practices journalists and protesters adopted precisely because of the long history of wrongful arrests at protests. And prosecutors should apologize for their ignorance of the Constitution they’re sworn to defend.

ST. LOUIS - Shanisah Knight and her husband Jason typically go out for breakfast Sunday mornings. The first day of 2023 happened to fall on a Sunday and what seemed like a random conversation on New Year's Day led to a new business. Jason proposed starting a diner. Jason has decades of experience working in [...]

EDWARDSVILLE – A weekend house fire in which two people and three pets escaped without serious injuries is being hailed as evidence of the importance of adequate exits and window egress. A two-story home that had been converted into two apartments at 1318 Eberhart Avenue caught fire late afternoon on Saturday, April 8. The Edwardsville Fire Department was notified of the blaze just before 5 p.m., Fire Chief James Whiteford said. When firefighters arrived, a fire that is believed to have started on the back porch had made its way to the second floor. The occupants of both the first- and second-floor apartments were in the building at the time of the fire. The fire had blocked the stairway exit for the second-floor resident, who fled with her three dogs through a window and onto the roof, Whiteford said. Prior to the Fire Department’s arrival, a neighbor used a ladder to begin taking the dogs to safety; their owner refused to leave the roof until the dogs were safe. Firefighters

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ALTON - The law firm of MillerKing LLC is proud to announce that Bryan A. Dooling has been named a Partner. Along with Bryan A. Dooling, the firm’s attorneys are Stephanie A. King, Patrick G. King, William R. Miller, Anthony E. Dos Santos, and Andrea N. Schrader. Bryan represents clients in transactional matters, such as Estate Planning, Probate, Trusts, Small Business, Real Estate and Municipal, and litigation cases, such as business disputes, contracts, insurance claims, Trust Administration and Probate Administration. Bryan is a member of the Alton-Wood River Bar Association, Madison County Bar Association, and Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA). Bryan was born and raised in the greater Alton-Godfrey area. He is a graduate of St. Ambrose Grade School and Marquette Catholic High School. Bryan attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he graduated with a Degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences. Bryan earned his law degree from Appalachian

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ALTON - Following community feedback, the Alton Committee of the Whole voted to include addressing homelessness and other issues as new priority spending projects for the city’s ARPA funds. The committee also approved several other items at the April 10 meeting, and the Alton City Council will take final action on those items at their meeting on Wednesday, April 12. Last December , a volunteer at the Overnight Warming Centers in Alton asked City Council members to consider allocating some of the city’s ARPA funds to address homelessness. Until last night, the city had not planned to allocate any ARPA funding toward addressing homelessness, but Alderman Nate Keener introduced a new resolution and said the city would begin meeting with community groups to determine ways ARPA funding can address this and other issues. “We got some feedback from groups in the public that they wanted to see a little bit more from our recommendations for ARPA spending around the areas

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Authorities charged three people with murder this week in the April 4 shooting death of a 21-year-old man. One is not yet in custody.

Swift Current Energy (“Swift Current”) is ramping up construction this spring for its Double Black Diamond solar project in central Illinois. The company has contracted St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Companies (“McCarthy”) as the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor. Swift Current has also selected American-based First Solar to provide the 800 MWdc solar modules for the […]