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Jerry Brown Jr., 45, died Dec. 4 when his car struck a concrete guardrail.

From Bob Clark Beyond: Clayco served as the design-builder for the Reinsurance Group of America’s (RGA) $150 million headquarters in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri! Gensler and Fox Architects also worked on the project as the building design consultant and interior architect to help bring the 415,000-square-foot interactive and connective workplace to life. The design of the corporate campus […]

Missouri currently ranks 12th worst in the United States for maternal mortality.

Clean up is underway at Lambert St. Louis International Airport after a water pipe burst early this morning leading to some flooding in parts of Concourse C in Terminal 1.

ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd are teaming up for a new co-headlining tour. The Sharp Dressed Simple Man Tour is set to hit 22 North American cities this summer, including Phoenix, Cincinnati, Charlotte,…

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In pushing for library censorship and standing against gay marriage, Ashcroft ignores what he said his purpose in politics was.

The victim was identified as 45-year-old Jerry Brown Jr. of St. Louis.

Family traditions define who we are. They give us something steady and safe in a confusing world. They bring us closer together, help us recall the past, and create memories. This is especially true of kids, who find security and a sense of belonging in family activities. Here are a few Christmas traditions I’ve found... 

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The post Christmas Traditions Worth Keeping appeared first on Good Food St. Louis.

The top tournament for collegiate club hockey teams is returning to St. Louis in 2024, adding to the list of major collegiate hockey events scheduled to be held here in the coming years.

GRANITE CITY - Seniors Peyton Hatfield and Chris Taylor of Granite City High School were selected as Granite City Elks Lodge #1063 Students of the Month for November. The Elks Student of the Month Program is designed to recognize outstanding young men and women for achievements in school and community life-fine arts, hobbies, athletics, church, school, club and community service, industry, and farming. Nominees are judged on multiple achievements including leadership skills, good moral character, community involvement, extracurricular activities, honors and award, and scholastic ability. Each student receives a $100 U.S. savings bond and an Elks certificate of achievement. Peyton Hatfield Student Council President ... Two-time Girls Soccer Team Captain ... Member of Girls Tennis, Girls Soccer and Girls Swimming Team ... R Kids and Swim Teacher Volunteer ... Member of Fellowship of Christian Athletes, National Honor Society, Science Club, Student Council and Varsity Club ... 202

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ALTON - Brittany L. Higgins was reported missing to the Alton Police Department by a family member on 12/06/22. The family member reported Brittany had not been seen or heard from for approximately one month at the time of the report. Attempts by law enforcement to locate Brittany have been made but have been unsuccessful at this time. Brittany is described as a white female, 31 years of age, with long blonde hair and blue eyes. She is approximately 5’3”, and 110 pounds. She has a tattoo of a heart on her foot. The Alton Police Department is continuing its efforts to locate Brittany. Brittany is known to frequent areas just outside of Alton in Cottage Hills. Anyone with information as to Brittany’s whereabouts is asked to call the Alton Police Department at 618-463-3505 Ext. 634.

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EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville Arts Center (EAC) has announced the departure of Melissa McDonough-Borden as Executive Director. McDonough-Borden’s 10 years of service allowed the Arts Center to flourish. Accomplishments including an influx of regional recognition, continual success of the Edwardsville Art Fair, and expanded art education for the local community. Her leadership and positive influence will be missed by the community and artists alike. Having spent five years on the EAC board, McDonough-Borden continued her dedication to the arts when she took on the role of Executive Director in 2017. One of her major accomplishments, the Edwardsville Art Fair, has seen an increase of artists’ sales each consecutive year, reaching over $400,000 as of 2022. Previous EAC President and 2022 Patron of the Arts awardee, Paul Abert, had this to say about McDonough-Borden: “Missy’s commitment to the ongoing success of the EAC, Arts Education opportunities, and the

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BETHALTO - Midwest Members Credit Union is proud to sponsor the “Eagles of the Month” program at Civic Memorial High School. Senior students are selected each month by members of the Civic Memorial faculty to represent each department. All students are awarded a certificate and a Subway gift card. Two Seniors (1 female student and 1 male student) that were selected each month will have the opportunity to compete for a $500.00 “Eagles of the Year” scholarship each at the end of the school year. 2022 November’s Eagles of the Month winners: Math – Kaydence Hibbs Fine Arts – Claire Shaw Social Studies – Autumn Bowman PE/Health - Mason Fries Choir - Carter Bloodworth Band- Dylan Moore Science - Alexis Collins English - Elijah Gruen C.T.E. - Kaitlynn Niemeyer Teacher of the Month winner: Social Studies - Charles Baldwin Congratulations to all the Civic Memorial “Eagles of the Month”

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CHICAGO - Attorney General Kwame Raoul today announced he has reached a settlement with Walgreens and CVS to resolve allegations that the companies contributed to the opioid addiction crisis by failing to appropriately oversee the dispensing of opioids at stores. The bipartisan settlement provides more than $10 billion nationally and requires significant improvements to how Walgreens and CVS pharmacies dispense opioids. Raoul and 17 state attorneys general on the executive committee, attorneys representing local governments, Walgreens, and CVS have agreed to this settlement, which has been sent to other states for review and approval. The sign-on period for states will be until the end of 2022, followed by a 90-day sign-on period for units of local government. The $10.7 billion settlement will be divided among sign-on states, local governments, and tribes, and will prioritize abatement and remediation of the opioid crises. “The opioid epidemic has tragically affected to

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KISS is still on their End of the Road farewell tour and are making another trip to the United Kingdom, which they claim will be their last. Pollstar reports the band — Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric…

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by Max Blau

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.

The owner of one of Birmingham, Alabama’s oldest industrial plants has agreed to pay a nearly $1 million fine after releasing excessive amounts of toxic air pollution into nearby historic Black neighborhoods, according to a proposed consent decree filed Friday in a Jefferson County court.

If the consent decree is approved by a judge, the Jefferson County Board of Health’s $925,000 penalty against Bluestone Coke would be the largest fine in the agency’s history. But it represents a small fraction of the more than $60 million in fines the company could have faced for its alleged violations. The consent decree would not require Bluestone to admit to wrongdoing.

The plant was the subject of a ProPublica investigation in September that revealed how Bluestone, owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, repeatedly failed to make crucial repairs to the facility. The lack of timely maintenance accelerated the release of cancer-causing chemicals into the air that neighboring residents breathed.

In August 2021, after finding Bluestone in rampant violation of its air pollution rules, the Jefferson County Department of Health denied the company’s request to renew its permit to operate. The board that oversees the Health Department also sued Bluestone, alleging that the company’s operation of the plant was a “menace to the public health.” Because of the scope of repairs needed, the plant, which for more than a century has processed coal into a fuel called coke, has been idle since October 2021. Bluestone will be able to work toward reopening the plant once a judge signs off on the deal.

In the generations before Bluestone acquired the plant in 2019, people living in the area — some of them forced to reside there because of racist housing policies in the 20th century — faced exposure to levels of contaminants in the air and soil that have ranked among the worst in the nation. The pollution has stained the facades of nearby houses a dark charcoal, helped drive down home values to as little as $1,000 and sickened so many residents that families feared letting children play outside.

The coke plant was part of a cluster of industrial facilities on the city’s north side that became a symbol of environmental injustice in the South. Government agencies across the region have struggled to reduce the harm to working-class communities of color due to disproportionate exposure to industrial pollution, according to Mustafa Santiago Ali, a former environmental justice official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Environmental experts have told ProPublica that any penalty under $1 million would be shockingly low.

Steve Ruby, an attorney who works with the Justice family, said in a statement that “any criticism that the amount is too low is unfounded and fails to take account of the full context of the resolution.” He added that the consent order “will provide the certainty that the company needs to complete its evaluation of the plant’s future.”

“Despite investing tens of millions of dollars in long-deferred maintenance, Bluestone was unable to fully overcome those challenges, and it ultimately concluded that only a rebuild would allow the plant to operate profitably and in compliance with environmental requirements,” Ruby said.

Wanda Heard, a spokesperson for the Health Department, declined to make anyone available for an interview or to comment on the Bluestone penalty. She said in a statement that the consent decree will “protect the public as well as the environment.”

Bluestone faces a long, complicated road to get a permit allowing it to restart operations.

This past summer, Jefferson County health officials noted during an inspection that Bluestone “cannot resume production without substantial capital investment.” Industry experts familiar with the plant estimate that Bluestone will need to spend more than $150 million to reopen it. On top of that, the company still owes millions of dollars in unpaid fees to government agencies such as the city of Birmingham and to companies and contractors who had worked at the plant before it stopped making coke in the fall of 2021.

The consent decree requires that Bluestone draft extensive plans that outline the necessary repairs to the plant and hire an independent engineer to assure that its coke ovens can operate in a “safe and compliant” manner. Bluestone will then need to submit those records when it applies for a new permit.

Health Department officials could deny Bluestone a permit if the company were to fail to resolve enough of the problems related to its past violations. And the EPA could force Bluestone to pay a higher fine if the federal agency determines the county’s consent decree or permit is too lax. EPA spokesperson James Pinkney said in a statement that the agency “would coordinate with JCDH in its oversight role” if Bluestone applies for a permit but declined to specify any actions that might be taken. Stan Meiburg, a former acting deputy administrator for the EPA, said that officials with the federal agency rarely take this step.

If Bluestone resumes production, the consent order will likely force the plant to reduce emissions compared with previous years, said Michael Hansen, executive director of environmental advocacy group GASP, which represented the interests of community members in the lawsuit and signed onto the consent decree. He said the consent decree would ensure that Bluestone “cannot continue to pollute without consequences.”

“This is one step among many to ensure that residents get justice,” Hansen said. “It’s not the end of the road. There are lots of steps along the way for Bluestone to reopen. There’s more we can do to hold them accountable.”

The proposed consent decree calls for monitoring of a single pollutant, sulfur dioxide, which can harm people’s lungs. In recent years, officials with the EPA had modeled that high levels of sulfur dioxide were coming from the Bluestone plant and ABC Coke, a nearby plant that is still operating after its owner reached a $775,000 settlement last year with environmental regulators over alleged air pollution violations. The Jefferson County Board of Health is mandating that the company operate at least two air monitors along the fence of its property for five years if the plant reopens.

But the consent decree would allow Bluestone to sidestep extensive rounds of monitoring for other toxic chemicals in the air. Before the company suspended coke production, the Health Department was not routinely monitoring for toxic air pollutants on the city’s north side. As a result, GASP hired experts to test air in the surrounding communities, and they discovered chemicals such as benzene or naphthalene at levels high enough to elevate the risk of cancer. Despite these findings, the consent decree will not require Bluestone to test for benzene, naphthalene or other cancer-causing chemicals associated with coke production. Heard told ProPublica that the study results that GASP provided to the Health Department “don’t reveal any new or concerning air pollution data.”

The consent decree also commits half of the $925,000 penalty to community improvement projects. The funding would come at a time when some local officials are considering the scope of what is owed to the communities harmed by the plant.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin’s administration has crafted a $37 million plan that would pay for property buyouts for residents and revitalize the city’s north side communities for those who wish to stay. Woodfin, who has yet to find partners to help fund the plan, believes that companies including Bluestone should cover some of the costs. Bluestone executives have not responded to questions about their willingness to contribute to the plan.

Charlie Powell, founder of the community advocacy group People Against Neighborhood Industrial Contamination, doesn’t believe that the amount Bluestone has agreed to pay in the consent decree goes far enough to offset the harm to nearby residents.

“It’s a get out of jail free card,” Powell said. “It ain’t gonna be enough.”

Update, Dec. 15, 2022: This story was updated with comment from EPA spokesperson James Pinkney.