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Thousands of letters are being mailed from children like Laiken, Willa, and Josh.

What if I told you that there’s one elected leader in town who has on multiple occasions stopped a constituent hellbent on getting fatally hit by a car? Years ago, this was the scene: the elected driving his truck late at night at a slow speed down one of his ward’s main thoroughfares. Behind him was a man with a long gray beard, shuffling slowly against traffic, amid a break with reality, a bad drunk or effort to kill himself.

First, the Clara B's food truck grew out of the commissary space, prompting owner Jodie Ferguson to open a brick and mortar in downtown Belleville. Now, the beloved daytime spot is yet again moving on to larger pastures, this time in partnership with a beloved local coffee brand. In a Facebook post dated December 5, Ferguson announced that she has secured a new restaurant space for Clara B's Kitchen Table, less than a mile down the road from the current Belleville storefront.

With the number of aldermen in the city set to shrink from 28 to 14, aldermen have now proposed making those 14 positions full-time jobs that are significantly better-paying. Ward 14 Alderwoman Carol Howard introduced one of the pieces of legislation, which, if passed, would raise an alderman's salary from  $37,400 per year to $72,000.

Crista Hogan estimates tens of thousands of people in Greene County are eligible to clean their criminal records of old non-violent misdemeanor and felony offenses — offenses she says limits their access to good-paying jobs and safe housing. But under state law, it requires people to file an arduous petition in court, along with a […]

The post Missouri Republicans file bills to automate expungements for non-violent offenses appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Sadhguru's campaign points to a real problem, but agricultural advocates say his solutions miss the mark.

A huge church on West Herbert and Parnell in North St. Louis catches fire.

Vanguard, the world’s second-largest asset manager, announced that it is resigning from a global net-zero initiative.

They see gun violence as a public health issue that needs to be addressed right away.

San Diego and Los Angeles join hundreds of municipalities nationwide that are phasing out polystyrene.

A woman was shot outside a sports bar in south St. Louis.

by Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi

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As more workers speak up about being exposed to asbestos in chlorine plants, public health leaders are questioning whether these facilities should be allowed to be in a special program that shields them from scrutiny by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

OSHA’s Star Program, one of its so-called Voluntary Protection Programs, exempts plants with model safety systems from random, unannounced inspections. At least four of the eight chlorine factories that currently use asbestos are in the program, according to OSHA’s website.

“On its face, a company whose business model relies on using asbestos does not have an exceptional health and safety management system,” the American Public Health Association’s Occupational Health and Safety Section wrote in a letter to OSHA last week. “There are alternative processes available and used by (chlorine) plants in the U.S. and in other nations.”

Asbestos has long been known to cause deadly cancers and a chronic lung disease called asbestosis. Its tiny fibers are extremely potent; public health experts say there is no safe level of exposure.

While the vast majority of industries that once used the carcinogen no longer do, two chemical companies, OxyChem and Olin Corp., continue to import hundreds of tons annually for use in their oldest chlorine plants. They use the material as a protective coating on large metal screens that separate volatile chemicals.

The companies say they use asbestos under strict controls and that workers are rarely, if ever, exposed. But workers at an OxyChem plant in Niagara Falls, New York, told ProPublica that asbestos dust hung in the air and accumulated in some places until it was inches thick. Workers at an Olin plant near Mobile, Alabama, said they had scraped dry asbestos off the beams and floors without any protective gear. Workers at three other plants said they, too, were concerned about the potential for asbestos exposure at their workplaces.

The Niagara Falls facility was part of OSHA’s Star Program from 1996 until its closure late last year, government records show. The plant outside of Mobile participated from 2001 until 2015.

In its letter to OSHA, the public health association said it was “alarming for us to read the testimony from former workers about the magnitude of asbestos exposure” at the site in Niagara Falls.

The group also raised concerns about the plant’s management using its status in the Star Program “to game the system.” Plants in the program know when most OSHA inspections will take place. Former employees at the Niagara Falls plant told ProPublica they spent months preparing for such visits, and that work in certain parts of the plant came to a halt when OSHA inspectors were on campus. (Even still, inspectors found asbestos on the floor and covering equipment in 2011, records show.)

The letter, which included a request for a meeting, was signed by three members of the public health association’s leadership team: Angela Laramie, an epidemiologist with expertise in occupational health; Celeste Monforton, a lecturer in public health at Texas State University who previously worked for OSHA; and Mary Miller, an occupational health nurse who retired from the Washington state Department of Labor and Industries.

OSHA told ProPublica it was reviewing the correspondence but declined to comment further on its content. After this story was published, the agency provided the following statement: “Health and safety are OSHA’s top concern, and we are focused on improving our efforts and looking at ways to protect workers from occupational exposure to asbestos moving forward.”

OxyChem has repeatedly said it complies with federal regulations. “Dating back to the early 1970s, there have been no violations issued by OSHA related to our handling and use of asbestos in any of our chlor-alkali production operations,” the company said in a statement, which it has provided to ProPublica several times.

Olin has not returned calls or emails from ProPublica.

Jordan Barab, a former deputy assistant secretary of labor, said it was unlikely OSHA would remove certain chlorine plants from the Star Program strictly because they use asbestos-dependent technology. “There are a lot of companies that handle dangerous materials,” he said.

But Barab said OSHA had the power to drop in on plants where workers had complained or even develop a special program to look at hazards specific to the chlorine industry.

“OSHA should be looking at these (plants), without a doubt,” he said. “They should have been doing it before, but especially now.”

Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat who has been working on legislation that would ban asbestos, echoed that sentiment. “None of this is a one-off safety lapse,” he said in a statement. “It’s systemic throughout the industry and it’s time for OSHA and safety regulators to step up so not one more American falls victim to this preventable hazard.”

OSHA declined to say whether it would investigate any of the plants that use asbestos in response to ProPublica’s reporting.

Update, Dec. 9, 2022: This story was updated to include a statement provided by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration after the story was published.

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Matt Estel, MBA Director of Sales for Wealth Management, Midland States BankDirector of Sales for Wealth Management Matt serves as Director of Sales for Wealth Management and is responsible for leading all field sales, financial planning, service experience, coaching, and talent development aspects of the Wealth and Financial Advisory businesses. With the goal to deliver holistic solutions to our clients, he develops strategies to identify consumer and business investor needs, effectively onboard…

Wall Street watchdog Adrienne Harris said her department would release climate change guidance for banks in 2022. She’s yet to publish a draft.

Black athletes are uplifted for their talent but denigrated for speaking out. Still some are compelled to bear that burden.

A new history of the civil rights movement gets a lot right but falls short in trying to reframe the story.

Illiberal leaders, by inclination and also in hopes of avoiding the slammer

Stevie Nicks is on a roll when it comes to social media posts. After praising Lizzo for her People's Choice Awards acceptance speech earlier this week, she's now written a letter expressing her…

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