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SPRINGFIELD – In honor of Black History Month, Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs today kicked off a virtual campaign to highlight and celebrate the achievements of African Americans in Illinois. This year’s national theme is Black Health and Wellness. “Each year, it is important that we pause to honor the great contributions of people in Illinois doing impactful work in their communities,” Frerichs said. “These leaders are creating jobs, making a positive difference in the lives of our youth, and breaking down barriers to lead to a more equitable Illinois. We are thankful for their dedication and will continue to support those working hard to make things better for all.” Frerichs will honor the following recipients for their outstanding commitment to their Illinois communities: Outstanding Achievement in Arts and Humanities Roger J. Carter , Artist, Chicago Outstanding Service in Business Trez V. Pugh III , Founde

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Growing gardens in the summer can leave one feeling a little bored through the winter. Although there are a lot of cold-hardy plants you can still grow outside with minimal assistance, it's actually a lot easier to grow some things indoors than you might think. Growing salad greens or micro-greens can be done relatively easily and it really doesn't take up too much space. This can be done in a 10x20 tray on a designated shelf with grow lights or it can even be done in a cup on a window sill. It all just depends on what you want to grow and how much of it you want to have. A few ideas that are common include lettuce mixes, herbs and micro-greens. Some supplies you might want to have would include the seeds of your choice, a growing space, container(s), heat mats, potting soil mix, fertilizer and water. Really, all a plant needs to grow is soil, light and water. The additional supplies are certainly not “must haves,” they are just going to add to your success. Obviously, you

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St. Louis designers harness the power of color, textiles, and accessories to create interiors that range from sweet to moody.

Our Love Story: The Couple: Bob & Monica from Wood River Date Met/Started Dating: March 23, 1986 Briefly Describe First Date: Pere Marquette Date Married: March 26, 1994 Name Something You Enjoy Doing Together: Spending family time, Date night, watching dirt racing. Share Advice For A Happy Relationship: Relationships are 50/50 and always tell each other " I Love You."

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In June 2020, in Brattleboro, Vermont, something extremely ordinary happened. Two residents of the community interacted on Facebook. It was not a friendly interaction, which made it perhaps even more ordinary.

Here's the ordinariness in all of its mundane detail, as recounted in Brattleboro resident Isabel Vinson's lawsuit [PDF] seeking to have one of the state's laws found unconstitutional.

In June 2020, Christian Antoniello, a Brattleboro resident and the owner of a local business called the Harmony Underground, criticized the Black Lives Matter movement on his personal Facebook page, stating, “How about all lives matter. Not black lives, not white lives. Get over yourself no one’s life is more important than the next. Put your race card away and grow up.”

On June 6, Ms. Vinson posted on her own Facebook page and tagged the Harmony Underground’s business page. Ms. Vinson’s post stated: “Disgusting. The owner of the Harmony Underground here in Brattleboro thinks this is okay and no matter how many people try and tell him it’s wrong he doesn’t seem to care.” In the comments on her post, Ms. Vinson recommended that everyone “leave a review on his page so [Antoniello] can never forget to be honest,” and also tagged a Facebook group called “Exposing Every Racist.”

In response to Ms. Vinson’s Facebook post, a conversation thread ensued among several people, including Ms. Vinson, about her post, Mr. Antoniello, and other complaints about the business.

That's when things stopped being normal, and started becoming increasingly more bizarre.

Several weeks later, Antoniello and his wife reported to the Brattleboro Police Department that they were being harassed on Facebook and that Ms. Vinson’s Facebook activity caused them to fear for their safety.

This is kind of a normal reaction. Kind of. Not everyone subjected to online pitchforks will choose to make it a police matter, but this couple did.

If you're wondering where the criminal activity is, the Brattleboro police department has an answer for you.

On July 7, the Brattleboro Police Department cited Ms. Vinson under § 1027 based on her Facebook activity.

Here's what the state law (Section 1027) says:

A person who, with intent to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, or annoy makes contact by means of a telephonic or other electronic communication with another and makes any request, suggestion, or proposal that is obscene, lewd, lascivious, or indecent; threatens to inflict injury or physical harm to the person or property of any person; or disturbs, or attempts to disturb, by repeated telephone calls or other electronic communications, whether or not conversation ensues, the peace, quiet, or right of privacy of any person at the place where the communication or communications are received shall be fined not more than $250.00 or be imprisoned not more than three months, or both.

It's an amazingly broad law that criminalizes all sorts of speech since it can be stretched to fit nearly any speech a complainant doesn't care for. "Harass" is a pretty non-specific term. "Annoy" is even more vague.

That's the law being challenged by Vinson and the ACLU. It's a vague, unconstitutional law. And it's a law the PD obviously didn't sincerely believe applied to Vinson's Facebook post because it ditched everything about this highly questionable case the moment questions started being asked.

Two weeks later -- following an ACLU public records request for all documents related to Vinson's charge and prosecution -- the Brattleboro PD approached Vinson and offered to drop the charges in exchange for her entering a diversion program that could be completed in lieu of criminal charges. Vinson refused to enter the diversion program and said she was seeking legal representation. Here's what happened next:

Two days later, the Brattleboro police informed Ms. Vinson that she would not be charged.

All's well that ends abruptly in the face of the slightest resistance. But the law is still on the books. If the Brattleboro cops may decide not to take a second swing at Isabel Vinson with this law, law enforcement officers in the state are still free to misuse the law to punish people for saying things other people didn't like. And, needless to say, the vague law presents a perfect crime of opportunity for cops if a state resident says something cops don't like. That's why the state is being sued and the Vermont federal court being asked to declare the law unconstitutional. As it stands, the law presents an existential threat to free speech in the state. And Isabel Vinson's experience in Brattleboro shows what can happen when the threat goes from theoretical to fully-realized.

If capturing a bird's eye view of your favorite places is a fun way for you to unwind when you have some time, then the Vivitar VTI Phoenix Foldable Camera Drone (certified refurbished) is a great choice for updating your hobby's capabilities. All the pieces come secured in the sided carrying case, which helps protect them from damage as well as keeps them neatly organized. The two included batteries allow for a combined flight time of over 32 minutes, so you can get the most out of your drone's 1152p video camera video imaging. With a range of 2000 feet, Follow Me technology, GPS location locking, and Wi-Fi transmission capability, this drone has all the bells and whistles you need. It's on sale for $159.

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Maria Kendall took a break from her job as a cafe manager in 2020 when she decided to do some house hunting on the real estate website Zillow. She looked for a new home in Marshalltown, a city of about 28,000 in Iowa between Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. It’s where she lived for more […]

The post This family lost ownership of their house without knowing. Here’s the law that allowed it appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Former RGA employees and co-founders of tech startup iCover, Nicole Mwesigwa and Hari Srinivasan, aim to cut down the time to buy life insurance from a few weeks to a few minutes. From blood tests to medical exams, circumventing the daunting steps required to purchasing life insurance, iCover utilizes predictive analytics to quote, underwrite and […]

Vs Heidelberg Photos

Last week, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said out loud what everyone inside the U.S. intelligence community already knows, but rarely will admit in public: the U.S. secrecy system is horribly broken.

"It is my view that deficiencies in the current classification system undermine our national security, as well as critical democratic objectives, by impeding our ability to share information in a timely manner, be that sharing with our intelligence partners, our oversight bodies, or, when appropriate, with the general public,” Haines wrote in response to an inquiry from Sens. Ron Wyden and Jerry Moran.

Normally, we have to wait for those involved in deploying the classified stamp to leave the government before they admit the obvious. As such, no administration has ever made a meaningful attempt to fix it.

Or perhaps the lack of reform stems from the fact that many of the same government officials who will privately admit the system is broken are also the ones who wield it as both a shield from accountability and a weapon of impunity. Haines is certainly right that overclassification hinders democracy. But the problem is worse than that. Secrecy is killing innocent people — or at least letting those doing the killing get away with it.

Two incidents last week at the White House and State Department are stark reminders on how the secrecy system can be manipulated in ways that can stifle accountability and even lead to war.

On Thursday, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki drew well-deserved criticism for implying that an NPR reporter — who was asking skeptical questions about civilian casualties during a Pentagon operation on ISIS — may be more trusting of the terrorist organization than the U.S. government.

That sentiment would be appalling under any circumstances, however it’s particularly galling now, given that just a few months ago — the last time the Biden administration was touting that it killed a terrorist — the victims turned out to be an innocent aid worker and his family. The details of the “righteous” strike were initially classified, and only through dogged investigative reporting by The New York Times was the Pentagon forced to release more information and fess up what really happened.

As we wrote at the time, if such truthful information came from a government official, instead of interviews from Afghani witnesses, that official would be subject to prosecution. Since the Pentagon “investigated” itself, no one was punished for the strike, which killed almost a dozen innocent people, including many children.

The Times followed up its investigation into the tragic Afghanistan drone strike by looking into another battlefield, this one almost wholly hidden from public view: Syria. There, the newspaper focused on a notoriously aggressive U.S. military unit that allegedly had a habit of breaking rules and piling up collateral damage. In one particularly horrific instance, the unit reportedly killed dozens of women and children, and then used the classification system to cover it up.

The same day as the White House incident, veteran Associated Press reporter Matt Lee was grilling State Department spokesman Ned Price after Price alleged Russia was planning a false flag operation on the border with Ukraine, citing classified information of nebulous origins. Lee repeatedly asked for actual evidence of such an extreme claim. After Price responded by insinuating Lee believed the Russian government more than his own, they had this exchange.

Price: "You have been doing this for quite a while —"

Lee: "I have. That's right. And I remember WMDs in Iraq, and I remember that Kabul was not going to fall. I remember a lot of things."

Lee’s retort was a humorous but powerful reminder that many of this country’s major wars, not only Iraq, but Vietnam and others, have started based on lies that were protected via the classification system.

Haines, in her letter, claims that the issue of government secrecy is of “great importance” to President Biden. It’s clear the system needs to be dismantled and rebuilt from top to bottom. But maybe they can start with de-classifying the declassification reforms put into last year’s intelligence spending bill. Yes, you read that right – even modest secrecy reform passed by Congress is still secret. Baby steps.

Missouri American Water crews made repairs Tuesday to an 8-inch water main break that closed several lanes of traffic.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Gov. JB Pritzker announced Wednesday a planned end date for Illinois' mask mandate. Pritzker revealed that he aims to have the indoor mask mandate lifted by Feb. 28. However, it will not apply to the "sensitive locations" of K-12 schools. Governor Pritzker revealed the details of ending the indoor mask mandate during [...]

Google Doodles featured Toni Stone, who was the first woman to play in the Negro Leagues, and played for the Kansas City Monarchs.

GLEN CARBON – Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois is excited to announce that Girl Scout Cookies are starting to arrive in the hands of customers! If you haven’t gotten your freezers stocked up yet, we have you covered! National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend is right around the corner! February 18-20 will be the biggest weekend for the Girl Scout Cookie Program as drive-thru cookie booths will be held in areas all throughout Southern Illinois. To find a cookie booth near you (for this weekend or any other weekend) visit gsofsi.org/findcookies or text COOKIES to 59618. In addition, Girl Scouts will be in their neighborhoods for Walkabouts and Red Wagon Weekends during National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend as well as the previous weekend (February 11-13). Cookie booths will be held throughout the duration of the Girl Scout Cookie Program, which runs through March 20. You can use the cookie locator to find a cookie booth near you during any weekend now through March 20. Every Gir

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The school will have its third defensive coordinator in three seasons .

So far, it's just a concept. But large-scale indoor farming might soon become a reality elsewhere in St. Louis.

AT&T got a lot wrong (and still really can't admit it) with the company's $86 billion acquisition of Time Warner. There were endless layoffs, a steady dismantling of beloved brands (DC's Vertigo imprint, Mad Magazine), all for the company to lose pay TV subscribers in the end.

But the one thing the company did get right, with a little help from COVID, was its attacks on the dated, pointless, and often punitive Hollywood release window. Typically, this has involved a 90 day gap between the time a move appears in theaters and its streaming or DVD release (in France this window is even more ridiculous at three years). Generally, this is done to protect the "sanctity of the movie going experience," as if for thirty years the "sanctity of the movie going experience" hasn't involved sticky floors, over priced popcorn, big crowds and mass shootings.

During COVID, big streamers like AT&T and Comcast shifted a lot of their tentpole films (like Dune) directly to streaming, which technically saved human lives, but resulted in no limit of raised eyebrows and scorn among the "Loews at the mall is a sacred space you can't criticize" segment of Hollywood. You might recall that AMC Theaters was positively apoplectic when Comcast showed that release windows were a dated relic, declaring it would never again show a Comcast NBC Universal picture anywhere in the world if Comcast kept threatening the sacred release window (the threat lasted about a week).

WarnerMedia (in the process of being spun off by AT&T) has faced similar whining from the industry. This week the company was hit with a lawsuit (pdf) by Village Roadshow Films, which claims the company "rushed" the release of The Matrix Resurrections from 2022 to 2021 as part of an (gasp) effort to boost streaming's popularity. All through 2021, AT&T/Time Warner released films simultaneously in theaters and on streaming to boost HBO Max subscriptions. And people liked it.

Unsurprisingly, Village Roadshow Films did not, claiming the effort (dubbed "Project Popcorn") was a "clandestine plan to materially reduce box office and correlated ancillary revenue generated from tent pole films that Village Roadshow and others would be entitled to receive in exchange for driving subscription revenue for the new HBO Max service." HBO Max and AT&T telegraphed this intention, so it seems hard to argue this was somehow clandestine. The suit also accuses WarnerMedia of ignoring the fact that piracy would have hurt the overall profits to be made from the film, though, again, metrics proving clear financial harm appear lacking.

But just as unsurprisingly, Warner Brothers thinks Village Roadshow Films is just annoyed by reality and shifting markets:

"In a statement shared with The Verge, Warner Bros. called the lawsuit “a frivolous attempt by Village Roadshow to avoid their contractual commitment to participate in the arbitration that we commenced against them last week. We have no doubt that this case will be resolved in our favor."

Again, while it's true that AT&T attacked the sacred old release window to goose streaming subscriptions, this was something that happened during an historic plague in which indoor transmission of a deadly virus could kill or disable you. It's also almost an afterthought that in the advanced home theater and mall shooting era, this is something consumers desperately wanted. For all its downsides, COVID had a strong tendency to painfully highlight shortcomings (see: broadband, the U.S. healthcare system) and dated antiquities (like release windows or a disdain for telecommuting) that no longer served us.

While there's a shrinking sect of Hollywood folks like Spielberg who still think in-person theaters and release windows are sacred and above reproach, COVID laid bare the fact that not that many people agree with them. And while that certainly disadvantaged folks financially dependent on older models (like theater owners and studios heavily vested in release windows), the reality is what it is, and a popular change was accelerated all the same.

The American economy boomed in 2021, and job growth followed suit. But it still wasn't enough to get employment back to pre-pandemic levels. Nonfarm employment rose 4.4% between December 2020 and December 2021, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That represents an increase of nearly 6.3 million jobs. Missouri ranked 33rd among all states and the District of Columbia, with a 2.77% increase in employment during the period. Illinois experienced 4.66% job growth, ranking…