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Don’t tell St. Louis this soccer game didn’t mean anything. Don’t tell that to Patrick Koetting, who drove two hours from Cape Girardeau, or Sam Wise, who took a half-day off work and started tailgating at 11:30 a.m., or the guy who ran up to Wise and yelled, “This is fucking awesome, Sam!” Don’t tell that to the St. Louligans fan club.

A federal judge has sentenced a St. Louis man over an armed robbery that later led him and another man crashing into a funeral procession.

GLEN CARBON - Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois (GSofSI) has wrapped up the annual fall Nut, Candy, and Magazine Program for 2022. Girls in Southern Illinois crushed it this fall, selling over $500,000 in tasty treats and magazines. Let’s give a shout out to the following girls for being All-Star Entrepreneurs for their respective areas: Alvina Farley from the Alton/Godfrey/Wood River/Roxana Service Unit sold $1,369 in product Riley Isaak from the Granite City/Madison/Venice Service Unit sold $1,320 in product Dawn Jones from the Granite City/Madison/Venice Service Unit sold $1,238 in product Katelynn Norman from the Bethalto Service Unit sold $2,786 in product Beatrix Smith from the Edwardsville/Glen Carbon Service Unit sold $1,208 in product Rylee Barnett from the Troy/St. Jacob Service Unit sold $719 in product Layla Basso from the Highland Service Unit sold $2,042 in product Alana Brooks from the Collinsville Service Unit sold $713 in product “Wow! The girls

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EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville Township will be moving to the Madison County Farm Bureau building located at 900 Hillsboro Avenue Suite 4 in Edwardsville at the end of November. The Township Supervisor's office will be open for business the entire time, whereas the Township Assessor’s office will be closed from November 21 st -23rd. The current office at 300 West Park Street will be open until the end of the day on November 23 rd. Then after Thanksgiving, starting Monday, November 28 th , operations will begin at 900 Hillsboro Avenue. “We hope to provide a seamless transition for the community as we move into the temporary office space at the Farm Bureau building,” said Supervisor Kevin Hall. To travel from 300 West Park Street to 900 Hillsboro, head a block north to Vandalia St. and then go east. When you reach Hillsboro, turn left (north) and the building will be two blocks down on the right. There will be partial bus service using the Madison County Transit

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From NEXTSTL:  Today, the Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council will vote on whether to support the Delmar Form Based District. Planning efforts for the neighborhood have been underway for roughly a decade. This has resulted in a comprehensive neighborhood plan, a transit-oriented development plan, and a traffic study plan. The Delmar FBD is essential for neighborhood planning as it has the […]

Two St. Louis-area businesses will pay thousands to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over federal lead-based paint violations.

From The Telegraph:  Dr. William Drake, owner of Grandview Farm just west of Marine, has leased 40 acres of his land for two solar arrays near the Marine Heritage Park and Lake. The arrays flank the Madison County Transit Heritage Trail. Drake said the effort started four or five years ago with 11 to 15 […]

Longtime cannabis activist Brennan England has gotten lots of undeserved praise since Missourians approved a constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana on Nov. 8. As the owner of a private cannabis consumption lounge in St. Louis, England understood why people thought he’d have a “go weed or go home” stance.  But it wasn’t that simple for […]

The post Marijuana vote divided Missouri social-justice leaders. Can an equity officer be a bridge? appeared first on Missouri Independent.

From Missourinet: Missouri’s Office of Broadband Development has been in the process of carrying out its extensive public engagement process for the Connecting All Missourians programs. The programs are funded under the Digital Equity Act and the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, which is part of the Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act. BJ Tanksley, the […]

From Saint Louis Public Radio:  Brian Glaze has fond memories of the 10 years he lived on Annetta Avenue in the Baden neighborhood of St. Louis. He and his wife, Kim, raised their three boys at the house and remember when the street was populated with families and city workers in the 1990s. They had […]

Rookie Republican candidate Ryan Higgins, who lost a state House race to veteran Democrat pol Deb Lavender, dislikes first taste of political campaigning.

From KMOV:  The construction of a subdivision in East St. Louis is the start of what city leaders are calling a “new beginning.” A faith-based nonprofit, Lansdowne UP, broke ground Monday for a 20-home subdivision called, Lansdowne Park. The whole goal of this new subdivision is to build an economic revival in East St. Louis. The homes are […]

From Call newspapers: The St. Louis County Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of a petition for a Club Car Wash on Telegraph Road and a separate veterinary clinic also on Telegraph Road at its executive session Nov. 7. The first petition for an amended conditional use permit in the C-2 commercial district, submitted by Vetcare Partners […]

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Years ago, the town of Augusta had three bakeries. But for a long time until recently, it had none. Now this quiet town of fewer than 300 people has a bakery again. And a gift shop. And a high-end fashion boutique. And an elite-level, destination restaurant that serves such dishes as steamed […]

Authorities are trying to determine who vandalized a Jewish cemetery in Waukegan.

GRAFTON - The River Bend police departments received gratitude donations last night at the annual Mustache March 4PD Committee appreciation awards ceremony. A total of $40,000 was equally divided into checks payable to each of the River Bend law enforcement agencies. The Grafton Police Department received a check for $2,500. Police Chief Eric Spanton and Mayor Mike Morrow received the check. “You don’t know how much this money means to a small department such as ours,” said Chief Spanton. “This money will go a long way to help those in our community in need.” Sitting at the table with the Grafton PD and receiving checks were Cindy Wagner from the Jersey County Sheriff’s Department and SGT John Lawson and Officer Jake Shain from the Jerseyville Police Department. Committee President Steve Schwegel and Vice President Tina Bennett presided over the evening’s events. The mission of the Mustache March 4PD is to continuously raise funds for local

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by Heather Vogell

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

The senator tasked with overseeing federal antitrust enforcement is urging the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether a Texas-based company’s price-setting software is undermining competition and pushing up rents.

Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, sent a letter to the DOJ’s Antitrust Division this month. It was also signed by two other Democrats, Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.

“We are concerned that the use of this rate setting software essentially amounts to a cartel to artificially inflate rental rates in multifamily residential buildings,” the letter said. It encouraged the DOJ to “take appropriate action to protect renters and competition in the residential rental markets.”

In mid-October, a ProPublica investigation documented how real estate tech company RealPage’s price-setting software uses nearby competitors’ nonpublic rent data to feed an algorithm that suggests what landlords should charge for available apartments each day. Legal experts said the algorithm may be enabling violations of antitrust laws.

ProPublica detailed how RealPage’s User Group, a forum that includes landlords who adopt the company’s software, had grown to more than 1,000 members, who meet in private at an annual conference and take part in quarterly phone calls. The senators raised specific questions about the group, saying, “We are concerned about potential anticompetitive coordination taking place through the RealPage User Group.”

RealPage did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

RealPage has said that the company “uses aggregated market data from a variety of sources in a legally compliant manner” and that its software prioritizes a property’s own internal supply and demand dynamics over external factors such as competitors’ rents. The company has said its software helps reduce the risk of collusion that would occur if landlords relied on phone surveys of competitors to manually price their units.

The DOJ declined to comment on the letter.

The department five years ago reviewed RealPage’s plan to acquire its biggest competitor in pricing software, but federal prosecutors declined to seek to block the merger, which doubled the number of apartments RealPage was pricing.

The senators noted that transaction, saying RealPage has made more than 10 acquisitions since 2016. They said in data-intensive industries, “the ability to acquire more data can result in the algorithms suggesting higher prices and can also increase the barriers to entry” for other competitors. The lawmakers encouraged the department “to consider looking back at RealPage’s past behavior to determine whether any of it was anticompetitive.”

The letter follows two others sent by lawmakers urging the DOJ or Federal Trade Commission to investigate RealPage. Since ProPublica’s investigation was published, three lawsuits have been filed on behalf of renters alleging that the software is artificially inflating rents and facilitating collusion. RealPage has denied allegations in a lawsuit filed in San Diego, and it has not responded to calls for comment about the other two legal actions, filed in federal district court in Seattle.