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Dean Plocher (2021)

3 years 3 months ago
House Majority Leader Dean Plocher talks with St. Louis Public Radio's Jason Rosenbaum for a discussion about the twists and turns of the 2021 legislative session. Plocher's appearance on the definitive show about Missouri politics marks the 500th episode that's focused on interviewing a guest. That's an admittedly arbitrary milestone, since the show went over 500 episodes one or two years ago if you include "roundup" or "chat" shows.

Reflecting On 50 Years At CID, Robin Feder Is Hopeful About Future Of Deaf Education

3 years 3 months ago
The spring of 2021 has been a time of celebration for the Central Institute for the Deaf, which has served children for more than a century. Two weekends ago, 11 students graduated from the St. Louis-based school, each of them ready to attend neighborhood schools alongside their peers in the fall. And last week, the organization offered a tribute to its longtime executive director, who has seen deaf education change in remarkable ways over the course of her career.

71 New Ways to Keep Soulard Clean

3 years 3 months ago
The Soulard Community Improvement District (CID) is in the process of installing 71 new trash cans throughout Soulard. Over the coming weeks, residents will see the cans appear on street corners throughout the district boundaries, from Broadway to 13th and Sidney to Marion. The CID has also contracted with a trash management service to empty […]
Soulard CID Communications

Monday, June 7, 2021 — Farm Rentals

3 years 3 months ago
Increasingly, farmers don’t own the land they work. That’s particularly true in the country’s breadbasket and can have environmental consequences. Farmers who rent appear less likely to use conservation practices.

In a sea change for press freedom, Biden administration vows not to spy on reporters doing their job

3 years 3 months ago

After a month of disclosures about the Trump Justice Department pursuing surveillance records of journalists through leak investigation subpoenas — culminating in yesterday’s revelation of a subpoena and a gag order pertaining to four New York Times journalists, served by the Trump administration and initially defended by the current Department of Justice — the Biden administration has announced a new policy that could signal a major shift in the interaction of press freedom and state surveillance.

White House press secretary Jen Psaski released a statement today saying “the issuing of subpoenas for the records of reporters in leak investigations is not consistent with the President’s policy direction to the Department.” The Justice Department separately told reporters: “in a change to its longstanding practice, [the DOJ] will not seek compulsory legal process in leak investigations to obtain source information from members of the news media doing their jobs."

The following statement can be attributed to Freedom of the Press Foundation executive director Trevor Timm:

This announcement is a potential sea change for press freedom rights in the United States. Over the past decade — spanning multiple administrations run by both parties — the Justice Department has increasingly spied on reporters doing their job, casting a chill over investigative reporting and putting countless whistleblowers at risk.

While we’re encouraged to see this announcement ending this invasive and disturbing tactic, the devil is — of course — in the details. The Justice Department must now write this categorical bar of journalist surveillance into its official ‘media guidelines,’ and Congress should also immediately enshrine the rules into law to ensure no administration can abuse its power again. If they follow through, this commendable and vitally important decision by the Biden administration has the potential to stem the tide of more than ten years of erosion of press freedom.

Freedom of the Press Foundation

Forest Park’s New Nature Playscape Beckons The Curious

3 years 3 months ago
Over the past two years, an area of Forest Park the size of more than 15 football fields has been transformed into the Anne O’C. Albrecht Nature Playscape. It opened to the public earlier this week, sporting a colorful range of native and diverse plant species — and curiosity-sparking play elements made out of everything from limestone to willow branches.