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The Teaching Gallery installation will be on display at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum until early July.

ALTON - Alton Little Theater's Creative Director & Designer, Kevin D. Frakes, will produce and perform in a Vegas-Style Show on April 22nd and 23rd at 7:30 pm, and a Sunday matinee at 2 pm on April 24th at the ALT Showplace. Nearly a year ago, Frakes envisioned an Entertainment Extravaganza for what he states will likely be his last concert after 40 years of singing professionally, and he has been working on the music and all artistic elements of a show that he believes will give audience members two hours of superb enjoyment. Tickets for the concert are $25 and benefit ALT's Fundraising efforts that are currently being put towards renovations and artistic expansion. Kevin is bringing together a talented group of singers and dancers to support the music spectacular. Local new star, Miles Brenton, will be the Opening Act for Frakes & Company, and then will return after intermission to perform a lively number while playing six instruments. Kya Wonders will perform "Silks" as part of

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School leaders said Tyre Sampson was a student there for many years “and was a beloved and treasured member of our City Garden family.”

EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville Orchestra students gathered again Saturday night with students and spectators for the annual Tiger Town Consortium Concert. Edwardsville High School's Lucco Gymnasium was filled with orchestra students and those in attendance to view the event. The music directors said they thought the talented grades 5 through 12 students who participated sounded simply “fantastic.” The Fifth-Grade Orchestra performed “French Folk Song,” and “Russian Music Box,” while the sixth-grade orchestra did “Themes From Harry Potter,” and “Fire in the Bow.” The Seventh-and-Eighth-Grade Orchestra students performed “Souvenir de Porto Rico,” and did a show-stopping version of “Pirates of the Caribbean.” The High School Orchestra performed “Mambo from ‘West Side Story,’” “Cinema Paradiso,” “Highlights from ‘Jurassic Park,’” and “I Wil

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by Cezary Podkul

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

The chairman of a congressional subcommittee has asked Apple and Google to help stop fraud against U.S. taxpayers on Telegram, a fast-growing messaging service distributed via their smartphone app stores. The request from the head of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis came after ProPublica reports last July and in January revealed how cybercriminals were using Telegram to sell and trade stolen identities and methods for filing fake unemployment insurance claims.

Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., who chairs the subcommittee (which is part of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform), cited ProPublica’s reporting in March 23 letters to the CEOs of Apple and Alphabet, Google’s parent company. The letters pointed out that enabling fraud against American taxpayers is inconsistent with Apple’s and Google’s policies for their respective app stores, which forbid apps that facilitate or promote illegal activities.

“There is substantial evidence that Telegram has not complied with these requirements by allowing its application to be used as a central platform for the facilitation of fraud against vital pandemic relief programs,” Clyburn wrote. He asked whether Apple and Alphabet “may be able to play a constructive role in combating this Telegram-facilitated fraud against the American public.”

Clyburn also requested that Apple and Google provide “all communications” between the companies and Telegram “related to fraud or other unlawful conduct on the Telegram platform, including fraud against pandemic relief programs” as well as what “policies and practices” the companies have implemented to monitor whether applications disseminated through their app stores are being used to “facilitate fraud” and “disseminate coronavirus misinformation.” He gave the companies until April 7 to provide the records.

Apple, which runs the iOS app store for its iPhones, did not reply to a request for comment. Google, which runs the Google Play app store for its Android devices, also did not respond.

The two companies’ app stores are vital distribution channels for messaging services such as Telegram, which markets itself as one of the world’s 10 most downloaded apps.The company has previously acknowledged theimportance of complying with Apple’s and Google’s app store policies. “Telegram — like all mobile apps — has to follow rules set by Apple and Google in order to remain available to users on iOS and Android,” Telegram CEO Pavel Durov wrote in a September blog post. He noted that, should Apple’s and Google’s app stores stop supporting Telegram in a given locale, the move would prevent software updates to the messaging service and ultimately neuter it.

By appealing to the two smartphone makers directly, Clyburn is increasing pressure on Telegram to take his concerns seriously. His letter noted that “Telegram’s very brief terms of service only prohibit users from ‘scam[ming]’ other Telegram users, appearing to permit the use of the platform to conspire to commit fraud against others.” He faulted Telegram for letting its users disseminate playbooks for defrauding state unemployment insurance systems on its platform and said its failure to stop that activity may have enabled large-scale fraud.

Clyburn wrote to Durov in December asking whether Telegram has “undertaken any serious efforts to prevent its platform from being used to enable large-scale fraud” against pandemic relief programs. Telegram “refused to engage” with the subcommittee, a spokesperson for Clyburn told ProPublica in January. (Since then, the app was briefly banned in Brazil for failing to respond to judicial orders to freeze accounts spreading disinformation. Brazil’s Supreme Court reversed the ban after Telegram finally responded to the requests.)

Telegram said in a statement to ProPublica that it’s working to expand its terms of service and moderation efforts to “explicitly restrict and more effectively combat” misuse of its messaging platform, “such as encouraging fraud.” Telegram also said that it has always “actively moderated harmful content” and banned millions of chats and accounts for violating its terms of service, which prohibit users from scamming each other, promoting violence or posting illegal pornographic content.

But ProPublica found that the company’s moderation efforts can amount to little more than a game of whack-a-mole. After a ProPublica inquiry last July, Telegram shut some public channels on its app in which users advertised methods for filing fake unemployment insurance claims using stolen identities. But various fraud tutorials are still openly advertised on the platform. Accounts that sell stolen identities can also pop back up after they’re shut down; the users behind them simply recycle their old account names with a small variation and are back in business within days.

The limited interventions are a reflection of Telegram’s hands-off approach to policing content on its messenger app, which is central to its business model. Durov asserted in his September blog post that “Telegram gives its users more freedom of speech than any other popular mobile application.” He reiterated that commitment in March, saying that Telegram users’ “right to privacy is sacred. Now — more than ever.”

The approach has helped Telegram grow and become a crucial communication tool in authoritarian regimes. Russia banned Telegram in 2018 for refusing to hand over encryption keys that would allow authorities to access user data, only to withdraw the ban two years later at least in part because users were able to get around it. More recently, Telegram has been credited as a rare place where Russians can find uncensored news about the invasion of Ukraine.

But the company’s iron-clad commitment to privacy also attracts cybercriminals looking to make money. After the COVID-19 pandemic prompted Congress to authorize hundreds of billions of small-business loans and extra aid to workers who lost their jobs, Telegram lit up with channels offering methods to defraud the programs. The scale of the fraud is yet unknown, but it could stretch into tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars. Its sheer size prompted the Department of Justice to announce, on March 10, the appointment of a chief prosecutor to focus on the most egregious cases of pandemic fraud, including identity theft by criminal syndicates.

St. Louis icon Albert Pujols is set to sign as a free agent with his original MLB team.

ALTON - Illinois American Water’s work to separate the Alton combined sewer system and install new sanitary sewers continues. Below is information about this week’s road closures – Mar. 28, 2022 Piasa Valley Area: Surface restoration work should start soon on 6th Street and is progressing on 7th Street. Alby Street is closed from 6th Street north to 11th Street, with the intersection of 9th Street open north to Schwegel’s parking lot. 8th Street east of Alby is closed to Easton Street, with the closure to George Street upcoming. Access to Schwegel’s Market parking lot is from the south currently via 9th Street. Please drive cautiously. 10th Street. between Alby and Easton Street is two-way traffic only temporarily. East of Easton Street is still only one-way traffic in a westward direction. Turner Tract Area: Danforth Street pavement restoration will be starting soon. The alley south of McKinley east of Lincoln is back open to traffic, with pavement

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A St. Louis County man convicted last month for stabbing and beating his two roommates to death in 2016 has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

ALTON – Centerstone, a national leader in behavioral health care, received a $5,000 grant from the Alton Foundation for personal items for residents of Centerstone’s Alton group homes that support men and women at risk of homelessness who have experienced mental health conditions and/or substance use disorders. “Ultimately, this gift strengthens the residents’ capacities to build healthier and more stable futures by providing for materials that any person relaunching themselves into society would want,” said Erin Camfield, Centerstone Director of Advancement. Centerstone’s residential clients work hard to learn to manage their behavioral health conditions and build skills and resources necessary for self-sufficiency. These funds will provide residents with hygiene products, clothing and shoes. “Like the new attitudes and coping techniques our clients have learned to use to heal after mental illness or lived experience with a substance use disorder

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EAST ST. LOUIS – Local businesses in Madison and St. Clair Counties were awarded more than $650,000 in funding from the Back to Business program thanks to advocacy and support from State Senator Christopher Belt (D-Swansea). “Business owners are still in recovery mode as we move forward from the pandemic,” Belt said. “This funding has been essential for the small businesses in the Metro East that have fought to keep their doors open.” The B2B grants are awarded by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity using funds allocated to them by the American Rescue Plan through last year’s state budget. So far – thanks to strong support from Senator Belt – DCEO has provided $200 million in B2B grants to small businesses throughout the state with an emphasis on disproportionately impacted areas. With nearly $50 million left to go, more businesses will have the opportunity to get a share of the relief funds. “It’s

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CARLINVILLE - The Blackburn College Department of Music & Theatre will host a special choral program with the theme “A Legacy of Life” on Sunday, April 3, 2022, at 2:00 pm in Bothwell Auditorium. Students asked their families, peers, and friends what it means to live a well-lived life. After collecting the responses, Dr. Joseph Welch, professor of Music, used these quotes and thoughts to develop a choral program with selections that capture the essence of living meaningful lives. This event will include performances by Blackburn Voices and College Choir with support from conductor Welch and pianist Dr. See Tsai Chan, adjunct professor of Music. Tim Conner, senior Theatre major and student concert producer, encouraged the community to support the work students and faculty have put into designing this unique performance. “In a time where many people's lives have been dramatically affected by a global pandemic, it has been nice to reflect on what makes life truly meaningful,

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After learning from a ProPublica analysis that his city in southwestern Missouri is a hot spot of toxic air pollution, Verona Mayor Joseph Heck demanded that government officials look into …

For seven weeks, factional fights among Republicans stalled a Missouri Senate vote on a new map for the state’s eight congressional districts. And when the deadlock was finally broken Thursday, was over, no one was predicting the final seven weeks of the session would see an end to the intra-party strife. The conservative caucus, which […]

The post Missouri Senate leaders expect no let up in chamber’s factional fights appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Elton John was a guest on Friday's episode of his pal Dua Lipa's podcast At Your Service, and among the topics they discussed were those unexpected moments that change your…

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Mind, Art, Experience: 10 Years of Chess & Culture in Saint Louis celebrates the best chess, art and culture from all 50 exhibitions held at

The post Mind, Art, Experience: 10 Years of Chess & Culture in Saint Louis appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Immerse yourself in Van Gogh’s artwork like you’ve never seen it before.  Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience will be in St. Louis at the

The post Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience appeared first on Explore St. Louis.