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Neon Groves will open this summer in The Grove and grow its own lettuce.

Specializing in made-to-order salads, it will be the first eatery in the metro area to grow its entire supply of leafy greens on site using hydroponic farming, according to owner Josh Smith.

Nearly one-third of Hazelwood School District students have been assigned to in-person classes where the teacher is virtual, instructing from hundreds or thousands of miles away. A new Riverfront Times story highlights how the arrangement is failing students. Reporter Mike Fitzgerald and Tamar Brown, education advocacy director for A Red Circle, discuss how the national teacher shortage has led to this point and what happens next for students and families in the district.

EAST ST. LOUIS – A Belleville man admitted to stealing more than $17,000 in Government benefits from a deceased in-law in a U.S. District Court on Tuesday. Scott C. Gunnarson, 47, pled guilty to one count of Theft of Government Funds. “By failing to notify the Government of a loved one’s passing and continuing to collect their benefits, individuals commit felony theft,” said U.S. Attorney Rachelle Aud Crowe. “Defrauding benefit agencies is a serious offense, and relatives tempted to swindle funds face going to federal prison.” “This plea demonstrates that stealing Social Security benefits designated for another individual is a federal crime,” said Gail S. Ennis, Inspector General for the Social Security Administration. “I want to thank OPM for working with us to investigate this crime and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for prosecuting this case.” “OPM OIG is committed to protecting federal funds from fraud,” sai

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Lynyrd Skynyrd has added a new show to their 2023 tour schedule. The band is set to headline the Lost Highway Motorcycle Show and Concert, taking place in the Poconos, Pennsylvania,…

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During his State of the State address last week, Gov. Mike Parson announced his budgetary vision for Missouri. His plan includes money to widen Interstate 70 in three places and fully fund the state’s K-12 education formula and school transportation, as well as another round of raises for state employees. This episode contains much of STLPR's Sarah Kellogg interview with Parson along with analysis from Kellogg and Jason Rosenbaum.

Terica Ellis, 39, was sentenced to three years in prison for her involvement in the death of 21-year-old Andre Montgomery Jr. in 2016.

Last Wednesday (Jan. 18) Construction Forum, McCarthy, and the MO Chamber of Commerce’s “Show Me Careers” program partnered to bring over 70 educators and 17 construction apprentice programs together at McCarthy Building Companies headquarters in Des Peres. Construction Forum Deputy Executive Director/COO Diana Wilhold and her team and volunteers organized the event. Show Me Careers […]

Opponents say Missourians should not lose the right to use the ballot initiative to make policy changes in the state Constitution

The Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority on Tuesday is slated to review incentives for several affordable housing projects in St. Louis.

As of Monday afternoon, Illinois has no more COVID-related debts with the federal government.

Any proposals passed by the Legislature to make the initiative petition process harder would have to go before voters for final approval.

The driver was identified by police Tuesday as William Brown III, 20, of Castle Point.

A driver was killed Monday when his vehicle flipped several times after speeding away from a traffic stop in St. Louis County, according to the city's police department.

Check out our list of school and business closings here.

Two Asheville journalists arrested while covering an eviction of a homeless encampment are set to stand trial on Jan. 25.

Courtesy of Veronica Coit/Asheville Blade

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Two Asheville, North Carolina journalists are scheduled to go on trial on Jan. 25 for documenting a controversial Christmas night eviction of a homeless encampment. The public still has not seen body camera footage of their arrests.

That’s why Freedom of the Press Foundation partnered with the ACLU of North Carolina and the Committee to Protect Journalists to petition a North Carolina court for the full public release of the recordings.

“It’s a matter of the highest public concern when authorities not only arrest journalists but put them on trial for attempting to report the news,” said Seth Stern, advocacy director for Freedom of the Press Foundation. “The public should be able to see for themselves whether police retaliated against the press for critical coverage. And if police did nothing wrong, then they should want the footage released to clear their names.”

Authorities have never claimed the journalists, Veronica Coit and Matilda Bliss of the Asheville Blade, endangered anyone or obstructed the eviction. But police nonetheless arrested them for remaining at the park after its 10 p.m. closing time. They also seized Bliss’ phone — an act that the petition said “raises red flags that authorities intended not to enforce curfews but to suppress newsgathering.”

“At stake in this incident is public trust, freedom of the press, and police accountability,” said Muneeba S. Talukder, Staff Attorney at the ACLU of North Carolina. “We know that, especially now, all police conduct is of great public concern. The need for transparency is even more pressing in this case because the journalists were arrested while gathering and attempting to share news on the eviction of unhoused people from a city park. Arrests of journalists who are gathering and reporting news is and should be rare in a nation that values the freedom of press.”

As Stern previously noted in an op-ed for the Asheville Citizen Times, “No decent journalist would ignore newsworthy official conduct, in plain sight and on public land, just because it’s dark out. And no government that values transparency would expect journalists to do so.”

The Supreme Court has held that it is unconstitutional to target someone for arrest in retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights even if there is, technically, probable cause for the arrest. Legalities aside, though, the petition explains that the public should be allowed to “decide for themselves … whether prosecuting journalists for merely documenting police conducting a newsworthy operation at a public park is a wise use of their money.”

The petition notes that, according to FPF’s U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, there have only been three trials of journalists arrested in the course of newsgathering since 2018.

North Carolina law does not consider body camera footage a public record and requires members of the public to petition a court for its release. In most other states the authorities bear the burden of proving that footage should not be released; the public does not need to convince a judge that it should be.

The court will next schedule a hearing to consider arguments from the petitioners, as well as prosecutors and police, and determine whether to release the footage.

You can read the full petition below.

Kristen Whitted was an innocent bystander shot and killed while driving on Interstate 170 in November 2020.

Automated web scraping can be problematic. Just look at Clearview, which has leveraged open access to public websites to create a facial recognition program it now sells to government agencies. But web scraping can also be quite useful for people who don’t have the power or funding government agencies and their private contractors have access […]

Madonna's biopic, which the Queen of Pop was planning to co-write, direct and produce herself, has been put on hold, Variety reports. While insiders say that Madonna is "committed to making a…

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The Pet Shop Boys are getting ready to release their first new music in two years. The band announced they’re releasing a new EP, Lost, to accompany the latest edition of their book Annually, with both…

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