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There’s still no definitive answer on what’s causing it, but we’ve discovered some new leads and closed the door on some other theories.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention visited St. Louis on Thursday, and she said that the agency is prepared for another COVID variant or pandemic.

Dominic Wacker, was charged with abuse of a child resulting in serious physical injury. The prosecutor's office said it will be filing amended charges.

Missouri’s governor said the Republican field includes “a lot of good candidates,” so he intends to delay making an endorsement in the U.S. Senate race.

St. Louis’ health director announces that the city’s indoor mask mandate won’t be renewed past 11:59 p.m. Saturday, when it is set to expire.

Princeton Heights Neighborhood Meeting Thread JW Fri, 03/04/2022 - 01:45

Steve Oslica @steveoslica with his rundown of the neighborhood meeting, which I always forget.

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"Please don't give up on us. We love you so much and we can't wait to see you," Wainwright said to Cardinals fans waiting for baseball to return.

by Joaquin Sapien and Joshua Kaplan

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

The U.S. House of Representatives select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol issued a subpoena on Thursday to Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top fundraiser for former President Donald Trump and the fiancee of his son, Donald Trump Jr.

The subpoena cites a text message Guilfoyle sent to former Trump campaign adviser Katrina Pierson, in which Guilfoyle claims to have raised millions of dollars for the rally that preceded the Capitol riot. The text exchange was first reported in November by ProPublica.

In the text, Guilfoyle wrote that she “raised so much money for this. Literally one of my donors Julie at 3 million.” She was referring to Julie Jenkins Fancelli, a Publix supermarket heir and the biggest known funder for the Jan. 6 rally. Fancelli previously did not respond to ProPublica requests for comment on the matter.

The subpoena, which seeks to force Guilfoyle to hand over documents and appear for a deposition, also stated that she “communicated with others” about the speaking lineup for the Jan. 6 rally and met with Trump and members of his family in the Oval Office that morning.

Guilfoyle is the first member of the Trump family circle to be subpoenaed by the select committee. Guilfoyle and Trump Jr. announced their engagement in January. She was appointed national chair of the Trump Victory finance committee in January 2020 and was put at the helm of the former president’s super PAC last fall.

The subpoena is another indication that the committee is becoming increasingly aggressive in its investigation into the Capitol attack. In documents filed in a civil case in a California district court on Wednesday, the committee said for the first time that it had evidence that could potentially lead to criminal charges against the former president for his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 attack, including obstructing an official proceeding of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the United States. The committee would refer any potential criminal charge to the Justice Department to decide whether to prosecute. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

The step comes almost a week after Guilfoyle walked out of a meeting with the committee after initially agreeing to answer questions about the events of Jan. 6. According to a statement from her lawyer last week, Guilfoyle left the meeting because she was concerned members of the committee would leak information from the interview to the press.

In September, citing ProPublica reporting, the committee sent subpoenas to Pierson and Caroline Wren, a Republican fundraiser who served as Guilfoyle’s deputy during the 2020 campaign. The committee subsequently issued subpoenas to three close advisers to Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle.

In a statement, Joe Tacopina, Guilfoyle’s attorney, said the subpoena was a politically motivated abuse of power and that Guilfoyle will answer questions truthfully. “She has done nothing wrong,” he said. In November, Tacopina said the texts to Pierson were not about the Jan. 6 rally and threatened to “aggressively pursue all legal remedies available” against ProPublica. At the time, Pierson declined to comment and Trump Jr. did not respond to emailed questions.

ProPublica previously reported that Wren told another rally organizer that she raised $3 million for the Jan. 6 rally and “parked” the funds in several dark money organizations.

Wren previously sent a statement to ProPublica from her attorney that did not address how much money was raised for the rally or how it was spent, but stated that to her “knowledge, Kimberly Guilfoyle had no involvement in raising funds for any events on January 6th.”

Guilfoyle developed a professional relationship with Fancelli during the 2020 campaign, according to documents obtained by ProPublica, and Fancelli donated $250,000 to Trump Victory shortly after receiving a call from Guilfoyle.

A man has died after being hit by three vehicles in downtown St. Louis Thursda

Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. (NYSE: BBW) said it's opening a new store concept in Chesterfield this month. The retailer, which is based in St. Louis, said its first Build-A-Bear Adventure will open at 17353 Edison Ave., a space held by an entity tied to THF Realty, on March 21. The "ultimate party destination" is to feature a workshop in which customers build their own toy bears, but also a bakeshop, arcade room, selfie rooms and private party rooms, the company said. Its website said packages,…

Ferguson native Calvin Harris, II is back home as the newly appointed Chief of Staff for St. Louis County Executive Dr. Sam Page. 

There is something peculiar about the photojournalism of the Ukraine war. I've seen pictures of missiles arcing through the sky. I've seen pictures of blasted out buildings. I've seen pictures of refugees piling into trains. I've seen pictures of Russian soldiers walking through the empty streets of Kherson. I've seen satellite pictures of Russian convoys. ...continue reading "Where are the pictures of the Ukraine war?"

Parson said he’s ready to help in any way if requested, but added that there’s little else states can do aside from urging the U.S. government to stand strong.

The Ballwin Police Department is mourning the loss of a beloved officer who died suddenly at his home.

Three members of The Rock Church created drop-off points for donations and organized a rally in St. Charles on Saturday.

The apartments would total 39,799 square feet and accompany 4,000 square feet of commercial retail space on the same site.

Images by: manhhai and Dr Umm via Flickr

Fifty years ago the federal government tried to prosecute a New York Times journalist for publishing classified information. Since 2018, historians and press freedom advocates have been trying to unseal the mysterious grand jury case, but an appeals court has just ruled it will stay secret — public interest be damned.

Most everyone with an interest in press freedom knows about the seminal First Amendment Supreme Court case New York Times Co. v. United States, where then-President Richard Nixon and his administration notoriously attempted — and failed — to censor The New York Times for publishing the Pentagon Papers.

What many people do not know is that after that Supreme Court ruling, Nixon’s Justice Department also attempted to prosecute Times reporter Neil Sheehan, and potentially others, under the Espionage Act for gathering and publishing the classified study about the Vietnam War that would make up the Times’ legendary investigative series.

Former Times general counsel James C. Goodale recounted the events in 2013, which is one of the only contemporary descriptions of this important but oft-forgotten aspect of press freedom history:

The government's "conspiracy" theory centered around how Sheehan got the Pentagon Papers in the first place. While Daniel Ellsberg had his own copy stored in his apartment in Cambridge, the government believed Ellsberg had given part of the papers to anti-war activists. It apparently theorized further that the activists had talked to Sheehan about publication in the Times, all of which it believed amounted to a conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act.

Sheehan's wife, Susan, a reporter for The New Yorker, also was named in the government's case before the grand jury. A Who's Who of Boston-based reporters and anti-war activists were then forced to testify, including New York Times reporter David Halberstam, anti-war activists Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and two senatorial aides to Mike Gravel and Ted Kennedy. Harvard Professor Samuel Popkin would even serve a week in jail for refusing to testify as to his sources, citing the First Amendment right to keep them confidential.

Thankfully, the grand jury failed to bring charges and the DOJ eventually dropped its case. But we largely do not know why, or the full extent of the DOJ’s investigation.

Historian Jill Lepore has been on a years-long legal quest to have documents from this same grand jury investigation unsealed once and for all. For a while it looked like she would succeed. A district court had previously granted at least some of her request. But the First Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling earlier this week, making it uncertain whether the 50+-year-old documents will ever see the light of day. It is a disappointing ruling, one that also flies in the face of precedent in other circuits that says judges can indeed release this type of information to serve the public interest.

This case is particularly important because for the first time since then, the Justice Department is again trying to charge someone with “conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act” related to receiving and publishing classified information. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange currently sits in prison in the United Kingdom, appealing extradition to the United States, where he faces 17 counts under that same law. Virtually every press freedom group in the world has condemned the charges as a threat to press freedom.

Supporters of the Assange prosecution often argue that “the U.S. would never prosecute a real journalist using these tactics.” Well, the Nixon administration attempted to do just that, and it’s vitally important for both the historical record and current events that we see exactly what happened 50 years ago. And use that information to make sure it never happens again.

You can read the full ruling by the First Circuit Court of Appeals via Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, below: