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Puttshack, a tech-infused mini golf venue, opens next week at City Foundry STL. The grand opening is set for Monday, Dec. 19.

MasterWriter is a powerful collection of writing tools, reference and organization assembled in one easy-to-use program. Why struggle to find the right word when you can have all the possibilities in an instant? Their Word Families dictionary is like having a thesaurus on steroids. Also included are Phrases, Synonyms, Rhymes, Definitions, Metaphors, Similes, Onomatopoeia, Idioms, […]

Tyler Cowen links today to a thread about California from a guy named Tiago Forte. After reading it, what I wanted to ask was, Has this guy ever actually talked to a Californian? Luckily I did a teensy bit of due diligence first and learned that he grew up in Orange County; went to college ...continue reading "A few weird musings about California and Elon Musk"

St. Louis natives Brian Owens and Sophia Stephens joined forces in 2020 to release “A New Holiday,” a Christmas movie that features a little girl celebrating her first Christmas without her beloved grandmother. The movie is inspired by the life of local philanthropist, Thelma Steward, wife of David Steward, founder of World Wide Technology, and his mother, Dorothy Steward, who passed away in July 2020. Owens also lost his mother in March 2020 to cancer. The main character, “Thelma,” is learning how to find joy and hope again as she processes her loss.

A man accused of stealing and burning a vehicle in Jefferson County is behind bars.

Popular Christmas movies vary by state, but The Grinch is the most searched for holiday flick in Kansas and Missouri according to Scholaroo.

Three teenage suspects were taken into custody after a brief police pursuit. A fourth suspect escaped.

Seven more felony charges of animal cruelty have been filed against a 59-year-old Sherrard, Ill., woman who is a suspect in an animal-hoarding case. Karen Plambeck is a suspect in one of the biggest animal hoarding cases ever discovered in Illinois. In August, officials rescued nearly 200 dogs from a home in Sherrard. On Monday, [...]

by Maya Miller, ProPublica, and Tony Schick, Oregon Public Broadcasting

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

Update: Dec. 15, 2022: This story was updated to include comments from U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.

State and federal lawmakers in the Pacific Northwest, as well as the region’s tribal leaders, are calling for environmental policy changes and increased funding to address toxic contamination in salmon following an investigation by Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica. Salmon is a pillar of tribal diets and culture, often served at ceremonies and largely considered a medicine.

Although tribal members and researchers have been raising concerns about this contamination for decades, federal and state governments have failed to consistently monitor the waters of the Columbia River Basin for pollution in fish. Given the gaps in testing, ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting did their own, revealing levels of contaminants in Columbia River salmon that, when consumed at average tribal rates, would be high enough to put many of the 68,000 tribal members living in the basin at risk of adverse health impacts.

“These deeply troubling results directly endanger people’s health and must lead to change,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote in an emailed statement in which he also referenced recent Congressional funding for the Columbia River Basin Restoration Program. “I intend to continue to fight for funding for this and other programs, as well as policy changes, to end this toxic threat to Tribal members from the salmon they count on.”

When pressed for specifics, many of the lawmakers did not offer any. A spokesperson for Wyden said the longtime elected official will be working on the issue with his counterpart Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.

“Our rivers and waterways are the lifeblood of our communities, and if they are filled with toxic chemicals, everyone and everything suffers — these results showing their devastating impact on our salmon confirms that,” Merkley said in an emailed statement. “I will keep pushing to expand and protect the Columbia River Basin Restoration Program I created, and support other changes and funding that will help tackle toxic pollutants.”

Washington’s Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee wrote in an emailed statement that the state “must carry on our work to identify and clean up contaminated sites, find safer alternatives to keep toxics out of products in the first place, and use our regulatory and enforcement authorities to limit the amount of toxics going into the water.”

Tribal members and researchers say the problem requires multiple approaches. They say lawmakers must make sure companies are legally and financially responsible for the pollution they emit, and regulators must enforce stricter water quality standards while fast-tracking industrial cleanups. Right now, when health agencies issue advisories warning people against eating fish from contaminated waters, environmental agencies are not required to act, which can allow the contamination to fester.

“We have fish advisories just about everywhere,” said Laura Klasner Shira, an environmental engineer for Yakama Nation Fisheries. “I can’t think of one that has been lifted.”

Staff with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, a coordination and management agency representing area tribes, said that Wyden and Merkley have been responsive to tribal leaders’ calls for action in the past, conducting listening sessions with tribal members and incorporating tribes’ proposed solutions into legislation. If the lawmakers fail to institute changes that would protect tribal health going forward, the commission plans to quote their own statements to them in response. “I’m looking forward to publishing a letter back to them the next time” a rule or regulation falls short, said Dianne Barton, the group’s water quality coordinator.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., also said that failing to take action in response to the findings could open up the government to legal liability. In the mid-1850s, the United States government signed binding treaties to preserve tribes’ right to fish for salmon as the country overtook millions of acres of tribal land. “This is the federal government’s obligation,” Blumenauer said.

For its investigation, ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting purchased 50 salmon from Native fishers along the Columbia River and paid to have a certified lab test them for 13 metals and two classes of chemicals known to be present in the river. The testing showed concentrations of two chemicals — mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) — that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as well as Oregon’s and Washington’s health agencies, deem unsafe at the levels consumed by many of the tribal members of tribes living in the basin today.

A spokesperson for Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., said she is considering introducing legislation to address this toxic contamination impacting salmon and other fish in the Columbia.

Additional members of the congressional delegations in Oregon and Washington did not respond to requests for comment.

The federal government has taken modest steps this year to clean up the region. In August, the EPA received $79 million over five years to reduce pollution in the Columbia River after Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. While this is the most money ever dedicated to cleaning up the Columbia, tribal leaders, local legislators and environmental advocates say it is just a fraction of what is needed to truly address pollution in the river.

At the White House Tribal Nations Summit two weeks ago, the federal agency announced proposed revisions to the Clean Water Act that would require tribal health and culture to be incorporated into federal water quality standards. These standards are used to sustain environmental objectives like clean drinking water and fish healthy enough for people to eat.

“The ability to exercise treaty rights to fish is completely dependent upon clean water and healthy ecosystems,” Aja DeCoteau, the executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission wrote in a letter to the EPA last September, when the agency first began engaging with tribes on this potential revision. “EPA must consider their treaty-based obligations.”

Staff with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission said that while the Clean Water Act revisions would be a major step in the right direction, there are still gaps in the regulatory system that enable toxic pollution to continue to be dumped into and spread throughout the river.

For one, reports have found that the Clean Water Act does not sufficiently regulate materials like pesticides and fertilizers that end up on the ground then flow into waterways. This type of pollution, generated by large-scale farming, timber harvesting and other industries, is responsible for a significant share of contamination reaching the Columbia River today.

There are also new chemicals constantly entering the market and ending up in waterways like the Columbia, courtesy of what Barton describes as the reactive nature of the Toxic Substances Control Act. Historically, the law has not required companies to disclose the health impacts of new chemicals.

The general public, as well as tribal members, will have more opportunities to weigh in on the proposed revisions to the Clean Water Act during public meetings in January. Anyone interested in submitting written feedback to the EPA can do so until March 6.

As these processes play out, the results from the testing effort will be front of mind for many, especially those who continue to consume Columbia River salmon. “It’s definitely concerning,” said Jarred-Michael Erickson, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, a group of tribes whose land abuts a section of the Columbia River in northern Washington. “It gives me more fuel to work on these issues.”

In one big swoop, the Hazelwood School District Board of Education radically changed its approach to dealing with radioactive contamination that might be lurking on school properties: moving from ignoring it and hiding information as to its whereabouts from the public for years — to now practically shouting about it from the rooftops. Yesterday night, the school board voted unanimously to ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to test nearly 30 district schools and support buildings, and the land surrounding them, for radioactive waste particles emanating from North County dump sites linked to America’s nuclear weapons programs in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

A new Panda Express is opening Wednesday in O'Fallon, Missouri, and some of the first guests will get a treat. The grand opening is at 3601 Monticello Plaza Drive.

The next chief of police for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department was named Wednesday, one of a slate of four finalists that dwindled to two in recent days.

JERSEYVILLE - A mini-competition between St. Francis and Holy Ghost school members collected an enormous about of bubble gum for the three Children's Hospitals in St. Louis recently. St. Francis collected 209 packs and Holy Ghost 521 packs. The entire school community donated 730 packs and four giant tubs of bubble gum. "We collected so much bubblegum that we are able to deliver to all three children’s hospitals in the St. Louis area!" St. Francis-Holy Ghost officials said. "We are truly blessed to have such an amazingly supportive family."

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by Andy Kroll, ProPublica, and Andrew Perez and Aditi Ramaswami, The Lever

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

Flush with money after receiving the largest-known political advocacy donation in U.S. history, conservative activist Leonard Leo and his associates are spending millions of dollars to influence some of the Supreme Court’s most consequential recent cases, newly released tax documents obtained by ProPublica and The Lever show.

The documents detail how Leo, who helped build the Supreme Court’s conservative majority as an adviser to President Donald Trump, has used a sprawling network of opaque nonprofits to fund groups advocating for ending affirmative action, rolling back anti-discrimination protections and allowing state legislatures unreviewable oversight of federal elections.

The records also show that the Leo-aligned nonprofits paid millions of dollars to for-profit entities connected to Leo.

Leo and one of his top associates did not respond to requests for comment.

The money flowed mostly through so-called dark money groups, which don’t have to disclose their donors. They are required to reveal the recipients of their spending in their annual tax returns, which are released to the public, but often those are also dark money groups or other entities that have minimal disclosure rules.

As ProPublica and The Lever detailed in August, Leo was gifted a $1.6 billion fortune last year by a reclusive manufacturing magnate, Barre Seid. The newly revealed tax documents cover last year, just as Leo was in the process of receiving that enormous donation.

The Supreme Court case involving a Colorado-based website designer who refuses to work for same-sex couples provides a window into Leo’s strategy.

At least six groups funded by Leo’s network have filed briefs supporting the suit, which seeks to overturn Colorado’s anti-discrimination law. The Ethics and Public Policy Center, which records show received $1.9 million from Leo’s network, submitted a brief supporting the web designer. So did Concerned Women for America, which has received at least $565,000 over the past two years from the Leo network, as well as an organization called the Becket Fund, which got $550,000 from a Leo group.

Leo’s network has also been the top funder of the Republican Attorneys General Association, or RAGA, which spends money to elect GOP attorneys general and serves as a policy hub for the state officials. Twenty Republican attorneys general have also filed a brief in support of the case. One Leo group donated $6.5 million to RAGA during the 2022 election cycle, according to the association’s federal filings.

The largest donation by Leo’s network was $71 million given to DonorsTrust, a so-called donor-advised fund that pools money from numerous funders and gives it out to largely conservative and libertarian groups. Past reports have described DonorsTrust as a “dark-money ATM” of the conservative movement.

Another case that Leo groups have sought to influence is Moore v. Harper, which could have sweeping implications for American democracy. The question posed in the case is whether the Constitution affords state legislatures the power to create rules for federal elections without state court oversight or intervention.

The Honest Elections Project, an initiative within another key Leo organization, the 85 Fund, has backed the plaintiff’s case with an amicus brief. The tax documents show that the 85 Fund also donated $400,000 in 2020 to the Public Interest Legal Foundation, an Indianapolis-based conservative legal group that filed a supportive brief in the case.

Thirteen Republican attorneys general filed a brief backing the suit as well.

The Supreme Court is also hearing two cases this term brought by the conservative group Students for Fair Admissions that are challenging universities’ affirmative action policies. The group received $250,000 from the 85 Fund in 2020, the tax records show, more than a third of the total it raised that year.

Speech First, which the records show received $700,000 in 2020-21 from the 85 Fund, filed briefs backing Students for Fair Admissions in both cases. Republican attorneys general, backed by Leo’s network, submitted briefs, too.

The other theme to emerge from the new tax records is the large amount of expenditures going to for-profit entities run by or connected to Leo. The 85 Fund’s largest outside vendor for 2021 was CRC Advisors, a for-profit consulting firm chaired by Leo. The 85 Fund paid CRC Advisors $22 million last year, tax records show.

The largest outside vendor to the Concord Fund, another hub in Leo’s network, was also CRC Advisors, which received nearly $8 million over the course of a year. Concord also paid $500,000 to BH Group, another for-profit firm led by Leo.

There is no prohibition on nonprofits sending business to companies they have connections to, but any deals must be made at a fair market value.

The companies did not immediately respond to questions about the payments.

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The shooting victim was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The good folks over at Platformer broke the news that Twitter is experimenting with Elon’s desperate attempt to make money: forcing people to “opt-in” to share personal info so they can better target ads. And, yes, there’s a contradiction between “force” and “opt-in.” As everyone already knows, Elon is desperate for revenue, seeing as he […]

(NOTE LANGUAGE) David Bowie’s wife, supermodel Iman, graces the cover of January’s British Vogue and while the rocker died of cancer in 2016, Iman cautions anyone from referring to him as her late husband.…

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Griffin’s income and taxes were reported by ProPublica alongside similar information for hundreds of America’s wealthiest people.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has named Robert Tracy as its next police chief. He joins the department out of Wilmington, Delaware.