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From Saint Louis Public Radio:  Brian Glaze has fond memories of the 10 years he lived on Annetta Avenue in the Baden neighborhood of St. Louis. He and his wife, Kim, raised their three boys at the house and remember when the street was populated with families and city workers in the 1990s. They had […]

Rookie Republican candidate Ryan Higgins, who lost a state House race to veteran Democrat pol Deb Lavender, dislikes first taste of political campaigning.

From KMOV:  The construction of a subdivision in East St. Louis is the start of what city leaders are calling a “new beginning.” A faith-based nonprofit, Lansdowne UP, broke ground Monday for a 20-home subdivision called, Lansdowne Park. The whole goal of this new subdivision is to build an economic revival in East St. Louis. The homes are […]

From Call newspapers: The St. Louis County Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of a petition for a Club Car Wash on Telegraph Road and a separate veterinary clinic also on Telegraph Road at its executive session Nov. 7. The first petition for an amended conditional use permit in the C-2 commercial district, submitted by Vetcare Partners […]

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Years ago, the town of Augusta had three bakeries. But for a long time until recently, it had none. Now this quiet town of fewer than 300 people has a bakery again. And a gift shop. And a high-end fashion boutique. And an elite-level, destination restaurant that serves such dishes as steamed […]

Authorities are trying to determine who vandalized a Jewish cemetery in Waukegan.

GRAFTON - The River Bend police departments received gratitude donations last night at the annual Mustache March 4PD Committee appreciation awards ceremony. A total of $40,000 was equally divided into checks payable to each of the River Bend law enforcement agencies. The Grafton Police Department received a check for $2,500. Police Chief Eric Spanton and Mayor Mike Morrow received the check. “You don’t know how much this money means to a small department such as ours,” said Chief Spanton. “This money will go a long way to help those in our community in need.” Sitting at the table with the Grafton PD and receiving checks were Cindy Wagner from the Jersey County Sheriff’s Department and SGT John Lawson and Officer Jake Shain from the Jerseyville Police Department. Committee President Steve Schwegel and Vice President Tina Bennett presided over the evening’s events. The mission of the Mustache March 4PD is to continuously raise funds for local

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by Heather Vogell

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

The senator tasked with overseeing federal antitrust enforcement is urging the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether a Texas-based company’s price-setting software is undermining competition and pushing up rents.

Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, sent a letter to the DOJ’s Antitrust Division this month. It was also signed by two other Democrats, Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.

“We are concerned that the use of this rate setting software essentially amounts to a cartel to artificially inflate rental rates in multifamily residential buildings,” the letter said. It encouraged the DOJ to “take appropriate action to protect renters and competition in the residential rental markets.”

In mid-October, a ProPublica investigation documented how real estate tech company RealPage’s price-setting software uses nearby competitors’ nonpublic rent data to feed an algorithm that suggests what landlords should charge for available apartments each day. Legal experts said the algorithm may be enabling violations of antitrust laws.

ProPublica detailed how RealPage’s User Group, a forum that includes landlords who adopt the company’s software, had grown to more than 1,000 members, who meet in private at an annual conference and take part in quarterly phone calls. The senators raised specific questions about the group, saying, “We are concerned about potential anticompetitive coordination taking place through the RealPage User Group.”

RealPage did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

RealPage has said that the company “uses aggregated market data from a variety of sources in a legally compliant manner” and that its software prioritizes a property’s own internal supply and demand dynamics over external factors such as competitors’ rents. The company has said its software helps reduce the risk of collusion that would occur if landlords relied on phone surveys of competitors to manually price their units.

The DOJ declined to comment on the letter.

The department five years ago reviewed RealPage’s plan to acquire its biggest competitor in pricing software, but federal prosecutors declined to seek to block the merger, which doubled the number of apartments RealPage was pricing.

The senators noted that transaction, saying RealPage has made more than 10 acquisitions since 2016. They said in data-intensive industries, “the ability to acquire more data can result in the algorithms suggesting higher prices and can also increase the barriers to entry” for other competitors. The lawmakers encouraged the department “to consider looking back at RealPage’s past behavior to determine whether any of it was anticompetitive.”

The letter follows two others sent by lawmakers urging the DOJ or Federal Trade Commission to investigate RealPage. Since ProPublica’s investigation was published, three lawsuits have been filed on behalf of renters alleging that the software is artificially inflating rents and facilitating collusion. RealPage has denied allegations in a lawsuit filed in San Diego, and it has not responded to calls for comment about the other two legal actions, filed in federal district court in Seattle.

Over several centuries, Indian artisans perfected complex methods for producing dyes and mordants to create painted and printed cloth in a spectrum of fade-resistant colors. Starting in the 17th century,

The post Global Threads: The Art and Fashion of Indian Chintz appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Hong Kong–based artist Samson Young’s practice centers on installation-based work stemming from sound and music. He interweaves cultural paradigms across media while focusing on poetic translations between the sonic and

The post Samson Young: Sonata for Smoke appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Part of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis’ fall/winter exhibition, “Great Rivers Biennial” is a biannual collaborative initiative between the museum and the Gateway Foundation designed to foster artistic talent

The post Great Rivers Biennial appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Green Door Art Gallery presents Picture. Book., featuring illustrations by internationally known illustrator and author Mary Engelbreit. In 2022, without a deadline in sight, Engelbreit decided to do one illustration for

The post Picture. Book. Art Exhibit appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

A portrait and figurative art exhibit, Face 2 Face features watercolor collage portraits by Gail Crosson, mixed media portraits by Allison Norfleet Bruenger, digital illustrations by Michael Plurad, portrait and

The post Face 2 Face Art Exhibit appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Before the ring of pinball machines echoed through arcades, Bagatelle was filling parlors and pockets across the world. Drawing from the private collection of Mr. Ed Nickels, Bagatelle will follow the journey

The post Bagatelle appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

1972 Fischer/Spassky: The Match, its Origin, and Influence celebrates the 50th anniversary of the American Robert “Bobby” Fischer’s historic win over the Russian Boris Spassky in the legendary 1972 World

The post 1972 Fischer/Spassky: The Match, Its Origin, and Influence appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

St. Louis is a kaleidoscope of architecture, filled with structures of every age, shape, and size. In Coloring STL, Missouri History Museum visitors will interact with these fascinating buildings in

The post Coloring STL appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Botswana-born artist Meleko Mokgosi creates large-scale, figurative, and often text-based paintings, drawing from the tropes of history painting and cinema to probe systems of knowledge production, the politics of representation,

The post Currents 122: Meleko Mokgosi appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Chinese Silk Textiles of the Ming and Qing Dynasties showcases fine examples of Chinese textiles from the Museum’s collection, including clothing, embroideries, hangings, and banners made between 1570 and 1911.

The post Chinese Silk Textiles of the Ming and Qing Dynasties appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

In the dramatic years between the two world wars, German art ranged from an activist realism to a utopian idealism. This exhibition presents a selection of work that questions the

The post Day & Dream in Modern Germany, 1914–1945 appeared first on Explore St. Louis.