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A U.S. judge in Texas on Thursday blocked President Joe Biden's plan to provide millions of borrowers with up to $20,000 apiece in federal student-loan forgiveness — a program that was already on hold as a federal appeals court in St. Louis considers a separate lawsuit by six states challenging it.

Upstream Theater presents the world premiere of The Good Ship St. Louis, a new play by Philip Boehm, at The Marcelle from Nov. 3 to 20.   On May 13, 1939,

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The Friends of The Sheldon present Rufus Wainwright in a concert benefiting Sheldon Educational Programs, which, in the 2020-2021 season served over 70,000 St. Louis area students.   Praised by The

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The bulk of outstanding mail-in ballots come from counties that voted heavily in favor of changing the Illinois Constitution to protect collective bargaining rights

Omar Apollo, one of music’s most exciting shape-shifters, comes to The Pageant on Nov. 10.   In just a few years, the Indiana-raised Mexican-American singer-songwriter went from teenage strummer to

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Following the release of three additional toxicology reports, the wave of seven inmate deaths at the South Central Correctional Center in Licking in late August and September is now clearly tied to a drug problem in the men's state facility, however, the Missouri Department of Corrections claims they can't identify the primary source of drugs brought into state prisons.

The Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Saint Louis University presents internationally acclaimed Armenian-American pianist Kariné Poghosyan in a solo concert featuring the music of Franz Liszt, Manuel DeFalla

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St. Louis loves Marilyn Maye and the feeling is mutual. The only thing better than an evening with the legendary singer is a world premier event showcasing Maye and the

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From the producer of The Lion King and Aladdin, FROZEN, the Tony®-nominated Best Musical, is now on tour across North America and the critics rave, “It’s simply magical!” (LA Daily

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Cardinals Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt are among 20 Major League players to win the 2022 Silver Slugger Award.

Part literary event, part comedy show and part game show, Literary Death Match makes its long-awaited debut on Nov. 10.   Presented by the Kranzberg Arts Foundation, Literary Death Match

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Join us every Thursday from 6:30 – 8:30pm for fun with friends and networking with likeminded professionals. Each week’s social hours are surrounded by games, drinks, discussions and more!  

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The police department destroyed drug evidence from nearly 7,000 cases St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner opposed.

Join NBM’s Sittin’ on the Porch on Thursday Nights from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM! Players of all levels are encouraged to come jam with other musicians in the NBM

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Credit: MIKE

This post was originally published as part of our weekly newsletter. For more breaking news and analysis of the state of press freedom in the U.S., subscribe here.

An Ohio newspaper editor was charged with felony wiretapping for publishing audio that a source recorded during a high profile murder trial. In other words, he was arrested for practicing journalism.

The charges against Derek Myers of the Scioto Valley Guardian ignore the Supreme Court’s recognition over two decades ago that reporters are not to blame for unlawful recordings by sources. In fact, the issue has been settled since the Pentagon Papers. It’s up to judges, not journalists, to enforce courtroom confidentiality rules.

The ordeal should alarm all those who value press freedoms. Abuses of state and local law to target journalists are every bit as dangerous as abuses of the Espionage Act at the federal level but they often fly under the radar. Myers’ arrest is even more disturbing considering that the judge presiding over the murder trial, Randy Deering, may have harbored a personal grudge against Myers for successfully challenging his prior ban on filming witnesses.

The Guardian’s troubles did not end with Myers’ arrest. Another judge, Anthony Moraleja, approved a search warrant that led to the seizure of the laptop the Guardian had been using to livestream the trial and his cellphone was seized as well. As the Committee to Protect Journalists noted, the seizure — presumably intended to discover the source of the audio recording — ignores Ohio’s shield law and the federal Privacy Protection Act. In addition to violating Myers’ personal rights and preventing the Guardian from continuing its livestream, the warrant and seizure will surely have a chilling effect on sources who may have thought they could rely on the law to keep their identities secret.

That Myers could face prison time and property seizures notwithstanding Supreme Court precedent and supposed legal protections goes to show that journalists cannot depend on the law alone. It’s vital that judges and other local officials face a strong public backlash when they harass journalists and ignore press freedoms.

What we’re reading:

• Settlement reached in suits over FBI posing as AP reporter: The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press settled lawsuits filed in reaction to an FBI agent posing as an AP reporter in 2007 to deliver surveillance software to a teenager suspected of a bomb threat. We commend RCFP and AP for holding the government accountable for this inexcusable practice.
• Trump Keeps Musing About Journalists Being Raped in Prison — He’s Not Joking: Trump continued his disturbing rhetoric regarding the news media by again suggesting that authorities investigating leaks threaten reporters with prison time. “When the reporter learns he’s going to be married to a certain prisoner who’s extremely strong, tough, and mean, he will say, ‘you know, I think I’m going to give you the information.”. These kinds of threats from possible presidential hopefuls are precisely why Sen. Dick Durbin needs to push the PRESS Act through the Senate rather than leave journalists to rely on easily changeable DOJ policies.
• State Dept. gives law enforcement, intelligence agencies unrestricted access to Americans' personal data: Sen. Ron Wyden sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding an explanation for the State Department’s granting access to law enforcement and intelligence agencies to personal data of Americans obtained from passport applications. We await Blinken’s answers regarding this disturbing development.
• How America Turned Against the First Amendment: “Moderation laws. Book bans. Courts that keep getting played. America’s politicians are tired of the First Amendment getting in their way, and no one seems to care.” Well, some of us care, but a powerful argument nonetheless. We agree that politicians must stop preying on concerns about new technologies to try to confuse the public into rolling back long-established free speech protections.

Joyce Freeman, 20, was shot and killed in November 2020, just days after her baby was born.