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Modern reviewers put modern televisions through a gamut of different tests to determine display brightness, quality, power consumption, and other factors. Samsung, apparently thought it would be a brilliant idea to try and cheat the benchmarking system used by many reviewers to give their TVs an unfair advantage in comparison. First spotted by HDTVTest then […]

EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville Habitat For Humanity has its first Habitat Home Sweet Home 5K Race at 9 a.m. on Saturday, June 18, 2022, at Edwardsville Township Airplane Park. The race will start and finish at Airplane Park. It will be an out-and-back course down the Madison County Nickel Plate Trail. Awards will be as follows: a trophy for the top male and female. Medals will be provided to overall male and female finishers in each age group: 9 and under, 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, and 70-plus. Toolen’s Running Start will provide professional timing. The cost to enter is $30 on race day. “It is a good course,” said Todd Taplin, a spokesperson for the race and a member of the Habitat group. This is our first race. We are building a Habitat house on Hill Lane in Edwardsville and all the proceeds will go toward this new house. It should be a fun race for a great cause.” Register online here. Print the registration form here.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — As the Supreme Court appears on track to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, progressive prosecutors around the U.S. are declaring they won’t enforce some of …

At least two members of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen plan to run for board president in an upcoming special election.

AURORA, Ill. – Aurora University has named Alexandra Bergin of Alton, IL, to the Dean's List for the spring 2022 semester. Bergin is majoring in Sport Management and Marketing. The Dean's List recognizes full-time undergraduate students who have earned a 3.6 GPA or higher. Founded in 1893, Aurora University is a four-year, private, nonprofit, accredited higher education institution offering students an exceptional education. Aurora University is located on a beautiful 39-acre campus in Aurora, the second largest city in Illinois, approximately 40 miles from Chicago. The university serves more than 4,000 undergraduate and approximately 2,000 graduate students across more than 50 majors and programs. AU leadership, faculty, and staff are committed to the success of our students, offering academic support programs, hands-on learning activities, internships, and community partnership opportunities that prepare students to be successful beyond AU.

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ST. CHARLES, MO. - The Missouri Numismatic Society (MNS) presents its 62nd Annual July Coin Show at the St. Charles Convention Center in St. Charles, MO. MNS is Missouri's oldest educational numismatic organization having been founded in 1938. 125+ dealers will be attending. U. S. and Foreign coins and currency as well as ancient coins will be featured. MNS members will have exhibits on display. There will be free giveaways for Young Numismatists. MNS produces a yearly Journal of Numismatics which is made available to the public at no charge. The show is free to the public and parking is free. The show is open to the public from noon to 6 pm on Thursday, July 21st, 10 am to 6 pm on Friday, July 22nd, and 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday, July 23rd. https://www.missourinumismaticsociety.org/annual-coin-show

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JERSEYVILLE - Election Day is approaching in Jersey County, where mail-in and early voting have begun. Jersey County Clerk Pam Warford said this year’s early voting is starting to pick up, and hopes for a large turnout on June 28. The early voting period for this election began on May 19 and will end on June 27. Polls will open for regular voting on Election Day at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. More information about polling places for Jersey County is available on the Jersey County Clerk website . Warford said this year’s early voting turnout has been about average so far, but is starting to pick up as the election draws closer. “We’ve had a decent turnout, it’s starting to pick up more this week,” Warford said. “We’ve had at this point approximately 350 early voters, so it’s starting to pick up and moving along pretty well.” The last day to apply to vote by mail in Jersey County is June 23, and the application

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Police were investigating Friday after a man was shot and killed in a home's living room in Ferguson.

GRANITE CITY - Mitchell Title I Teacher/Reading Specialist Allison Downing spends most of her time giving back - whether it's in the classroom or making things greener in our community. Downing recently completed her 11th year of teaching in GCSD9 and 22nd year overall. She has small groups of 3rd and 4th-grade students in her class with the main goal of improving their literacy skills: reading and writing, along with building their confidence. "I really love being able to work with students in small groups because I get the chance to know them on more of a personal level," Downing said. "I like having the opportunity to get to know them and help them believe in themselves more. It's always neat at the end of the year to see how far our students have come." Outside the classroom, she is very instrumental in teaching students how they can make an impact in the community and the environment through a volunteer Garden Club. "The kids love it," she added. "This gives them an opportunity

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MADISON - Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White announced that all offices and facilities will be closed on Monday, June 20, in observance of Juneteenth. Offices and Driver Services facilities operating on a Tuesday through Saturday schedule will be closed on Saturday, June 18, and reopen for business on Tuesday, June 21. Offices and Driver Services facilities operating on a Monday through Friday schedule will be closed on Monday, June 20, and reopen for business on Tuesday, June 21. As a reminder, Secretary White has extended all driver’s license, ID card and learner’s permit expiration dates to July 31, 2022. This extension does not apply to commercial driver’s licenses (CDL) and CDL learner’s permits. In addition, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has extended the federal REAL ID deadline to May 3, 2023. Individuals can visit the Secretary of State’s website at ilsos.gov for online services including checking eligibility to renew their

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ST. LOUIS - The Whitaker St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase, an annual presentation of the nonprofit Cinema St. Louis (CSL), serves as the area’s primary venue for films made by local artists. The Showcase screens works that were shot in the St. Louis region or were written, directed or produced by St. Louis-area residents or by filmmakers with strong local ties who are now working elsewhere. The Showcase’s 14 film programs range from narrative and documentary features to multi-film compilations of fiction, experimental, and documentary shorts. Feature programs include Q&As with filmmakers. In addition to the film programs, this year’s event includes four free master classes focused on key aspects of filmmaking. All film programs screen exclusively at Washington University’s Brown Hall. Three of the master classes are presented as live streams at specific times/dates during the Showcase, with the legal-issues master class offered both in person at the offices of

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A professional services firm targeting the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector for investment has added a Georgia-based engineering business to its growing roster.

Angela Medici pleaded guilty to a charge of voluntary manslaughter in the 2019 killing of her boyfriend Keith Sweetin.

by Emily Elena Dugdale, KPCC/LAist

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

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies disproportionately contact, cite and arrest Black students in the Antelope Valley, according to a new report by the county Inspector General’s Office. And those students are also disproportionately suspended and expelled at higher rates than other racial groups, the report said.

The analysis was spurred by a yearlong investigation into allegations of racial discrimination in Antelope Valley high schools by LAist and ProPublica. Reviewing data for the 2018-19 school year, our investigation found that Black teenagers accounted for 60% of deputy contacts in Lancaster high schools, although they made up only about 20% of the enrollment in those schools.

Inspector General Max Huntsman’s office reviewed Sheriff’s Department data for the 2019-20 school year and said its findings corroborated the news organizations’ investigation. In addition, it said the problem may be worse than the numbers indicate, due to flaws in the department’s data-collection system.

The report also slammed the Sheriff’s Department for failing to provide any evidence for claims it made that challenged the validity of our analysis.

“The practice of making public denials without factual support is fundamentally inconsistent with California law controlling the conduct of law enforcement officers,” investigators wrote. “The ProPublica analysis appears fundamentally correct.”

In an emailed statement, the Sheriff’s Department told LAist that it couldn’t provide immediate comment because it had not yet fully reviewed the report.

“What we can say is Sheriff Alex Villanueva takes allegations of misconduct very seriously and we will provide a more detailed response once we review these findings,” the department wrote.

The Inspector General’s Office presented its findings to the Civilian Oversight Commission on Thursday. This was the same body that had asked the Inspector General’s Office to look into the matter in the wake of the news organizations’ report.

Just after the article was first published last fall, Capt. John Lecrivain, the head of the Lancaster sheriff’s station, told commissioners that the investigation was “a very entertaining piece of fiction.” He struck a different tone at the Thursday meeting.

“This is a serious concern to the department, and we relish the opportunity to be involved in the discussion and find some solutions,” he said, adding that the department had looked back at its data and “we did find that there was some disparity in the contacts with the students.”

Assistant Inspector General Mahdi Mohamed said at the meeting that the Sheriff’s Department also did not comply with investigators’ request from nine months ago for information — including body-worn camera video — related to an incident at Lancaster High School in which a 16-year-old student, MiKayla Robinson, was body slammed by a sheriff’s deputy.

Mohamed said the lack of information from the Sheriff’s Department made it hard to “investigate the reason for the deputy’s contact with the student.” He said the office finally received the body camera video in the past few days.

Robinson’s attorney, Lisa Bloom, said she filed a complaint in May against both the Antelope Valley Union High School District and the Sheriff’s Department, alleging civil rights violations. Neither the school district nor the Sheriff’s Department has responded.

“The findings of this new report that Black students are cited, arrested, suspended and expelled at disproportionately higher rates than other students should be a wake up call,” Bloom said in a statement. “Immediate action must be taken to protect Black students from further harm.”

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department entered into a court-ordered consent decree, agreeing to reforms that included protections against racial profiling. That agreement grew out of findings from a two-year DOJ Civil Rights Division investigation, which found, in part, that deputies routinely racially profiled Black residents in the Antelope Valley.

Underreported Data

The data examined by the Inspector General’s Office and by LAist and ProPublica came from the Sheriff’s Automated Contact Reporting system.

Huntsman’s office analyzed nearly 17,000 contacts by Lancaster station deputies — who are assigned to Antelope Valley high schools as school resource officers — during the 2019-20 school year. Roughly 400 of those contacts were conducted at or around 11 high schools in the valley.

Investigators said the SACR system “is inaccurate and significantly underreports significant data.” In a report issued this month, the office found the Sheriff’s Department underreported more than 50,000 stops and more than 70,000 arrests between 2018 and 2019.

“Any findings based upon this review of SACR data likely understates the issues identified in this report, particularly those relating to racial disparities,” investigators wrote. They called on the Sheriff’s Department to improve the system’s accuracy.

The analysis by the Inspector General’s Office found Black students experienced a disproportionately higher number of contacts with deputies than any other racial group. (Courtesy of the Inspector General’s Office)

The inspector general’s analysis found that Black students made up about 67% of the contacts made by Lancaster station deputies but only about 18% of total school enrollment.

In comparison, Latino students — who make up the majority of the school’s population, about 64% — accounted for only 26% of deputy contacts.

Black Students Cited and Arrested More

The inspector general’s analysis also showed that Black students were issued nearly 70% of all citations resulting from contact with deputies. Black students also made up nearly 60% of all arrests resulting from contact with deputies.

The report said these findings were consistent with the news organizations’ previous reporting.

Sheriff’s Deputy Justin Ruppert, team leader of the Lancaster station’s school safety unit, told LAist and ProPublica that the vast majority of deputies’ contacts on campuses are based on referrals from school staff and administrators — rather than being initiated by law enforcement. At the time of the original story, Antelope Valley Union High School District administrators did not respond to interview requests or to a list of written questions.

The inspector general’s office, though, found “the majority of school contacts were self-initiated by deputies.” However, it noted that deputies may not be coding calls correctly.

The analysis by the Inspector General’s Office found the majority of contacts with high school students were self-initiated by deputies. (Courtesy of the Inspector General’s Office)

Huntsman’s office also found that Black and Latino high school-age youth had fewer recorded contacts with deputies outside of school than inside.

Notably, white students had more contact with deputies outside of school than inside.

The Inspector General’s Office found that Black and Latino students were contacted by deputies more at school than outside of school. (Courtesy of the Inspector General’s Office)

Additionally, the Inspector General’s Office found that Black students made up 54% of total suspensions in the 2019-20 school year.

About 1 in 7 Black students at the high schools have been suspended, a rate more than twice the statewide average.

Black and Latino students each made up about 47% of expulsions, though Black students were expelled at a disproportionately higher rate given that their share of the student population is so much lower.

A Call for Transparency and Training

At the 2021 protest in Lancaster. (Bethany Mollenkof, special to ProPublica)

The office listed a number of recommendations “aimed at increasing the transparency, accuracy and efficacy of oversight of School Resource Deputies and the safety of community youth.”

The investigators also recommended that the Sheriff’s Department expand its training curriculum “to educate all patrol-related deputies on their opportunity to act as informal counselors and gateways for at-risk youth to non-criminal County services.”

Last June, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a motion requiring the county CEO to report back on a plan to collect and publish data relating to deputy contacts with youths.

The news organizations’ investigation last fall profiled Barron Gardner, a high school history teacher working for Antelope Valley district. Gardner had become a reluctant spokesperson for a growing movement, driven primarily by Black and Latino residents, to get LASD deputies off school campuses.

On Thursday, Gardner said over the phone that he believed the numbers in the inspector general’s report “aren’t any surprise” to school staff and Antelope Valley residents.

“I could have guessed those numbers off the top of my head,” he said.

Gardner also said he wished the inspector general’s report — in addition to recognizing that his Black students were overpoliced — gave more context for the issues that his Black students face. He listed some: “homelessness, foster care, parents and prisons” — and systemic racism. Gardner said all are factors that prevent Black students from accessing socio-emotional and mental health resources.

“This is what we think is the best way to deal with it — with cops,” he said.

Starbucks employees at three different locations in the St. Louis area have voted to approve union contracts.

Letter To The Editor: We, the following Chiefs of Police from Madison County, do hereby offer our endorsement for Major Jeff Connor to be the next Sheriff of Madison County. Major Connor has been a lifelong resident of Madison County and has been a Law Enforcement Officer in Madison County since he was first hired as a Granite City Police Officer in 1986. Major Connor worked his way up the ranks in Granite City and retired in 2014 after spending the last 9 years as the Assistant Chief of Police. Major Connor has been a leader in the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis, serving as the Commander of this elite Homicide Task Force. Since 2014 Major Connor has served as the Chief Deputy Sheriff of the Madison County Sheriff's Office and has continued to serve as a liaison between all the local Police Departments and the Sheriff’s Office. His leadership skills have made him a highly respected leader in Law Enforcement throughout the entire St. Louis Region. Major Connor also currently

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